Dvar Torah for Shabbat Bechukotai given at Temple Israel on 5/31/24 (24 Iyar 5784)

(Lev. 26:3 – 27:34)

This Shabbat we come to the end of the Book of Leviticus, with Parashat Bechukotai.

Most of this Torah portion consists of a short list of blessings followed by a long list of curses that God promises as rewards for obeying or as punishments for disobeying God’s mitzvot.

The blessings and curses run the gamut from military victories and defeats, to agricultural surpluses and shortages, to climatic forecasts, to psychological syndromes.

I thought I would share a few thoughts about one of the curses mentioned in the Torah portion and one of the blessings mentioned in it.

It’s very striking, but psychologically perceptive, that the climax of that long list of curses speaks about fear that comes about when there is actually nothing to be afraid of.

As it says in our parasha at Leviticus 26:36

וְהַנִּשְׁאָרִ֣ים בָּכֶ֔ם וְהֵבֵ֤אתִי מֹ֙רֶךְ֙ בִּלְבָבָ֔ם בְּאַרְצֹ֖ת אֹיְבֵיהֶ֑ם וְרָדַ֣ף אֹתָ֗ם ק֚וֹל עָלֶ֣ה נִדָּ֔ף וְנָס֧וּ מְנֻֽסַת־חֶ֛רֶב וְנָפְל֖וּ וְאֵ֥ין רֹדֵֽף׃

As for those of you who survive, I will cast a faintness into their hearts in the land of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight. Fleeing as though from the sword, they shall fall though none pursues.

These words, though written thousands of years ago, retain their power today. Our people’s experience of centuries of oppression and violence, culminating in the Shoa’ah less than a century ago, have no doubt instilled in all of us a certain degree of intergenerational trauma. Especially for those of us who are old enough to have grown up when the memory of the Shoah was fresher, and when many more Holocaust survivors were among us than is the case today, it can be easy to see the specter of antisemitism arising all around us. And, sometimes, as our Torah portion predicts, this can be an exaggerated fear or even a paranoid fear.

“The sound of a driven leaf putting us to flight…. Fleeing though none pursues….”

Putting this into current context --- The demonstrations and encampments protesting Israel’s conduct of the current war have caused on the part of many Jews a sense of fear and danger for their, for our, own safety. And much of this is an exaggerated fear. Discomfort is not synonymous with Danger.

And yet, we have indeed also seen in recent months incidents in the United States and around the world in which Jews have been attacked simply for being Jews. The rise of such antisemitism is indeed real and not just the sound of a driven leaf.

We would all do well to be prudent but not paranoid. And I know we are all deeply appreciative of the efforts of our security committee, and our ushers and of the Duluth Police Department who are all working cooperatively to ensure our safety as we gather together as a Jewish community.

But I also want to talk about a blessing that looms large in our Torah portion.

The climax of the curses in Parashat Bechukotai is that immoblizing fear, that trauma that might make us, as it were, afraid of our own shadow.

But the climax of the blessings in the earlier part of our Torah portion presents another outlook:

As it says in Leviticus 26: 11-13:

וְנָתַתִּ֥י מִשְׁכָּנִ֖י בְּתוֹכְכֶ֑ם וְלֹֽא־תִגְעַ֥ל נַפְשִׁ֖י אֶתְכֶֽם׃

וְהִתְהַלַּכְתִּי֙ בְּת֣וֹכְכֶ֔ם וְהָיִ֥יתִי לָכֶ֖ם לֵֽאלֹהִ֑ים וְאַתֶּ֖ם תִּהְיוּ־לִ֥י לְעָֽם׃

אֲנִ֞י יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶ֗ם אֲשֶׁ֨ר הוֹצֵ֤אתִי אֶתְכֶם֙ מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם מִֽהְיֹ֥ת לָהֶ֖ם עֲבָדִ֑ים וָאֶשְׁבֹּר֙ מֹטֹ֣ת עֻלְּכֶ֔ם וָאוֹלֵ֥ךְ אֶתְכֶ֖ם קֽוֹמְמִיּֽוּת׃ {פ}

I will establish My abode in your midst, and I will not spurn you.

I will be ever present in your midst: I will be your God, and you shall be My people.

I the Eternal am your God who brought you out from the land of the Egyptians to be their slaves no more, who broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk upright.

That image of walking KOMEMIYUT --- upright or erect ---- is used as well in our liturgy. In contrast to centuries in which Jews were downtrodden, oppressed and attacked --- the prayer Ahava Rabba in the daily shacharit liturgy says:

וַהֲבִיאֵֽנוּ לְשָׁלוֹם מֵאַרְבַּע כַּנְפוֹת הָאָֽרֶץ וְתוֹלִיכֵֽנוּ קוֹמְ֒מִיּוּת לְאַרְצֵֽנוּ:

“Bring us in peace from the four corners of the earth and lead us upright ( קוֹמְ֒מִיּוּת / komemiyut) to our land.”

And, similarly, in the Birkat Hamazon/ The Grace after Meals, we say:

הָרַחֲמָן הוּא יִשְׁבּוֹר עֻלֵּֽנוּ מֵעַל צַוָּארֵֽנוּ וְהוּא יוֹלִיכֵֽנוּ קוֹמְ֒מִיּוּת לְאַרְצֵֽנוּ

“May the All-Merciful One will break the yoke (of oppression) from our necks and lead us upright ( קוֹמְ֒מִיּוּת / komemiyut) to our land.”

Zionism is getting a bad wrap these days. But the political movement to establish and maintain the State of Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people, as it always was throughout the centuries of forced exile, is a project of KOMEMIYUT.

A way that the Jewish people can hold our heads high, and walk קוֹמְ֒מִיּוּת/KOMEMIYUT /UPRIGHT - and where our Jewish culture and civilization need not be an afterthought or a grudging accommodation on the part of the majority culture – as it is in the United States and everywhere else in the world.

Don’t get me wrong, I consider it very much a blessing to have the good fortune of having been born in the United States --- and not, for example, in Germany under Hitler, or Russia under Stalin, or as a second-class denizen in any number of places and eras where Jews were oppressed.

But there is no doubt that the existence of the State of Israel is a game changer for Jewish life around the world.

It is not perfect --- by any means.

Just as the United States is not perfect – by any means.

But that blessing of walking KOMEMIYUT – upright – as a Jew, is intertwined with the Zionist project.

I, for one, am a Zionist.

To me, that is inseparable from the fact that I am a Jew.

My recent sabbatical in Israel has only strengthened those convictions. Thank you so much for making it possible for me to have that precious time away, thank you to all of you who have stepped up to keep our worship services, programs, holiday celebrations and community activities going in my absence, and thank you so much for warmly welcoming me back.

These are challenging times for the Jewish people and for the world at large. May we see peace, justice and reconciliation in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, in this country, and in the world of large --- and may a spirit of compassion and compromise prevail in a world of complexities.

Shabbat shalom.

UPRIGHT