Shabbat Parashat Bechukotai - 5784

Shabbat Parashat Bechukotai - 5784

Rabbi Hal Miller

  But also, even though there is this, while they are in the land of their enemies, I will not

  have been abhorred by them nor will I have rejected them to obliterate them, to annul

  My covenant with them, for I am Hashem their God. [Vayikra 26:44]

In our verse, God states that even though the people will in the future breach the covenant,

He will still not reject them nor destroy them. This clearly answers the claims of other religions

that purport to have replaced the Jewish people as God's chosen. But in verse 11, God

said pretty much the same thing, "and My Soul will not purge itself of you". What is the

need to repeat it? We could say that it gives the non-Jews two opportunities to learn

that, while they can be good in God's eyes, there is no opportunity for them to replace the

Jews. But the Torah presumably intended something more than that.

Rashi discusses verse 11 in which God states, "'I will place My Tabernacle among you and

My Spirit is not disgusted by you.' Any form of the word g'ilah means expelling something

that has been absorbed by something." Ramban disagrees with Rashi's logic, saying that

verse 11 is what God will do when we cooperate, and our verse is the opposite, the difference

being the existence of the Temple. Ramban says that for Rashi's view, the verse would have

said that God would not abhor us when we followed his commandments, not when we fail to

do so. He brings instead our verse and Nechemiah [9:18] to prove Rashi's point about not

expelling the Jews from His chosen status.

Malbim explains verse 11 as applying in the end of time, that God will again place Israel

in the position of chosen. This would imply that he would view our verse that the same status

applies now.

What is the covenant that our verse says will not be annulled? Verse 11 says that God will

not purge His soul of us, but our verse specifies that something will not be annulled. Or HaChayim

asks this question directly and answers, "This is the covenant not to exchange the Jewish people

for another nation. It is the deeper meaning of the words 'for I am the Lord their God'." Rav

Soloveitchik explains, "The covenant is a contract, has no emotional context, and is not lessened

over time." This refers to the rejecting and annihilating mentioned in the verse. Why would there

be a lessening over time? Many refer to the idea that early in our national career, sins were

forgiven in the merit of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, and postulate that the merit of those

patriarchs has been used up by now. In Shabbat [55a], Rabbeinu Tam in the Tosafot explains

that God's original promises to the patriarchs included two parts, one in their merit, which is

temporary, and a second in His covenant, which our verse reiterates is permanent. In the days

of Yechezkel, the patriarchs' merit was used up, but the covenant will never be annulled.

Per Rabbeinu Tam we could read verse 11 as applying in the days when the merit of the

patriarchs still existed. Our verse then covers the portion of history following the exhausting

of that merit.