The Surprising Meaning Behind the 98 Curses of Parashat Ki Tavo

Parashat Ki Tavo contains 98 curses that, Heaven forbid, will befall the people of Israel if they do not uphold the Torah. By contrast, Parashat Bechukotai lists only 49 curses.

Why does Mishneh Torah, the Book of Deuteronomy, contain exactly twice as many curses as the Book of Leviticus?

The Maharal, in his characteristic way, offers a profound explanation for this number.

Why Are the Curses in Ki Tavo Different?

Despite the greater number of curses in Ki Tavo, they actually contain an element of leniency compared with the curses in Leviticus.

Tractate Megillah 31a explains that “we do not interrupt during the curses.” In other words, the curses must be read consecutively, without a break. Therefore, two different people are not called to the Torah during the reading of the curses.

However, on page 31b, the Gemara cites Abaye, who explains that this rule applies only to the curses in Leviticus. During the curses in Mishneh Torah, one may interrupt, “and there is nothing wrong with that.”

The Gemara explains the difference. The curses in Parashat Bechukotai in Leviticus “were spoken by Hashem and were stated in the plural.” By contrast, the curses in Parashat Ki Tavo in Deuteronomy “were spoken by Moses on his own and were stated in the singular.”

What does it mean that Moses spoke the curses “on his own”? Did Moses introduce something that he had not heard from Hashem?

Rashi (Deuteronomy 28:23) explains the statement of the sages as follows:

The curses in Parashat Bechukotai were stated exactly as Moses heard them. Hashem said, “If you will not listen to Me” (Leviticus 26:14) and “if you walk with Me with indifference” (ibid. 26:21). Moses retained Hashem’s words in their original form without changing the wording.

In Deuteronomy, however, Moses stated the words in the third person: “the voice of Hashem your God” (Deuteronomy 28:15), “Hashem will cause to cling to you” (verse 21), and “Hashem will strike you” (verse 22).

Yet these changes, both the leniencies and the stringencies, raise an important question: Why did Moses find it necessary to change both the wording and the number of curses in Mishneh Torah when speaking to the people of Israel?

The Curses Are Part of an Eternal Covenant

The purpose of the curses is explained in Parashat Ki Tavo itself:

“These are the words of the covenant that Hashem commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant that He made with them at Horeb” (Deuteronomy 28:69).

Rashi explains: “To make with the people of Israel,” meaning that they should accept the Torah with an oath and a curse. “In addition to the covenant” refers to the curses in Torat Kohanim that were stated at Sinai.

It follows that the purpose of the curses is not simply to punish the people of Israel for their sins. Rather, they are a consequence of violating the covenant with Hashem. We find a similar idea in the curses in Leviticus: “I will bring upon you a sword that takes vengeance for the covenant” (Leviticus 26:25).

But how can curses express a covenant?

The purpose of a covenant is to endure forever, in every era and despite changing circumstances. The Maharal points out that Onkelos consistently translates the word “covenant” as kayama, meaning enduring or eternal existence.

We use the expression “to cut a covenant,” even though a covenant represents joining together while cutting implies separation. The reason is that a person takes an essential part of himself and gives it to another. In doing so, the two create a single unit that, in practical terms, can never be separated.

The Vilna Gaon writes in his commentary on Sefer Yetzirah (chapter 1, mishnah 8) that when a person has a friend as dear to him as his own soul and does not want to be separated from him, but cannot always remain physically beside him, he gives his friend something toward which his thoughts and desires are directed. Through that object, the two remain bound together. This, the Vilna Gaon explains, is the meaning of “cutting” a covenant: a person cuts away something attached to himself and gives it to the other.

Ramban (Genesis 6:18) further explains that the word “covenant” is related to the concept of creation because someone who makes a covenant creates a blend between two entities. The covenant joins them and creates from the two a single body, a new creation that cannot be separated.

Based on this understanding, the curses are intended to create a reality in which the people of Israel have no practical way to permanently separate themselves from Hashem. Their purpose is to ensure that Israel will never ultimately abandon the covenant and that reality itself will lead them back to Hashem.

We find this idea in Tractate Sanhedrin 97b: “Rabbi Eliezer says: If Israel repents, they will be redeemed; and if not, they will not be redeemed. Rabbi Yehoshua said to him: If they do not repent, they will not be redeemed? Rather, Hashem will set over them a king whose decrees are as harsh as Haman’s, and Israel will repent, and He will return them to the right path.”

Similarly, Midrash Rabbah on Parashat Re’eh (4:2) states: “The sword and the book came down from Heaven bound together. Hashem said to Israel: If you do what is written in this book, you will be saved from this sword; and if you do not do what is written in this book, you will be killed by this sword.”

