Behar – Bechukotai, On the Mountain By My Decrees
Leviticus 25:1 to 27:34
Haftarah: Jeremiah 16:19 to 17:14
Psalm 67
Apostolic Writings/Newer Testament/B’rit HaChadashah: Revelation 21:22 to 22:5
Thursday May 5th is the 37th day of the Omer. This is 5 weeks and 2 days of the Omer. We pray:
Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us concerning the counting of the Omer.
The message from this week’s portion is so simple, it hardly needs to be said. . . . . . if we do what we are told, we will not get in to trouble. That really is as simple as it gets, isn’t it?
So WHY did (DO) the Jewish people get in to so much trouble?
One reason could be that with The Almighty things are just too simple, and people want to prove how smart we are, and that can become a form of idolatry. Another reason is that, as sinful people we are naturally rebellious. Another reason is that we don’t always “make the main the main thing”. In my CMJ car the speedometer is a digital display. The numbers are large, which is very useful for someone like me, who enjoys speed. I also have a SatNav, which we call, “Sally” as the voice sounds a little like Sally Boazman (Sally Traffic) on BBC Radio 2. The point is that if I pay too much attention to my speed, then I will not be paying full attention to what is happening on the roads around me. So it can be with narrow obedience; we need to be obedient, of course. However that obedience must not be for the sake of obedience of rules. In Pirke Avot (The Ethics of the Fathers) we read that we are to be obedient as sons, not as servants. While I distance myself from a “Blab-it and Grab-it” type of “Word-Faith” ideology, the Torah does say that full obedience will result in material as well as spiritual wellness.
One reason for the wellness is that the Torah tells us not to defraud anyone (verse 14 of chapter 25). If every person were to live according to the Torah, then there would be no fraud, no hunger, no adultery and no pain. This is what will happen when the Messiah returns.
The “rest” of the land makes people think, “But if we grow nothing and reap nothing, then what will people eat for a year?” The late Lubavitcher Rebbe (Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson) says this:
The question "What shall we eat in the seventh year?" is even more pressing in light of the fact that, the land having been depleted by five years of planting, the sixth year's yield is naturally less than average. Yet G-d promises that it will provide not only for a full years sustenance, but also for the seventh year and beyond.
Our sages tell us that the seven-year shmittah cycle corresponds to the seven millennia of history. For six thousand years, man labours in the fields of the material world in preparation for the seventh millennium--a millennium that is "wholly Sabbath and tranquillity, for life everlasting," the era of Moshiach.
Our Haftarah from Jeremiah tells us what happens when we don’t do what we know to be right: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and relies on mortal flesh for his strength, and whose heart turns away from the G-d. He shall be like a lone tree in the desert, and will not see when good comes, and will dwell on parched land in the desert, on salt-sodden soil that is not habitable. Blessed is the man who trusts in the G-d, to whom G-d will be his trust. For he shall be like a tree planted by the water, and which spreads its roots out into a stream, so it will not be affected when heat comes, and its leaves shall be green, and in the year of drought will not be anxious, neither shall it cease from bearing fruit."
We read in Revelation that in the New Jerusalem we will have no need to worry about what we will eat or drink. The Almighty will provide.
We aren’t there yet, but we still rely totally on His promises, one of which says: "Even when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away; nor will I ever abhor them, to destroy them and to break My covenant with them; for I am the L-rd their G-d."
So as we go to vote tomorrow, could I suggest that we vote according to what is right, not simply for what seems nice? They are not always the same thing.
And whoever becomes Prime Minister by this time next week, may The Almighty show him wisdom, and may we all remember to pray for him, his Wife, his Cabinet and his decisions.
Shabbat Shalom