Admonition?

B’Har-Bechukotai

Lev. 25:1 – 27:34

 

Précis: In B’har, the parasha begins with a description of the Sabbatical Year and the Jubilee (Yovel) Year. In the 50^th (Jubilee) Year, we are to “proclaim liberty throughout the land” and property is restored to its ancestral owners. The parasha continues with the prohibition against unlimited slavery, as well as the rules for the treatment of those who are slaves.

            Bechukotai is the final parasha in Vayikra, and begins with a statement promising blessing if the People follow Adonai’s ways. The blessings are discussed in detail. But, if the People disobey, terrible punishments will be visited upon them, and these, too, are listed in agonizing detail. The Book of Leviticus then concludes (as it opened) with regulations regarding the upkeep of the Sanctuary, from voluntary tithes, land gifts, firstborn redemption, and the tithes of flocks.

 

Lev. 26:30 “I will destroy your cult places and cut down your incense stands, and I will heap your carcasses upon your lifeless fetishes.”

 

            Near the end of the parasha, we encounter the promise of a good life if we obey God’s laws, but an admonition (the “tochacha”) if we fail to do so. The threats are too much to bear in their specificity and cruelty.

            I am not one who believes that God punishes the wicked in this world; my own thoughts are that the Torah sets out an ethos through which we are to be guided. Sometimes, the consequences of a failure to follow a correct path have horrid circumstances.

            Last week, we witnessed a heretofore unimaginable tragedy, the death of 45 (mostly) haredi celebrants at a Lag B’omer festival in Jerusalem. Brought about by what is being called a stampede. I am not suggesting that God decided to slay these unfortunates. I am suggesting, however, that many have become part of a “cult” which removes them from Israeli society in many ways, and allows them to exert the kind of political power which allowed the government to waive important COVID and safety precautions to placate their cultish views.

            My heart goes out to the families of those who have died, but pray that their deaths not be in vain: that the haredi citizens of Israel recognize that they, too, must participate in Israeli life, follow law, and cease using their political power for the sake of their own cultish ends which are a threat to themselves, Israel, and the world Jewish community.