Buchukothai:the Line

 

Buchukothai: the Line

Growing up in America, one of the phrases I found most disturbing was “The Hebrew Gd of Vengeance.” This descriptive title  helped to explain why Jews are different from Christians. The Cristian gd, the American gd, was merciful and forgiving. The American gd would bend the rules. Transgression was an invitation to repentance. Their core story was the prodigal son. The Jewish Gd was not so forgiving. Transgression brought fire, brimstone, destruction, exile, starvation, persecution…and that was just getting started. There is no bending of the rules with a people who have such a Gd. A pound of flesh means every ounce.

 

As a Jew in America, I took this description as an invitation to abandon the old ways in favor of a gentler, more merciful world view.  Clinging to the old ways of my ancestors relegated me to a world of cruelty; thus, I deserved cruel treatment by others. But how could I abandon my origins? I am the child of Gd’s cruelty, progeny of the Holocaust.

 

This parsha displays the Hebrew Gd of Vengeance.  There is a promise of prosperity as a reward for going in the path of the edicts and guarding the commandments.  This section is followed by a much longer passage, whispered in the public reading, that describes the consequences of rebellion against these edicts and commandments, in just enough detail to terrify. The passage of destruction is read in a soft, low tone,  an act of stagecraft.  Suddenly, the listener’s attention is focused as the volume of the chant is reduced to a whisper. The hush tones punctuate the ugliness of the message and convey a hope that these tragedies will never come to pass. It is also reminiscent of the Yom Kippur service

 

וּבְשׁוֹפָר גָּדוֹל יִתָּקַע. וְקוֹל דְּמָמָה דַקָּה יִשָּׁמַע.

 

A great shofar is sounded, and a silent, gentle voice is heard;

 

 

My generation, the post Holocaust, grew up in the shadow of the tochahah, the rebuke, read in this week’s parsha.  Jews, and selected others, suffered punishments that exceeded those described in the parsha. In my home, the stories of that time were also told in a whisper and that murmur colored my religious life. How does one relate to the Gd that threatens such punishment … and delivers.

The concept of discipline and instruction through penalty is antithetical to modern pedagogy.  We now consider corporal punishment child abuse. Violence begets violence begets violence. Our worldview wants to break that cycle of brutality. The litany of the tochachah conflicts with the modern worldview.

It is worse than that.  Failure to recognize misfortune as punishment, and failure to reform, is chastised with additional, more severe adversity and disaster. Until the penitent sees his error and repents, things just get worse; and it gets harder to see the errors while hungry, dirty, and enslaved.   How can the victim feel about the Disciplinarian after her family is wiped out; after living like a hunted, burrowing animal for years. A hush comes over the whole Jewish enterprise.

 The survivors and their offspring are confused. Which parts of this conglomeration of text, tradition, superstition, values, assimilation, accomplishments, etc.  that we call Judaism, are at fault?  What needs to be abandoned to prevent further tragedy? What should be kept? What was the value of the agony?

 To me, the Holocaust, this fulfillment of the tochaha, the passage of rebuke, read in this week’s parsha, was evidence that Gd exists; and exists as described. This love of the tormentor, this Stockholm syndrome, fosters a belief that cannot be shaken by circumstances.

 

 

The root of the name of the parsha,   בְּחֻקֹּתַ֖    Buchukothai, is חֻקֹּ, chok . In context, this means the rules. The arbitrary  is strongly implied by the word chok. It is an edict that does not require, and may defy, explanation.

 

The Hebrew dictionary used in Sefaria defines chok :

 

statute,  ordinance,  limit, something prescribed,  due

 

 

The core meaning seems to be limit, a boundary that should not be violated. The penalty for crossing that line can be severe.

 

In modern Hebrew, natural laws are called chok.  It is appealing to me to think that these terrible consequences are merely nature without Divine constraints. Gd does not cause these horrors; Gd prevents the atrocities; and violation of the rules removes the protection. We live in a world that is made so pleasant, entertaining and comfortable by secret, hidden processes whose causal essences we do not expect to understand. The admonition in the parsha need not be seen as a declaration of power.  It can be a revelation about nature (חֻקֹּתַ֖י, Gd's edicts). 

 

I am confused. Lost, I don’t know where the line is.  What happens if I cross it accidentally?  I will try to be careful.

