B”H
 
 
KI SAVO
ARE YOU A PESSIMIST OR AN OPTIMIST?
The opening word of this week’s parsha is “V”haya, it will come to pass.”
The Midrash states that whenever the Torah uses this word  it is an expression of joy.
By contrast, when the Torah uses the term “Vayehi-and it was,” it is an expression of sorrow and anguish.
Why?
The word yehi is future tense, “it will be.” When we add the letter vov it turns into past tense.
Conversely, the word haya is past-tense, but when we add a vov it converts into future tense.
This is the difference between saddens and happiness, a pessimist versus and optimist.
A sad and pessimistic person takes the future and turns it into the past. Instead of seeing a bright picture they are obsessed with seeing things through the prism of the painful events of the past.
Conversely, happy and optimistic people do not wallow in the past. Even if the past was painful, they look forward to a glorious future; they see Moshiach and Redemption on the horizon and bask in its emerging light.

INSANE, BLIND AND CONFUSED
Moshiach’s “Insanity”  
It is a well-known tradition that the curses we read in this week’s parsha are, in essence, hidden blessings. Many Chassidic commentators have taken these frightening verses and interpreted them in such a way that they actually express very positive messages.
One of the “curse/blessing” verses is:
“G‑d will strike you with insanity, with blindness and with bewilderment”
The word for insanity shiga’on has the numerical value of the words ¨hamoshiach ben Dovid-Moshiach the son of David.” The word “hameshuga-the insane one” has the same numerical value as “Moshiach ben Dovid.”
The hidden meaning behind this hint is that there is an extremely positive type of insanity personified by none other than Moshiach!
Where does the Torah characterize insanity in a positive manner?
 
Definition of Insanity
The Torah speaks of the Prophets as meshuga-insane. The definition of meshuga, which we commonly translate as insanity, has a broader and a more neutral translation. It can refer to one whose rationality is submerged in and overwhelmed by another force.
Now, this can manifest itself in many ways.
First, the conventional understanding of insanity is that it refers to a person who does things that are harmful to self or others. Logic dictates that one should not behave in that fashion. The fact that this person does so proves that he or she is not governed by rational thought. This, of course, is an unhealthy mental state.
Second, we may become overly excited about something, good or bad.  As a result, we do not pause to think whether that particular course of action is positive. In this case, our emotions overshadow and drown out our rational thought. For example, we may do totally illogical things out of love to help or save someone. For anyone else, without those emotional ties, reason would prevail.
 
Going Beneath or Above the Norm
However, this second scenario can also be subdivided into two:
We can throw reason to the wind because we have degenerated into a meaningless and crazy emotional state, or we could go beyond the limits of logic and rationality because we have touched a Divine truth that transcends human logic. Both forms share their deviation from the mean and norm. The difference is that in the former, the person goes beneath the norm and in the latter, the person goes above it. Some might phrase it as the difference between irrationality and supra-rationality.
When society behaves normally, there is less of a need to go beyond the norm to keep the world sane and holy. However, when society degenerates into an abyss of depravity and immorality, it requires a surge of unnatural, positive energy to counter the insanity. At a time like that we need people to rise above the norm because normality alone will not be able to contend with an abnormal society.
 
Abraham versus Bilam
This explains Rashi’s explanation of Bilam, the heathen prophet who saddled his own donkey on his way to curse the Jews. His hatred of the Jews was so strong that he acted abnormally. Instead of having his servants saddle the donkey, which was his norm, he did it himself because his hatred for the Jews and his zeal to curse them drove him into temporary insanity.
G‑d however, mocked him and said that Abraham’s unusual behavior centuries earlier canceled the effect of Bilam’s odd behavior because, it says of Abraham, that he too saddled his own donkey on the way to the Akeidah, the binding of Isaac. His unconventional and above-normal love for G‑d caused him to stray from the norm (of having his servant saddle the donkey, as was his custom).
This means that when we go beyond the norm and convention and act in an “insanely” positive way, we can neutralize the lethal, criminally insane forces of evil.
This explains why a prophet is called a meshuga-insane. It is not because he lacks sanity but because he is capable of rising above the norm to touch the Divine and become a conduit to transmit G‑d’s message.
We can now understand the connection between the word meshuga and Moshiach:
Moshiach epitomizes going beyond the norm. The Talmud states that Moshiach will come when we are distracted. This poses a serious question. Did not Maimonides, on the basis of the Talmud, etc., exhort us to wait for Moshiach’s coming daily? Isn’t it an integral part of our prayers to hope, anticipate and yearn for his coming every day? How then could the Talmud state that he will come when we are distracted?
The Alter Rebbe explains in the Tanya  that “distracted” means that Moshiach’s coming will transcend our perceptions. The precise wording of the Talmudic citation is that “Moshiach comes when we are removed from da’as-knowledge.” This does not mean that we must be distracted from Moshiach’s coming. Rather it means that we will realize that Moshiach is beyond our Da’as-our knowledge.
So, the first curse in the foregoing verse is that G‑d will strike us with shigaon. He will send us Moshiach, who will introduce us to a state of positive and holy insanity.
 
Holy Blindness
The second “curse/blessing” is that the Jews will be cast into a state of ivaron-blindness.
Once we have been exposed to an unconventional level of Divine light, we will be struck with a form of positive blindness.
In the pre-Redemption era we see too much. We see the materialistic nature of the world rather than its Divine energy. We readily see the flaws in others rather than their good qualities.
This has special relevance to the year we are leaving and the year into which we are entering. The incoming year 5780 is an acronym for “this will be a year of pedus-Redemption.” The way to prepare for the incoming year is alluded to in the acronym for the Hebrew number for the outgoing year, 5779: “This will be year of a good eye.” This means that we have to develop a good eye to replace the negative one to condition us for Redemption, when we will become blind to negativity.
A “good eye” is defined as one who sees the good in everything and everyone and, as a result, is blind to their flaws. To be sure, this does not mean that we should just allow people to cause harm because we are blind to it.  Rather, when we see negative behavior or character, we must not focus on the negativity but on our proper response to it: deterring others from this behavior. When removing dirt, we should focus on the benefit of removing it rather than on its repulsiveness.
 
Bewilderment
The third “curse/blessing” is that we shall be burdened with a confused heart.
Literally, the curse is that people will be plagued with doubts about everything.
However, the Hebrew word for bewilderment-timhon, is related to a word that means wonderment. The ultimate blessing derived from this curse is that when Moshiach comes we will be in utter awe and wonderment at the positive changes in the world.
Kesiva Vachasimah Tova-L’shanah Umesukah-We should all be inscribed and sealed for a good and sweet year!