Parshat Ki Tavo: It Is Your Torah
by Rabbi Lobel

(Deuteronomy; Chapter 29, Verses 1-3) "Moses summoned all of Israel and said to them, 'You have seen everything that G-d did before your eyes in the land of Egypt , to Pharaoh and to all his slaves and to his land. The great trials that your eyes beheld, those great signs and wonders. However, G-d did not give you a heart to know, or eyes to see, or ears to hear, until this day."

Rashi explains (verse 3) that Israel did not have the heart, eyes, and ears "to recognize G-d's kindness and cleave to him" until this very day.

Israel was nearing the end of its forty year trip, through the wilderness to the promise land, receiving daily miracles to sustain them. Why did it take forty years for Israel to fully recognize G-d's constant kindness?

Rashi, on the verse, raises an episode that occurred on that very day. "Moses gave the tribe of Levi its own Torah scroll... All of Israel came before Moses and said, "Moses, our master! We too stood at Sinai and we accepted the Torah and it was given to us. Why do you put the sons of your tribe in charge of it, so that one day they may say to us 'it was not given to you - it was given to us.'" Moses rejoiced over the matter and said to them, "This day you have become a people. This day, I (Moses) have understood that you cleave to and desire G-d."

It was through the fact that the Jewish people protected the Torah, preventing anyone else from claiming the Torah was his and not Israel 's, that they fully recognized G-d's generosity and truly desired to cleave unto him.

Despite all the miracles and kindness that G-d had bestowed upon the Jewish nation, they did not have a true desire to cling unto G-d until this day. Dedication to G-d comes through protecting his Torah, standing up for it, and caring for it. It is through observance of the commandments and the understanding that it is your Torah that one truly becomes attached to G-d.