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Thoughts on the Parsha ~
Parshas
Bechukosai
Wild Gorillas and Mother Goose
By:
Daniel Listhaus
: אִם בְּחֻקֹּתַי בחוקותי תֵּלֵכוּ
וְאֶת מִצְוֹתַי תִּשְׁמְרוּ וַעֲשִׂיתֶם אֹתָם
“If you
will go in My statutes and observe My commandments and perform them….”
-Bechukosai 26:3
The Torah[1] describes
the incredible rewards that will come for following in the ways of Hashem by
learning His Torah and keeping His mitzvos. No other holy scripture or
religion in the world could possibly promise physical rewards in this world
directly connected to following the rules of the religion. However Judaism with
a Torah given by Hashem Himself - the Creator and Director of the universe -
certainly can. Indeed, the miraculous effects of keeping in the ways of Hashem
are ones which we as a nation have experienced in the past, and the promise
holds true for the future.
The beginning
of the parsha indeed starts with a simple “if-then” structure to convey
that the keeping of the mitzvos yields great rewards. However, the passuk
(verse) seems to be repetitive when writing the “if” part of the
sentence. The Torah writes, “If you will go in my chukim (statutes) and
observe My mitzvos (commandments)…” Although chukim often refer
specifically to the category of mitzvos which are beyond human
understanding, such as keeping shatnez and laws of purity, while the expression
of mishpatim is used to refer to laws which society requires to
function; here the all-encompassing terminology of “mitzvos” is used
following the term of “bechukosai” indicating that the Torah is not
referring to the aforementioned distinction at all. This repetition and strange
usage of words is something which bothers Rashi[2] here and
compels him to learn that “bechukosai teileichu” refers to the learning
of Torah while “mitzvosai tishmoru” refers to the actual keeping of the mitzvos.
After
describing some of the rewards that will come for leaning and keeping the
Torah, the passukim contrast this and relate that “im lo sishm’eu lee
v’lo sa’asu…es hamitzvos….v’im bechukosai tim’asu v’im es mishpa’tai tig’al
naf’shechem….” – “But if you will not listen to Me and will not
perform all of these commandments; and if you will consider My statutes
revolting, and if your being rejects My
ordinances so as not to perform all My commandments….”[3]
This contrast is not exactly parallel, as the Torah seems to be more specific
describing the various ways that one could fail in keeping in line with Torah
values. The passuk begins by using the general terminology of “not
keeping the mitzvos” and then proceeds to break the mitzvos into
their two basic categories of chukim and mishpatim – explaining
that punishment is certain for those who consider the chukim revolting
and those who reject the mishpatim.
The
Ramban[4]
points out the difference in the way the Torah describes the ones who do
not keep chukim and those who reject the mishpatim. Chukim are
the mitzvos for which we do not understand the reasons as they involve
concepts deeply woven into the DNA of the intertwined physical and spiritual
worlds, which are way beyond human comprehension. Therefore, people who are not
interested in keeping the chukim tend to ridicule them as worthless
activities of “busy work” which the Torah demands. When it comes to mishpatim
however, there is more brainwork involved in order to devalue them. After
all, so many of the Torah’s mitzvos are ideas which any judicial system
would need at some level in order to maintain a functional society. The
commandments not to murder, steal, commit adultery, pay for damages, and so
many other mitzvos are, although Torah ideas, ones which we could
completely comprehend and would probably be smart enough to develop on our own
as a civilization in order to ensure basic survival.[5]
This is why here, where the Torah makes the clear distinction between those who
will not follow the ways of the chukim and those who will reject the mishpatim,
the Torah uses category-specific descriptions, detailing that those who reject chukim
do so by brainless mockery whereas those who discard the mishpatim do
so by actually rationalizing and distancing oneself from keeping them.
The consequences
of individuals not keeping the Torah and mitzvos, and even more
so when the nation as a whole is failing to do so, are frightening. K’lal
Yisroel is always tasked to work together and be responsible for one
another to ensure that there are no weak links in our chain. However,
unfortunately we are not always so great and amongst us there are those who
ridicule the chukim and reject the mishpatim. As bad as this is,
and certainly there could be no worse thing that transgressing the mitzvos of
Hashem, if there is one “redeeming quality” to be said it is that it lies
within the realm of “normal”, albeit poor, behavior. After all, no one is
perfect and life consists of ups and downs. Someone who rejected mishpatim through
rationalizations could be brought back that same path by being calmed down and
patiently shown how his thinking was flawed. Once that first step is taken and
he is able to accept Hashem and understand that the mitzvos are not just
to-do lists but rather ways of living the highest quality of life, it is
possible for him to then reflect back to the chukim and feel sorry for
his brainless cynicism and reaccept them with love.
