In this week’s sedrah we learn about an especial procedure of brachos and klalos that would take place as soon as the Jewish nation would cross the Yarden into Eretz Canaan (Devarim 27:11-26). The whole Klal Yisroel would assemble together near two mountains, Har Grizim and Har Eival, and while facing these two mountains, certain blessings and certain curses would be proclaimed to the people.
Now, when we examine what was said on that occasion, we note that only certain details of Torah observance were mentioned. It wasn’t a general covenant by which they accepted the entire Torah like they had done at Har Sinai; it was an enumeration of select iniquities, certain things, and it was specifically for these that the brachos and klalos were said.
Now, when we study this list we see that the tzad hasheveh sh’bahem, the common denominator between them, is that they are all things that are done in secret. Like it states, “If someone will make an idol, ר∆ ּ̇≈סַּב םָׂ ̆¿ו – and he’ll hide it somewhere in his possession (ibid. 15). Or ר∆ ּ̇≈סַּבּהו≈ﬠ≈ר הּ∆כַמ – accursed is the one who smites his fellowman in secret (ibid. 24); he does harm to a fellow Jew behind closed doors. Also mentioned there among the brachos and klalos are matters of incest that are committed in the secrecy of the home, and other sins of that nature.
That’s what this list entails, various sins that a person would normally refrain from in public; but when concealed in the privacy of his home, or maybe in a dark alley somewhere, he might feel emboldened enough to do something wrong.
Sin and Shame
Now we know that there’s a bracha and a klalah for everything in the Torah—anybody who upholds the Torah is baruch and he who transgresses is arur—and so, as an introduction to our subject for tonight, we must understand what is the necessity of a special krisas bris for devarim sh’baseiser, for secret things.
Actually, the reason is immediately apparent to us, because we know that when things are done openly, so the public reacts to prevent them or to inflict punishment and shame on the wrongdoer. A loyal nation stands in the breach to prevent wrongdoing against Hashem, and therefore, in public, it’s not so easy to sin.
You know, today we’re accustomed to seeing Jews sin in public. Irreligious Jews, they have no shame. But it was only seventy years ago [1905] that in all the small towns—even the big ones—nobody would dare sin in public. Let’s say you lived in old Cracow and the Satan came over to you and tried to tempt you, “Take off your head covering.” You can be sure that you’d put up a very big fight, because to walk bareheaded in Cracow meant that you were liable to get a broken head! To be a Jew meant you had to act like a Jew—at least in public. There were no two ways about it.
But when it comes to things done in secret, it’s not as simple. When you have the people in the shtiebel or the beis medrash looking over your shoulder, so that wonderful middah of busha makes you behave properly; it protects you. But in the privacy of your home you need something more than that. The only way to prevent trouble is by putting people in a frame of mind of fearing Hakadosh Baruch Hu, fearing His curse, or desiring His blessing.
The Secret Audience
How else could you prevent incest that’s done in a house? How else could you prevent secret injury that people commit by writing poison letters? So many terrible things are done within the four walls of a person’s home. A lot of sins can be done without anyone knowing about them. A man can close his window and curtains and say the most wicked things to his spouse in secret. I know about it because people are calling me up on the telephone all the time and telling me stories. But they’re done because a person imagines, he hopes, that within the privacy of his four walls it’s a secret.
And therefore, those things that are not revealed to the public eye require a bigger incentive; they require more instruction and more yiras Shamayim than anything else. Even stealing is something that could more readily be apprehended. Injuring somebody’s property, striking a fellowman, many sins are overt acts that can have witnesses and accusers, so there’s a natural impediment. But all those things that can be done secretly must be controlled by a man’s conscience.
Imagine a Crowd
That’s the great subject that the Chovos Halevavos tells us about in his Shaar Yichud HaMaaseh. He makes the following statement there: ‡ָי¿ס∆ה¿רַפּ¿ב ֹמוּ¿כ ה∆י¿הƒי ‡ָﬠ¿נƒˆּ¿ב הׂ∆ ֹ̆עוׁ∆ ̆ הַמ – What a man does in secret should be the same as if he was doing it in public. I’ll repeat that because it’s a statement that we should memorize and repeat to ourselves as often as possible: “What a man does in secret should be done as if it was being done in the presence of a grandstand full of people.”
You know, when you’re in the beis haknesses and you’re standing Shemoneh Esrei and you have people looking at you—or you suspect they are—and you have your tallis over your head and maybe you’re wearing your gartel too, so even without too much thinking, without too much incentive, you’re interested in putting up a good show. But suppose you’re home and there’s no audience; you’re sitting at your breakfast table and you’re saying birchas hamazon after the meal. So who will know if you rush through it a little quicker than usual? Who will know if you are daydreaming, glancing at something, or flipping through pages of the magazine while you say the words?
