Ki Thavo: Reward and Punishment- Blessing and Curse

Ki Thavo: Reward and Punishment- Blessing and Curse

Is there a difference? Is a reward a blessing and a punishment a curse?
The reward and punishment are limited in scope.  Payment is a reward.  The payment is done and the reward is over.
A Blessing is ongoing,  a state of being imparted by the blesser.  Thus Bracha is related to the act of replanting the shoot of the vine so that it will become a new vine.  A bracha accumulates dividends.
Similarly a punishment is measured to fit the crime.  A curse sticks to the accursed and cannot be shed.
Punishment removes the evil ( be'arta hahara) the curse continues, it fails to expiate.
Gd tells his people to punish the wrongdoer, but Gd curses those who offend Gd.
 

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הָאִישׁ הָרַךְ בְּךָ וְהֶעָנֹג מְאֹד תֵּרַע עֵינוֹ בְאָחִיו וּבְאֵשֶׁת חֵיקוֹ וּבְיֶתֶר בָּנָיו אֲשֶׁר יוֹתִיר.  נה מִתֵּת לְאַחַד מֵהֶם מִבְּשַׂר בָּנָיו אֲשֶׁר יֹאכֵל מִבְּלִי הִשְׁאִיר-לוֹ כֹּל בְּמָצוֹר וּבְמָצוֹק אֲשֶׁר יָצִיק לְךָ אֹיִבְךָ בְּכָל-שְׁעָרֶיךָ.
 
The most tender and delicate man among you, will begrudge his own brother and the wife of his embrace and the rest of his children, whom he will leave over,

55. of giving any one of them of the flesh of his children that he is eating, because not a thing will remain for him in the siege and in the desperation which your enemies will bring upon you, in all your cities.
 
Rashi: Another explanation of הָר‏ ַבּ‏ְ : The merciful and tenderhearted will become cruel because of the intense hunger, and they will not give the flesh of their slaughtered children to their remaining children.

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The Holocaust was a manifestation of a curse, its generation was cursed- whether  a person experienced the persecution directly and/or witnessed it - because there is an eternal guilt about not doing enough- the stain of the Holocaust is indelible, the stain is a curse.

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The parsha reflects the great Jewish ethos: when you arrive at the goal, when you get what want, trouble is around the next corner. " When life looks like Easy Street there is danger at your door" ( Grateful Dead).
Hizkiahu could have been Moshiach, but he failed to sing Shirah.
 
 

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Gd's assurance is no insurance.  If the US government fails will Gd buy AIG?

Welcome to hell.