A Thought on Parshas Beh'aloshca

"...im be'chukosai tei'lechu..." "...if you follow My statutes..." (26:3) The word "chok" has become familiar to us. A chok is one of those commandments about which we have no sense of its purpose or meaning. A "statute", as contrasted with a rule, or a regulation or a law (i.e. mishpat, din, mitzvah) is something that we are commanded to observe yet without an understanding or without having a ready interpretation as to its logic, sensibility or obvious function. In our parsha, HaShem tells us about all of the good which will follow our walking in the ways of His chukim. Some of our great commentaries look at this verse as a promise that if we are careful about keeping those statutes even though we do not understand them, we "deserve" a reward. ibn Shu'aib has a different view. He looks not at the word itself, but rather the rewards which we are promised for following these chukim. He cites the holy words of our sages who see within those Biblical references to "rewards" an allusion to the world to come, to the afterlife, to the messianic era and to the rewards (and punishments) which are part of our theological belief system. So, the Torah asserts that for our obedience to HaShem's word, we will reap great rewards. Yet, when you stop and think about it, so many of the commandments seem to be rational. Many make sense to us. Many make sense to the world at large, and even had we not been ordered to observe them, many civilized people and societies would have observed them anyway. So, how is it that if we adhere to principles of common sense and justice that we will earn such vast rewards and wondrous consequences? This, suggests ibn Shu'aib, is the "chok" quality of all 613 mitzvos. There is a statute-like quality of "hidden meaning" - not necessarily in the essence of the commandment - but rather in the gravity and magnitude of its importance in Heaven and on Earth. There are mystical and cosmic ramifications when we observe these commandments. The rest of the world cannot claim this, when they take a moral or common sense or societal harmony view of those acts which we are commanded to observe. For the world, there are rules and standards. For our nation, there are commandments, and they all have this chok aspect of earning eternal and cosmic repercussions. So our verse means that if we follow all of HaShem's rules, wondrous and supernatural compensation will follow, and this gives a chok quality to those rules, especially to those which would seem rational and obvious. ibn Shu'aib closes Sefer VaYikra by expounding upon the well known verse (26:42) wherein HaShem promises that He will always recall His covenant with Yakov, with Yitzchak, with Avraham and with the land. He views this as a promise that even though our people may be exiled in far off lands, HaShem will redeem us just as He redeemed our ancestors in Egypt. He cites a midrashic reading of the prior parsha's hidden meaning: the Torah says "and when your brother declines" (25:25) - this alludes to our brothers ("brothers and friends" of Tehillim 122:8) who decline in their observance of Torah and mitzvos. "and he sells his inheritance" - this refers to our forfeiting the Temple in Jerusalem, which we "sold" to the nations whom we submitted to. " and someone redeems it" - this alludes to HaShem Himself who will come ultimately and redeem us. ibn Shu'aib closes with the fervent prayer that HaShem will show us mercy and fulfill all of those promises, beginning with (26:44) "and even though they will be in the lands of the foes, I will not reject them." Good Shabbos. D Fox