 

 

 

 

 

Behar: Faith in the system

I have very little farming experience. I get food and clothing and shelter in exchange for money. I get the money  in exchange for advising people on their health. I am far removed from agriculture. I do not know the significance of cultivating and fallow.

The famous first Rahi in Behar that generates the Hebrew cliché

 

. מָה עִנְיַן שְׁמִטָּה אֵצֶל הַר סִינַי —  Mah inyan shmitah aytzel har Sinai

What has the matter of the Sabbatical year to do with Mount Sinai 

 works at a deeper, more granular level: Mah inyan shmita. What is this shmitah? Since cultivation of the land is so foreign to me, what are these commandments concerning the land’s Sabbatical year and why am I being informed. I am uncomfortable with forming an opinion about something that is so important to me and so removed from my understanding. How much do the Rabbis, the deciders of halacha, the representatives of Sinai, know about these matters? Won’t there be a famine if agricultural activity ceases for 2 years, at Yovel, the Jubilee year?  This is fear posing as rational thought. Microsoft Copilot ( ChatGPT) estimates that : “stored grains could potentially feed the entire US population for approximately 3 years and 3 months.” It could not have come out more perfect! (Israel has enough stored grain for 18 days!)

 

Most years, Behar and Bechukothai are read together. This leap year, they are not, they are read separately. When they are read together, a message emerges. A set of very difficult rules about Shmitah and Yovel are set out. These mitzvoth deal with fundamental economic activities: agriculture, shelter, possession; they deal with the necessities of food and shelter. They call for abstention from reaping or sowing the land; an enforced vacation that generates a fear of famine. Bechokothai then gives the Torah’s perspective: Human activity is not the determinant of plenty or famine, it is Gd who grants sustenance.

אִם־בְּחֻקֹּתַ֖י תֵּלֵ֑כוּ וְאֶת־מִצְוֺתַ֣י תִּשְׁמְר֔וּ וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם אֹתָֽם׃

If you follow My laws and faithfully observe My commandments,

וְנָתַתִּ֥י גִשְׁמֵיכֶ֖ם בְּעִתָּ֑ם וְנָתְנָ֤ה הָאָ֙רֶץ֙ יְבוּלָ֔הּ וְעֵ֥ץ הַשָּׂדֶ֖ה יִתֵּ֥ן פִּרְיֽוֹ׃

I will grant your rains in their season, so that the earth shall yield its produce and the trees of the field their fruit.

Violation of the commandments, even if the laws are counterintuitive, chukim, will not yield the desired result. Rather, as is detailed in this whispered parsha of chastisement that follows, you will be exiled and suffer beyond your imagined capacity. The rules are not what you think.

This year, the chapters are separated. Each chapter stands on its own.

We can make some sense of Shmitah and yovel. A model of social justice is presented to people who had been slaves a year ago. It is a system based upon an (almost) irrevocable ownership of land , all "sales" of  rural land  are  limited to  49 years. The land then reverts to the ancestral family. After the conquest of the land, the new owners could never transfer possession (short of their dispossession by a usurper and exile).  It is likely that  part of the  servile status  in Egypt was an  exclusion from owning land in certain areas.  The prohibition on owning land is an age old method of preventing a foreign group (like the Jews in Europe, or the Jews from Europe) from integrating into an area of settlement. When the promised land is won, the Hebrews will be the owners; no one else would be allowed to possess it. This principle seems to have preceded the original  Hebrew conquest and was perpetuated by subsequent occupants.

 

The new order would include the Sabbatical year: when the land is left fallow and whatever it produces (in the absence of cultivation) is left for the wanderer and the beast. The story of the Egyptian famine, that started the centuries of bondage, is connected to this plan. We recall that following the seven years of plenty, there is a severe famine through which Joseph comes to acquire all of the land of Egypt in the name of Pharaoh.  There is a recognition that interminable tilling of the soil leads to its exhaustion. Generalizing,  giving the hoarder unlimited opportunity to accumulate leads to a slave society ( it is a Markov process) .  Thus, every seventh year the land lies fallow and no one can use this produce to add to the silo.

