B'Hukkotai (Leviticus 26:3-27:34)
You will, I hope, excuse me for saying that B’Hukkotai would seem to be one of the more irrelevant parts of the Torah. It truly has very little to do with our lives, and with the way that we perceive the world. The first chapter treats of reward and punishment. It teaches us that if we follow God’s laws and obey His commandments, life will be beautiful. The rain will fall in due season, crops will be plentiful, and we will live securely in our land. If we turn our backs on God, we will be visited by terrible punishment and suffering.
Having been treated to that simplistic cosmology, we are next confronted by a chapter that begins with the strange concept of vows by which people donate themselves to God.
I must tell you that these are two very hard chapters to talk about. I really had no idea what I could possibly say, and once I had exhausted the standard commentaries and the midrashim, I began looking through the newspapers. My problem was that I couldn’t find a way of reading the text in a way that made it relevant to me and to now. Interestingly, none of the three regular commentaries of the weekly Torah portion in the Jerusalem Post actually discussed this week’s parasha. Apparently, those commentators too were stumped.
Fortunately, my eldest daughter, Hadas, came to my rescue. On Thursday, she was sworn in as a soldier in the Israel Defence Forces. We all went to the Kotel - the Western Wall - for the ceremony. Hundreds of young recruits stood before the Kotel. Each was given a rifle and a Bible, and swore allegiance to the State of Israel.
As we drove home, Hadas opened her new army-issued Bible and began reading parashat B’Hukkotai. When she finished, she said that it was particularly meaningful to be sworn in to the Israeli army on the week of B’Hukkotai, because that parasha is so relevant to what she and her comrades had just done.
Suddenly, I understood parashat B’Hukkotai in a whole new light.
Parashat B’Hukkotai begins by telling us that if we follow God’s laws and live according to his commandments, then all will be well, we will live securely in our land, there will be peace, and we will defeat our enemies. There is a contradiction there. If there will be peace, what enemies will we have to defeat? If “no sword shall cross the land,” why are we told, “your enemies shall fall before you by the sword”?
Thinking about all those young men and women standing before the Kotel with a Bible in one hand and a rifle in the other, the answer becomes clear. There is no contradiction. The peace and security that the Bible speaks of does not refer to secure borders, but to peace among ourselves. It refers to our ability to stand united as a society. Our enemies may attack us whether or not we follow God’s commandments. Living according to the values of the Torah will not magically cause our enemies to love us, or stop others from doing evil. But it will give us the strength to resist and overcome them. If we, as a society, stand together as one, living in accordance with the divine ideals expressed in the Bible, then we will live in a land of social and economic justice in which we all eat our fill and dwell securely in our land. The blessings and the curses of B’Hukkotai warn us that we must all be like those soldiers standing together with Bible in one hand, and a rifle in the other. We must live by those three values.
The first value is that of standing together. But unity is not enough. To stand as one without values is to be a lawless mob.
Torah alone is not enough. Standing alone with the Torah is not sufficient to guarantee the future. The ideals of the Torah cannot be achieved alone.
And as for the third ideal, the rifle, that one explains the relevance of the second chapter of B’Hukkotai, the chapter that treats of personal vows to promise oneself to God and the greater good.
Those soldiers, standing with their Bibles and rifles, said:
I do solemnly swear and undertake, upon my honour, to remain loyal to the State of Israel, its laws and its authorities, to submit unconditionally to the discipline of the Israel Defence Forces, to obey all orders and instructions given by the authorized commanders, and to devote all of my might, and even to lay down my life, in the defence of the homeland and for the freedom of Israel.
The rifle represents the third necessary value that, together with unity and Torah, guarantees the future. The rifle - the oath to lay down one's life - represents the vow to dedicate oneself to serve something greater than oneself.
As my daughter explained it: “B’Hukkotai has special meaning for me today, because today we vowed to give ourselves to the people of Israel.”
Avinoam Sharon
Having been treated to that simplistic cosmology, we are next confronted by a chapter that begins with the strange concept of vows by which people donate themselves to God.
I must tell you that these are two very hard chapters to talk about. I really had no idea what I could possibly say, and once I had exhausted the standard commentaries and the midrashim, I began looking through the newspapers. My problem was that I couldn’t find a way of reading the text in a way that made it relevant to me and to now. Interestingly, none of the three regular commentaries of the weekly Torah portion in the Jerusalem Post actually discussed this week’s parasha. Apparently, those commentators too were stumped.
Fortunately, my eldest daughter, Hadas, came to my rescue. On Thursday, she was sworn in as a soldier in the Israel Defence Forces. We all went to the Kotel - the Western Wall - for the ceremony. Hundreds of young recruits stood before the Kotel. Each was given a rifle and a Bible, and swore allegiance to the State of Israel.
As we drove home, Hadas opened her new army-issued Bible and began reading parashat B’Hukkotai. When she finished, she said that it was particularly meaningful to be sworn in to the Israeli army on the week of B’Hukkotai, because that parasha is so relevant to what she and her comrades had just done.
Suddenly, I understood parashat B’Hukkotai in a whole new light.
Parashat B’Hukkotai begins by telling us that if we follow God’s laws and live according to his commandments, then all will be well, we will live securely in our land, there will be peace, and we will defeat our enemies. There is a contradiction there. If there will be peace, what enemies will we have to defeat? If “no sword shall cross the land,” why are we told, “your enemies shall fall before you by the sword”?
Thinking about all those young men and women standing before the Kotel with a Bible in one hand and a rifle in the other, the answer becomes clear. There is no contradiction. The peace and security that the Bible speaks of does not refer to secure borders, but to peace among ourselves. It refers to our ability to stand united as a society. Our enemies may attack us whether or not we follow God’s commandments. Living according to the values of the Torah will not magically cause our enemies to love us, or stop others from doing evil. But it will give us the strength to resist and overcome them. If we, as a society, stand together as one, living in accordance with the divine ideals expressed in the Bible, then we will live in a land of social and economic justice in which we all eat our fill and dwell securely in our land. The blessings and the curses of B’Hukkotai warn us that we must all be like those soldiers standing together with Bible in one hand, and a rifle in the other. We must live by those three values.
The first value is that of standing together. But unity is not enough. To stand as one without values is to be a lawless mob.
Torah alone is not enough. Standing alone with the Torah is not sufficient to guarantee the future. The ideals of the Torah cannot be achieved alone.
And as for the third ideal, the rifle, that one explains the relevance of the second chapter of B’Hukkotai, the chapter that treats of personal vows to promise oneself to God and the greater good.
Those soldiers, standing with their Bibles and rifles, said:
I do solemnly swear and undertake, upon my honour, to remain loyal to the State of Israel, its laws and its authorities, to submit unconditionally to the discipline of the Israel Defence Forces, to obey all orders and instructions given by the authorized commanders, and to devote all of my might, and even to lay down my life, in the defence of the homeland and for the freedom of Israel.
The rifle represents the third necessary value that, together with unity and Torah, guarantees the future. The rifle - the oath to lay down one's life - represents the vow to dedicate oneself to serve something greater than oneself.
As my daughter explained it: “B’Hukkotai has special meaning for me today, because today we vowed to give ourselves to the people of Israel.”
Avinoam Sharon
