Parshas Bechukosai starts with a promise of bracha – of rains
in their time and peace in the land – if Bnei Yisrael will follow Hashem’s
mitzvos. If, however, Bnei Yisrael does not follow in Hashem’s ways, then
Bechukosai presents a detailed and awful list of consequences. Among the
descriptive terms is one verse that is particularly perplexing: “I will break
the pride of your might. I will make your heaven like iron and your land like
copper” (12:19).
This verse, which is meant to instill fear, begins the
second level of punishment; These are the consequences if Bnei Yisrael doesn’t
heed the panic and the disease and the fevers, the famine and the violence, all
of which is their first warning of being terribly off track. But what does this
verse mean? Beyond a basic threat, what purpose does this metallic metaphor
serve?
Rashi notes that the difference between iron and copper is
that copper exudes water, while iron does not – and that the combination of
dryness in the sky and moisture in the earth, will intensify any famine. And
still the question remains. With so many possible words to describe a
punishment like drastic change in climate, why this metaphor of iron and
copper?
The common characteristic of most metals is that they are
hard – even the soft metals. Iron and copper are utilitarian metals, natural
elements that can be transformed and used. The transformation, however, takes great
heat and hard pounding. Perhaps Hashem threatens them with making the world
iron and copper to remind Bnei Yisrael that it is their own hardness, their own
stiff-necked mida, that was the cause of their downfall.
This suits well with common translation of the first half of
the pasuk: “And I will break the pride
of your might.” To be a stiff-necked nation infers that our pride is great,
that we place our will at an inflexible height.
In this pasuk, however the term used for pride is an odd
Hebrew word, ge’own. As noted by many commentators, it has within it an
inference to the Beis Hamikdash because it can also be translated as majesty or
exaltation. The Kli Yakar points out
that in Devarim 28:23, Moshe threatens the opposite - that the heavens will be
like copper and the earth like iron. This, the commentator notes, indicates
that Vayikra 12:19 is speaking of First Temple because “It is known that iron
is harder than copper. In the first Temple Period, their main sin was toward Heaven,
through the worship of the stars and the constellations …Therefore the heavens
were as hard as iron” (translation via Sefaria).
When our pride kept us from doing teshuvam from
heeding the warning from Hashem, then Hashem destroyed the place where our true
pride should have been focused.
Sometimes it is hard for us to relate to the actuality of
the Beis Hamikdash and even harder to grasp the desire for avodah zarah. And if
we are not sure whether we still retain the trait of being stiff necked, we do,
at least, know that each of us has a yetzer harah to lead us down a path of
gaivah (pride) once in awhile.
As Klal Yisrael today, we live in the world after our great
punishments, in a seemingly unending era of exile in which we once again see
the hatred of the nations festering. Here, in Bechukosai, we have a reminder that
we must take down our pride, be flexible in our path in order to truly serve
Hashem, and strive to do proper teshuva.
Wishing you a beautiful Shabbas.
