Audio Shiur: Parshat Bechukotai - Unraveling the Tochecha

Audio Shiur:
Parshat Bechukotai - Unraveling the Tochecha

By carefully analyzing the text of the tochecha - which we often gloss over - we can see the steps of sin which lead to destruction, and give us a clear sense of what sins lead to the devastating punishments in the Torah. Source sheet here.

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Audio Shiur: Parshat Bechukotai - Meshech Chochmoh and the Merry-Go-Round of Exile

Audio Shiur:
Parshat Bechukotai - Meshech Chochmoh and the Merry-Go-Round of Exile

Commenting on the end of the Tochecha, where God promises not to abandon us completely, the Meshech Chochmah wonders: how is possible that we could survive in a strange land through generations of persecution without assimilation? How indeed. From there he proceeds to describe the circular nature of the Jewish predicament in the exile, and more importantly, why it keeps happening. And he wrote all of this mere decades before the Holocaust. This important passage from Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk represents a key commentary that should be part of any modern Jew's religious awareness.

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Audio Shiur: Parshat Bechukotai: Unlucky Number Seven

Audio Shiur:
Parshat Bechukotai: Unlucky Number Seven

The Tochecha is not nice. It's not fun. So we do our best to avoid it. But we do so at our own peril. In this shiur, we examine four themes which run throughout the text of the Tochechah and the unified message that these themes convey. It's best to follow along with a chumash, because we do a lot of jumping in the text.

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The Haredi Army - Thoughts for Parashat Behar-Bechukotai

Secular Jews really don't like Haredim. This is something you hear all the time, both in the media, and in private conversations. You might have heard Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai's rant against the Haredi education system recently. (Just as an aside, he'll only grow stronger in Israeli secular society for voicing his opinion on the issue.) Sitting at a wedding this week, a friend of mine now working in an Israeli hospital said, "You know, most Israelis really don't like religious people. At all." I know.
Making a broad generalization, secular Israelis have two main complaints against Hareidi society:

1. Hareidim don't serve in the army
2. Hareidim don't really work, and they live off social services and benefits

While both complaints have a great degree of truth to them, there are cracks in the dam. Hareidim have begun enlisting in the IDF in special units, and their numbers will continue to grow. Moreover, the recent financial crisis and the massive funding cuts for countless yeshivot has generated a wave of underfunded educators and kollel fellows. Yeshivot are simply months behind - often many months - on their payrolls, and the light at the end of the tunnel has yet to appear. But children still have to eat, so many Hareidim have begun to enter the workforce through supplementary vocational training and job placement. But, for the vast majority of Hareidi society, the stereotypes still hold true.
Except, at least for the army part, the underlying values might not.
The complaint that Haredim don't serve in the army assumes that their learning in Kollel has no intrinsic national value. But, according to a comment of the Netziv in Ha'amek Davar on this week's parshah, that assumption is simply not true.

Concluding the section describing the Yovel year, the Torah tells us, (25:18)

וַעֲשִׂיתֶם, אֶת-חֻקֹּתַי, וְאֶת-מִשְׁפָּטַי תִּשְׁמְרוּ, וַעֲשִׂיתֶם אֹתָם--וִישַׁבְתֶּם עַל-הָאָרֶץ, לָבֶטַח

Wherefore ye shall do My statutes, and keep Mine ordinances and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety. (sorry about the Old Tyme translations. I get them from Mechon Mamre who got them from the JPS in 1917.)

Commenting on this verse, Netziv writes,

הוא הטעם והסיבה מה שנדרש בשני היובל להגדיל תורה, דשמירת הארץ מאוה"ע הוא ע"י אנשי חיל היושבים על הספר, וביובל אין אנשי חיל חמושים למלחמה שהרי כל א' שב לאחזותו ולמשפחתו, וא"כ יש סכנה בישיבת הארץ, שנית דלשמירת הארץ נדרש שיהיה אוצרות המלך במבצרים כדכתיב בדה"ב י"א כ"ג, ויובל הבא אחר שנה שביעית כבר האוצרות מתרקנות, מש"ה הזהיר הכתוב "ועשיתם את חקתי וגו'", ופלפולה של תורה היא חרבם של ישראל, והיא המוספת שמירת המדינה, וכל מה שהמלחמה יותר מסוכנת יש לחדד יותר החרב...