Food insecurity is too frightening, greed is too powerful, to expect voluntary adherence to statutes that seem arbitrary in the context of local conditions: drought, flood, the conspicuous consumption of neighbors. Faced with the need to produce grain, to replace the manna from heaven, these restrictions look different.  It is difficult to use long-range thinking when you are a few days or hours from starvation

Behar lays out a socio-economic system. The actual implementation of socio-political economic theories has a very poor track record. What justice we have has come from providing the population enough to deter revolution; and when that appeasement has failed, and revolution has come, the new system (Feudalism, Communism, Fascism, Capitalism,etc.)  that developed in the optimism of powerless hope, has eventually  become oppressive. Discovery and technology have improved living conditions so that in many places, the distribution of wealth is not a matter of life or death, but  justice is in the eye of the beholder - minister or critic.

The system of Rabbinic decision, interpretation of the text in the context of changing needs, has allowed accommodation to new realities.  To me that is the most important meaning of

 

בהר סיני. מָה עִנְיַן שְׁמִטָּה אֵצֶל הַר סִינַי — What has the matter of the Sabbatical year to do with Mount Sinai 

 

 

 

 

 

Emor: Revenge of the Rejected

The cause is never deeply understood.

In high school and college, I, along with thousands of other students, protested the war in Viet Nam.  Years later, Robert McNamara, a man that directed the intensification of that war and expanded the draft, admitted that the war was a tragic error. Now, when Americans vacation in Vietnam, and there is brisk trade between the US and its former mortal ( especially for them) enemy, it seems clear that the 1.3 million people who  died in that conflict, perished for reasons that did not matter.

But when I was protesting, I did not know that. I was told that this war was a stand against the evil of world communism.  If “we” lost that war, then all the domino states of Southeast Asia would fall under the shadow of the Bamboo and Iron curtains. This would lead to further expansion of communism and, eventually, threaten the United States, the beacon of freedom and liberty..

At the time, while I was protesting, I did not realize that I did not understand most of the words, but I did realize that my knowledge of the situation was superficial and inadequate. I did not have the information needed to decide on the validity of of the action. Perhaps protesting was wrong. Maybe the government authorities were right. I was confused. I protested despite my confusion.

The current wave of protests is also confusing. They are, in part, based upon the Vietnam protests. The only force that could defeat the US military was the US people. This is an attempt to mobilize the American people against support for Israel. It is, perhaps, a way to defeat the powerful Israeli army.

The American news outlets that I had previously trusted, report the war against Hamas as a series of atrocities. I see that war as a reaction to an atrocity.  It is a reaction to an antisemitic attack on civilians and soldiers with the goal of killing Jews and, eventually, eliminating Jews from the region. It was an act that anticipated a reaction; and when that reaction came, the ugliness  was propagandized. The informational war is a conflict between my  well founded opinion/prejudice that Jews are not sadistic murderers, bent on the suppression of Arabs; versus the images of dead and dying children in the arms of crying mothers. Where is the truth? Whose truth? I do not have the depth of understanding to make a rational judgement. I can only guess the historical outcome. This is a situation in which I must pick a side. I wish there were a better solution. I trust Israel more than the media.  I remember how the newspapers  covered the Nazis in the 1930’s ( they were very forgiving)

The parsha ,named “speak”, ends with the story of the blasphemer. His pronouncements are clearly problematic. He is attacking, poking holes,  וַ֠יִּקֹּ֠ב , in the law giving authority.  He is exercising his right of speech. He is describing the world from his perspective: as a cosmopolitan (he has an Egyptian father) or as an outsider ( he has an Egyptian father) . Moses and the people do not know how to handle the situation. Perhaps they are also confused. Perhaps they see some merit in the blasphemer’s statements. Probably they see the danger in this propaganda, in this edition of the “facts.”  The blasphemer is put in jail until a Divine decision can be accessed: He is to be taken out of the camp, those who heard him lay hands on him and he is stoned to death.

The beginning of the parsha discusses the disqualifications for Priestly service. The Temple service is the drama representing the interaction with Gd. It must be performed by people who do not question their relationship to Gd.  Confronting death is a natural source for such questioning. Dealing with a disability raises doubts about the nature of Gd’s love for humans.

Anger and disappointment foment revolution. The truth is never clear. It is more  a matter of faith than I am comfortable with.

 

Kedoshim: meanings

 

I struggle with the meaning of “kodesh,” even in its translation “holy.” Gd tells  Moshe to instruct the people to be holy, for I ( Gd) am holy

דַּבֵּ֞ר אֶל־כׇּל־עֲדַ֧ת בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל וְאָמַרְתָּ֥ אֲלֵהֶ֖ם קְדֹשִׁ֣ים תִּהְי֑וּ כִּ֣י קָד֔וֹשׁ אֲנִ֖י יְ

Speak to the whole Israelite community and say to them:

You shall be holy, for I, the LORD your God, am holy.

