Rabbi Menachem Mirski
Thoughts on Parashat Behar-Bechukotai 5786
Imagine you’re standing at a fork in the road. One path is smooth, well-lit, and lined with flowers. The other is rocky, overgrown, and disappears into shadows. You know the first path leads to blessing. You know the second leads to hardship. And yet… sometimes we still choose the second path. Why? This week, in Parashat Bechukotai, the Torah lays those two paths out with startling clarity. Chapter 26 begins with the most beautiful “if-then” statement in the whole Torah:
“If you follow My statutes and observe My commandments and do them… I will grant your rains in their season… you shall eat your bread in plenty and dwell securely in your land” (Leviticus 26:3-5).
Peace, prosperity, even the wild animals will be at peace with you. It’s a vision of shalom so complete it almost feels like Eden returned. But then come the curses—the tochacha. If we refuse to listen, the blessings flip into their opposites: panic, wasting disease, defeat by enemies, famine, exile. The language is raw and terrifying. And yet the Torah doesn’t shout it at us in anger. It speaks with the steady voice of a parent who loves us enough to tell us the truth: our choices matter.
The medieval commentator Ramban points out something remarkable. The blessings are stated in the plural—“you shall be blessed”—but the curses begin in the singular: “if you despise My statutes.” He says the Torah is reminding us that blessings come when we act together as a community, but one person’s bad choice can start the downward spiral for everyone. Our individual actions ripple outward.
Think about our lives today. We make dozens of moral micro-choices every single day. Do I speak up when a coworker is being treated unfairly, or do I stay quiet because it’s easier? Do I gossip about the neighbor whose lawn is never mowed, or do I remember that every human being carries hidden struggles? Do I cut corners on my taxes because “everyone does it,” or do I pay what I owe because integrity is more important than some extra money?
Each of those choices is a vote for the path of blessing or the path of curse. The Torah isn’t threatening us with lightning bolts from heaven. It’s describing natural consequences. Plant kindness and justice, and the community flourishes. Plant selfishness, cynicism and anger, and eventually the soil of our shared life turns bitter. But here’s the part I love most: even the curses are not the final word. The Torah never leaves us in despair. Right in the middle of the tochacha God says:
“I will remember My covenant with Jacob… with Isaac… with Abraham”
(Leviticus 26:42).
The relationship doesn’t break. We can always turn back. That’s the Conservative and Reform Jewish message in a nutshell: we take the Torah seriously, we take consequences seriously, but we never lose hope in teshuvah—return. Every single day is a new fork in the road. Every single morning we get to choose the path again. So this week, let’s pick one small area of life where we know we’ve been choosing the rocky path. Maybe it’s how we speak to our spouse when we’re tired. Maybe it’s the way we treat the person who bags our groceries. Maybe it’s the grudge we’ve been carrying for years.
Choose, just once, the harder but holier road. Feel the discomfort… and then notice the quiet blessing that follows. Because the Torah is not a fairy tale. It’s a love letter that says: you are powerful. Your choices shape your family, your synagogue, your country, and your own soul. Choose life. Choose blessing. Choose the path that leads home to God and to one another.
Shabbat Shalom.
Rabbi Mirski
Leave a Reply