20 Iyar, 5784 – Day 35 of the Omer

on May 28, 2024

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 20 Iyar, 5784 –Day 35 of Omer
Parsha Be-Hukkotai – “My Laws” (Leviticus 26:3 – 27:34)
Third Portion: Leviticus 26:10 – 26:46

Good morning! Today we are wrapping up the week’s theme of the Omer – we look at the “Dignity of Humility”

From Chabad:

Walking humbly is walking tall. Dignity is the essence of humility and modesty. The splendor of humility is majestic and aristocratic. Humility that suppresses the human spirit and denies individual sovereignty is not humility at all. Does my humility make me feel dignified? Do I feel alive and vibrant?

Exercise for the day: Teach someone how humility and modesty enhance human dignity

I go back to the definition of Dignity: “the state or quality of being worthy of honor or respect.”

The idea of being worthy and honor of respect being the foundation of humility is important. There is a major difference between humility and self-depreciation. It is the foundation of dignity that separates these two concepts. How can we approach today with humility from a place of dignity?

Let’s shift to today’s portion. The question as we approach the text today is our foundation. Do we believe we are “worthy of honor or respect?” Then our approach to the text today will land differently than believing we are NOT worthy. I wrote this a year ago, and it feels salient:

Before we dig in; we can look at what is to come as a threat. We can see it as natural consequences as to how Hashem created the earth. The choice in how we approach this says a lot about our perception of Hashem. When a parent says “if you touch the hot stove, you will get burned” that isn’t seen as a threat. Do we approach these mitzvahs in the same manner?

Let’s dig in:

10You will eat very old [produce], and you will clear out the old from before the new.

Remember – this is connected to yesterday. We ended the portion with:

6And I will grant peace in the Land, and you will lie down with no one to frighten [you]; I will remove wild beasts from the Land, and no army will pass through your land;

7You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you;

8Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.

9I will turn towards you, and I will make you fruitful and increase you, and I will set up My covenant with you.

Peace in the Land.
Victory over those who decide to be our enemies. Security.
Fruitful and increased in abundance

The Torah is telling us, we will be NEW. And this “newness” will result in:

11And I will place My dwelling in your midst, and My Spirit will not reject you;

12I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people.

13I am the Lord, your God, Who took you out of the land of Egypt from being slaves to them; and I broke the pegs of your yoke and led you upright.

So I go back to Genesis. The Garden. Hashem walked with Adam and Chavah. Hashem is showing us we are WORTHY – now that we KNOW good and evil – and we made that choice? He is showing us we are STILL worthy. We have to flow with Hashem’s creation because that is how we were designed!

And. If we don’t?

14But if you do not listen to Me and do not perform all these commandments,

15and if you despise My statutes and reject My ordinances, not performing any of My commandments, thereby breaking My covenant

16then I too, will do the same to you; I will order upon you shock, consumption, fever, and diseases that cause hopeless longing and depression. You will sow your seed in vain, and your enemies will eat it.

17I will set My attention against you, and you will be smitten before your enemies. Your enemies will rule over you; you will flee, but no one will be pursuing you.

This isn’t a threat I think. This is the natural consequences. Hashem has set up sanctuary for us here. If we choose to go on our own way? We are going to be outside his protection. Hashem goes further:

18And if, during these, you will not listen to Me, I will add another seven punishments for your sins:

19I will break the pride of your strength and make your skies like iron and your land like copper.

20Your strength will be expended in vain; your land will not yield its produce, neither will the tree of the earth give forth its fruit.

21And if you treat Me as happenstance, and you do not wish to listen to Me, I will add seven punishments corresponding to your sins:

22I will incite the wild beasts of the field against you, and they will bereave you, utterly destroy your livestock and diminish you, and your roads will become desolate.

23And if, through these, you will still not be chastised [to return] to Me, and if you [continue to] treat Me happenstance,

Hashem gives us a chance here, right? He is going to “punish” us – like a parent disciplining their child. Consequences will ramp up if we don’t listen.

Why? What is Hashem’s motive? Does he get pleasure out of this? Or is He desiring us to be with Him?

