These shall stand to bless the people, etc. And regarding the curses it does not say “these shall stand to curse,” because the good things come from God in actuality, but the curses only come by themselves through the hiding of His face, may He be blessed, for from the mouth of the Most High, evil does not come forth (Lamentations 3:38). Therefore it says, and these shall stand upon [i.e., for] the curse and not “to curse,” but only to designate the arrival of the curses, and the matter is uncertain whether they will come or not, since they only come through the hiding of [God’s] face, therefore the matter still depends on the indication of the celestial system/arrangement.

And why were all the curses stated explicitly while the blessings remained implied and not the opposite? Because the main blessing is for the World to Come which is hidden, and people only eat of their fruits in this world, serving as preparation so they can fulfill the commandments through the presence of these blessings. Therefore, Scripture concealed them. Additionally, this hints that when God favors a person’s ways, He will transform curses into blessings, so that even the curses will be turned into blessings, as our Sages said (Moed Katan 9b): “You will sow but not reap,” as explained above in Parashat Bo (10:10) on the verse See that evil is before your faces. It further hints that blessing is included within the curses, because since the curse was the cause that out of fear of it, one came to turn from evil and do good, then from the aspect of the curses, the blessings were drawn forth.

And the reason they come in the number 11, is because the name of God “Yah” represents the attribute of judgment, as it is said The Lord [Yah] has chastened me severely (Psalms 118:18), and also Blessed is the man whom You chasten, O Lord [Yah] (Psalms 94:12), and similarly My strength and song is Yah as explained in Parashat Beshalach (Exodus 15:2). Thus, the vav [the numerical count of which is six] and hei [the numerical count of which is five] in the Great Name [the Tetragrammaton] represent the attribute of mercy, as Rabbeinu Bachya wrote on the verse for the hand is on the throne of Yah (Exodus 17:16). Initially, the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted to create the world with the attribute of judgment, that is, with the name Yah, as it is said For in Yah, the Lord is an everlasting rock (Isaiah 26:4). But He saw that the world could not endure until He joined the letters vav and hei to Yah. Therefore, they said (Bava Batra 9b), “One who gives a coin to a poor person is blessed with six blessings,” because his main reward is in this world, which is bounded by six directions, as his reward comes “from the precious things of heaven above, and from the deep lying beneath,” and “you shall spread out westward, and eastward,” etc. But one who comforts the poor with words, which is what is spiritual in him, receives his main reward in the hidden world represented by the name vav-hei, which amounts to 11 blessings, because only in the World to Come is the Name complete. That is why the blessings come in the number 11. Similarly, even with the curses, the Holy One, blessed be He, does not send them in a flood of wrath immediately, but rather begins with mercy, gradually, perhaps they will repent, just as He did with the generation of the Flood, where if they had repented, the rains would have been rains of blessing. So too, even the curses come gradually from the aspect of mercy, therefore they also come in the number 11, which indicates mercy. For this reason, all the admonitions, both in Leviticus and in this portion, begin with vav and end with hei, to indicate that even in anger, He remembers mercy.

And in the Talmudic tractate Sotah (37b), they interpreted all these 11 [curses] regarding an adulterer and adulteress, except for the ones about perverting justice for a convert, orphan, and widow. Rashi comments, “I do not know how to interpret this.” But I say that the explanation is as follows: If a man commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife and she bears a son from him, and when the husband dies, the judge rules that this illegitimate child inherits along with the other younger brothers, then he is robbing the orphan and also reducing the widow’s portion. Ibn Ezra wrote that all these are matters done in secret, and Chizkuni explained similarly. Since the court is unable to take action against these secret transgressions, they were [enforced] with “Arur” [cursed be]. This is a correct interpretation, and the proof is that the term secret is only mentioned regarding idolatry, where it says and puts it in secret, and regarding striking one’s fellow in secret — because these two encompass the entire Torah and commandments, as they all fall into these two categories: matters between man and God, blessed be He, and matters between man and his fellow. The Torah specified these 11 cases because they commonly occur in secret, but the same applies to all commandments of the Torah, which are included in the general curse, Cursed be he who does not uphold the words of this Torah. And how fitting is the rabbinic interpretation of who does not uphold — this refers to one who studies Torah not for its own sake, which is a matter of the heart, as he studies for self-aggrandizement and does not intend to fulfill the commandments. Who can discern his true intentions? Even the ministering angels erred in this, as our Sages said (Bava Metzia 85a): “For what reason was the land destroyed? This question was asked of the sages, the prophets, and the angels, and they could not explain it, until the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself explained it, saying, Because they have forsaken My Torah, etc.” For outwardly they saw them engaged in Torah study, but did not know they were studying not for its own sake, and when it came time to act, they abandoned it — as is the custom of most people in our generation. Therefore it says, who does not uphold the words of this Torah — what he speaks with his mouth, he does not fulfill. This proves he studies not for its own sake, and there is no greater secret than this; therefore he is cursed with “Arur.”