5757


This week’s Sedra is Bekhukota'y, which is the last portion in the book of Vayikra, the third book of the Torah, which is Leviticus. In Hebrew this books also called Torat Cohanim, the teaching of the priests, for it deals almost exclusively with the rites of the Temple -- and the Tabernacle that came before it in the desert. The reading begins in Leviticus 26, in the third verse: "Im bekhukota'y telekhu v'et mitzvota'y tishm'ru... If you follow my statutes and keep my commandments and observe them faithfully, I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit." These first two verses of the text are followed by eight more verses that offer God's rewards for being good followers. Then on the fourteenth verse, we are given the other side of the coin, "Ve'im lo tishme'u li... But if you will not obey me, and do not observe all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and abhor my ordinances, so that you will not observe all my commandments, and you break my covenant, I in turn will do this to you: I will bring terror on you; consumption and fever that waste the eyes and cause life to pine away. You shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down by your enemies; your foes shall rule over you, and you shall flee though no one pursues you." (Lev. 26:14-17) and these verses are followed by a veritable harangue that goes on for thirty verses. So the "bad news" is three times longer and darker than the "good news" of the opening verses of how well we will do if we follow God's teaching and live by His mitzvot. On the face of it, this seems like something we would want to avoid reading altogether. First, because we know that "the good things in life" are not predicated on 'gifts from the Gods.' The rains follow a patern in nature and events follow a patern in human behavior. Some say that God does not exist in this formula. If a young man that has embarked on a life in crime years earlier undertakes to rob a gas station on the evening that we happen to be there -- we may become the innocent victims of his years of anti-social and criminal behavior. This is, of course, true. But it is also true that the Torah teaches not only a creed of personal behavior but also a system of interpersonal relations that can and should creat a society that would foster a life free of crime and violence -- affecting both the potential criminal and his probable victims.
Our sages spoke of the teachings of God that are summarized in our portion in the term khukot and mitzvot -- laws and commandments. They pointed out that God, in all His omnipotence, does not impose Himself suddenly upon mankind. In his very first encounter with man, in the Garden of Eden, after man had eaten of the Forbidden Fruit, we read, "Vayikra adonay elohim el haadam vayomer ayeka... -- and the Lord God called unto the man and said unto him, `where are you?’" [Gen. 3:9] When God revealed Himself to Israel at Sinai, he told them to prepare for three days, and when it was time, we read, "Vayered adonay al har Sinai el rosh hahar vayikra adonay el Moshe -- and the Lord came down upon mount Sinai to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses..." [Ex. 19:20] Only after that do we read,"And the Lord spoke all these words, saying..." Before we can hear, we must be open to the message.
So God came down upon Mount Sinai and spoke to Moshe and the Children of Israel, and He gave them 'khukot and mitzvot -- laws and commandments,' and now he says, "you have a choice." One can be with God or contrary to God. God can predict what would happen in either case -- because the teachings of God work with nature and through nature, and those who contravene Him are acing against nature itself -- and need to know the consequence of thier choice.
You can show a book that contains all the answers to the questions of existence to an illiterate and he will benefit little from its message. Present a grand vista to a blind person and you will not hear an exclamation of surprise or admiration. Place a deaf person in the midst of the Boston Pops orchestra or the Mormon Tabernacle choir -- and don’t be surprised if he will not tap his foot to the beat of the music. Likewise the person who denies God in his heart and in his intelect will not be impressed by Torah or by God's handywork of creation.
Still, God's law will abide, for it is the law of the creator, and the rule of His creation. You cannot spit against the wind and expect your face to stay dry. Yes, God is all around us -- but we still need, as the prophet Isaiah admonishes us, " Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon Him while he is near." [Isaiah 55:6] Is there a time that God hides so that He may not be found? Is there a time when God, who fills the whole universe, is not near enough to hear us? No, indeed! But the prophet wants us to understand that We may be so lost that we can’t find Him, we may be so confounded that we no longer know that He is near. Thus Isaiah invites us to open ourselves to Him, if we are to hear his message and receive His blessing.
God can get along very nicely, thank you, without any human contact, without our hymns, our prayers or our sacrifices. The purpose of prayer is not to give us a chance to ask God, but rather to give us a chance to find ourselves -- so that we may relate to God. We need to pray, as our ancestors offered sacrifices, to be close to Him. To share with him not only our anxiety but our wellbeing. We need to believe in God in order to put our world, and our place in the scheme of things in proper persepective. If we do not, we bring upon ourselves all the evils that happen as a result of having gone against the nature of things.
I remember, a number of years ago, conversing with a very well educated woman who was dying from cancer. She was a college professor who taught a course on death and dying. She was very angry, with herself, for being ill. She told me that she realized fully that she had, somehow, brought about her own illness. She did not know why, and she did not know how to turn it around. I suggested to her that possibly it was because she had become so full of her own importance that she did not allow God into her life, to learn to live -- or to die with grace.
In olden days they would make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem, changing their daily routine thereby. They would offer a gift to God -- a cow, a heifer or a sheep. They would make a meal with the priests and the Levites, before God. They dedicated the meal, and they dedicated themselves thereby -- which means that they opened themselves to the experience. We dedicate nothing. We pray in a hurry, eat in a hurry, love our families in a hurry.
The Torah, in the third book, teaches us to take time out to be with God, to be with our people, yes, even to be with ourselves. It teaches us that unless we hear the call -- we will never hear the speech. Unless we open our eyes, we shall never see the glory of God’s presence, and unless we tune in to God’s frequency we shall miss the sound of His splendid symphony of love and harmony of His marvelous creation. Without the glory of His presence among us, we are lost. We are no longer unique. This Shabbat is also called Shabbat Zakhor, in which we are commanded to remember what Amalek did to Israel in the desert. Amalek was an enemy tribe of the Israelites that attacked us when we were most vulnerable. Maybe we are commanded to remember the Amalek because there is a little Amalek in all of us! We all attack ourselves when we are vulnerable. We cut ourselves off from family, friends, and from God... When the Amalek within us attacks, we must remember the experience of Sinai. We must recall that to hear God we must first harken to His voice. Hear the call, and respond with our own Hineni -- Here I am, Lord! Clear, loud, sure and resonant -- affirming the past, building the future. Amen



