The Glue Connecting the Jewish People to Hashem

Parshat "Bechukotai" is also known as the Parshah of Rebuke. In this portion, the Torah describes tremendous blessings that will come upon the children of Israel if they follow the path of Torah, and severe words of rebuke if they abandon the path of Torah.

When examining the blessings and curses, one can see that the Torah is relatively brief in the verses dealing with blessings, while it elaborates extensively on the curses. Why is this so? Wouldn't it be more appropriate to expand on the blessings and be brief about the curses? Ibn Ezra addresses this question and writes: "Empty-minded people say that the curses are more numerous than the blessings. But they do not speak the truth. Rather, the blessings are stated generally, while the curses are detailed, to instill fear and awe in the listeners. One who looks carefully will understand my words" (Leviticus 26:13).

His intention is that although the Torah is brief in the quantity of blessings, in terms of "quality," each blessing contains an entire world, while the curses are stated in specific details to make them more vivid to the people.

One of the blessings mentioned is: "And I will grant peace in the land, and you shall lie down with none to frighten you; I will remove dangerous beasts from the land, and no sword shall pass through your country" (26:6).

When examining this verse, there is a question - why does the Torah repeat itself with "I will grant peace in the land" and "no sword shall pass through your country"? If there is peace in the land, surely no sword will pass through it?

Ibn Ezra resolves this by explaining: "I will grant peace in the land - among yourselves." If there is peace between us, only then are we guaranteed that "no sword shall pass through your country." Ramban also writes similarly: "That there should be peace among you and you should not fight with one another." If there is internal peace, there will be external peace.

Rashi writes about the value of peace: "From here we learn that peace is equal to everything."

This is certainly food for thought.

Maimonides' words are well-known, that all the blessings and curses mentioned in the Torah are not rewards for fulfilling commandments or punishments for neglecting them, for it is often mentioned by our Sages that all the pleasures of this world are not sufficient to reward even a single mitzvah. "There is no reward for mitzvot in this world" (Kiddushin 39b), "Today to do them and tomorrow to receive their reward" (Avodah Zarah 4b), and in other places. What then? The Creator promises that if we follow His statutes and keep His commandments, we will have good lives and comfortable conditions to perform additional mitzvot, and if not - the opposite will happen, Heaven forbid (Maimonides, Laws of Repentance, 9).

This is essentially the teaching in Pirkei Avot: "The reward of a mitzvah is a mitzvah, and the reward of a transgression is a transgression" (Avot, 4). When a person fulfills a mitzvah, they cling to their Creator, and this attachment draws them and causes them to fulfill another mitzvah, and when a person, Heaven forbid, commits a transgression, the distancing from their Creator causes them to commit another transgression.

Evidence for this can be seen at the end of the section on blessings and curses: "These are the statutes, the ordinances, and the laws that Hashem gave between Himself and the children of Israel at Mount Sinai through Moses" (26:46). The wording seems unclear; it would have been more appropriate to write: "These are the statutes... that Hashem gave to the children of Israel," not "that Hashem gave between Himself and the children of Israel." Why write that the Torah is between God and the children of Israel?

The answer is precisely this (as brought in the book "Likutei Sichot Mussar" by Rabbi Yitzchak Sher). The commandments of the Torah are the glue that connects the Jewish people to Hashem. They are what stands between the children of Israel and the Creator. If we keep the commandments, we cling to Him and consequently merit all good things, and if not, they separate us and distance us from the Creator, and consequently our situation will be dire.

The decision is in our hands.