The sword is not intended simply to punish and destroy the one who violates the covenant. Its purpose is to bring that person back to the book.

Why Suffering Does Not Destroy Israel

In Midrash Tanchuma, on the verse “You are standing” (Deuteronomy 29:9), we learn why that passage immediately follows the curses.

When the people of Israel heard the 98 curses, their faces turned pale.

“Who can withstand these?” they asked.

Hashem responded that, on the contrary, the curses are what sustain them, as the verse says, “in order to test you, to benefit you in your end” (Deuteronomy 8:16). Therefore, the Torah immediately says, “You are standing.”

In other words, the Jewish people stand firm and endure precisely because the curses are not intended to destroy them.

The Maharal explains in Netzach Yisrael, chapter 14:

“A person may think that the purpose of suffering is to destroy Israel. But the truth is just the opposite: suffering comes to purify and cleanse the filth of sin. It is like gold that contains impurities. When a person refines it in fire, it becomes pure, and that is what preserves it. So too, when suffering comes upon Israel, it purifies them of sin, and through it Israel becomes attached to Hashem.”

The Maharal continues by explaining that because the purpose of suffering is to sustain Israel rather than destroy them, Hashem brings afflictions only in a way that Israel can withstand.

This is how we can understand the verse, “I will continue to punish you sevenfold for your sins” (Leviticus 26:18).

At first glance, this seems difficult. How could Hashem punish someone seven times for a single sin, exacting more from him than the sin itself deserves?

Rather, the punishment is divided into seven portions. If Hashem were to bring the entire blow at once, the sinner might not be able to withstand it. Therefore, the punishment is divided into smaller portions.

Tractate Avodah Zarah 4a offers a comparison: A person is owed money by two people, one whom he loves and one whom he hates. From the one he loves, he collects the debt little by little. From the one he hates, he collects everything at once.

Why Ki Tavo Contains Twice as Many Curses

In Tiferet Yisrael, chapter 43, the Maharal explains the Gemara in Tractate Megillah, which says that the curses in Mishneh Torah were spoken by Moses.

This does not mean, Heaven forbid, that Moses said even a single letter on his own.

Rather, the Torah Hashem gave Israel is a covenant between them. That is why the tablets are called the “tablets of the covenant,” and the ark in which they were placed is called the “ark of the covenant.”

Every covenant has two sides, and each party is bound both to the covenant itself and to the other party. In the covenant between Israel and Hashem, Hashem, the giver of the Torah, stands on one side, while Israel, the recipients of the Torah, stand on the other.

The first four books of the Torah express the perspective of the giver of the Torah. Deuteronomy, however, represents the perspective of the recipients. As the verse says, “Moses undertook to explain this Torah” (Deuteronomy 1:5), because the recipient requires greater interpretation and explanation.

This is why Deuteronomy is called Mishneh Torah, from a term meaning two or doubled. It does not contain a new Torah. It is the same Torah viewed from the perspective of its recipients. Tosafot on Tractate Gittin 2a similarly explains that Mishneh Torah “merely repeats and restates what came earlier.”

We can now understand why the curses appear again in Deuteronomy with changes in their wording.

The curses in Leviticus express the covenant between Hashem and the people of Israel from the perspective of the giver of the Torah. The curses in Deuteronomy are their mirror image. They express the same covenant from the perspective of those receiving the Torah.

In Netzach Yisrael, chapter 14, the Maharal explains that this is also why Moses doubled the number of curses:

“The curses stated in Mishneh Torah were spoken by Moses on his own, and because Moses spoke them on his own, he added another 49 curses, so that one is cursed from above and from below; therefore there are 98.”

In other words, in Leviticus, the giver of the Torah emphasizes that He will not allow His people to abandon the covenant and that reality will ultimately compel them to remain faithful to it.

In Deuteronomy, Moses responds from the perspective of the people accepting that covenant. The people of Israel accept the covenant with redoubled force and affirm that they will never ultimately depart from it. Because Moses speaks from the perspective of those accepting the covenant and seeks to give that acceptance added force, the number of curses is doubled.

The curses in Parashat Ki Tavo are therefore not simply a frightening list of punishments. They express the existence of an eternal covenant between the people of Israel and Hashem.

A covenant creates a bond that cannot ultimately be severed. The curses create a reality that will lead the people of Israel back to Hashem and ensure that the covenant endures.

And even when suffering comes, its purpose is not destruction. Like a debt divided into manageable payments, it comes in a way that allows Israel to endure. The purpose of the covenant is to last forever, and therefore even its most difficult consequences are ultimately directed toward preserving the eternal bond between Hashem and His people.

From the book In the Light of the Maharal on Torah Portions and Festivals, by attorney Avraham Vinrot.