EXTRA 2 · You will serve your enemies

Parashas Ki Savo · 28:47–48 (Sifrei / midrash) · Not cited by Torah Temimah

Source

Sifrei and parallel midrashim on “תחת אשר לא עבדת את ה׳”.

Core idea
תַּחַת אֲשֶׁר לֹא־עָבַדְתָּ אֶת־ה׳ אֱלֹהֶיךָ בְּשִׂמְחָה — לְפִיכָךְ תַּעֲבֹד אֶת אֹיְבֶיךָ… בְּרָעָב וּבְצָמָא וּבְעֵירֹם וּבְחֹסֶר כֹּל.

English: Because you did not serve Hashem your God with joy — therefore you shall serve your enemies… in hunger and in thirst and in nakedness and in lack of everything.

In the midrashic reading: The failure is not only the absence of service but the absence of joy in service. The consequence is service of another master under conditions of total deprivation.

Type of Learning

Custom (causal link drawn by Chazal between joyless service and subjugation).

What Is Learned

Joy in avodas Hashem is not an optional flourish; its absence is treated as a decisive cause of the reversal into forced service of enemies.