Usually there's no connection between the week's parasha and occasions that occur during the year, but this week's parasha has a very clear connection with the time before Rosh Hashana.
The Talmud tells us that Ezra the Scribe, who lived during the beginning of the second Temple, established that we should read this parasha that is full of rebukes and curses before Rosh Hashanah and not after. The reason for this is - as we say on Rosh Hashana - "tichlei Shana vkliloteya." We end this year, and may it end the curses.
But on a deeper level, we need to ask ourselves what is the purpose of all these curses and rebuke? Is it to frighten us? Is it to warn us? This question gets even more complicated when we read next week's parasha, when we learn that Moshe was comforting am Yisrael by saying "we are all standing here today and no harm occurred to you although you angered Hashem repeatedly." It really shows us the love of Hashem as we say in the tefilla "Ahavat Olam ahavtanu" - with infinite love you loved us. But isn't it that taking the wind out of the curses' sails? If there are curses and then Hashem comforts us, what is the point of the curses? Just don't curse, and you won't need the comforting.
The Chafetz Chaim gives an answer to this question with a parable.
In the parable, a villager was traveling during winter in a cart driven by two horses. It was extremely cold, so he went to an inn to warm up. After having a few l'chaims, the villager became drunk, and he decided to take a nap. When he woke up, the road was covered in snow so that he couldn't see the path anymore, but being drunk he decided to leave before daybreak, pushing his horses to walk through the thick snow while he went back to sleep.
The other villagers woke up before dawn and also could not see the path. But they noticed the trail blazed by our main character, the drunk villager. They said to themselves, "How lucky we are to have a paved road to the city," and went out confidently in a long caravan along the way. When the day began to break and the light was shining, they realized they were in the middle of nowhere, so all they could do was to speed up to ask the leader if he was really going the right way. When they eventually reached him, they discovered to their great astonishment their entire convoy was being led by an old drunk and two horses.
The Chafetz Chaim says that this is exactly how things are being run in this world. The purpose of the rebuke is not to frighten people. If one will always be concerned with the curses, he will never believe that he can succeed. The purpose of the rebukes and curses is for us to examine ourselves and not to waste our time following the blind and to awaken us and to help us to make the right decisions in and take responsibility for out lives.
The great Rosh Yeshiva, HaRav Ben Tsion Abba Shaul, who passed away about 25 years ago, in the introduction to his book Ohr L'Tsion, gives us a funny story about one of his students that woke up in the morning and told his wife that he dreamt about God. His wife told him, "Of course you would dream about God. All day long you learn about God." The husband said, "When do I have time to think about God? I wake up, I go to Shacharit, then I go to Kollel and learn, then Mincha, then more learning, then Aravit...when can I think about God?"
This is why we read the rebukes before Rosh Hashana. It's a wake-up call "nchapsa deracheinu vnachkora" - to look at our ways and investigate them.
And perhaps that's how we can turn the curses into blessings, helping us make the right decisions.
May we all be blessed with the blessings in the Torah, even the hidden ones.