Parashat HaShavua - BeChukotai
“I will grant peace in the land - וְנָֽתַתִּ֤י שָׁלוֹם֙ בָּאָ֔רֶץ”
It is hard to imagine a chapter describing our greatest tefillot and our greatest fears more vividly than the one that opens BeChukotai this week. Here, at the end of Sefer VaYikra, after the many important details and discussions about kedushah, the Torah, it would seem, returns to basics. What do we want our daily lives to be like? What are our most essential needs?
We are first reassured by God that “I will give your rains in their time, the Land will yield its produce, and the tree of the field will give its fruit / וְנָֽתַתִּ֥י גִשְׁמֵיכֶ֖ם בְּעִתָּ֑ם וְנָֽתְנָ֤ה הָאָ֨רֶץ֙ יְבוּלָ֔הּ וְעֵ֥ץ הַשָּׂדֶ֖ה יִתֵּ֥ן פִּרְיֽוֹ.” (Lev. 26:4) We need food! As Ramban (Spain/Israel 1194-1270) explains, “when all are physically hearty and healthy, they can exist like in the days of Adam; thus this is the greatest of all blessings/ כי בהיות הגופים גדולים ובריאים יתקיימו כימי האדם והנה היא גדולה שבברכות.”
Rashi, however, has a different view of what is most important. After the promise of food, God tells us, “I will grant peace in the Land / ve’natati shalom ba’aretz / וְנָֽתַתִּ֤י שָׁלוֹם֙ בָּאָ֔רֶץ.” (Lev. 26:6) According to Rashi, quoting Sifra 1:8, “The Torah says after all that [about food], ‘I will grant peace in the Land,’ because peace is equal to everything else / תַּלְמוּד לוֹמָר אַחַר כָּל זֹאת ׳וְנָתַתִּי שָׁלוֹם בָּאָרֶץ׳; מִכָּאן שֶׁהַשָּׁלוֹם שָׁקוּל כְּנֶגֶד הַכֹּל." Ibn Ezra (Spain 1089-1167) understands this peace to be “among you / ביניכם,” within the Jewish people, as Ramban explains further “that no one shall fight against a brother / שיהיה שלום ביניכם ולא תלחמו איש באחיו.”
This is surely a meaningful tefillah for today. And in a way that also resonates today, the Malbim (Ukraine 1809-79) explains this passage more expansively: “After God promised them the blessing, God will promise the vessel that holds blessing, which is peace, which holds all the blessings; peace includes all the good things that exist in reality, while evil is the separation and conflict that exists / אחר שהבטיח להם הברכה, יבטיח על הכלי המחזיק ברכה שהיא השלום, שהיא מחזיק כל הברכות. כי השלום כולל כל הטובות אשר במציאות שהרע היא הפירוד וההתנגדות אשר למציאות.”
If “ve’natati shalom ba’aretz” sounds familiar, it is because we include it in our tefillah for the State of Israel: “May you grant peace in the land, and the happiness of the world to its inhabitants / וְנָתַתָּ שָׁלוֹם בָּאָרֶץ, וְשִׂמְחַת עוֹלָם לְיושְׁבֶיהָ.” There, however, the second phrase is very different from the phrase that follows in the original pasuk, which is, “and you shall lie down untroubled by anyone / וּשְׁכַבְתֶּ֖ם וְאֵ֣ין מַחֲרִ֑יד.” Why might this change have been made? What is the difference between an assurance in the Torah that we will not be troubled and a request in our tefillah for the happiness of the world upon Israel’s inhabitants?
In the Torah, the concern for safety seems very local, a reference to peace in the land followed by a reference to being untroubled. As the pasuk continues, that local focus continues as well, as God further says, “I will give the land respite from wild beasts, and no sword shall pass through your land / וְהִשְׁבַּתִּי חַיָּ֤ה רָעָה מִן־הָאָרֶץ וְחֶרֶב לֹא־תַעֲבֹר בְּאַרְצְכֶם.” (Lev. 24:6) We also see that most of the pasuk is about protection from the negative, from fear and physical threats.
By contrast, our tefillah follows up the request for peace with something positive, happiness. And instead of being local, the language is globally ambitious, seeking “the happiness of the world.” I think this can mean two different things. Perhaps, we are asking that the world be happy with us, a variation on the idea that we are a “light to the nations / לְאוֹר גּוֹיִם.” (Is. 49:6) Or, perhaps, we are asking to experience a world of happiness, as in, a tremendous amount of happiness. Either way, what an incredible tefillah, as we can truly feel the need for both today.
However, there is one important caveat to all of the above, one aspect of this parashah that cannot be overlooked: we are told at the outset that a precondition of God’s beneficence is, “if you follow My laws and faithfully observe My commandments / אִם־בְּחֻקֹּתַ֖י תֵּלֵ֑כוּ וְאֶת־מִצְותַ֣י תִּשְׁמְר֔וּ וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם אֹתָֽם.” (Lev. 26:3) But “if you reject My laws and spurn My rules / וְאִם־בְּחֻקֹּתַ֣י תִּמְאָ֔סוּ וְאִ֥ם אֶת־מִשְׁפָּטַ֖י תִּגְעַ֣ל נַפְשְׁכֶ֑ם” (Lev. 26:15), God says, “I will turn against you / וְנָתַתִּ֤י פָנַי֙ בָּכֶ֔ם.” (Lev. 26:17) The possible consequences of the wrong choice are horrible – so horrible that we read them in a hushed and hurried tone. Finally, at the end of the perek, we are told that Bnei Yisrael will eventually reach the point when they “admit their sins and their ancestors’ sins / וְהִתְוַדוּ אֶת־עֲונָם וְאֶת־עֲון אֲבתָם” (Lev. 26:40). Then, at long last, God “will remember My covenant with Jacob; I will also remember My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham; and I will remember the land / וְזָכַרְתִּי אֶת־בְּרִיתִי יַעֲקוֹב וְאַף אֶת־בְּרִיתִי יִצְחָ֜ק וְאַף אֶת־בְּרִיתִ֧י אַבְרָהָם אֶזְכֹּר וְהָאָרֶץ אֶזְכֹּר” (Lev. 26:42).
The purpose in making this last point is not to endorse a strictly biblical or linear understanding of divine reward and punishment. It does not seem to me that anybody can, or should, attempt to understand God’s ways. Rather, it is to say: we have choices to make. And when we make our choices, let us make them with the intention of increasing peace in the land – in Israel, wherever we live, in the world. May those choices sustain us and bring us health, may they protect us, may they bring us greater peace within our communities and outside of them, and may they somehow bring ever increasing happiness to the world.
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Jack Nahmod
Middle School Judaic Studies Head
Rabbinic Advisor