The Vision Before Us
D’var Torah for B’har-B’chukotai
By Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman
May 10, 2023
The reading of the third book of the Torah, Leviticus, concludes this week with a double portion: B’har-B’chukotai (“At the mountain” and “My Commandments,” Lev. 25:1—27:34).
As with most covenants, these chapters include consequences for following as well as for disobeying the rules and stipulations of God’s Covenant with the People of Israel. Yet, for all the awfulness of the punishments, the rewards far outweigh the penalties. That, of course, is the entire point of listing them. Why would anyone even risk the threats when the positive incentives—peace, security, seasonable weather and plentitude of food—are so rich and desirable?
Even my 20-month-old grandson is just about old enough at this point to understand the difference between good and bad consequences. Yet that doesn’t stop him from trying. Will I follow through if I threaten to take away a toy he insists on misusing? Will I really deny him yet another soap bubble bottle if he pours out the contents of two bottles one after another and then ask for a third? Despite my strict warnings?
OK, perhaps a 20-month-old toddler can be excused for testing my patience. I am his grandfather, after all, and a pretty forgiving one at that. And he knows that. But an entire people who had just witnessed the Ten Plagues that come to punish Pharaoh for his stubbornness? Or the miracle of the Red Sea allowing the freedom-seeking Israelites to cross through on dry ground while closing with a mighty roar upon the chariots of those who would enslave us again?
But such is the nature of contracts, that they list both the benefits and forfeits that are incumbent on the signatories. That, essentially, is the function of B’chukotai, the last portion of Leviticus.
Yet to dwell on this portion and ignore the one before it would defeat the entire purpose of Leviticus. B’har, the portion that comes right before the list of consequences, presents a vision unmatched in beauty and magnificence. What Moses previews for us is a world in which greed disappears, in which people help one another, where slavery and oppression are no more, and where everyone lives in harmony and peace.
An impossible dream? A fairy tale? Only if one believes that it will happen without any effort on our part.
For 49 years, the portion teaches, we live an ordinary life. We buy and sell (sometimes, tragically, humans too, not only farm produce). But on the 50th, we free the slaves. For 49 years we may move about, trading property and other goods; but on the 50th, all property returns to the original owner (or their family). For 49 years we till and cultivate the earth; but on the 50th we let it rest and replenish itself. “And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family” (Lev. 25:10, NKJV).
It's a breathtaking vision—so much so that these words (in the older King James Version) were inscribed into the Liberty Bell, symbol of the high aspirations America set for itself.
Miracles do happen. But, to paraphrase Thomas Alva Edison’s definition of genius, miracles are 1% God’s inspiration, 99% human perspiration. This ideal won’t just happen all by itself. We must be there to see to it: to tender help to those weaker than ourselves; to care for the land, water, air and wildlife around us; to free those who might be shackled by iron chains or by equally confining ignorance and prejudice.
The vision should be enough to keep us moving forward—but evidently many still need more incentive. And that’s why these two portions—B’har and B’chukotai—are linked. Together they offer us both the glorious image and a warning of the dangers of straying off the path to it.
Maybe that’s part of the learning process—for toddlers as well as well as for newborn nations.
© 2023 by Boaz D. Heilman
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