Two Minute Torah Podcast

B'Hukotai 5768 by Richard Skolnik

Hi! This is Richard Skolnik and I am the International Vice President for Community Relations for the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and I am very pleased to be sharing this message with you today.

Parashat Behukotai begins with the words "Im Bechukohtai Taylechu" -"If you walk in My path"...

This opening phrase is followed by a series of blessings with which God promises to reward the Children of Israel for "getting with the program," so to speak. In psych 101, you've heard this referred to as "behavior modification."

But the Torah doesn't leave things to chance. It hedges its bets on the "positive reinforcement" approach by adding in a heavy dose of "aversion therapy." In fact the dire threats for mis-behaving are so frightening that in traditional synagogues there's a custom for the Ba'al Koreh to race through them in an undertone.

To put this famous section of Biblical blessings and curses into perspective, bear in mind that the Israelites as a fledgling nation were liberated from Egypt... but they couldn't handle their new freedom. At one point, they even begged Moses to take them back to the land of the Pharoahs. Now God is saying, before I bring you into the Promised Land: "Deal or No Deal"?

One Bible commentator put a different spin on "Im Bechukohtai Taylechu" - and suggested that it was as if God, cast in the role of a loving parent, laments, "If only the Children of Israel would follow in the path of my laws..." - then I could have the opportunity to indulge them with so many wonderful blessings.

Now I've never played God. I leave that to my son, the doctor. But I have been a parent of two wonderful kids - and a USY field worker. So I can relate to this second interpretation of the text. Growing up, my kids were often faced with choices, such as which friends to hang out with, what foods to eat, what to do about Shabbat, and so forth... I knew which choices my wife and I wanted them to make, but we had to let them come to it on their own. At a certain point, we could no longer bribe them or threaten them. It hurt us to see them make an improper choice. And when they did, they had to face the consequences ... Yet, these slip ups did not diminish our love for them.

That's the message I take from this sedrah. We all have choices, options, and multiple paths ahead of us. Each has consequences, positive or negative. The path of meaningful Jewish living is, unfortunately, the road less traveled. But unlike the others, here the reward is often found in the journey itself.