This week’s
parsha, which concludes the book of Vayikra, portrays some vital aspects of
Jewish national and personal life. On one hand it describes in rapturous terms
the blessings of happiness, security and serenity that can benefit the Jewish
people and the individual Jew. On the other hand, it vividly and graphically
describes the prospect of exile, tragedy, and death.
Jewish history
bears out the reality of each of these visions. We have lived through both and
seem to have experienced much longer periods of darkness than of light, of more
tragedy than joy or serenity. The Torah attributes observance of the
commandments as the prime cause of security in Jewish life, their
non-observance as the cause of tragedy. However, history and the great
commentators to Torah qualify this simplistic impression.
God’s wisdom and
judgments are inscrutable, beyond even elementary comprehension by us mortals. This
is why we are left to speculate about the tragedies that descended upon the
Jewish people and that continue to plague us today. Though there are those
amongst us who are prepared to give and accept glib answers to questions about
the causes of tragedy, the wise men of Israel warned us against taking such an
approach.
Observance of
commandments is enormously difficult to fulfill completely and accurately. This
is why it is so hard to measure the "why" part of this week's parsha.
We should still however take note of the "how it happened" part. This
shows us that its depiction of contrasting periods of serenity and tragedy has
been painstakingly accurate and contains not one word of hyperbole. The
destruction of the Temples, the Crusades and pogroms, the Inquisition and the
Holocaust are all graphically described in this week's parsha. Such is the Torah;s
prophetic power.
In
personal life, the longer we live, the more likely it is that misfortune will
somehow visit us. The Torah makes provision for this eventuality in its laws of
mourning. We all hope for good quality of life and for secure serenity. Yet,
almost inexorably, problems, disappointments and even tragedy intrude on our
condition.
In
Vayikra, the death of the sons of Aharon remains the prime example of tragedy
suddenly destroying a sense of pride, satisfaction and apparent accomplishment.
In this week's parsha too, the description of the punishment of Israel for its
backsliding is placed in the context of a background of blessings and security.
The past century presented the Jewish people with horrors of unimaginable
intensity and of millennial accomplishments. The situation of extreme flux in
our national life has continued throughout the years of the existence of the
State of Israel.
The
unexpected, sudden, but apparently regular changes of circumstance in Jewish
national life mirror the same situation that which we recognize in our personal
lives. We are constantly blindsided by untoward and tragic events.
So, the jarring contrast that the two main subjects of the parsha present to us
are really a candid description of life, its omnipresent contradictions, and its
difficulties. Though we pray regularly for health and serenity, we must always
be cognizant of how precarious our situation truly is. Thus, as we rise to hear
the conclusion of the book of Vayikra, we recite the mantra of "chazak,
chazak, v'nitzchazek"—let us be doubly strong and strengthen others!
So may it be.
Shabbat
shalom, Rabbi
Berel Wein