Twice we are cursed with the dreadful affliction of she’gaon, insanity. Is once not enough? If we peruse the Tochachah, Rebuke, we note that with each successive curse of the ninety-eight curses, the misfortune that has to befall us gets greater and greater. Since each curse is associated with a harsher punishment, it is strange that the Torah repeats the curse of insanity. Insane is insane! Does making a person “more” insane add to the curse?
The Ketzos HaChoshen explains that there are truly variant levels of insanity. When a person loses his mind, when he no longer thinks rationally, when he is not in control of his faculties, it is extremely tragic. However, in some scenarios the individual is unaware of his actions, and does not regret his behavior. He does not know what he is doing. In fact, he thinks that he is normal. It is the rest of the world which is insane.
There is a worse conceivable situation. This is when a perfectly normal person is subjugated by one who has lost his mind. In this situation, the crazy person compels the normal person to act in a crazy manner, because, sadly, this is all he knows. His bizarre perspective on life has become the new “normal.” He, therefore, expects the normal person under his control to act as bizarrely as he does. There is nothing worse than a normal person being relegated to act as if he were meshugah.
The Torah writes, V’ha’yisa meshuga mi’mar’eh einecha asher tir’eh; “You will go mad from the sight of your eyes that you will see.” This means that we will become distraught from the way we are forced to act before others, knowing fully well that we are not crazy – they are! We are perfectly sane and normal, but we are being driven out of our minds by having to witness our insane behavior just to satisfy others.
