Parashat Behar-Bechukotai 5785 -24 May 2025 / 26 Iyyar 5785

Mr. Murthy Gaddi
May 22
7 min read

Divine Order, Human Responsibility, and the Covenant of Holiness

“THE COVENANT CYCLE OF BLESSING, EXILE, AND REDEMPTION: INSIGHTS FROM THE SAGES ON LEVITICUS 26”

1. Blessing for Obedience – Leviticus 26:3–13

“If you walk in My statutes…” then I will give you rain in its season…

Rashi explains “walk in My statutes” refers to toiling in Torah ( עמַל בתורה ). not merely fulfilling commandments, but engaging in their deeper study.
Sforno states that the blessings listed are not mere material benefits but serve as conditions for spiritual elevation and uninterrupted divine service.
Ramban (Nachmanides) sees this ideal state as hashra'at haShechinah – the Divine Presence dwelling among Israel when they fulfill Torah with heart and deed.

2. Seven Stages of Chastisement – Leviticus 26:14–39

Each stage escalates if Israel refuses to return through earlier warnings. The sages emphasize this is not vengeance, but Divine education and correction.

Stage 1 – Sickness, Famine, and War (26:14–17)
- Rashi: These initial afflictions reflect internal disorder (sickness) and social breakdown (enemies prevailing).
- Midrash Sifra: The punishments match the sins — ignoring Torah leads to internal and external instability.
Stage 2 – Drought and Temple Destruction (26:18–20)
- Rashi: The phrase “I will chastise you sevenfold” signifies compounded judgment.
- Ramban: The earth will not yield produce, showing a direct reversal of blessings.
Stage 3 – Wild Beasts and Loss of Children (26:21–22)
- Sifra: Beasts symbolize chaos when Israel fails to restrain the “animal” within through mitzvot.
Stage 4 – Delivered to Enemies (26:23–26)
- Rashi: Refusing to reform leads to the collapse of political sovereignty – enemies dominate.
- Chizkuni: The breaking of staff and bread points to economic and societal breakdown..
Stage 5 – Cannibalism and Desperation (26:27–32)
- Ramban: This describes exile at its darkest — siege, famine, loss of humanity. He ties this to actual events during the destructions of the First and Second Temples.
- Zohar: The breakdown of physical sustenance is a mirror of spiritual starvation.
Stage 6 – Scattering among the Nations (26:33–39)
- Rashi: Exile is the severest curse — as it represents the apparent loss of Divine closeness.
- Sforno: Yet this exile preserves Israel, allowing for eventual return – exile is not obliteration but dispersion with potential.

3. Repentance, Redemption, and Return – Leviticus 26:40–46

“Then they shall confess their sin… I will remember My covenant…”

Rashi : Confession and humility begin the process of repair; the covenant is never truly broken.
Ramban: This is a divine promise that Teshuvah (repentance) will eventually come, and Hashem will not utterly reject His people.
Sforno: The ultimate goal is tikun – restoration, not punishment. Israel’s suffering refine and reorient them to their mission.
Malbim: The remembrance of the covenant with the Patriarchs is a sign that the transcends human merit – it is eternal and irrevocable.

4. Anti-Replacement Theology Insight

Midrash Tanchuma (Parshat Bechukotai) emphasizes that even in the darkest point,“I will not cast them away”, affirming the eternal bond.
Ramban rebukes the idea that Israel could ever be replaced by another nation. The covenant is a bris olam – an everlasting bond.

5. Summary of the Covenant Cycle According to the Sages

Obedience brings dwelling of the Shechinah.
Disobedience brings measured, corrective suffering.
Each stage is a call to return, not annihilation.
Repentance is built into the system – return is inevitable.
Covenantal love is eternal, despite temporary concealment.

“ENGRAVED ON THE SOUL: THE ORAL TORAH AND THE PATH OF BECHUKOTAI – SUBMISSION, SEPARATION, AND SWEETENING IN THE SAGES’ TEACHINGS”

1. The Term "beChukotai" and the Concept of Engraving

The Zohar (Vol. 3, 115a, Parshat Bechukotai) teaches that “Chukim” derive from the word “chakika” (חקיקה), meaning engraving, implying a Torah not just read externally, but engraved upon the soul.
Rabbi Moshe Cordovero (Pardes Rimonim) notes that engraving, unlike writing with ink, becomes one with the medium—this is the essence of the Oral Torah, which becomes internalized through ongoing study, repetition, and application in real-life halachic decisions.

