This week’s parsha, Bechukotai, is one of those sections of Torah we’d prefer to skim. It paints two extreme pictures of a future. If we live by the rules of Covenant, we will flourish, but if we do not…. The list of curses to befall the nation are bone chilling.
The obvious question remains one of theology. Is God bullying Israel into accepting Covenant? Who, in their right mind, would choose to live within the portrait of defeat and suffering that a non-Covenantal life would bring? Is God threatening Israel? If so, do I really have free will?
With the holiday of Shavuot around the corner, we are reminded that the Torah was placed into our hands, and we are commanded to interpret it. One of the tasks of interpretation is to align the morality Torah teaches us with the laws we are commanded to observe. We have examples throughout Jewish history where the Rabbis of their time interpreted laws away from their literal meanings to reconcile them with the morality of their time. Restricting capital punishment is only one of the more well-known of these examples.
But we do not need to interpret the curses in our parsha this week because they are not law, they are outcomes. The onus of responsibility sits on us to align fulfilling the commandments with the ethics of Torah. The tool for this is Talmudic: discourse, support for various interpretations, vote, majority rules. The parsha lays out for us what it would look like if we rejected the laws and the morality they are to embody. The bone chilling portrait laid out is the one we create by ignoring both the rule of law, and the morality at its core.
The free will God gifted to all humanity involves informed free will. I don’t like reading the dystopian portrayal of a cursed future that plays out in this parsha, I prefer to skim those verses. At the same time, I realize that being informed means I must be told of the utopia I could create as well as the dystopia I could bring about. This parsha is not a picture of God dictating our future, it is a picture of God following our lead.
I’d like to wish everyone a sweet and peaceful Shabbat –our Jewish time to regroup, rest, and reinvigorate.
Shabbat shalom,
Rachael
Hello Rachael, thanks for this message. This is my Parsha, I am always very uncomfortable reading it but after reading your words today I will look at it different. Thanks again. Shabbat Shalom.
Best Claudette Edghill