If we treat Hashem as “happenstance” (which means “a circumstance especially that is due to chance”)…then…

24Then I too, will treat you as happenstance. I will again add seven punishments for your sins:

In a sense – if we treat Hashem – the Universe – Source – God – whatever name you want? If we treat Hashem as just random chance? We will reap that decision. We will decide to enter into a random drawing and our lives with be completely by chance. This is not what Hashem wants. He desires us to see our worth. Our value. Our dignity. And. He’s not done with us, even if we treat Him by chance…

25I will bring upon you an army that avenges the avenging of a covenant, and you will gather into your cities. I will incite the plague in your midst, and you will be delivered into the enemy’s hands,

26when I break for you the staff of bread, and ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will bring back your bread by weight, and you will eat, yet not be satisfied.

27And if, despite this, you still do not listen to Me, still treating Me as happenstance,

Again, It would seem we are currently treating Hashem as “happenstance” and the way Hashem designed the world is returning us this decision:

28I will treat you with a fury of happenstance, adding again seven [chastisements] for your sins:

29You will eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters you will eat.

30I will demolish your edifices and cut down your sun idols; I will make your corpses [fall] upon the corpses of your idols, and My Spirit will reject you.

31I will lay your cities waste and make your holy places desolate, and I will not partake of your pleasant fragrances.

32I will make the Land desolate, so that it will become desolate [also] of your enemies who live in it.

33And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you. Your land will be desolate, and your cities will be laid waste.

34Then, the land will be appeased regarding its sabbaticals. During all the days that it remains desolate while you are in the land of your enemies, the Land will rest and thus appease its sabbaticals.

35It will rest during all the days that it remains desolate, whatever it had not rested on your sabbaticals, when you lived upon it.

Basically, the land will have its’ rest regardless of what we do.

36And those of you who survive I will bring fear in their hearts in the lands of their enemies, and the sound of a rustling leaf will pursue them; they will flee as one flees the sword, and they will fall, but there will be no pursuer.

37Each man will stumble over his brother, [fleeing] as if from the sword, but without a pursuer. You will not be able to stand up against your enemies.

38You will become lost among the nations, and the land of your enemies will consume you.

39And because of their iniquity, those of you who survive will rot away in the lands of your enemies; moreover, they will rot away because the iniquities of their fathers are still within them.

This would seem to be where we are today, right? And? Hashem is gracious. He continues to give us chances. We treat Hashem as happenstance because the iniquities of our fathers are still within us.

40They will then confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers their betrayal that they dealt Me, and that they also treated Me as happenstance.

41Then I too, will treat them as happenstance and bring them [back while] in the land of their enemies. If then, their clogged heart becomes humbled, then, [their sufferings] will gain appeasement for their iniquity,

42and I will remember My covenant [with] Jacob, and also My covenant [with] Isaac, and also My covenant [with] Abraham I will remember. And I will remember the Land,

43[For] the Land will be bereft of them, appeasing its sabbaticals when it had been desolate of them, and they will gain appeasement for their iniquity. This was all in retribution for their having despised My ordinances and in retribution for their having rejected My statutes.

And here it is. Generations will go, and treat Hashem as happenstance.

“If their clogged heart becomes humbled.” This resonates with me deeply as this is LITERALLY what happened to me in 2016. I had a heart attack. I was humbled in my arrogance. I fully treated Hashem as happenstance for a long time. And it was time for me to recognize that none of this is chance. Hashem created us. He works ALL THINGS for our good. Sometimes that is revealed in a moment – other times it takes a while. And – even when we see Hashem as happenstance? He STILL loves us:

44But despite all this, while they are in the land of their enemies, I will not despise them nor will I reject them to annihilate them, thereby breaking My covenant that is with them, for I am the Lord their God.

45I will remember for them the covenant [made with] the ancestors, whom I took out from the land of Egypt before the eyes of the nations, to be a God to them. I am the Lord.

46These are the statutes, the ordinances, and the laws that the Lord gave between Himself and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai, by the hand of Moses.

Wow. Even when we are treating Hashem like a random chance. He will not despise us. Or reject us. Or annihilate us.

Friends. The Torah is a loving and kind document – a love letter – and it has been experienced as nothing but oppression and judgment. That is not what I continue to read in this.

We get to decide.

Are we worthy of dignity? Is Hashem worthy of dignity?

Is Hashem directing and loving us? Or is it all happenstance?

These two questions are crucial for how our lives will go.

These are my thoughts. What are yours?

Here are my thoughts from two years ago:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 23 Iyar, 5782

Today is the 38th day of the Omer!

Ok friends, buckle up because todays portion is long!

