Rabbi
Doniel Staum, LMSW
Rabbi,
Kehillat New Hempstead
Rebbe/Guidance
Counselor – ASHAR
Principal
– Ohr Naftoli- New Windsor
STAM
TORAH
PARSHIOS
BEHAR/BECHUKOSAI 5775
“REGISTRATION
COMPLETE”
The following thought is excerpted from a lecture given by
Rabbi Yisroel Meir Lau shlita, at St Annes College, on May 7,
2006:
“There was once a
conference held with Professor Toynbee[1],
of Oxford
““Imagine that you are on
the runway of a Greek airport, watching the disembarking passengers. Out of the
plane steps an old man, Socrates. Socrates starts speaking ancient Greek, but
nobody understands him because the language of modern Greece Temple
of Zeus
“The same goes for Italy Rome Rome
“Now let us go to Ben Gurion
Airport Egypt
““No problem” says the
attendant, “I have my Tefillin in the car.” Moshe is astounded. This ancient
custom has survived thousands of years, as has the language, the culture and
the traditions of the people he sees before him today.”
“Herzog concluded, “If we
are not a nation, then what is a nation? Who else preserves it like the
Jewish people? How is it that we are not justified in being a state? We are not
just a state, we are The Jewish State.””
The verses of the tochacha (rebuke) in Parshas Bechukosai[3]
forebode the horrific and terrifying punishments that would befall Klal Yisroel
if they would not adequately adhere to the Torah and mitzvos. It is frightening
to note how we have seen the fulfillment of these curses throughout our years
of persecution in exile.
Towards the conclusion of the tochacha the Torah states, “Then
they will confess their sin and the sin of their forefathers, for the treachery
with which they betrayed me, and also for having behaved towards me with
happenstance. I, too, will behave towards them with happenstance and I will
bring them into the land of their enemies – perhaps then their unfeeling heart
will be humbled and then they will gain appeasement for their sin.”[4]
The commentators question
why this final punishment will befall the nation after they have confessed. If
they expressed their indignity and regret for their iniquities, why would G-d
react by relating to them with ‘happenstance’ and casualness?
Rabbi Shimon Schwab zt’l
explained that throughout the tochacha the Torah emphasizes that the greatest
sin of all is the fact that their service and attitude to G-d was apathetic and
‘with happenstance’. Their deficient observance of mitzvos and Torah study was
not as tragic and deleterious as the fact that ‘their hearts were not in it.’ They
approached their duties with triteness, and as a burden that needed to be done.
Therefore their service was devoid of meaning. Most notably they lacked a
relationship with G-d as it were, and their observance could not create an internal
metamorphosis within them.
The greatest danger was
that Klal Yisroel did not recognize this. “Then they will confess their sin and
the sin of their forefathers, for the treachery with which they betrayed me, and
also for having behaved towards me with happenstance.” True they will
confess all of their sins, but their overriding sin, i.e. the lack of
relationship and full commitment, they will only confess as an aside, “and also for having behaved towards me
with happenstance”. The ‘and also’ is indicative of the fact that the nation
failed to realize that their happenstance attitude was their core failing. The
punishment too is measure for measure; G-d too, will only relate to Klal
Yisroel with happenstance.
The Shulchan Aruch[5]
rules that a worker hired to perform a job, recites an abridged version of
Grace after Meals so that he does not take time away from the job he is being
paid to perform. To dispel the question that perhaps he should recite the
blessing while doing his work, the Shulchan Aruch adds that it is forbidden to
perform any work while one is reciting a blessing.
The Taz explains the
reason why one may not perform even a perfunctory activity while reciting a
blessing: “For this demonstrates that he is performing the mitzvah without concentration,
but with haphazardness and casualness, and this was included in the statement
in our Torah, “And if you will go with Me with happenstance”. The words, ‘go
with Me’ refers to performance of mitzvos. Even though one is performing the
mitzvah, it is being done with haphazardness and casualness.”
It is not sufficient to go
through the motions. Rather, each mitzvah we perform, the Torah we learn, and
the blessings we recite, must help us build a personal connection with our
Creator. The extent of this idea can be understood from this law: It is better
for a worker to recite an abridged prayer than to recite the entire prayer
without full concentration.
I would like to illustrate
this idea with a personal anecdote that happened recently: For the last few
weeks I was experiencing some vexing computer issues with the desktop in my
Yeshiva office. Apparently a virus had infiltrated the hard-drive and was severely
affecting the computer. The problem became progressively worse until one
morning I could not get into my system at all.
A friend suggested that I wipe out the entire
hard-drive and then reinstall Windows and all the other programs. This friend
was somehow able to retrieve my files despite the fact that he could not log
on. Then he proceeded to delete the hard-drive.
The process of reinstalling windows, and finding
the necessary drivers for various programs, was arduous and time consuming. But
when everything was installed I had a brand new computer and I was convinced
that my computer woes were over.
