Why the Tochecha Brought Tears

One Shabbos, in Parshas Ki Savo, Rav Shneur Zalman, the Baal HaTanya and Alter Rebbe of Chabad, was away. It was the custom that the Baal HaTanya himself was the baal koreh and leined the weekly parsha each Shabbos. Since he was away that Shabbos, a different chassid read from the Torah.

When the reading reached the tochecha (the rebuke), with its harsh words, descriptions of tragedy and curses, Rav Dovber burst into tears and cried as he never had before. After the leining, some puzzled chassidim approached him and asked, "Why did you cry so much this year over the tochecha? You have never done so before."

Rav Dovber answered, "Every year my holy father leins Parshas Ha'Tochecha, and all I hear are berachos, so why should I cry? This year, for the first time, all I heard was the tochecha itself. How could I not cry?"