And so the test of a loyal Jew is how he behaves when nobody is around. Are there things you do in the privacy of your home that you wouldn’t do in front of an audience? When nobody is looking, how do you say asher yatzar? What kind of shehakol do you make when nobody is watching you? Of course when you have company, you make a shehakol like a patriarch. There’s an audience!
Utilize Your Guests
By the way, you shouldn’t disdain the opportunity of an audience. You should utilize it. You know, when I have guests at my table I thank them; I let them know that because of them I said the birchas hamazon so much slower. Why not? At least when you have an audience, you should make some accomplishment within yourself.
But the person who is able to live in secret as if there’s an audience—and there is an audience; Hakadosh Baruch Hu is a great Audience—that man is fulfilling the true service that a Jew is expected to produce in his lifetime.
And that’s why the Chovos Halevavos tells us, “Have in mind that you’re surrounded with a congregation of Jews and they’re witnessing the way you’re thanking Hashem for your bread or the way you’re speaking to your spouse.”
The Nation Succeeds
Now it’s not easy because after all it’s in the privacy of your home—it takes training for a person to achieve that. And especially when we want an entire nation to raise themselves up to that level. After all, the Am Yisroel is not made up of only tzadikim and chassidim; it’s a nation of regular people too, all types of people, and we want everyone to fulfill the Torah—all of it.
And therefore we understand the necessity for this great gathering where the whole Am Yisroel assembled and there were curses given against all those who do hidden sins and blessings for those who refrain. It was most necessary and urgent to put brachos and klalos for these things because you cannot have a pious nation unless it’s a nation that fears Hashem.
Ancient Krias HaTorah
Of course, if you read the Chumash superficially and you don’t think about the words—if you don’t take the time to make that picture in your mind of the entire nation listening prayerfully and fearfully to the brachos v’klalos, so it won’t help you much; but that’s the purpose.
You have to know, in the olden days when the Torah was read in the beis haknesses, everybody was duly impressed. It wasn’t merely a formality, something that was said by rote by the baal korei. People listened and it entered their hearts. And even the simplest Jew, the most illiterate Jew, was impressed that sins committed in secret have a terrible curse attached to them. A curse was pronounced on two mountains where the whole Klal Yisroel was assembled! He couldn’t forget that.
And it succeeded! We became a nation that serves Hashem in private just like in public. I always tell you the same story, but it’s a good story to tell. There’s a little boy who ate a fleishige meal and now he wants some ice cream. There’s ice cream in the refrigerator. Nobody’s home—he’s all by himself. He looks at the clock. Not yet; he can’t eat the ice cream yet. A little boy, he’s waiting for the clock to turn until six hours and then he’ll eat the ice cream. A little boy! That’s how Am Yisroel is brought up—in the secrecy of the home we are just as loyal as out on the street.
A Pure Nation
It’s like the gentile once said to a Jew; it’s reported in the Gemara (Sanhedrin 37a). He said he doesn’t believe that the Jews are sincere when they say they observe taharas hamishpacha. “Who is there to supervise that?” That’s what the goy said – he didn’t believe it’s possible. How could you enforce that?
And so the Jew told him a possuk from Shir HaShirim, a phrase. יםּƒנַׁ ֹ̆וּׁ ַּ̆ב הָ‚ּסו – We are fenced in by flowers (7:3). The goyim, they have to be fenced in with barbed wire maybe; but we’re not fenced in by wire or by walls with guards. הָ‚ּסו – We are fenced in, יםּƒנַׁ ֹ̆וּׁ ַּ̆ב – by a hedge of roses. What are the roses? The roses are the words of the Torah that the Jewish nation loves; our devotion to the Torah, that’s what fences us in.
Forged on Grizim and Eival
And this we know that the Klal Yisroel observed. It’s not a question, did they observe? We know for certain that they observed. The whole Klal Yisroel! Not only the good ones. Everyone! The Gemara (Niddah 33b) tells that the Tzedukim, the Sadducees—they were wicked men by and large. They were enemies of the Chachomim and they committed big crimes against their fellowmen; they trampled on the people in their quest for power. But we know that the wives of the Tzedukim came to the Chachomim and asked them shailos; they asked for decisions in Hilchos Tahara. Which means that even the worst of our people observed these private laws.
Now that’s hard for a gentile to understand because the only thing that’ll prevent him from carrying out his desires is the police, a big Italian policeman with a baton. Because his conscience alone won’t be much of a help in fending off temptation. It could be in individual cases, with some select people of noble character, it could happen. But to make a rule for a nation, for a klal, and to expect rank and file, that everybody should obey things that can’t be enforced, that would be improbable or impossible.
But for the Am Yisroel, that’s the way it had to be. And that was the reason for this special covenant on devarim shebaseiser, secret things, that was made on Har Grizim and Har Eival. It was necessary because secret things need more emphasis; they require more of a bris than overt things. And by means of fear of Hashem and knowing that wherever we are, we are under His watchful Eyes, that’s how we became a nation.
