Behar - Bechukotai – Michael Wegier
This is a double portion. Behar deals with the laws of the shmita and jubilee years, while Bechukotai looks at the covenantal relationship.
Behar - Bechukotai
Michael Wegier is Executive Director for Programme and Planning at the UJIA.
Since Abraham, Israelites and Jews have been on physical, spiritual and moral journeys. This week's second Sidra, B'chukotai, contains in its first ten verses three applications of the Hebrew root HaLaCH (to go) which contain a beautiful insight into how Jews can encounter God from different angles. We are reminded of at least three other uses of this root that are deeply familiar to many Jews. God tells Abraham "Lech Lecha" (go forth) in their first encounter that marks the beginning of God's relationship with the tribe that would become the Jewish people. Ruth pledges to Naomi "wherever you will go, I will go" in the most poignant expressions of commitment to the Israelite people. And finally, the word Halacha (way/path) has come to be a shorthand term for all of Jewish Law.
The first appearance of the root is in the beginning of Bechukotai, 26:3, where God promises rain, peace and fertility if the Israelites "walk (telechu) in My laws and faithfully observe My commandments..." This suggests that the Israelites must be active in order to achieve God's desire. In our times, if we observe God's laws as determined by the Halacha, we can be comforted by the knowledge that our "walking" is helping us fulfil God's wishes.
Secondly, in verse 12 God pledges - in a reflexive use of the verb, vehithalachti - to "walk amongst you". In addition to our walking towards God's commandments, because of our observance of his laws, he will also walk amongst us. The different use of the key root reminds us of the different theological perspectives of those who believe that God is unknowable except through the study and observance of Halacha and those who argue that God is always present amongst us and is here close by to be loved and worshipped if we will only recognize his presence. The danger is in assuming arrogantly and blasphemously that God will walk among us simply because we are Jews. God's walking is conditional on our commitment to the laws between people and God as well as people and each other.
The third usage is in verse 13 when God reminds the Israelites that he brought them out of Egypt and made them "walk upright". Here lies a possible clue to what God is preparing us for. As opposed to a slave, a free person walks "upright". Having been freed from slavery, we can choose whether to walk in God's path or not.
A.J. Heschel (20th century scholar) argues passionately that God is searching for us as much as the other way round and in order for us to find God, we must position ourselves in a place where we can be found. In this interpretation, perhaps we can appreciate that while both God and us will "walk", God has already taken the first steps. It is our duty to live up to our religious and moral responsibilities as free people and continue the journey. Then we will be found and God will truly walk amongst us.
Another Voice
"Avadim Hayenu": we were slaves of Pharaoh, begins our response to Ma Nishtanah.
So are we now a free people in a free land? In Parshat Behar, God tells us that in the jubilee year all land must revert to its original owner, "ki li ha-aretz": because the land belongs to God and is not ours to sell.
And any Israelite who is slave to another must be released, "ki li bnei Yisrael avadim": for the children of Israel are my slaves.
Can it be that we have been delivered from slavery in Egypt only to become slaves in another place? Not if "avadim" is understood to mean servants, not slaves.
There is a world of difference between being servants of a hostile ruler in a foreign country, and serving God by carefully stewarding the land which has been promised to us: that is the liberation we celebrate together at Pesach.
Elaine Grazin