Shabbos Parashas Behar/Bechukosai - 5775

Shabbos Parashas Behar/Bechukosai - 5775

Rabbi Hal Miller

If you walk in My decrees and observe My commandments and perform them,

then I will provide your rains in their time, and the earth will give its produce.

[Vayikra 26:3-4]

Parashas Bechukosai contains the blessings and curses again. The wording in the

blessings in Hebrew makes it clear: the 'you' referred to here is in the plural form.

Why? Throughout most of the Torah, promises of blessings are made to individuals,

conditioned on their acceptance and performance of mitzvos. What is different about

this set of blessings?

First, what are these blessings? They are commonly divided into five:

- fertility of the land [26:4-5]

- peace in the land [26:6]

- victory over external enemies [26:7-8]

- Divine individual providence, meaning increase in population and economic

prosperity for the nation [26:9-10]

- dwelling of the Shechina in the midst of Israel [26:11-12]

An obvious question falls: can any one person say that one of these blessings

came because of him? One who follows the commandments is granted reward,

but that reward is generally of a spiritual nature, meaning in the World to Come.

None of our blessings here apply to that world, only to This World as we know it now.

There is something special, or at least specific, about the performance of mitzvos

by the entire nation that earns these blessings.

Who benefits from these blessings? Certainly the nation as a whole does, but so

does each and every individual. Not as an individual, but collectively. Who earns

them? The nation as a whole, based on the collective actions of each and every

individual. These rewards depend on everyone, not on each of us. There's a

difference between these two. "Each of us" looks at individuals. "Everyone" looks

at one unit, the nation united. Each of us has a responsibility to that united nation,

the single-entity, the Congregation of Israel. Without each of us doing our part, the

whole nation loses it's blessings.

But it is not our individual performance of mitzvos that brings about these blessings.

Although each of us is responsible for that individual performance, it is the performance

by the nation that earn these rewards. How can a non-human entity perform a mitzva?

An example is in verses 26:7-8. "You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall

before you by sword. Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will

pursue ten thousand." The mathematically inclined will immediately say, wait, that is

not an arithmetic progression. There aren't enough data points to determine whether

it could be a geometric progression. So what is the Torah saying?

When we band together, we are stronger. The more of us who band together, the

stronger we are, but not just in numbers alone. The larger our rate of participation in

a national event, the more Hashem descends to join us. It isn't a matter of numbers,

but of participation. When two people do something, they are roughly twice as capable

as if only one did it alone. When two Jews unite to do something, they are significantly

more than twice as capable. That grows at a huge rate, when one hundred get on the

same page, we are ten thousand times stronger. Why? Because G-d joins us, at an

increasing rate depending on how much unity we demonstrate.

The nation, as an actor here, is not the collection of individual actors. It is the

intangible willingness of all of us together to cast aside our individuality to accomplish

something grander. It is a case of self-sacrifice for the greater good.