Ki Tavo 6th Portion

7 The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven [in the manner of the panic-stricken].

Rashi’s Commentary

But flee from you in seven—Such is the manner of all who flee out of fear: they scatter in every direction.

8 The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.

Bava Metzia 42a:4

And Rabbi Yitzḥak says: Blessing is found only in a matter concealed from the eye, as it is stated: “The Lord will send blessing on your storehouses” (Deu 28:8), where the grain is concealed. The school of Rabbi Yishmael taught: Blessing is found only in a matter over which the eye has no dominion, as it is stated: “The Lord will send blessing on your storehouses.”

9 The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him.

10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you.

11 The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.

12 The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.

13 The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.

14 Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.

Curses for Disobedience

15 However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:

16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.

17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.

18 The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.

20 The Lord will send on you curses, confusion [a terrifying sound] and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him.

Rashi’s Commentary

Confusion—Heb. הַמְּהוּמָה Onkelos renders this by שִׁגוּשַׁיָא which means: confusion.

21 The Lord will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess.

22 The Lord will strike you with wasting disease [swelling and blowing up of the flesh], with fever and inflammation [hotter than a fever], with scorching heat and drought [internal fever and constant thirst], with blight [field blights] and mildew [the east wind and dryness (the grain turning pale)], which will plague you until you perish.

Rashi’s Commentary

Wasting disease—This is a disease whereby one’s flesh becomes worn away and swollen.

Inflammation—Heb. וּבַדַּלֶּקֶת. This is a fever even hotter than קַדַּחַת. All these terms denote different kinds of diseases, but of a similar character.

With blight and mildew—These are diseases that afflict grain which is yet in the field (yet growing).

Blight—Heb. שִׁדָּפוֹן, the hot east-wind, hale in old French.

Mildew—Heb. יֵרָקוֹן is drought. The symptoms are that the surface of the grain becomes pale and ultimately turns yellow; chaume in old French.

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