At times, the Torah has וכתיב קרי, which means a word is written one way, and it is read another way. Generally, the וכתיב קרי are similar. For example, in parashas Ki Seitzei, it states several times נער, and we read it נערה. How we read it isn’t very different from how it is written. But in this week's parashah, when we read the tochachah, the curses, the וכתיב קרי are very different from each other (see 28:27 and 28:30). The Stropkover Rebbe zt'l explained that this is because when it comes to the tochachah, what we see is very different from what it is in reality. It seems to us that it is all bad when in reality it is all for our good.
Rashi (Bereishis 18:16) states, שבמקרא השקפה כל קדשך ממעון מהשקיפה חוץ ,לרעה, "Whenever the Torah states השקפה, it is bad. The exception is the pasuk (in this week's parashah 26:15) השקיפה קדשך ממעון..." We can explain that this is because it states השמים מן קדשך ממעון השקיפה, "Gaze down from Your holy abode, from the heavens..." We mention that Hashem looks down from Heaven, and when we remember that even the hardships are under Hashem's hashgachah, we know that everything is for the good.
A water carrier would carry two pails of water over his shoulders and sell it to the townspeople. Once, one of the barrels fell on a nail, which created a small hole at the bottom of the pail. When he filled up the buckets with water, by the time he got to the customer’s home, one pail was empty. He didn't have money to buy another pail, so this went on for a long time. When he got old, he didn't have the strength to carry the pails anymore, but he still had parnassah. He explained, "There was a small hole in one of the pails, so I planted vegetables along the route that I carry my water. The vegetables grew from the dripping water, and from those vegetables I have parnassah." So, the hole in the pail was for his benefit. This is how it is with all the difficulties in life. They are all for the good.
The Sfas Emes (Re'eh, ה"תרל) writes that one should train himself to be happy with the good and with the bad. They should be the same to him. "If a person doesn't change [and become upset] when confronted with midas hadin [hardships], then the curse won't remain with him. It will go away. However, chas v'shalom, if a person will make too much of an issue of the hardships that befall him, this gives chizuk and support for the bad [to continue]. Therefore, Chazal say בתוכחה מפסיקין אין, that we don't interrupt in the middle of the tochachah. This means we don't interrupt and stop our deveikus and bitachon in Hakadosh Baruch Hu, no matter what we are going through [and with this attitude, the hardships will go away]."
The halacha is that the entire tochachah must be read in one aliyah. Tosfos explains that Hashem says that it isn't proper for people to bless Him [with borchu and with the brachos on the Torah] when His children are suffering.
The Sfas Emes zt'l says we can use this as a technique to be saved from all yesurim. Praise Hashem even when going through hard times, and Hashem will take away the yesurim. Hashem will say, "It isn't proper that my children should suffer when I am being blessed."
Joy in Serving Hashem
It states that the tochachah comes (28:47) כל מרוב לבב ובטוב בשמחה אלקיך 'ה את עבדת לא אשר תחת, "because you did not serve Hashem, your G-d, with happiness and with gladness of heart, when [you had an] abundance of everything." There was a time (before the tochachah came) when everything was good in your life. Why didn't you serve Hashem with joy then? For this lack, the tochachah came.
The Arizal says that the pasuk is telling us that our joy for the mitzvos should surpass every other joy. He says that the pasuk כל מרוב לבב ובטוב בשמחה אלקיך 'ה את עבדת לא אשר תחת means that our joy when we serve Hashem should be כל מרוב, more than all other joys, such as the joy that we have when we have a lot of money and other enjoyments in life.