Shabbat Bekhukotie 5760
This week we complete reading in the Torah the last portion in the Book of Leviticus, a portion called Bekhukotie. The text begins with these words, "Im bekhukotie telekhu ve’et mitzvotie tishmeru va’asitem otam venatati gishmekhem be’itam venatna ha’aretz yevula ve’etz hasade yiten et pir’yo.” These words translate to say, - “If you follow my statutes and keep my commandments and observe them faithfully, I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit." [Lev. 26:3,4] This is a very interesting passage when read in English, for it suggest a special relationship between God’s statutes and laws and the very forces of nature. The people are promised that by observing the teachings of the Torah they will actually assure for themselves the blessings of a good harvest.
Surely, as young as you are or as old and experienced as you may be, you realize that nature is nature, and drought occurs as and when it does, for religious people as it does for the Godless. Not only that, but we all know that very often the Godless, the wicked non-believers seem to be blessed with much success, leading the faithful to question their own obedience. Which may lead us to ask, ‘is the Torah wrong?’
However, when we read the text in the original Hebrew, we discover that there may be a different emphasis in the text that somehow got lost in the translation. Our sages have taught us that the Torah was given to wise people, and not to fools. The question asked above is one advanced by those who do not believe, who think that religious people are dupes who foolishly think that faith in God is for the purpose of immediate gratification. They suggest that religious people approach the Almighty claiming, "See, God, I have said my prayers -- so pay-up!" This, of course, is not the case! We seek to learn the ways of God because He is the source of blessing and of goodness, and we feel that by emulating His qualities we can change our attitude to what happens in nature because it is nature.
Let us look at the Hebrew text, and allow me to give you an alternative look at the meaning of the words. “ Im bekhukotie telekhu” If you walk by means of My laws [of nature] “ ve’et mitzvotie tishmeru” while at the same time observing my ‘mitzvot’ (those special instructions that defy translation, that are called ‘commandments’ when in fact they are Fatherly suggestions of doing right and not wrong) in such a manner that “ va’asitem otam” you shall do them as part of your very nature. Here comes the ‘problem part’ of the text: “ venatati gishmekhem be’itam” and I shall make it so that you shall find fulfillment in due time, “ venatna ha’aretz yevula ve’etz hasade yiten et pir’yo.” even as earth yields its produce and the trees give forth their fruit.
The pivotal word here is “ geshem.” In its most simple form, the word means rain. However, our text does not say
“ I will give you rains in their season,” but rather “ I will give you your rains in their season,” and we must ask what makes the rain ‘ours?’ Does it rain specifically on those who love the Lord and do His will? Surely we all know that it does not! Then we have to assume that “ gishmekhem - your rains” has a different meaning. In studying the root ‘gimel’ ‘shin’ ‘mem’ we find that ‘lehagshim’ means to fulfill or bring to fruition. That, I believe, is the true meaning of the word in our text. Only fools would expect favorable treatment at the hand of God to make it rain on their land while their neighbors suffer from a drought. However, a God fearing man who conditions himself to see the blessing in every situation will accept a drought as a judgement from God that must have its own reasons and its attendant blessings, even as the seasons of God come and go, the harvest is picked and the field gives its wheat for bread.
The teachings of God are a preparation for adversity as well as prosperity. In good times every soul is sustained by well-being. However, it times of distress, grief, affliction and discontent, the spirit of the Godless shrinks and suffers greatly, while the servants of God follow His teachings, finding solace comfort and reassurance in God’s love and compassion through His Mitzvot - which prepared them for times of trial and trouble.
We read in David’s poetry this opening statement, “ Happy is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scorners. But whose delight is in the Torah of the Lord; and in his Torah he meditates day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season; its leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.” [Psalms 1:1-3]

Amen

I am a child of Jerusalem, as was my father before me. My grandfather, whose name I bear, wrote the following about his relationship with my town: "There are two things for which I am sorry, and for which I can find no consolation: I was not born in Jerusalem, or even in the Land of Israel, and the first words I spoke were not spoken in Hebrew." [E. Ben-Yehuda, prolegomena to Thesaurus & Dictionary] He tried to redress the wrong by publishing his books and dictionaries with the legend "by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, of Jerusalem;" and by instructing his wife that on his grave-stone the same words should be etched, to bear witness "forever!" As a child I grew to know the highways, byways and boulevards, the alleys, dusty footpaths and trails of Jerusalem, both old and new. My grandmother Hemda told me stories of rogues and rich men, great ladies and street urchins, newcomers and landed gentry who populated old Jerusalem, when water was brought in and sold in five gallons tin buckets, donkeys were the only mode of transportation - and the gates of the walled city where closed from sunset to sunrise.

Amen.

Behar-Bekhukotie 5762