Dear TBZ community:
In the well-known story about a person who dies and goes to heaven, and upon arriving the person stands in front of the Throne of God and says: I am very angry at you! Can’t you see that the world you created is filled with suffering, ugliness and destruction? Why don't you do something to fix the world’s mess?
God looks down at the person, and with a gentle voice says: “I did something, I sent you.”
Often in times of tragedy and pain, people ask about God’s role. Did God cause that to happen? Why did God allow suffering to happen? Why didn’t God do anything about it? Adults and seasoned people who have experienced a long life with ups and downs and little kids ask these same questions. Why did God create the coronavirus?
There is so much to say about how we understand God and God’s role in our life and in the world, and that can not be written in a one page Shabbat message, but for me an answer to these questions is this story. Human beings were created in the image of God and we were sent to the world to do something. What we do is upon each one of us, and the choices we make reside in our capacity to see ourselves as messengers of God’s presence in the world.
This week we read
Parshiot
Behar-Bechukotai
. Parshat
Bechukotai
addresses blessings for obeying the law and curses for disobeying it. If you do good, you will be blessed, and if you do not do good, you won’t be blessed, you will be cursed.
The parasha begins with:
Leviticus 26:3
אִם־בְּחֻקֹּתַ֖י תֵּלֵ֑כוּ וְאֶת־מִצְוֺתַ֣י תִּשְׁמְר֔וּ וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם אֹתָֽם׃
If you follow My laws and faithfully observe My commandments,
And follows with
Leviticus 26:14
וְאִם־לֹ֥א תִשְׁמְע֖וּ לִ֑י וְלֹ֣א תַעֲשׂ֔וּ אֵ֥ת כָּל־הַמִּצְוֺ֖ת הָאֵֽלֶּה׃
But if you do not obey Me and do not observe all these commandments,
The list that follows this verse is known as the תוכחות, -
tochechot -
which means Rebuke.
I don’t believe that every time something bad happens it is a result of bad behaviors, or that the concept of of
שכר ועונש - Sachar va onesh
“reward and punishment” is applicable, particularly in cases of illness and natural catastrophe and definitely not as the answer of why COVID 19 exists. The truth is that there is no good answer to why bad things happen.
On the other hand we try to teach our children that they have responsibilities and that there are consequences to their actions. If they fail to put away a toy, the toy may get stepped on and break. If they choose to avoid their homework, they may struggle in a test. This notion of actions having consequences is a very simple but powerful thing that reminds us to be responsible for our actions. We human beings are responsible for what we do and taking responsibility means knowing that if we don’t do the right thing, things might become literally and figuratively messy.
From a collective perspective, what this
parasha
is telling us is that some people in our world are paying for the irresponsible decisions all of human society has made. This is true not only now, in times of COVID 19, but rings true in so many other ways. If you look at the list of consequences in the
parasha
, environmental consequences, lack of food and wars are mentioned on this list of
tochechot
.
What is so powerful, and also painful, about this
parasha
is that the list of
tochechot
is not an inevitable reality. It’s a strong warning intended to awaken us to change our ways. It is actually not called “
klalot
” curses or “
onashim
” punishments, but “
tochechot
”, rebukes. This list is meant to remind us of the power of our own deeds. In the same way, we would hope that watching the news and reading the papers would move our society and leadership to understand that we need to make some changes in the way we are living in this world.
There is a tradition to read the "
tochechot
" in a lower voice and a bit faster than normal. Perhaps because we are afraid of them and we do not want them to become true. But as we live through one of the hardest tragedies of our times, maybe being delicate about the suffering we can cause and bring to the world is not what we need right now.
The hopeful message of the Torah is that there are ways of avoiding these tragedies. The answer lies within us. Our power lies in our being created
b'tzelem elohim
, in the image of God. Our power lies in our capacity for change and in the capacity to hope for the repair of the world, and to act on that hope. Our hope lies in our capacity to see ourselves as the messengers of the Divine Presence in this world to respond to tragedy, brokenness and pain.
God reminds us “I did something, I sent you.”
May this Shabbat bring blessings to all of you and your loved ones.
May we find strength, courage, patience and open our heart with generosity.
May all those who are ill find healing.
May we have a joyful Shabbat!
