Parashat B’hukotai
Unifying
Towards Redemption
We can achieve
redemption only when striving for unity, holiness, and justice.
By David Frankel
The following article is reprinted with permission from
the UJA-Federation of New York.
Prominent among the themes of the parashiyot (Torah
portions) between Pesach (Passover) and Shavuot (Feast of Weeks) is the
insistence that our community be built on a solid foundation of holiness and
justice. This theme was articulated at great length in the "holiness
code" (Leviticus 19) of Parashat Kedoshim. It also was expressed in
Parashat Emor, with its instructions to look after the needs of the poor in our
community (Leviticus 23:22). This week, in the culmination of the Book of Leviticus,
we once again encounter a strong emphasis on the theme of holiness and justice.
Parashat B'hukotai, the last portion in Leviticus, focuses
in part on the consequences of a lack of holiness and justice. This reading
contains a series of blessings and curses that portend the rewards and
punishments that will be meted out on the Jewish people in direct proportion to
their observance of the Torah. Strikingly, the section of curses consists of
exactly 49 verses--so too, the counting of the Omer, the semi-mourning
period between Pesach and Shavuot, consists of 49 days. This passage warns of
the destruction of the land, the destruction of the nation, and the potential
for Jewish exile.
What may be most disturbing in this section of B'hukotai is
the utter absence of any mention of the rapprochement between G-d and the
Jewish people that would end the horrific exile and usher in the messianic age.
In a different place, near its very end, the Torah states a promise of
redemption after exile: "The L-rd your G-d will restore you from your
captivity when [or "if"] you will return to your G-d"
(Deuteronomy 30:2).
In contrast, Parashat B'hhukotai, in lieu of the promise of
ultimate redemption, seems to offer us solace in the form of G-d's remembrance
of the covenants He made with our forefathers: "I will remember My
covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with
Abraham, and I will remember My land" (Leviticus 26:42).
A careful reader of the Hebrew text can discover a clue to
this mysterious lack of "redemption language" in the unusual spelling
of Yaakov (Jacob) in this verse. Here, as in only four other locations
throughout the entire Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), the Hebrew letter vav
is included in the name to represent the "o" sound of Yaak-o-v.
According to the great medieval commentator Rashi, these
five instances of a variant spelling of Yaakov, with the additional vav,
correspond to the five times in the Tanakh when the name Eliyahu
(Elijah, the prophet who is seen as heralding the messiah's coming) is written
without a vav. Rashi explains that these linguistic anomalies suggest that
Jacob "took" a letter from Elijah's name as a "collateral,"
so that Elijah would be sure to come and herald the redemption of Jacob's
descendants.
Why is the divine promise of redemption, of an ultimate
"sabbatical world" of holiness and justice, suggested by a vav, and
not some other letter? In his commentary on the Book of Leviticus, Rav Dovid
Feinstein, a contemporary scholar and teacher, reflects on the literal meaning
of vav.
In the Torah passage on the building of the mishkan
(desert sanctuary), vavim (plural of vav) are the connecting hooks that
linked the curtains to the poles that supported them. Thus, the letter vav
represents that which connects one thing to another. To put it another way: the
vav represents the unity that is achieved when all elements are working
together to achieve a common purpose.
In terms of the fate of the Jewish people, the rabbinic
sages believed that the Jews' great exile after the destruction of the Second
Temple in 70 CE was caused by the senseless hatred that they had felt toward
each other. This intra-Jewish divisiveness and rancor can only be fully
reversed when we reacquire the type of unity that characterized the Jews, who
were "one people with one heart" when they received the Torah on
Mount Sinai, the occasion that Shavuot celebrates.
According to a mishnah (passage) in Tractate Eduyot
of the Talmud, in heralding the end of the exile, Elijah will also come to
bring peace and unity among the Jews. Perhaps this is why G-d specifically took
a vav from Elijah's name. It is as if G-d were saying that Elijah should hurry
to reunite the people of Israel and thereby put an end to our generations of
exile.
As we count the last few days until Shavuot, perhaps we
would all do well to examine how our words, deeds, and actions contribute to
the building of a Jewish community, and an American and global society. We
should seek to promote unity among Jews, and among all people, and should
infuse holiness and justice into everything we do. By acting in this way, we'd
demonstrate that we've put into practice the lessons from the Torah readings of
these past few weeks--and would bring ourselves that much closer to the
ultimate redemption that awaits us all.
David Frankel is the director of the Young Leadership
Division of UJA-Federation of New York.
