The Word Carved Into
The Rock
D’var Torah for B’har-B’chukotai
By Rabbi Boaz D.
Heilman
One of the most powerful images in the entire Torah appears
in this week’s parasha (actually, B’har-B’chukotai, Leviticus chapters
25-27, is a double portion, comprising the final three chapters of the book of
Leviticus). This image is part of a
series of punishments God threatens to bring upon those people whose hearts are
so hardened that they fail to follow the requirements of holiness God demands
of us: “I will break the pride of your power; I will make your heavens like
iron and your earth like bronze” (Lev. 26:19).
Set at Har Sinai—Mount Sinai—when the Israelites are still
wanderers in the wilderness, B’har
envisions a potential reality, not an actual one. The portion begins with a rich description of
the earth’s fruitful bounty (a beautiful vision to a people lost in the
desert). The time of harvesting and
threshing will last so long that it will merge with the following season of sowing
and planting, with all having more than enough to eat and drink. Yet this harmony between the earth and
humanity is conditional. It is based on
our willingness to follow God’s ways—that is, to sanctify life, to live with
justice, fairness and compassion as our guidelines.
These principles, however, are not limited only to our
behavior with our fellow human beings.
They must provide the basis for our relationship with the very earth, in
return for the earth’s blessings of nourishment and sustenance.
Shabbat symbolizes God’s presence in time—our time, the time
allotted for our existence. It is a day
not only of rest, however, but also of reflection on our relationship with what
we call Sacred. Similarly, parashat B’har now instructs us to devote a similar measurement of time in
recognition of God’s presence in space.
For six years we may cultivate the land, reaping, sowing and harvesting
again; but the seventh year must be set aside as a time for rest and renewal
for the earth.
The laws of sh’mitta,
the Sabbath of the land, are many and complex.
Ostensibly a way to restore agricultural balance to an overworked land, sh’mitta is also that much more. It represents our acknowledgment of the holiness
inherent in the earth, not because it is in itself divine (a pagan belief), but
rather because it contains God’s blessing, the gift of life. It is a gift we enjoy but that we must also share
with all other inhabitants of the planet.
The soft, pliant earth can take the seed we plant in it,
absorb rain water and the sun’s warming rays, and turn right around and give us
its bounty in the form of grain and fruit.
The heavens exhibit a similar gentle softness, giving and accepting
breath, wind and water.
But earth and heavens can turn on us, too. Pollution, abuse and misuse of nature’s
resources erode the once-plentiful reserves.
Fertile lands can turn into desert; seas can disappear; the sky chokes
with pollutants.
Just as a heart hardens and turns into rock when we ignore
the plight of the persecuted, so can the soft, fertile earth. Sanctity is a common denominator between us
and our environment. The way we treat
other living beings and the way we treat the earth will be our portion in
return.
Recognition of the gifts inherent within us and around us
does not give us permit to waste them. Knowing
that these represent a loan rather than an outright gift, we must understand
that the payback God expects from us is that we share the earth’s bounty with
those less fortunate than us; that we return some of the resources back to the
air, land and sea around us; that we leave some of the yield unharvested for
the benefit of the homeless and defenseless.
It is so that the book of Leviticus closes, with laws of
righteousness and compassion that we must engrave into the very rock. Embedded within the rock, the word is
Holiness. It is to be a permanent
reminder of the potential of the rock to turn into soft soil, a source of life
and blessing; or to harden and turn into iron and bronze, becoming a weapon of
cruelty and oppression.
The choice is ours.
Chazak, chazak
v’nit-chazek—be strong, be of courage, and we shall all be strengthened.
© 2013 by Boaz D. Heilman
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