My naiveté came to an end when a few days later a
little box popped up on the bottom of computer which read, “You have 26 days
left to activate your computer. Click here to activate now.” No sweat, I
thought. I had the 25-character-activation-key printed on a sticker on the side
of the computer and it would just take a few minutes to type in. To my utter
chagrin however, the computer refused to activate. After verifying that my code
was valid, Microsoft claimed that the flaw was with IBM‘s software. IBM in turn
insisted that the problem lay with Microsoft and that they could not help
me.
When a friend tried utilizing another program to bypass
the activation, the hard-drive was inadvertently wiped out again, bringing me
back to square one. After reinstalling everything again the problem returned,
only I now had an additional 29 days.
Another
friend insisted that he had a way of programming the computer so that it could fool
the computer into thinking it was activated. Amazingly it worked (and you
thought computers were so smart). However, after the 29 days were up I found
out that although the computer said it was activated, it really wasn’t.
Suffice it to say that by that point I was exasperated
and brought the computer to a technician. He too couldn’t rectify the problem,
but he made me an offer – he could wipe out the hard drive and reinstall it…..
So now I am sitting at my computer, with its newly
installed (for the third time!) hard-drive, hoping that this time it really
lasts.
We are trained to believe that everything in life
happens for a reason. Aside from the obvious lesson (bring it to the technician
the first time), I contemplated what deeper message could be gleaned from the
whole episode. The following are my thoughts:
The concept of forgiveness and atonement are
integral to Judaism. The idea that one can always return and make amends is
central to the spiritual growth cycle of man. The first ten days of each new
year are the Ten days of Penitence, that climax with Yom Kippur, and the new
year presents an opportunity to begin anew with a fresh start. In addition, in
our prayers recited thrice daily we ask for forgiveness and constantly beg for
atonement. However, even after one has
been granted forgiveness and his slate has been wiped clean, he has not
completed his task. If one does not “activate”, by registering himself in the
celestial database, as it were, his newfound spirituality will not last. The
problems of the past will quickly resurface and he will end up right where he
started.
Activation requires sacrifice and effort. Our
database includes our forbearers and predecessors throughout time. If we want
to register ourselves in that database we have to be prepared to follow the laborious
protocol it entails.
The parshios of Behar and Bechukosai are often
read together, shortly prior to Shavuos. One of the themes that traverses both
parshios is the idea of commitment. Parshas Behar discusses the laws of
shemittah, the sabbatical year. Only one who is truly committed to G-d and the
Torah will allow his field to remain fallow for an entire year. In addition it
discusses the laws of inheritance and possession of land, which also contains
the idea of permanence and commitment to upkeep one’s inherited portion of
Eretz Yisroel.
Parshas Bechukosai includes the frightening
tochacha that Klal Yisroel suffers when our relationship with G-d is haphazard
and lacking commitment. It is not enough to do what we have to do. We also have
to become! If we serve G-d without emotion we have failed to register ourselves.
That lack of feeling and aloofness towards Torah and mitzvah observance is the
primary cause for retribution. G-d loves us too much to allow us to slip out of
our eternal relationship with Him.
This vital idea precedes the holiday of Shavuos
because it contains one of the most important prerequisites for accepting the
Torah. One cannot be a proper Torah Jew with half a heart. It entails complete submergence and servility
to the yoke of Torah. Just as Klal Yisroel emphatically proclaimed, “ נעשה ונשמע – We
will do and we will hear”, at the time of the giving of the Torah, so must we
make the same mental declaration each year on Shavuos. Activation/registration
is indeed required!
“And if you will go with Me with happenstance “
“I, too, will behave towards them with
happenstance”
[1] Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975) was an important
British historian, who through his controversial theory on civilizations found
a place in Israeli and Jewish awareness as an "anti-Semite."
According to his theory, civilizations, like human beings, have life cycles
that are marked by rises and falls. But the story of the Jewish people, who
were determined to survive 2,000 years in the Diaspora only to rise again as a
modern nation, did not suit his theory. Thus Toynbee described the Jews as a
historic "fossil" - not dead, true, but also not really alive.
When he published his theory
at the beginning of the 1960s, he was invited to a debate. The person who
invited him was Dr. Yaakov Herzog, at the time Israel 's
ambassador to Canada Montreal
Michael Bar-Zohar, who was
Herzog's biographer, related that Pnina Herzog, the ambassador's wife, who sat
next to Toynbee's wife, heard her saying to her husband right: "I told you
not to take part in this debate!"
In the wake of that failure, Toynbee
indeed moderated the sharpness of his statements about the Jews.
[2] A rabbi, erudite scholar, and gifted diplomat,
Yaacov Herzog served as a close adviser to four Israeli prime ministers, was
ambassador to Canada and served briefly as the
Chief Rabbi of Great Britain Israel
[3] and repeated with variation in
parshas Ki Savo
[4] 26:40-41
[5] Ohr HaChaim 191:1, 3
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