This is the understanding and the reason for the fact that during the years of Yovel we must increase [our study of] Torah, for the guarding of the Land from the nations of the world is through the warriors who sit over their books. And during the Yovel year, there are no warriors armed for war, for each and every person returned to his property and his family, and if so there is a danger to the settlement of the Land. Secondly, in order to guard the Land this requires that the coffers of the king be full...and during the Yovel year, which comes after the Shemittah year the coffers have already been emptied. For this reason the verse warns us, "And you shall do my statutes.." and the battle of Torah is the sword of Israel, and adds to the security of the State. And the greater the danger in war, the more we must sharpen this sword.

Some fight with their swords. Others fight with their books. I guess the question is, do they see it that way?

Parshat Behar-Bechukotai - The Jewish Economy

Audio Shiur:
Parshat Behar-Bechukotai - The Jewish Economy

With Goldman Sachs' recent troubles in the news, Parshat Behar gives us a golden opportunity to evaluate economic models in the Torah. By examining the economic roles of Shemittah and Yovel in society, we come to see the pitfalls inherent in capitalism, and the nuanced economic model the Torah advocates, and also try to arrive at a greater understanding of the connection between these two mitzvot, and our presence in the Land of Israel.

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Table Talk – Bechukotai 5768 - A Danger of Chumrah

When is being machmir (stringent) not ideal? According to the Ohr Hachayyim, stringency is not appropriate when the chumrah (stringency) comes without Torah learning and knowledge.
I once knew a couple in Connecticut distant from a Torah way of life. Yet, despite the fact that they observed neither Shabbat nor kashrut nor many of the other “major” mitzvot, when their son was born, they decided not to cut his hair until he reached the age of three. When I questioned the boy’s mother about the practice, she expressed her opinion about the value of the practice as part of his religious development. I always got the feeling that she considered this minhag as an important religious practice, which in some way absolved her of the need to delve deeper into other mitzvos that the Torah actually obligated her to do.
Commenting on the connection between the first and second phrases of the parshah which state, אם בחקותי תלכו – “if you walk in my statutes”, ואת מצותי תשמרו – “and you guard my commandments”, ועשיתם אותם – “and you do them”. Why the apparent repetition? What’s the difference between walking in statutes and performing commandments?
Ohr Hachayim answers these questions based upon the advice of Rabban Gamliel found in Pirkei Avot which states that an Am Ha’aretz should not be a Chassid, meaning that someone unschooled in the intricacies of Jewish law should not try to be an overly righteous person, “to perform stringencies and maintain boundaries like the practices of the righteous.” This is because a person might, in his desire to be more strict, actually violate principles of the Torah. For this reason the Torah tells us, אם בחקותי תלכו – “if you walk in my statutes,” meaning that you delve and immerse yourself in knowledge of Torah, only then, ואת מצותי תשמרו – “and you guard my commandments” by observing chumrot that strengthen and heighten one’s observance of Torah.
I think that there’s a different danger in adhering to chumrot not required by the Torah. Sometimes people – like my friends from Connecticut - pick chumrot in an area that appeals to them in an effort to avoid – or at least emotionally absolve themselves from observing halachot they want to avoid. The value of chumrah (stringency) in Jewish law – and there is great value in maintaining stringency – comes only when that strictness stems from a deep knowledge of the halachah and a desire to use greater observance to come closer to God.
Question for discussion: Can you think of another way that one’s Chumrah might unintentionally lead him or her to violate the Torah?

Table Talk - Behar-Bechukosai 5767

If you were born after 1950, you probably don't know what it means to be hungry. Sure, we've all fasted on Tisha B'av and Yom Kippur. But that's not real hunger; it's delayed eating. While we might not eat until after sundown, we know that we'll have a nice filling meal waiting for us at the end of the fast. Put simply, we live in a time of such prosperity that most of us cannot remember not having enough food to eat.
Contrasting this reality with the blessings we find in our parshah can help us appreciate what we already have. At the beginning of Parshas Bechukosai, God guarantees His people great blessing should we follow the commandments of the Torah meticulously. Among those blessings God promises that, - ואכלתם לחמכם לשבע - "and you shall eat bread to satiation." (26:5) Basically, you'll have enough to eat that you'll actually be full.
While we in our generation find that blessing hard to appreciate, throughout much of world history, simply having enough to eat sufficed to fulfill most people's dreams - and blessings. If nothing else, understanding the meaning of the blessing then -- and how we take it for granted now -- gives us a new appreciation for the prosperity that God blesses us with today.