Menachem Mirski
Thoughts on Parashat Behar-Bechukotai
I was born in Poland, in a country where many fundamental human freedoms were taken away for 45 years; they were taken away by autocrats who believed that the historical progress of humanity gave them knowledge of the ultimate causes of all injustices in the human world. They believed that this awareness gave them a never ending mandate to rule the country. One of the reasons their reign lasted so long was that no one was able to question, or even to point out at their limited knowledge, narrow understanding of history, their arrogance and power-greed. But there were also other reasons why this system lasted so long: this system was fundamentally unjust and corrupt. It led to a fundamental chasm in the society and divided it into two groups: a small ruling class and their associates, who had basically everything they wanted and the majority of the society – the regular people – who could obviously survive (the system was constructed this way) but not a lot beyond that. This whole social and political reality alienated the majority of the population, creating apathy. Yes, people had their lives, their families, their jobs but the vast majority of them didn’t believe they had any significant impact on reality, that they could bring any change. Most people lived from day to day and had no grand plans – looking at it from our today’s perspective. People who dreamed big in this system were often considered crazy and disregarded with pity.
The relatively peaceful revolution and transformation from communism to democracy that happened at the turn of the 80s and 90s was a minority driven revolution. It was driven exactly by those people who dreamed big, people who knew or imagined a different world, a world of fairness, justice, a world of organic growth where human effort and merit matter. These were the people who brought the change, the population saw the light they brought and supported them. The journey from slavery through freedom to responsibility – a similar to the journey of our ancient ancestors – had begun.
Our Torah portion for this week talks about fundamental issues of justice. It speaks about these issues through the laws – the way the Torah usually does that. The beginning of our parasha is fundamentally focused on the laws of Shmita – the sabbatical year for the earth – as well as the laws of yovel – the Jubilee year. It all coincides with Yom Kippur, which is by no means a coincidence – I will elaborate on it in a moment. Before that let me focus on something that looks like a golden rule and a commentary to the laws, something that to many modern ears sounds obvious. But the thing I’m talking about is repeated twice and that immediately makes it less obvious, in line with a fundamental principle of rabbinical insight into the text of the Torah.
The Torah speaks simply about the principle of not wronging one another:
וְכִֽי־תִמְכְּר֤וּ מִמְכָּר֙ לַעֲמִיתֶ֔ךָ א֥וֹ קָנֹ֖ה מִיַּ֣ד עֲמִיתֶ֑ךָ אַל־תּוֹנ֖וּ אִ֥ישׁ אֶת־אָחִֽיו׃
When you sell property to your neighbor, or buy any from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. (Leviticus 25:14)
In another verse (Leviticus 25:17) we read that:
וְלֹ֤א תוֹנוּ֙ אִ֣ישׁ אֶת־עֲמִית֔וֹ וְיָרֵ֖אתָ מֵֽאֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ כִּ֛י אֲנִ֥י יְהֹוָ֖ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃
Do not wrong one another, but fear your God; for I יהוה am your God.
Why does the Torah need to reiterate this seemingly simple truth twice in a row and what it means in the context of those verses? Let me propose a possible interpretation: injustice in society is profoundly a result of the accumulation of our wrongdoings. Even though we atone and correct our ways, the correction and compensation is rarely perfect, especially if the harm that was done is irreversible – like taking someone’s life or adultery, resulting in family breakup – these are irreversible things that impact our lives for years. The outcomes of our actions often significantly outlive these actions, that’s probably why we periodically need an additional correction.
That is why the Torah speaks about Yom Kippur here. Things deteriorate and degenerate when left alone and not taken care of. This social phenomenon is sometimes even seen as an extension of the laws of physics – the laws of entropy. We all know what individual atonement is about but we often overlook its social dimension. Atonement in its social aspect means restoring justice – forgiving overdue debts, restoring the social order, coming back to things that were good once but degenerated over time. Therefore the Torah commands us to do the correction of social matters every year. There is a deeper, more profound correction every 7 years and there is a fundamental restoration every 49 years. God asks us here to do the Divine work, against the laws of entropy. The whole process of restoring justice is done by mitigating outcomes of injustice that happened in the society.
Having said all of that I will address the final point I’m going to make. Verse 18 of Leviticus 25 tells us that:
וַעֲשִׂיתֶם֙ אֶת־חֻקֹּתַ֔י וְאֶת־מִשְׁפָּטַ֥י תִּשְׁמְר֖וּ וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֣ם אֹתָ֑ם וִֽישַׁבְתֶּ֥ם עַל־הָאָ֖רֶץ לָבֶֽטַח׃
You shall observe My laws and faithfully keep My rules, and
You will certainly inhabit the land / you will certainly settle in the land.
Which means you won’t be banished from it by God (Lev 25:18) and the same idea is again repeated in v. 19
What we have here is a link between our everyday actions and the fate of the entire society, its thriving or collapse as the ultimate result. In other words, if we wrong each other it will ultimately cause a collapse of the society and we will be conquered by other people.
The lesson from it is as follows: only a just society will be strong enough to oppose the dangers from outside. Justice and fair treatment builds unity, gives a sense of community. Lack of justice undermines and can destroy the community ties; it undermines social order, willingness to take responsibility for your own community, society or nation. Lack of justice causes lack of trust towards the social contract and destabilizes the whole system. If the social contract doesn’t seem to work well, then why be involved in it? This gives us a better understanding why people in Poland during communist times were so discouraged to do anything. People who are alienated from the social contract won’t stand for the society; will not be willing to sacrifice anything for the good of the community or the society.
Despite many challenges we face in our society today, like the rise in antisemitic events, I staunchly believe that overall we are growing as a society. In a society that is peaceful and is growing every community that is a part of it has an ability to grow, including our Jewish community in the Diaspora. Therefore, in order for us to grow, as well as to prevent bad things from happening we have to make sure that we all do our part well and do all these little everyday things that change the world.
Shabbat shalom!
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