ASBI Parsha Lunch and Learn: Bechukotai

Prof. David Hoffman, Blessings From the Inside Out
Interestingly, it was in his commentary to the opening verse of this week’s second parashah that the Hasidic master Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev (1740–1810) deconstructed traditional Judaism’s distinction between thought and deed. The Torah reading begins with the promise, “If you follow My laws and faithfully observe My commandments I will grant your rains in their season, so that the earth shall yield its produce and the trees of field their fruit” (Lev. 26:3–4). The next 10 verses go on to detail all the blessings that will result if the Israelites choose to follow God’s laws, while the rest of the chapter communicates the increasingly horrible punishments for not keeping God’s Covenant. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak draws our attention to the seemingly redundant language of the first verse of our parashah. Asking a question that other commentators before him had posed, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak inquires about the repetitive language. What does “if you follow My laws” add to the sentence that “faithfully observe My commandments” does not include? At first glance, both parts of the verse seem to say the same thing, and, given the interpretive assumption that the Torah uses language economically—never gratuitously repeating words—what does the first half of the verse add to the meaning of the sentence?
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak suggests that with the words “if you follow My laws,” the Torah expands its religious claim on the human being. These words refer to a person’s thoughts and mental processes. Not only will the performance (faithful observation) of God’s commandments—actual deeds—bring blessings; the Torah also insists that the ways in which a person thinks and conceives of the world come under the purview of God, and offers us an additional means by which to experience blessings. In important ways, our thoughts program us to experience the world. Generous thoughts and constructive thinking actually create distinct neural pathways in the brain. Positive thoughts produce blessings, and negative thoughts take us down paths that move us farther away from God. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak argues that we can and must attempt to influence our conscious mental activity. Seen in this light, practicing compassion for oneself and others is a creative and religious behavior, even though it might not include a physical act. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak focuses our attention on the internal, and asks that we blur the boundary between thoughts and deeds in order to better appreciate the complex relationship between our internal and external lives.

Maharat Ruth Balinsky Friedman, Drasha on Bechukotai
The answer, Rashi tells us, is to teach us that שתהיו עמלים בתורה - that we must toil in our relationship with Torah. We don’t just have to keep the commandments - מצותי תשמרו - on top of that, we have to work on our relationship with Torah, we have to be active. That is what God means with בחקותי תשמרו. And I believe that this is true for all relationships, whether a boss at work, a best friend, or a family member. Relationships take a lot of effort. They do not happen automatically. And, if we want a relationship to be meaningful, we can’t just go through the motions it without working at it.

Maharat Ruth Balinsky- Friedman, cont.
Rabbi David Fohrman on parashat Kedoshim in Chapter 19 of Leviticus. He focuses on the verse that we all know - ואהבת לרעך כמוך- Love your fellow as yourself. Rabbi Fohrman notes that immediately before telling us this, God first says “You shall not hate your kinsfolk in your heart. Reprove your kinsman but incur no guilt because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your countrymen. Love your fellow as yourself; I am the Lord.”
Why, Rabbi Fohrman asks, does God instruct us to love our fellow as ourselves in the context of these verses?
The answer, he says, is that these verses actually sequence the beginnings of the spoiling of a relationship. If I get upset with someone else, I will feel negatively towards them. But that itself is not the problem! The problem is when I only feel negatively towards them in MY HEART. I’m allowed to be upset with someone. The issue is when I only feel badly towards them in my heart, and I don’t take the time and the emotional energy to confront them about it, and, as the Ibn Ezra says, try to heal the relationship. And, continuing with the verses, if I do not do this, if I do not confront the other person, I will come to harbor a grudge against them. And once we harbor a grudge towards someone, it is very difficult to love them fully, and properly, in a way that emulates love thy neighbor as yourself.

And so, God cautions us against this, saying that we may not hate someone in our hearts. We may not harbor a grudge. Rather, the Torah tells us, we must confront that person, and work to correct and improve our relationship. If we do not, we risk ruining it. That is the meaning of ואהבת לרעך כמוך. That is what it means to love someone else. And, therefore, these verses must guide our relationships - whether with a friend, a family member, or God.