All of you are standing today before Hashem your G-d.^[2]

Chazal endeavor to find the connection between Moshe Rabbenu’s discourse here, and the preceding section of tochechah/rebuke. One midrash, cited in Rashi’s second approach to this pasuk, sees it as addressing a problem created by the two sections of rebuke in the Torah. Having heard “the 49 curses of the tochechah in Vayikra, and the one hundred minus two curses” of the more recent tochechah, people’s faces turned ashen. Who could survive such consequences of wrongdoing?

To this, Moshe responded. “Well, actually, your presence here is the answer to your question! All of you survived; you are standing here today! You are living evidence that it can be done.”

A question arises. Why does the midrash employ the roundabout “one hundred minus two,” rather than ninety-eight? Regarding the tochechah in Vayikra, the midrash writes forty-nine, not fifty-minus-one. Why the change?

Let’s look at an earlier pasuk.^[3] “All illness and any blow that is not written in the book of this Torah – Hashem will bring them upon you.” After spelling out 98 curses in painful detail, why did Hashem not finish the job, and specify the nature of these other curses, rather than as a veiled and vague threat?

We would answer that there must be something very different about the final two curses. We turn to a different midrash, cited by Rav Yonosson Ebybeschutz,^[4] which identifies the pasuk with the death of the righteous. The idea is that people are told that even after the 98 curses are deployed, a curse of a different sort still awaits them. The impact of the removal of top Torah personalities goes beyond all the personal tragedies brought on by the 98 curses. To be sure, it brings atonement for the generation, as the Tzadik assumes the burden of expiating sin on his own shoulders. But it demoralizes the masses, right when they need the leadership and assurance that the Tzadik offers. To those listening, it seemed like last straw. How could they possibly survive in such a world?

We’re up to 99. Still missing one. There is an parallel gemara about the death-of-the-righteous theme that provides the last piece. The gemara^[5] states, “When there are tzadikim, those tzadikim are taken for the iniquity of the generation. When there are none, schoolchildren are taken.”

We’ve uncovered the identity of the last two horrific curses: the death of tzadikim, and the death of young children. These differ from the other 98. Those are exercises of Divine din. They are not merged with rachamim. The hidden two, as disastrous as they are, are mixed with rachamim, in that they are designed to shock people into teshuva, as well as offering atonement for outstanding sins.

What is in store for the sinner.? Four, teach Chazal,^[6] were asked this question. Sechel answered, “Evil pursues sinners. There is no path forward. The sin cannot be rectified.” Prophecy answered, “The evildoer must die. Death, however, affords some atonement.” The Torah answered, “Let him bring a chatas. That will work for some sins, at least when there is a beis hamikdosh.” Finally, Hashem Himself offered a different solution: “Let the sinner repent.” The point is that repentance doesn’t really makes sense from a human perspective. Rationally, there is no way of undoing the consequences of sin, neither to the world, nor to the sinner. Only within HKBH’s chochmah – inaccessible to us – is there rhyme and reason to the power of teshuva.

This is why the tochechah in Devarim offers no concluding words of consolation. Since it is the work of Moshe, he could not fully grasp its nature. The tochechah in Vayikra, however, came from Hashem. He could offer consolation, because within Him is the power of teshuva.

In our pasuk, the people come to Moshe, terrified by the 98 imprecations that Moshe recited to them – plus the implication that he would not even speak openly of the dreaded, hidden two. Moshe responded to them. “All of you are standing today. Do you know why? Because Hashem directs, militates for, guides us to teshuva. You, the second generation, have been guided since your youth to recognize the sins of the previous generation, and to learn lessons from them. Do not let the prediction of the deaths of the righteous and of small children faze you. There is a miraculous way to escape those curses.

“Just do teshuva!”

1. Adapted from Divrei Shaul, by Rav Yosef Shaul Nathanson zt”l, the Shoel U-Meishiv ↑
2. Devarim 29:9 ↑
3. Devarim 28:61 ↑
4. Ya’aros Devash, vol. 1, Derush 4 s.v. u-b’zeh yuvan. The author does not give a citation for this midrash; a note by the publisher states that no source in Bavli or midrash has been found, although the content is widely cited by others as well. ↑
5. Shabbos 33b ↑
6. Yerushalmi Makos 2:6 ↑