Parashat Behar-Behukotai; Leviticus 25:1-27:34

With this double portion, Behar-Behukotai, the book of Leviticus comes to a close. We have a collection of laws that address the shmitta or sabbatical year (this year is one of those!), the jubilee year and a variety of other issues, including a strong reminder of the promises that are fulfilled if the Israelites fulfill the commandments and the ways in which the Israelites will suffer if the covenant is ignored or idolatry comes to rule their way of life.

If one observes the covenant and the mitzvot according to this portion, a time of peace and bounty will come to the people and the land. Harvests will be plentiful, security and safety and protection from enemies will be the order of the day. God’s face will be turned toward the people and God’s house will be in the midst of the people. God will dwell there. But if the covenant is ignored or abrogated by the people the harshness of God’s anger will be directed at the Israelites. The land will become hostile and the bounty will shrivel to nothing. God’s absence will be felt and the safety and security once imagined will be gone.

It is a rather harsh vision indeed. And one that to most of us is difficult to fathom. Such a harsh punishing God is not the God that we choose to believe in. Especially in the post Holocaust era this kind of theology hurts our very souls and beings. How can we possibly look to the punishments of some heavenly Divine being as being ever justified? It is just too cruel to imagine that God wreaks havoc upon this people when they sin. This seems to be a quid pro quo. Observe the commandments and be blessed. Stray from the commandments and experience misery.

This is the ancient view of things.

So how can we possibly come to understand what is happening here? Is it merely metaphor? Perhaps these punishments do not really come from God but by our own failures of spirit and commitment these are ultimately self-inflicted wounds. The further we drift away from God—the further God drifts from us. We lose that sacred connection to the life of the spirit that our tradition tries to help us nurture. The hostile land that is described when we stray makes our way harder in the world. What are the consequences of straying from the path of Jewish life? Are there any?

Certainly the more Jews that leave the fold—the weaker and more threatened our people become. With each outflow of each Jew our covenant is weakened and indeed the landscape of Jewish life contracts. Our way is harder in the world as a people and as individuals. The harvest of Jewish culture, Jewish spirit, Jewish religious life diminishes. There is an absence of Divine spirit and Divine energy when we Jews turn away from our people, our mitzvot and our system of commitments. No individual person likes to feel as if he or she is responsible to such a large system. After all we are individuals with personal freedoms and autonomy. But in truth, our individual decisions do affect the whole. If we choose to distance ourselves from the Jewish community, we lose leadership, we lose institutions and we lose the opportunities to have the Jewish community influence the individual. We lose our values. And perhaps we lose a connection point to the Divine Holy One.

I believe that our ability to perform mitzvot, heal the world and engage in tikkun olam helps to build our Divine connection points. These points bring holiness and healing into our lives and into the world. We are the conductors of this energy of Holiness when we pray, study, and perform these acts of lovingkindness. Yet when we purposefully dismiss our role and engage in idolatry—then we are destroying the potential of the world for healing.

The Torah understood the idea of the collective, the clan, tribe and people. This portion speaks a lot about the collective responsibility of the people. In our day and time the focus is often removed from the collective to the individual.

But even in the harshness of this passage of Torah-it concludes in hope. Because we recognize that even when we stray there is still the possibility of renewal and reconciliation of individuals and the Divine Holy One. We may be angry at each other for awhile—God and the Jewish People but ultimately we need one another!

And so this portion reminds us that the covenant with our ancestors will ultimately be remembered. That the love God had for the patriarchs and matriarchs will extend to each one of us and the harshness of the decree will be tempered. This is similar to the message at Yom Kippur—we can influence any and have God remember us for God and for the merits of our ancestors, even if we are weakened in will.

It is up to us, each one of us to help bring about the time of tikkun, a time of healing for our people and our world. The way we treat one another, the way we act in the world with justice, fairness and kindness will bring the Divine Holy Energy more into our lives and into our reality. It begins with the individual and moves to the collective. This indeed will temper and transform any environment to the one that is promised—a land flowing with milk and honey, nourishing and sweet.

Posted by Aaron at May 12, 2008 03:41 PM