The Tochacha includes the horrific scenario of parents being reduced to eating the flesh of their own children. (26:29) The Chizkuni on this pasuk explains that it refers to parents who, for their own financial gain, permit their children to marry into families of dubious moral quality.
The Midrash relates the story of a woman who gave away her last morsel of food in order to offer comfort to her neighbor whose child had died. Now that the comforter had given away her last provisions, her own child died of hunger, too. (Eichah Rabbah 4:13)
The Chizkuni is describing parents who focus on financial well-being at the expense of their children. Sometimes this is even rationalized by being couched in terms of enhancing the quality of the family’s life and security.
The Midrash adds the dimension of parents who focus on communal or their own spiritual matters at the expense of their children. This, too, is easily rationalized.
Both examples involve lack of appreciation for how our daily living is to be prioritized. By properly addressing these priorities we are able to thrive as intended and there is no need for the Tochacha to be realized.
[This is based on a shiur of Horav Yochanan Zweig, Shlita.]
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