This, the year when large language models of artificial intelligence emerged into the public sphere, repeating words that I do not understand becomes much more of a problem.  Now, the meaning of this word, like every other word that is not reigned in by mathematical  level definition, becomes a product of the human collective and the loudest voices.  I was destined never to understand this word, kadosh, holy. Now I am fated to certainly misunderstand it.

 

I cannot place all the blame on large language models ( LLM; AI) for this. The meaning of words constantly evolves, and always has. LLM ossifies the interpretation. Preserving the original Hebrew ( lashon hakodesh) [ and acknowledging the language of the Torah as separate from modern spoken Hebrew] allows the mystery that surrounds the word [kodesh]  to continue  in the ambiguity it deserves.

 

The first sentence in this prescribed sanctification process demonstrates its confusing nature and its difficulty:

אִ֣ישׁ אִמּ֤וֹ וְאָבִיו֙ תִּירָ֔אוּ וְאֶת־שַׁבְּתֹתַ֖י תִּשְׁמֹ֑רוּ אֲנִ֖י יְ

You shall each revere his mother and his father, and keep My sabbaths: I the LORD am your God.

There are two instructions, and they may come into conflict. Becoming kadosh will involve choices. Sometimes, perhaps often, reverence for parents and Sabbath observance will harmonize. Holy, holy. If they do not, which sanctification do you choose? Either choice degrades  while it elevates and leads to a state of imbalance. The image of falling does  not evoke beatitude.

This introduction is appropriate. This kedusha, holiness, is what we make of our opportunities. The holy is lofty; we have  nothing loftier than our thoughts.

Does the recipe for sanctification begin at the beginning? The first use of kodesh is in reference to the Sabbath:

וַיְבָ֤רֶךְ אֱ

אֶת־י֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י וַיְקַדֵּ֖שׁ אֹת֑וֹ כִּ֣י ב֤וֹ שָׁבַת֙ מִכָּל־מְלַאכְתּ֔וֹ אֲשֶׁר־בָּרָ֥א אֱ

לַעֲשֽׂוֹת׃ (פ)

And Gd blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because on it Gd ceased from all the work of creation that Gd had done.

What does kodesh mean here? It certainly means special. There is also an element of immutability: it is a fact that cannot be changed. The kodesh is favored, perhaps loved, by Heaven.  As a public declaration, it would seem to have an audience, others who would respect it.  Presumably humans are, at least part of, the observers of this special state of kadosh, holiness. Does the conflation of the Sabbath and reverence for parents relate  to how one becomes holy? Is respect for parents the instinctive source for the awe of kodesh

The lack of definition adds mystery to kodesh. It is an awe inspiring state, beyond comprehension. But not all awe is kodesh

The parsha later moves on to prohibited mixtures:

אֶֽת־חֻקֹּתַי֮ תִּשְׁמֹ֒רוּ֒ בְּהֶמְתְּךָ֙ לֹא־תַרְבִּ֣יעַ כִּלְאַ֔יִם שָׂדְךָ֖ לֹא־תִזְרַ֣ע כִּלְאָ֑יִם וּבֶ֤גֶד כִּלְאַ֙יִם֙ שַֽׁעַטְנֵ֔ז לֹ֥א יַעֲלֶ֖ה עָלֶֽיךָ׃

You shall observe My laws.

You shall not let your cattle mate with a different kind; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; you shall not put on cloth from a mixture of two kinds of material.

These are strange laws that sit in the midst of rules that instruct kindness and consideration to other human beings.

They evoke another meaning of kodesh, consuming fire:

 

לֹא־תִזְרַ֥ע כַּרְמְךָ֖ כִּלְאָ֑יִם פֶּן־תִּקְדַּ֗שׁ הַֽמְלֵאָ֤ה הַזֶּ֙רַע֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר תִּזְרָ֔ע וּתְבוּאַ֖ת הַכָּֽרֶם׃ (ס)

You shall not sow your vineyard with a second kind of seed, else the crop—from the seed you have sown—and the yield of the vineyard may not be used.

