May 12/07 — Parashat Behar / Bechukotai: Living in the "IF"

Commentary by Rabbi Lawrence Pinsker

One day the parts manager for a small electronics shop was asked to order part No. 669 from the factory. But when the part arrived, she noticed that someone had mistakenly sent part No. 699 instead.

Furious at the factory’s incompetence, she promptly sent the part back along with a letter giving them a piece of her mind. Less than a week later, the same part returned in the mail, together with an envelope. In one of the foulest rages she had ever had, the parts manager tore the envelope open. Therein was a letter containing just four words: “Turn the box over.”

This is a talk about changing perspective.

After studying this week’s Torah portion, many readers are shocked by its grim, detailed catalogue of disasters, desolation, and penalties in the closing chapters of the Book of Leviticus. It’s upsetting to discover that the Hebrew Bible isn’t a work of sweetness and light. The portion begins with the blessings of religion: a description of a life of strength, serenity, and fulfillment. How do things turn to a much darker picture?

The answer is found early in Bechukotai, which begins with the words “and if.” These words suggest that a life of blessings is not available simply for the asking; a good and happy life will be denied unless certain conditions are fulfilled.

In other words, Judaism offers us a great opportunity, not an easy assurance. There are penalties and sanctions if God’s instructions are violated. Much of the evil of the world grows out of our freedom. Since we have choices to make, it’s possible for us to choose unwisely and commit some wrong.

Robert Louis Stevenson famously once wrote, “Everybody, soon or late, sits down to a banquet of consequences. There’s an iron hand in religion precisely because this is a universe that has a full measure of disasters, cruelty, and sorrow.” The picture of a God who only loves and never demands accountability and Who relieves us of our will to act — Who fashioned a universe that is only loving and benevolent — is not to be found in Judaism. The key word to understanding Judaism is “IF.” IF the conditions of mutual responsibility and moral accountability are honoured, then we can and will survive everything that comes our way.

Traditionally Bechukotai was read with great reluctance and as quickly as possible; few wanted the honour of an aliyah during the reading of the Tochachah, the warning and curse that forms the body of the opening section of this week’s Torah reading. Yet we need to recognize that there are ways in which this text is actually one of enormous hope and promise, a virtual statement of mature confidence — that we will choose life over death, community as a form of enlightened self-interest over selfishness. That is how to avoid or diminish the impact of the curses that arise from poorly-made choices — decisions that we know will damage our own well-being. By stating in advance that these are the costs of choosing bad behaviour, we acknowledge — as Maimonides once pointed out, that most human suffering is caused by our own actions.

It’s not that we are cursed. The cautions in the Tochachah make no sense unless we believe that God has organized the universe so that people have the ability to avert certain disasters — and to survive others. The task is to become thoughtful and responsible human beings — human beings as God intended us to be when God entrusted the Torah to us.

In This Business of Living: Diaries, 1935-50, the Italian novelist and essayist Cesare Pavese wrote: “One stops being a child when one realizes that telling one’s troubles does not make it better.” When bad things happen, we must draw upon our finest resources to respond — and our finest resources remain now, as in ancient days, families and communities and personal self-control that limits panic and unreason in favour of thoughtful action. But the beginning for Jews is always to recognize that we are not powerless when we address even the most difficult of times — there is always dignity possible in how we face the consequences of our actions.

Shabbat Shalom.