2. Why Oral Torah Is Necessary – Sages, Not Personal Understanding

Devarim (Deut.) 17:11 commands, “According to the Torah that they [the judges] will teach you, do not turn aside…”
- Rashi here writes: “Even if they tell you that left is right and right is left—you must obey.”
- The Rambam (Hilchot Mamrim 1:1) explains this as the foundation of the authority of the Sanhedrin, which represents the legitimate interpretive voice of the Torah.
Mishlei (Proverbs) 3:5: “Do not rely on your own understanding.”
- The Vilna Gaon teaches this includes Torah as well; without the transmission from Torah shebe’al Peh, one's understanding becomes subjective and distorted.

3. The Role of Oral Torah – Revealing What’s Hidden

The Baal Shem Tov and his student the Maggid of Mezritch taught that the Written Torah is like "black fire on white fire" (Zohar 3:132a), but without the Oral Torah, it is sealed.
- Oral Torah reveals Sod (the hidden mystical dimension) even within Halacha.
- Torah shebe’al Peh is dynamic and generative; it allows for the continued life and application of the Torah in every generation.

4. The Baal Shem Tov’s Threefold Spiritual Path – Submission, Separation, Sweetening

Submission (הכנעה) – Recognizing the limits of one’s own knowledge and submitting to the sages, the carriers of the Oral Tradition.
- As taught in Tanya (Iggeret HaKodesh), the tzaddikim are the conduits of Divine light, and we receive Torah through their chain of transmission (mesorah).
Separation (הבדלה) – Learning to discern between the different dimensions of Torah: Peshat, Remez, Drash, and Sod.
- This is the function of the Oral Torah: separating and categorizing the law through halachic discourse (Gemara), and distinguishing purity from impurity, permitted from forbidden.
Sweetening (המתקה) – Once one is grounded in tradition, then comes the creative insight.
- Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin: True chidushim (new Torah insights) emerge only after one becomes deeply embedded in the received tradition.
- This leads to the "sweetness of Torah"—the internal joy and connection when one becomes a living Torah.

5. Torah Entrusted to a Community

The Midrash Tanchuma (Bechukotai 1) teaches: “When Israel fulfills the Torah together, they are likened to one body and the Shechinah dwells among them.”
Pirkei Avot 6:6: The Torah is acquired through 48 qualities, many of which involve communal interaction, humility, and transmission from teacher to student.
Zohar (Vol. 2, 161a): The Shechinah rests where there are ten engaged in Torah study – this communal model is the bedrock ofTorah shebe’al Peh.

6. Refutation of Karaite/Protestant-Style Rejection of Oral Torah

Chasam Sofer (Drashot): The claim “only written Scripture” is a denial of the very Torah they claim to uphold, because even basic mitzvot like Tefillin, Shabbat laws, and Kashrut cannot be kept without Oral interpretation.
Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra writes that without Oral Torah, the Written Torah is “sealed with seven seals.”
Rambam (Introduction to Mishneh Torah): All of Jewish law, even those that seem obvious, are based on Oral transmission going back to Sinai – "Moshe received Torah at Sinai… and transmitted it."

7. Final Insight – Engraving Torah on the Heart

Jeremiah 31:32–33: “I will put My Torah within them, and upon their hearts will I write it.”
- Zohar (Vol. 3, 73a) sees this as the ultimate fulfillment of “beChukotai” – where the Torah becomes fully internal, not just external observance.
- Chassidut (Sefat Emet, Bechukotai): True freedom comes when Torah becomes your very identity—not imposed, but engraved upon the heart through love and awe.

Summary in Chassidic-Kabbalistic Terms

beChukotai = Torah engraved on the soul through Oral Torah
Oral Torah = the channel to actualize Divine will in each generation
Chukim = laws beyond reason, internalized through submission and refinement
True Torah life = a journey from receiving to revealing, but never without the chain of Mesorah (tradition)
Community over Individual = Torah becomes living and unified only in sacred transmission

The Mountain of G-d, the Mishkan, and the Holiness of the Land: Insights from the Jewish Sages

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