Parshas Behar-Bechukosai: Be a Mentch

 Dedicated to a refuah shelaima for Moshe Aaron ben Necha Itta, Binyamin ben Simcha, Sharon bas Shoshana, and Chaya Sarah bas Esther Leah

 

Bein adam l’chavero, the mitzvos between one person and another, are the bedrock of civilization. More than that, these Torah’s mitzvos are – to be blunt – fascinating in their constant application to every aspect of life.

 

This week’s parsha, Behar-Bechukosai starts with the laws of Shmittah, during which the Jewish nation demonstrates their deep trust in Hashem and their Divinely imposed respect for the land. It then moves on to the laws of the years of Yuval, Jubilee, and through that discusses the many limitations of selling property in the Holy Land. Basically, in summary, one can really only lease land on a pro-rated scale as it must revert to its original portioning at the coming of the Yuval.

 

Through these discussions of real estate, however, comes the very significant commandment of Al Tonu Eish Et Ahav – you must not cheat one man to another.

 

From here come the laws connected to Onaas Devarim, using words to hurt another. These laws cover such subtle issues as misleading a salesman that you might have the intention to buy something when, in all honesty, you are simply price comparing. You cannot give a fellow Jew the impression that you are going to give them business on false pretext. That, of course, is just one example. The unfortunate “opportunities” for onaas devarim are…multitudinous, almost as vast as the opportunities for lashon harah and rechilus, and the primary reason for this is that most of us have an incredibly difficult time being truly mindful of our speech and actions.

 

The idea of “vexing” – of causing hardship or wrongness – is so important that it is mentioned twice in the same perek, which seems a little odd. In pasuk 14, it says: “When you sell property to your neighbor, or buy any from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another.” Three pasukim later, in verse 17, it states: “Do not wrong one another, but fear your God; for I Hashem am your God.” This verse uses different language than Pasuk 14. It uses Lo instead of Al. Both are Hebrew words, and both share a basic word meaning foundation (indeed, they are both composed of only an aleph and a lamed), but they are subtly different.

 

In the first verse, it is an immediate command – Al Tonu – Thou shalt not. When you are in the middle of your land deal, when you are thinking about how much profit you can make or what corners can be cut, there is a mandate upon you to think of what is being done to the other person.  

 

In the second verse is Pasuk 17: “Do not wrong one another,” Lo Tonu puts that onus on the person to prepare to avoid ways of hurting others. The first verse could lead one to mistakenly think that this injunction against “wronging” is only connected to business, to real estate specifically, but Pasuk 17 comes to make certain it is clear that it is remembered throughout all aspects of life.

This might leave the question of why there are two pasukim when the second covers it all. This goes back to the subtle difference between al and lo. Al is a reminder in the moment, when an “impossible-to-resist” opportunity is sitting in front of you and you know you can make a clear profit, but that profit will be to the excessive cost to your fellow. That is when you must remember that our goal in life is to emulate Hashem, to do good in the world…not to make the most profit.

 

In the plethora of laws that are laid down in the Torah, simple statements like “Do not wrong one another” are easy to pass over. We read it and almost shrug in our conviction that this is not something that we do anyway. But in our day to day lives, amid the constant navigation of family, friends, community, and business, it is easy to focus on ourselves and our needs. We need to prepare ourselves to not be the type of person who would wrong another and also be prepared to stop ourselves when our needs or our wants push forward against those of another to the point that we might forget our fellowship with them.

 

It is significant to note that the next pasuk says: “You must carry out My rules and safeguard My ordinances and perform them. You will then live on the land securely.” The laws set down in the Torah that seem to be about land or business or rule of law are guidelines and shields to the most important laws that underline the Torah world: Think about the other person. Do not put yourself first. Be a mentch.

 

I wish you all a beautiful Shabbas.

Parshas Bechukosai – A Metallic Metaphor

 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.

If Mom (Bechukosai)

What do the words “mom” and “if” have in common? Not much in the English language, but in Hebrew they are written with the same two letters: Aleph and Mem. The connection of Eem (if) and Eim (mom) is a wonderful lesson in both parenting and hashgafa (Jewish thought).

Parashat Bechukosai begins, for the first 10 verses, by describing the amazing, successful society that Israel will have if they live by the laws (and spirit of the laws) of the Torah. But the tone changes starting with verse 26:14, and the Torah begins listing the dreadful consequences that will arrive if they do not.

Reading the punishments has striking correlation to the historical reality that is seemingly predicted in the Torah: exiled from the land, beaten down by the other nations, suffering under hardship…. Throughout most of time, as was once a common phrase, it wasn’t easy to be a Jew.

But verse 26:14 begins with the word “v’eem – and if.” God is Omniscient. He knows everything that is going to happen and the verse might rightly have said “kee lo tishm’oo – when you will not listen to me.” God knows Klal Yisrael’s weaknesses, and there had been plenty of demonstrations of it immediately following the exodus from Egypt and throughout the journey through the Wilderness.

God saw the Jewish people’s potential to do the right thing. If He spoke to the Children of Israel with the language of a given, with the prediction of their fall, then it would be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Throughout the parsha, as the consequences escalate, the language is continually that of “and if you didn’t listen to the above,” because at each level, Hashem believes that the Children of Israel have the ability to correct themselves, to do teshuva.

This is the connection of eem and eim, if and mother. A mother, by nature, loves her child unconditionally and constantly expects to see them succeed. Parenting requires discipline, but at each level of discipline a parent believes that the child will overcome their urge and will choose to do the right thing.

God loves the Jewish people and so God offers them a warning of what will come if they stray from the path of the Torah, but that warning is laced with the hope that these things will not come to pass.