Bechukosai Parshah Thoughts
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Clean Focus
Do good, and ‘you will take out the old before the new’. Rashi explains that because of the grain overstock you empty the granari
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Clean Focus
Do good, and ‘you will take out the old before the new’. Rashi explains that because of the grain overstock you empty the granaries of the old stock and store it somewhere, to make place for the new grain.
Is too much worthwhile? Wouldn’t it be better to have exactly what we need and no baggage? What will we do with all the surplus – burn it?
Man is built to worry about his future. Theologically it makes sense: a contented person is not driven to grow. But this drive ought to be channeled towards spirituality. Having too much grain means that one is free of worry. Now he can grow.
Sometimes its best that a person be on close tether; his concern for his livelihood keeps him praying to Hashem. Other times he needs worries off his head, freeing him to concentrate on vitals.
Rabbenu Tam and his successor, the Ri, are reported to have taught Torah with a pile of gold ducats at their feet. This put their minds at ease, and give their total attention to study.
Sometimes its important to be rich…
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Un-disgust
Hashem promises ‘I will put My Shchina amongst you; I shall not be disgusted by you’
If we do good, why ought Hashem be disgusted by us?!?
The Shchina does not feel at home among humans. Objectively, we are disgusting – physical, lazy, stupid and fat. But the Shchina overlooks this, dwelling amongst us. Its an act of love, a show of His relationship. Hashem is happy to sacrifice for His children, as a parent holding their child with a dirty diaper, out of love and devotion.
Manifestation of Providence in our lives shows not only has He allowed His presence to be felt, but also His self-sacrifice, controlling His disgust to be with us. We sense overriding love.
(Someone in Shul asked me ‘what have you thought of today?’. I told him this thought. He replied ‘Keep your shoes on, will ya?’ I suspect he felt this was over the top…)
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Righteousness Prosperity?
The Torah says: Do Mitzvos and things will be great, do aveiros and it will be terrible.
However our perception is that slimy people often live a good life. And good men suffer too. The Mishna in Avos says ‘We do not understand the success of the wicked, nor the difficulties of the righteous’. Questions of ‘tzaddik v’ra lo, rasha v’tov lo’ are legion. So is objective observation at odds with the Torah? Do we perceive the Torah to be false?
More to the point; why would the Torah promise something that is demonstrably false?! (Why wouldn’t the Torah just not talk about it!?)
X eats bran for breakfast, doesn’t smoke, and exercises regularly. Yet he dies at forty: heart attack. What of his lifestyle??
The life he led actually prevents heart attacks. Yet despite the protection, sometimes forces like genetics or a weak heart conspire to bring on a heart attack.
So too, doing mitzvos and keeping from sin generates prosperity. But it’s not the only player on field. Other factors account too. Sometimes it may be good for us that things are tight financially, or our health be broken, so we may need Hashem. Sometimes we owe Hashem; He bestowed upon us more than our fair share, and payback time is come. Doing good is the greatest success factor, but not the only one.
In the greater scheme wicked fall and righteous succeed. Long run – in the global picture – the good wins. The contradictions we notice are single exceptions; eddies in the current, small aberrations from the rule.
We do not understand them; we are quite chagrined by them. However they do not deny the overall rule; on the contrary, the surprise we feel underscores that they are exceptional. In contemporary idiom; the exception proves the rule.
In general, Hitlers die violent deaths. The Torah truth is indeed vindicated by our observations.
The Torah is confident enough to express a truth even if its deniable.
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The Talking Sword
If we do wrong we incur ‘the sword, revenging the covenant’ (i.e. revenging that we did not keep our part of the covenant – performing mitzvos. – Onkelos).
Obviously the sword revenges the covenant – all catastrophes mentioned here do – why mention it now?
Jews are attacked for contradictory reasons; Jews are capitalists, Jews are communists. Jews are too religious, Jews deny G-d.
Jews tend to dismiss hate-talk as meaningless babble. The Torah says otherwise; a hint to why Hashem punishes them is in the patter of those who would kill them. If they say Jews are money grubbing, perhaps they are remiss in giving charity. If they deem Jews corrupt, Jews ought to doubly ensure their honesty.
Hashem puts a specific idea into the minds of their Haters, so that their hate and violence avenges a particular shortcoming. The enemy sword is CHARACTERIZED as revenge for discarding the Mitzvos. Indeed, its obvious WHY the sword is sent – that’s not the intention here. Rather, the idea is that the nature of the sword will be an avenging sword; advertising WHY it comes.
We need to read swords very carefully. They tell us their function! We can take cue from what caused them to improve.
©2014
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