Dvar Torah for Parshat Bechukotai

Based on Likutey Halakhot, Hilkhot Pidyon Bekhor 5:11-13

"If you follow My laws... I will provide you with rain at the right time... [There will be so much produce that] you will have your fill of food and live securely... I will grant peace in the Land... you will pursue your enemies and they will fall by the sword... [you will be] fertile and numerous... I will walk among you... I took you out of Egypt... and led you forth komemiyut (Rashi: standing erect).
(Leviticus 26:3-13).

Well, it certainly seems like a worthwhile proposition. Follow some laws, keep some commandments, many of which we do anyway and many of which it makes sense to keep. In return we get plenty of income and the peace and security to enjoy it. There's the aspect of gratitude, too. After all, He did take us out of slavery, remember? Not like thieves sneaking out, but with our heads held high.

But hold on a second. Is that it? Is the sum of Torah observance champagne and caviar in a villa overlooking the Mediterranean? Is the sum of Torah observance having an invincible army? Another thing. Since when is going komemiyut such a good idea? The Shulchan Arukh teaches (Orach Chaim 2:6) that doing so drives away God's presence from the world. So how can Hashem (God) claim that it was a good thing for Him to take us out that way?

Reb Noson answers these questions in the following way. He reminds us that the ultimate station that a Jew is to reach is one that is higher than that of the angels. A Jew will be privy to matters that angels will not be able to perceive without first asking a Jew. Rebbe Nachman teaches that a foretaste of this level can be experienced while eating.

We know that eating is inbuilt to Creation. Most of us view it as a necessary function for maintaining life - energy gets consumed and has to be replenished. But when we eat, not only are we able to avail ourselves of the physical nourishment implanted within the food, but we can also draw daat (knowledge, awareness) of Hashem into our souls. The progress in daat that we can make while eating is unlike the progress we can make while studying Torah. When studying a text we ought to derive well-defined ideas, concepts and policies of how to speak and behave. The daat that comes from eating is one that specifically cannot be put into words, but only be hinted at.

Reb Noson points out that woven together with the blessings of livelihood and peace is the blessing of "I will walk among you" (v. 12). Rashi teaches us that this means God will accompany us in the Garden of Eden. This is the meaning behind, and purpose of, the blessings for wealth and material success that we find in the Torah - to ingest daat from our mundane affairs as well, such that even in this world we feel Hashem's walking with us.

But having the opportunity for this growth of daat is not a guarantee for achieving it. There is one thing you must have in order to be successful: the belief that you will succeed. It is a sin to be a shlemazal (sad sack)! You have to "stand erect" with confidence that you will succeed eventually, even if the battle is currently going against you.

This is the meaning of "you will pursue your enemies" (v. 7). Heartfelt performance of the mitzvot enables us to engage our "enemies," the false ideas and ideologies of the world that allow Jews and Judaism no peace, in debate, to expose their wrongness and reveal to all who would live by them the beauty and truth of Hashem's Torah. Such people "will fall by the sword" (ibid.), the "sword" of your prayer (see Rashi on Genesis 47:22; Likutey MoHaran I, 2).

And the heartfelt performance of mitzvot, the blessing of material wealth, the confidence and the prayer all begin with "If you follow My laws," if you exert yourself to correctly understand the Torah (Rashi to Leviticus 26:3).

agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!