The confirmation of the covenant that is described in this morning’s Sidra, is a one-time event that must have been extremely impressive. The Levites and the Ark were in the valley, between two mountains, upon each of which stood six tribes. The Levites would pronounce 12 blessings in one direction, and the tribes on that mountain would answer, “Amen.” The Torah gives us only one list, that of the curses.

The climax of these 12 is the following: ארור אשר לא יקים את דברי התורה הזאת לעשות אותם, “cursed is he who will not yakim the words of this Torah to do them.” Translators differ as to the work yakim. Our text reads, “execute.” Hertz translates, “confirm,” probably following Nahmanides. Others render the word, “fulfill,” or “uphold.”

The Jerusalem Talmud, in Sotah, was also puzzled by that word, and apparently took it literally. Yakim means to upbuild, to erect, to restore, and not simply to uphold or confirm or fulfill. Thus: ראיתי אשר לא יקים. וכי יש תורה נופלת?  “I have seen the words ‘who will not erect.’ Is there, then, a fallen Torah?”

The Talmud had in mind the relationship of the kind that is expressed in the verse that we add to the birkhat ha-mazon (grace) on Sukkot: הרחמן הוא יקים לנו את סוכת דוד הנופלת, “May the Merciful One restore for us the fallen Sukkah of David.” That is why the Talmud asks: if we must restore (yakum), does that not imply that the Torah has fallen? It takes the word yakim not as related to לקיים (“to uphold,” passively) but להקים (“to restore,” actively).

The Jerusalem Talmud continues: how does one erect or upbuild the Torah?

The first answer is rather cryptic: רבי שמעון בן יקום אומר זה חזן,  it refers to the hazzan. The hazzan was, in Talmudic days and parlance, a functionary, what is today referred to as the שמש. How is this related to the upbuilding and restoring of the Torah? Nahmanides explains that the verse refers, quite literally and prosaically, to the task of raising the Torah at the end of the service – the hagbah, performed (in those days exclusively) by the hazzan. Hence, the Torah, according to this interpretation, denounces one who performs the picking up of the scroll of the Torah incorrectly, and blesses the one asher yakim, who does it properly:

להראות פני כתיבתו לכל… שמגביה אותו ומראה פני כתיבתו לעם העומדים לימינו ולשמאלו ומחזירו לפניו ולאחריו שמצוה לכל האנשים ונשים לראות הכתוב ולכרוע ולומר וזאת התורה אשר שם משה וכו’.

(Perhaps this is the source of the Rabbis’ insistence: המגביה נוטל שכר כולם.)

The second opinion is more fundamental: רבי שמעון בר חלפתא אומר זה בית דין של מטה. It is the responsibility of the earthly authority – the king and the Sanhedrin and the judges and the rabbis and teachers and parents – to raise the Torah, to give it stature and status and prestige, to restore it to eminence, when they notice that it is not being reverenced properly. It is their task, כנגד המבטלין, in the face of those who cause the Torah to suffer neglect, to upbuild it.

Thus, the Talmud continues, על דבר זה קרע יאשיהו ואמר עלי להקים. When the priest Hilkiah brought to King Josiah a copy of the Torah, which had not been seen for many years because of idolatrous presentations, and he read the curse against one who does not restore this Torah, he rent his garments in grief, acknowledged his failure, and said: “it is my duty to restore it.” That is precisely what he did. His reign was marked by the upbuilding and restoration of the Torah.

I am pleased to report that there are at least some signs of such upbuilding abounding in today’s news, which is otherwise so depressing. Thus, many yishuvim, not at all formally religious, are putting aside a day for the study of Torah during the month of Ellul, under the influence of such groups as Pe’ilim, or TaLaT, or Gesher. Our own city’s Board of Jewish Education has instituted an “educational hotline,” which in itself may not have any direct result, but certainly acts as a very constructive “consciousness-raising” mechanism. And the group of 15 American Jews from Yeshiva University who have just returned from Australia, have left behind a record of stunning, galvanizing effect on young people in Melbourne and Sydney. Hundreds of young people and their parents are being “turned on” to Judaism and to Torah.

Following the same thought, the Jerusalem Talmud continues by implying that the act of restoring Torah is not that of a single man, the hazzan, or even that of the authorities, but of every single Jew: בשם ר’ תנחום בר חייא, למד ולימד ושמר ועשה והיה סיפק בידו להחזיק ולא החזיק הרי זה בכלל ארור. 

No matter how “frum” you are, no matter how much Torah you have studied or taught, no matter how difficult it is to give today, regardless of how high inflation or how depressed the market, Jewish charity and especially Torah must not become the first victim of the economy, and the last one to benefit from its upturn. Whoever can support Torah (and every one can to some extent) and does not, is included in the curse. Conversely, whoever does help according to the extent of his abilities, is included in the blessing.

Our task is manifold: to study, to teach, to do – and to support those who study and teach and do and observe.

As we enter the new year, painfully aware of the economic problems of the old year that simply will not go away, we read a warning not to abandon expressions of Torah in our community.

But more than just continued and enhanced support in the objective sense is mandated by the Sidra. Also prescribed is: an attitude.

The whole תוכחה is not ascribed to a single sin – save one small item:  תחת אשר לא עבדתם את ה’ אלקיכם בשמחה… We must not only support Torah, but we must do it unbegrudgingly, with joy.