Todays portion starts with produce. The Torah tells us to eat matured produce; which the Torah says will taste better than fresh produce – and because the storehouses are full, eating Mature produce will make room for new produce. Win. Win.

So for the past few days, we’ve been learning about what happens when we follow God’s commands and do the mitzvahs. Today? The rest of what we will study is what happens when we don’t.

Let’s dig in.

The Torah says if;

We do not listen to Hashem
Do not perform the mitzvahs
If This leads to people believing those who do keep mitzvahs disgusting
If this leads to hating Torah scholars who study the mitzvahs
If this leads to stopping others from performing mitzvahs
If we deny that these are Hashem’s mitzvahs at all
And eventually we break Hashem’s covenant…

Then the consequences will be:

Hashem will do the same to us
He will direct upon us:
Panic
Inflammation
Fever
Diseases that cause hopeless longing for a cure
Sowing seed in vain
We will be struck down by our enemies
We will flee from terror but no one will pursue us

Ok. Let’s stop for a minute because Rabbi Schneerson has some interesting thoughts on #2 above:

In truth, these are nothing but blessings. While openly, these verses speak of the very opposite of blessing, there nevertheless exists an inner, subconscious element of the Torah, at which level we read here only of blessings. Through the study of Hasidic teachings, which reveal the subconscious aspects of the soul, we can reach a sublime union with God, at which point we will be able to see through the “disguise” in which these blessings are enclosed and appreciate them for their true worth (Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Iyady, 18′ century).

The notion that a sublime blessing may be expressed through negative language is not of uniquely Hasidic origin, it is found in the Babylonian Talmud (Moed Katan 9a-b). When Rabbi Simeon son of Yohai sent his son, Rabbi Eleazar, to receive blessings from two of the Sages (Rabbi Jonathan son of Asmai and Rabbi Judah son of Gerim), they responded with what appeared to be a series of curses: “May it be God’s will that you will sow and not reap. That what you bring in will not go out, and what you take out will not come in. That your house will be desolate and your temporary lodgings inhabited. That your table will be disturbed, and that you will not see a new year.”

When Rabbi Eleazar came home and reported what had happened, his father explained:

These are all blessings! “You will sow and not reap” means that you will have children and they will not die.

“What you bring in will not go out,” means that you will bring home daughters-in-law and your sons will not die, so that their wives will not leave again.

“What you take out will not come in,” means that you will give your daughters in marriage and their husbands will not die, so that your daughters need not come back.

“Your house will be desolate and your temporary lodgings inhabited” because this world is your “temporary lodging” and the next world is a “home.”

“Your table will be disturbed,” by sons and daughters.

“You will not see a new year” means that your wife will not die and so you will not have to take another wife

Similarly, all the verses in the admonition belie very lofty blessings- blessings so sublime that they could not be expressed straightforwardly. (End quote).

Wow. I’m chewing on this. How does the negative get turned positive????? Yet it does make sense here!

Ok, back to the passage.

The Torah keeps going. If we still don’t listen while the above is happening, there will be a further (second set of) seven consequences:

Hashem will destroy the holy temple
The skies will be as dry as an iron, causing a drought
The land will exude moisture like copper causing fruits to rot

We will work hard on the land but our strength will be in vain
Land will not yield produce
Earth won’t give nourishment to the trees
The trees that do give fruit will not give their fruit to us as they will fall to the ground and rot.

Then if we STILL don’t listen, there are 7 more (third set of) consequences

Instead of listing them out, they are all about wild animals.

And then if we STILL don’t listen, there will be 7 more (4th set of) consequences – dealing with our cities, and major conflicts

And again; seven more (5th set of) consequences: desolating the land completely.

And the Torah explains this- basically if we don’t give the land rest, it will naturally go to a state of rest. This isn’t a judgment with a cosmic hammer per se; it’s the consequence for not following the mitzvahs!

And for those who survive? They will live in fear. We will become lost among the nations.

And still Hashem loves us. There is hope.

Because THEN even after all of that, verse 26:42 says “but I will remember My covenant….”

Once the land atones by making up the sabbatical years we’ve lost? We will be atones for our sins.

All of this was the consequences of not paying attention to Hashem’s rational and suprarational commands.

Hashem closes the portion today and says “despite all the consequences, while they are in their enemies land, I will not despise them and become disgusted by them.”

So even in the worst situation, we will not be completely destroyed.

Whew. This is a lot to take in. What are your thoughts?

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