Parshat Behar-Bechukotai

2002

This Land is God's Land

This week, we close the book of Leviticus by reading the final two portions, B'har and B'chukotai. We learn in B'har that we must observe the laws of shmitah, allowing the land to observe a sabbath every seventh year just as people do each week. Furthermore, a yovel, or jubilee, occurs every fiftieth year in which land is returned to its owner and slaves are freed. Lest we think that after years of tilling the ground, we humans are the owners of the land, God clearly states, "the land is Mine; you are but strangers resident with Me." [Leviticus 25:23] What will happen if we don't remember this? What are the consequences of disobeying God's laws concerning the land?

The final portion of Leviticus, B'chukotai, unequivocally provides the answer with verses that are reminiscent of the second paragraph after the recitation of the Shema: "If you follow My laws and faithfully observe My commandments, I will grant your rains in their season, so that the earth shall yield its produce and the trees of the field their fruit." [Lev.26:3-4] "You shall give chase to your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword" [26:7] "But if you do not obey me and do not observe all these commandments... I in turn will do this to you: I will wreak misery upon you - consumption and fever, which cause the eyes to pine and the body to languish; you shall sow your seed to no purpose, for your enemies shall eat it...your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit." [26:14, 16, 20]

This system of divine reward and punishment is sometimes called "retribution theology". It presupposes that any pain humans experience is the result of a divine plan. If life isn't going well, we must have deserved it. This is a powerful thread throughout the Torah, though it may not resonate with some contemporary Jewish readers. Some believe that such a theology served to exonerate God since asking, "Why do righteous people suffer?" introduced unsolvable theological quandaries. This manner of explaining pain in the world served to assign a meaning to suffering. Unfortunately, such passages have often been quoted throughout history to blame victims of disease for their own misfortune and to justify the actions of oppressors by pointing to the supposed moral flaws of the downtrodden. In our own recent history, the victims of the Holocaust sometimes have even been blamed for their own demise.

Your Torah Navigator

1. Sometimes we hear that, "Everything that goes around, comes around," or "As you sow, so shall you reap". Have you found this to ring true in your life? Why or why not?
2. Does the fear of divine retribution help you to behave justly in your life? If not, what does inspire you?
3. Why do you think it was so important in biblical Israel that rains fell in their proper season? Are we as dependent on rains as our ancestors were?

Is it possible to read these verses not as literal statements about divine reward and punishment but as a reminder that we do, indeed, affect our natural world with our actions? A little later in our portion, we are given a clue as to how we can understand retribution theology in contemporary, environmental terms. We read that if we do not obey the laws concerning the years of rest for the land, God will force us to grant it a sabbath. "Then shall your land make up for its sabbath years throughout the time that it is desolate... it shall observe the rest that it did not observe while you were dwelling upon it." [Lev.26:34-35]

In fact, we are currently experiencing the repercussions of our actions. In many ways, we could say that the earth is rebelling against our mistreatment of it, not allowing us to reap its benefits. Judith Plaskow writes that, "if we are aware that we are embedded in a great web of life of which God is the ultimate source and sustainer, then the earth will bear fruit for us and the rain will come in its season. But if we believe we can trample on or transcend the constraints of nature... 'The earth will not grant its produce,' and both we and our world may perish." [excerpted from Lawrence Hoffman's, My People's Prayer Book, Vol.I] She and many other contemporary Jewish thinkers are reminding us of God's words near the close of the book of Leviticus, "The land is Mine; you are but strangers resident with Me".

Prepared by Rabbi Mychal Rosenbaum, Associate Director of Jewish Student Life, UCLA Hillel.