The Talmud ( Chulin 115a) interprets  the word tikdash, become sanctified, as tokad aish, be burnt up:

(דברים כב, ט) פן תקדש פן תוקד אש

 

You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed; lest the growth of the seed that you will sow be forfeited [pen tikdash]” (Deuteronomy 22:9). The Sages read the phrase “be forfeited [pen tikdash]” as though it states: Lest it be burned [pen tukad esh], indicating that diverse kinds in a vineyard must be destroyed

 

The editors of the sermons, given by Rabbi Kalonymos Kalmish Shapira, as the Warsaw ghetto was besieged, tortured and liquidated, named the work: Aish Kodesh, Sacred fire. This is the week between Yom Hashoah, Holocaust [ the word means a sacrifice entirely consumed by fire] Day and Yom Hazikoron, Remeberance day ( for those who sacrificed their lives for the State of Israel).  It is kodesh in so many ways.

 

Kodesh can be sad.

 

 

Acharei: Context

The parsha begins by providing context.

וַיְדַבֵּ֤ר יְ

אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה אַחֲרֵ֣י מ֔וֹת שְׁנֵ֖י בְּנֵ֣י אַהֲרֹ֑ן בְּקׇרְבָתָ֥ם לִפְנֵי־יְ

וַיָּמֻֽתוּ׃

And the Lord spoke to Moshe after the death of the two sons of Aharon, when they came near before the Lord, and died;

It is a little surprising that this victimless transgression, this trespass onto the off limits, merits such a severe punishment. It is a reminder not to act on our own understanding exclusively; the Divine instructions must be heeded and the penalty for violation can be death. The search for secrets comes at the risk of life.

This same source of danger is to be visited by the Kohen Gadol, the High Priest, annually, on Yom Kippur, as a critical part of the ceremony that provides expiation, and thus life, to the nation of Israel. The visit must be done in a special ceremonial way; sober, and ritually pure. The scene behind the curtain is obscured by the scented smoke that accompanies the visitor. One can never have a clear view.

The Yom Kippur ritual described in the parsha appeals to symbolic senses, perceptions that cannot be reduced to logic. Two nearly identical goats are brought forth. Lots are cast. One goat is used in  the usual sacrificial manner. The other is led into exile by a man of the times (ish iti).

וְשִׁלַּ֛ח בְּיַד־אִ֥ישׁ עִתִּ֖י הַמִּדְבָּֽרָה׃

The destination is called

אֶ֣רֶץ גְּזֵרָ֑ה

eretz gezerah

A cut off land

Perhaps the designation of this officer that leads the sin laden scapegoat into its exile, and ultimately to the cliff of its destruction, as an  ish iti, a man of his times, reflects on the nature of the sins: they are a reaction to the challenges that come up in that time. The transgressions are temporal, the opposite of spiritual. The sins are reactions that seem appropriate at the time; behaviors that value the fashionable over the eternal.

The temporal world, the world of now, is very confusing; and that confusion frequently leads to error. The American (stated, if not practiced) values of: mutual respect for all, freedom of expression, democracy etc. are not easily put aside. But these values, in practice, can, at times, lead to terrible outcomes.  The values can appear sober and pure; they are often (maybe always) subverted by very sullied people drunk with power.

In this context calling the destination, the site of execution, eretz gezerah , evokes the more frequent usage of gezerah: an edict.  My parents’ generation experienced governmental edicts that meant death to Jews. Exile is a dangerous place, subject to the whims and prejudices of the rulers of the moment.  The goat, chosen by lottery, is led into exile by temporal forces and succumbs to the foreign edicts.

We live in a time when context is used at the discretion of the speaker. I will never forget the first public reaction of the U N secretary general, Antonio Guterres, to the October 7 attack.  He said that the horror came  “in context.”  I knew what he meant; he was expressing a justification for the murder, kidnap and rape based upon the state of  Israel’s  dominant position.  This was part in an ongoing battle.  

I understood the Secretary General’s word slightly differently.  The attack had been perpetrated in a context that would immediately forgive the criminals and prejudge the state of Israel as overreacting, before anything was done. The  enemy that had just launched a horrendous attack. It is an enemy whose founding document calls for the expulsion or death of all Jews in the territory they call Palestine (Judenrein).  The context was  that antisemitism is a reliable concept that would  justify (almost) act against Jews.

I come away warned, but not enlightened. I recognize that there are many secrets I do not and cannot know. I doubt and trust  and wonder what is behind the curtain.