This Shabbat we study the Parshah Bechukotai, meaning “in My statutes” (Leviticus 26:3). G-d promises that if the people of Israel will keep His commandments, they will enjoy material prosperity and dwell securely in their homeland. But He also delivers a harsh “rebuke,” warning of the exile, persecution and other evils that will befall them if they abandon their covenant with Him.

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Nevertheless, “Even when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away; nor will I ever abhor them, to destroy them and to break My covenant with them; for I am the L-rd their G-d.”

The Parshah concludes with the rules on how to calculate the values of different types of pledges made to G-d, and the mitzvah of tithing produce and livestock.

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Chabad.org

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Researchers at Yale University experimented on babies, who have the minimum of cultural influence. Basing their study on the fact that babies will reach for things they want or like—and will look longer at things that surprise them—their results suggested that even the youngest humans have an instinct to prefer good over evil, friendly helpful motivations over malicious ones. But if we’re born good, why do parents have to devote major efforts to raise children to become good adults? Why don’t we naturally express gratitude, and instead need to learn it? Why does every civilization require so many laws and consequences to control human behavior? And why has so much evil been perpetuated by humanity over the centuries?

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Bechukotai begins with the verse: If you walk in My statutes (Lev. 26:3). The Talmud explains that the word “if” is to be understood as a plea on the part of G d: “If only you would follow My statutes . . . ” But the word chok (“statute” or “decree”) literally means “engraved.”

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A rabbi once remarked: “Every Jew is a letter in the Torah. But a letter may grow somewhat faded. It is our sacred duty to mend these faded letters and make G d’s Torah whole again.” Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Lubavitch objected: “No, the identity of the Jew cannot be compared to erasable ink on parchment. Every Jew is indeed a letter in G d’s Torah, but a letter engraved in stone. At times, the dust and dirt may accumulate and distort—or even completely conceal—the letter’s true form; but underneath it all, the letter remains whole. We need only sweep away the surface grime, and the letter, in all its perfection and beauty, will come to light.”  The person, just like the letter in its true form, is whole.

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From an article by Chana Weisberg

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We are here to achieve the impossible. To teach the world tricks it feigns it cannot do. To fill it with light it does not know. To make the blind see, the deaf hear, the bitter sweet, the darkness shine. To make everyday business into mystic union. To rip away the façade of the world and to bring it to confess its secret oneness with the Divine.

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When they tell you, “You can’t go on that path, it’s beyond you!”—grab that path as your destiny.

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From an article by Rabbi Tzvi Freeman

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The Zohar (III:115b) interprets: During the time of the galut (exile) the Jewish People are like a bride living in a street of tanneries. Her Bridegroom would normally never enter a putrid place like that. His great love for His bride, however, makes Him imagine that her dwelling is like a perfumery with the most pleasant smells in the world. This analogy, however, applies only to the time of the galut. At present we have reached a point of “No more galut!” We have to prepare for the chupah (wedding-canopy) of the redemption. The “garments” (conditions and actions) that may have been good enough for the “street of tanneries” are obviously altogether inappropriate for going to our wedding with our Beloved...

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Rabbi J. Immanuel Schochet

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For 24 years, I produced and hosted South Africa’s only Jewish radio show, The Jewish Sound. Once, my guest on the air was Rabbi Shlomo Riskin of Efrat, Israel. He told the story that as a child growing up in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, one Shabbat he went to daven in the shul of the Rebbe of Klausenberg, Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam (1905–1994). Originally from Romania, the Klausenberger Rebbe was a spiritual giant of a man who had lost 11 children in the Holocaust, and never sat shivah because he was preoccupied with saving as many lives as he possibly could. After the war, he settled in America and developed a large following. Subsequently he relocated to Israel and, among other things, established the Laniado Hospital in Netanya.

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That Shabbat—Rabbi Riskin related—“The Rebuke” was being read. When it came to the part of the curses, the reader did what he always did. He lowered his voice and read in a softer tone. Suddenly, the Rebbe shouted in Yiddish, “Hecher!” (“Louder!”). The reader was confused. He was simply following the tradition of generations. Perhaps he was not hearing right, so he continued reading in the softer tone. “Hecher! Hecher!” thundered the Klausenberger Rebbe. “Let the Almighty hear what is being read! All the curses have already been fulfilled. Now, there must be only blessings for our people . . .”

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At the end of The Rebuke, G-d says: “I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham will I remember, and I will remember the Land . . .” Not only will the Almighty remember us, the Jewish people; He will also remember His Holy Land, our Land of Israel. Perhaps we might interpret this as a message to the anti-Semites of the world who hide behind their anti-Zionist or anti-Israel rantings and ravings. “I will remember the Land”—a message also to the nations of the world who claim to be our friends, the shrewd manipulators who are expert in political backstabbing in Washington and London. “I will remember the Land”—a message to our own Jewish fantasizers who would undermine their own brothers with their hopeless attempts at appeasing mortal enemies. To all of them, the G-d of Israel says: “I will remember the Land.” I will never forsake My land or My people.

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And as He remembers us, let us remember Him and our covenant. May we prepare for Shavuot and the giving of the Torah with earnestness and joy. May G-d and His people always remember each other. Amen.

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From an article by Rabbi Yossy Goldman

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