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Home -> Bechukosai -> 5752

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum
In 5752, Bechukosai

“I shall remember My covenant with Yaakov, and also My covenant with Avrohom and also My covenant with Yitzchok I shall remember.” (26:42)

The placement of this pasuk in the midst of the narrative seems to deviate from the focus of the text. The Torah enumerates the frightening curses that are to befall the Jewish people in response to their abandonment of the Torah. The interjection of Hashem’s benevolent remembering of our ancestors interrupts the theme of severe judgment. There are various ways to approach this problem.   The Shellah views the reminiscence of the ancestors as a condemnation of the Jewish people. Before one is punished, his past must be weighed. Is there a pathology in the family that led to this…

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Home -> Bechukosai -> 5752

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum
In 5752, Bechukosai

“These are the statutes and the ordinances and the laws which ‘в made between Him and (between) Bnei Yisrael in Mount Sinai by the hand of Moshe.” (26:46)

One would expect to find this pasuk located at the very end of this parsha, which is the culmination of Sefer Vayikra. This pasuk would then serve as a separation to distinguish the laws of Sefer Vayikra which were given at Mount Sinai – from those of Sefer Bamidbar, which were communicated in the Ohel Moed on the plains of Moav. Instead of concluding Sefer Vayikra at this point, however, the Torah continues the chapter to relate the vows that a person may make to donate to the Bais Hamikdash the monetary value which the Torah assigns to a person…

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Home -> Bechukosai -> 5751

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum
In 5751, Bechukosai

“But if you will not listen to Me, and will not do all these commandments, and you will despise My laws. And your souls reject My regulations, so that all My commandments, not be fulfilled, whereby you break My covenant.” (26:14-15)

  Rashi cites the Toras Kohanim who develops these pesukim into the seven point step-by-step spiritual deterioration of an individual. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch Zt”l vividly explains the cause and effect of each step of this regressive deterioration.   “But if you will not listen to Me” – The decline begins with “not listening” to Hashem’s word which is defined as not “learning” the Torah’s precepts. The person who does not study and acquaint himself with Hashem’s precepts, becomes disobedient. The result of this theoretical sin is practical defection, or “you will not do”, one who does not “learn” will…

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Home -> Bechukosai -> 5781

אם בחוקותי תלכו

Sruly Schnair
In 5781, Bechukosai

If you will follow My decrees. (26:3)

Rashi explains that this pasuk refers, not to mitzvah performance, but rather, shetiheyu ameilim baTorah, that we engage in intensive Torah study, with the intention that such study will lead to mitzvah observance. Contrary to the mistaken notion that observance and study are two distinct Jewish functions, mitzvah observance is actually a function of Torah study – not its goal. An observant Jew’s life revolves around Torah study which guides and defines his mitzvah observance. The Talmud (Shabbos 31a) teaches that when one arrives in Olam Habba, the World-to- Come, he is asked, Kavaata ittim laTorah, “Did you set aside…

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