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Bhar The second of this week's Sedros is B'Chukosai. Beginning with Hashem's promise that if we follow in his ways we will receive good of the Land of Israel, the next section details the punishments that the Jewish People will suffer if they do not follow His ways. This section is referred to as the Tochacha - rebuke. Many people are frightened of the Tochacha, they may leave the Shul at the time it is read, or perhaps the Baal Koreh will read it so quietly that few hear it, certainly no one wants to be the one called up to the Torah when it is read. The Chofetz Chaim compares this attitude to that of the individual who realising that the road he has chosen is full of holes and undergrowth, puts on blinkers so that all he sees is fine. I recall the comments of a friend from Stoneleigh, Surrey, who would tell me, "I don't understand why it is read quietly. If it was up to me I would read it load and clear so that all will hear what ii says." Nevertheless, our Rabbis did indeed advice that the Tochacha be read quietly and without a fuss in order not to dishearten the Jewish people. Indeed, a brief glance at the numerous punishments in the Tochacha can indeed give rise to despair - especially to us - who have survived the destruction of Europe and have heard how so many of the words of the Tochacha were fulfilled. The focus of reward and punishment in the Sedra deals with life in the Land of Israel. The Torah promises that if you do mitzvahs your Land will be fruitful. If you do not do them, rather you go in a way contrary to the Mitzvos you will be horribly punished and ultimately driven from the Land. Explains R' Levi Yitzchak of Berditchiv. In truth the reward and punishment for mitzvos will be spiritual. The mitzvos themselves are essentially spiritual and their real reward can not possibly be in our physical world. However, as we learn in Pirkei Avos, one mitzvah leads to another and the reward for one mitzvah is the opportunity to do more mitzvahs. So too, Hashem promises us, should we follow in the ways of the Mitzvos, the Land will be bountiful and the opportunity to perform still more mitzvahs' will be yours. However should you not follow in the ways of the Torah, opportunities to perform mitzvahs will not be there. "And I shall direct My blessing to you in the sixth year . . ."(25:21) The Torah promises an extra abundance in the produce of the sixth year in order to aid in observing shemittah (the sabbatical year). Yet Chazal tell us that the mitzvah of shemittah was neglected during most of the first Temple era. How, Rav Yaakov Yitzchak Ruderman zatz'l asks, could people have failed to see the sign which G-d sent every year before the shemittah? The very last pasuk in the Torah refers to the miracles "which Moshe did before the eyes of Yisroel." Ramban states that not all of Moshe's miracles were done in the presence of the Jewish people. However, because Moshe had prepared the people and taught them how to recognise a miracle, everything he did subsequently was "before the eyes of Yisroel." Rav Ruderman explains based on this Ramban that if you do not look for the miracle or the sign, you will not see it. This is why the miracle of the "sixth year" did not move the Jews to observe the shemittah. We see, similarly, that Yehoshua cursed the man who would rebuild the city of Yericho that he would "pay" for the foundation with the life of his oldest son and he would complete the construction with the death of his youngest son, and although this curse was fulfilled to the last detail, one man persisted in building and never realised that Yehoshua's curse was being fulfilled before his eyes. He just was not looking. (Sichot Levi) For the children of Israel are servants to Me (Leviticus 25:55) The Jewish people are sometimes referred to as G-d's servants and sometimes as His children. As far as the Jewish body is concerned we are His servants, unconditionally accepting the yoke of heaven to carry out His will. As concerns the soul, however, every Jew is a child of G-d, for the soul serves G-d with love as a child serves his father. (Sefer HaMaamarim Kuntresim) |