Recently, there
was a story in the news regarding a four year old boy who fell into a gorilla exhibit
in the Cincinnati zoo which attracted national attention. After the horror of the
child falling down the ten-foot drop into a moat and being in the cage with Harambe
the gorilla for ten long minutes being dragged around, the zookeepers were
finally able to make it to the scene and made the call to shoot the gorilla
dead. An obvious response – or so we would have thought. For a full week now,
the country has been divisive over whether doing so was the correct thing to
do. After all, silverback gorillas are an endangered species.
The fact that
there was even a discussion after the event is something which is still hard
for many to comprehend. Is saving a helpless child not a priority-one task?
Society has spent so many years working, and continuing to work on not just
literally saving children’s lives but even seeing the bigger picture of
correlations and causations recognizing the importance of things such as living
in a good neighborhood and getting a good education. Is this what it all boils
down to that despite how far we have come, when faced with the possible risk of
a child’s life on one side with killing a gorilla on the other that there is a hava
amina to not kill the gorilla? Is there a more basic mishpat than
saving a child’s life? One would think it obvious, yet there is a large number
of people out there who are essentially doubting whether a human life is worth
more than a 400 pound endangered gorilla. Such an argument does not come from
even the most remote form of logic or even extremely twisted rationale. Rather,
it comes from an absurd and brainless approach of living.
Approaching a
concept one does not understand and making a mockery of it and calling it
ridiculous might be a big mistake but at least it is a normal human response to
deem something that is not able to be understood as absurd. However, to look at
a binary choice: man or gorilla and question the decision to choose man, is
using the “brainless” approach to decide what is already obvious from the
logical side. What hope is there for such people who do not value human life? Perhaps
they should wish upon themselves to become an endangered species so that if
they are ever in the need of assistance maybe their kind will find them worthy
of being helped.
In psychology
there is an idea known as imprinting. Imprinting refers to the idea that animals
and people, during certain stages, tend to learn the characteristics of some
stimulus, independent of the consequences of behavior, which is therefore said
to be “imprinted” onto the subject. The most famous imprinting experiment,
performed by Lorenz, was with incubator-hatched geese that followed the first
moving object they saw even if the object had no way of providing them food or
water. The idea of being stimulated by something and mindlessly following it
without thinking through what it means or what the consequences might be is
something which is usually only effective during vital learning stages where
the brain takes the first piece of information it is fed and imprints it
deeply. The fact that there are humans among us who could actually consider not
saving a child is scary. It would seem as if they are brainless aliens seeing
human life being favored for the first time and after watching the gorilla die
for the possible saving of one life are traumatized and brainwashed with the
imprinted notion that the gorilla was killed in cold blood.
There is no doubt that unspeakable and unimaginable
things are going on in the world. The push to do utterly senseless things in
the name of equality is beyond belief. We are living in a world where even the
most basic mishpatim are being approached with senseless debate and
mockery, something which would not even be appropriate if they were chukim.
We
must remember that at some level we are responsible for keeping the world sane.
The Torah and mitzvos we keep is a power source for the world. The
stronger we are, the greater the positive influence we give off as a light to
the nations. However, the weaker we are, the more we allow the negative
influences to cloud the earth. We must take the recent publicized events of ridiculous
agendas and rallies to heart and realize that perhaps we are partially
responsible. Do we ridicule the Torah’s chukim calling them nonsense? Do
we rationalize our own actions in order to be able to reject mishpatim? We
must reflect on what is going on in the world and the message that Hashem is perhaps
sending by allowing these absurd matters to be publicized to such an enormous degree.
May
Hashem help us during this time leading to z’man matan Torah to strengthen
out emunah and bitachon, learning the Torah and keeping the mitzvos
not only because without holding on tight we risk being swallowed up by the
poisonous brainless beliefs of society, but because every mitzvah of
Hashem – even the most basic of mishpatim is at its core a chok and
the reason we do even the most “obvious” mitzvos is l’shmah -
because Hashem commanded us to do. Ashrei ha’am she’Hashem elokav and ashreinu
ma tov chelkeinu! In this zechus may we be zocheh the berachos
promised as reward for “im bechukosai teileichu”.
[1]
Vayikra 26:3
[2]
Rashi ibid.
[3]
Vayikra 26:14-15
[4]
Ramban Vayikra 26:15
[5]
We must keep in mind that even at the base of every mishpat, lies the chok
of keeping the Torah solely because it is what Hashem commanded. And the
idea that some mitzvos are “obvious:” is really not so obvious. For
more, see d’var Torah on Parshas Re’eh – Baseless Beliefs.
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