Beloved Friends,
This week we conclude our reading of the book of Leviticus for 5783 with the two portions, Behar and Bechukotai. The double portion seems right to me as Cathy and I just found out that we are going to be grandparents of twins! Jacob, our eldest son, and his wife Elana shared this fantastic news with us last Thursday.
I remember vividly when Jacob was born how amazing and terrifying it was to leave the hospital with this new life and no clue our lives would be forever changed. The movement from feeling settled into a particular groove to being completely uprooted was dramatic, to say the least.
The second of this week’s Torah portions, Bechukotai, speaks to the balance we must strike between rooted and settled in the groove, and the uprootedness that comes with change.
Lev. 26:3 אם־בחקתי תלכו…”if you walk in my rules, and keep my commandments…”
To walk in God’s rules is a challenging phrase. As with most Hebrew words, חק, chok, has many meanings in addition to rule or law, חק, chok, can also mean carve or engrave.
There is recognition that we have much to learn didactically and experientially. Judaism embraces and promotes lifelong learning. Each year we end and begin a new cycle of Torah reading. We are encouraged to continually wrestle new meaning from the text that is applicable to and resonates with our contemporary selves.
And yet, there is also so much that challenges what we learn in our experience of the world. Rabbi Harold Kushner, of blessed memory, wrote a book about his uprootedness when his 3-year-old son was diagnosed with an incurable disease and passed away just after his 14th birthday. All of the Torah that Rabbi Kushner had learned and taught was suddenly of no use to him. That is when he turned inward to that which was written/engraved upon his heart. The prophet Jeremiah (31:33) spoke to this as he revealed the word of God:
נתתי את־תורתי בקרבם ועל־לבם אכתבנה
“I have placed my Torah within them and engraved it upon their hearts.”
Rabbi Kushner was able to, in a sense, get his groove back from tracking what was etched upon his heart. He understood the right question was not, “Why?” but rather “How do I move forward and what meaning will I derive from this tragic loss?” Only then was he able to reclaim the Torah learning with new and deeper meaning.
So, it is with us in this world. Mass shootings, political strife, world pandemic, war, and genocide unmoor us! Untethered we must turn within to find the wisdom and have the strength to fashion meaning that then helps us look outward to engage and work for change. God says, “If you walk in my laws /my paths…” goodness will follow. Or better, you will be able to again see the goodness and blessing that is still there.
May this Shabbat find us finding the groove within to work for a better world for all.
Shabbat Shalom,
