Parashat behukkotai

Summary

Parashat Behukkotai ( Leviticus 26:3 – 27:34) provides the epilogue to the set of laws called the ‘Holiness Code’ and is the last parasha in the Vayikra (the Book of Leviticus). It exhorts the Israelites to follow God’s laws (Behukkotai – My laws) and commandments providing the resulting blessings and curses depending on their courses of action. Chapter 27 seems to be an appendix to Vayikra, as it returns to the issue of the central sanctuary and specifically how to fund it.

The epilogue to the Holiness Code expresses two major principles of biblical religion: the concept of free will and the doctrine of reward and punishment. The blessings of safety and prosperity are concluded with a reaffirmation of God’s commitment to an enduring covenantal relationship with God, the Redeemer and Israel free form oppression. The curses escalate in severity and culminate in the ultimate threat of lengthy exile and the potential of collective extinction. At the peak of the crescendo, there is a sudden injection of hope that at each stage Israel can confess its sins and be forgiven by a Merciful God with expiation made through exile and desolation of the Land.

Chapter 27 states the means by which the central sanctuary was funded. All income was converted into its silver value. Each individual would pledge their value in silver according to a scale that reflected productive capacity, although other means of income mentioned are pledged animals, on land, firstlings, property donations acquired under the law of herem (proscribed for being ‘set aside’), and tithes of property and livestock. However, That received under herem and livestock suitable for sacrifice could not be redeemed but all other income would be converted to silver.

Commentary

This coming Friday is Lag B’Omer (lit. the 33rd day of the Omer). It is a day of great celebration in the middle of the Omer that is traditionally a period of mourning. Hayyim Schauss, writing in the 1930’s amongst the Progressive Movement in the USA, states that Lag B’Omer is:

an ancient, heathen festival taken over by the folk religion of old, a festival that obviously had kinship with the forest and the season of the year [one of the principle acts is for children to go into forests with bows and arrows chasing imaginary enemies]. In later years an effort was made to Judaize this folk festival by connecting it with some event in Jewish history.

The event commemorated mainly by Ashkenazim is the ending of a plague that had decimated Rabbi Akiva’s students. The source text for this is:

It is said that R. Akiva had 12,000 pairs of disciples between Gabbath and Antipatris [two towns]. All died during his lifetime, at the same time, between Pesach and Shavuot, because they did not treat one another with respect. The world was desolate [i.e. without Torah] until R. Akiva came to our masters in the south and taught them Torah – he thus taught T. Meir, R. Judah, R. Yose, R. Simeon and R. Eliezer ben Shammua. He said to them, “The previous disciples died only because they begrudged one another the knowledge of Torah. See to it that you do not act like them. They rose and filled all the Land of Israel with Torah. bYevamot 62b

Unusually, it is the tradition that survived through Sephardi lore that has now become the new mainstream folk festival that is celebrated with fires all around Israel today. Rabbi Shimnon bar Yochai was one of the five disciples through whom R. Akiva opposed destruction by the Romans by insuring its survival, ordaining his disciples that was to bring him his death.

As Akiva’s disciple, R. Shimon was persecuted by the Romans and was forced to hide in a cave with his son Eleazar and busied themselves with study. When they finally emerged form the cave, they could not understand the farmers whom they came across could ‘waste’ their lives on such mundane tasks in place of dedicating themselves to the exclusive study of the Divine Law. Owing to the spiritual stature that R. Shimon had attained, everything he perceived as being futile was destroyed. When the farmers vaporized before his eyes, a Bat Kol (voice from on High) ordered him to return to the cave. R. Shimon and his son were not yet ready to interact with their contemporaries. (bShabbat 33b-34a; Bereshit Rabbah 79:6)

Twelve months later they again emerged from the cave, this time filled with authentic love and respect for all the creatures that God had created at the peak of spiritual elevation. R. Shimon bar Yochai is the legendary author of the Zohar (the Book of Spendour) that is one of the primary texts of Kabbalah. Before dying, it is said that R. Shimon revealed the intimate secrets and mystical aspects of the Torah, literally the spark, light or fire of Torah. (Vayikra Rabbah 30:1 and Shir ha’Shirim Rabbah 3:6)

Mt Meron where R. Shimon is said to be buried is today the scene of great pilgrimage, the sky light up and the night filled with dance and song.

Religious minor chag (festival) or a good secular (our replacement for heathen/folk?) excuse for a knees up, at least in Israel and Stamford Hill. Does a festival of legends belong in our enlightened Jewish tradition? Perhaps enlightenment needs continual sparks to keep it relevant. Perhaps fires can be started from sparks from an ember. Lag B’Omer might not be a festival or ritual event that we relate to. However, what are the rituals that we come across that do evoke feeling, thought and meaning?

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