Voices of WRJ: B’har/B’chukotai

This week we read the double portion, B’har/b’chukotai.

B’har (on the mount) records the instructions God gave Moses about Sabbath years and Jubilee years. B’chukotai (my laws) famously lays out the benefits and punishments for either obeying or disobeying God’s laws. These are the last two portions in Leviticus.

I am writing this during the Covid-19 lockdown and I am very interested in B’har. The commandments given to the Israelites here, on the Mount, govern the agricultural sabbatical year, the Jubilee year and the laws protecting Israelites from debt-slavery.

At this time when all but the most essential businesses are closed, this portion is particularly relevant. According to the commentary in The Torah: A Woman’s Commentary all the laws presented in this portion are put forth to preserve the productivity of the land, to prevent downward economic mobility and in the case of the Jubilee year, to provide for the redistribution of wealth. In this portion God and Moses reiterate the concept that we are all responsible for the condition of all the other members of our communities. There are commandments creating interest free loans, exhortations for more affluent families to take care of their relatives who may have become economically dependent, establishing the limits to indentured servitude and requiring the redemption of captive Israelis from non-Israelis.

The spirit of these commandments is embodied in the many fundraising efforts we have seen online, most memorably for me, the Saturday Night Seder. Government initiatives such as expanding unemployment insurance, the Payroll Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program are designed to keep our fellow citizens and our employers afloat until the lockdown eases. This helps to ease the economic impact of this crisis.

Emotionally, one way to process being locked down is to consider that we are each having a form of a sabbatical. We are resting from our usual routine existence and many of us are evaluating our usual patterns of behavior and are considering what long term changes in our lives we wish to make. I am sure that many of us are focusing on the value of our friendships and the importance of cultivating connection with those we love. There have been many beautiful Zoom seders, tea parties, schmoozes and shiva gatherings during the Covid-19 lockdown. I am sure that once we are moving about more freely, these online opportunities for connection will continue. We are all helping each other get through challenging circumstances.

I want to say a few words about face masks. I live in Ohio, where the Covid-19 outbreak was somewhat curtailed by the early action of our Governor. Because the threat does not feel as immediate here, many of my fellow Ohioans are not taking social distance and face mask guidelines to heart. Recently on Facebook, I saw a blessing for the wearing of facemasks:

Blessed are You, Eternal Our God, Sovereign of the world, who has sanctified us with commandments, and commanded us to protect life.

The lives we are protecting by following these guidelines are not our own, but the lives of those around us. Truly, we are fulfilling our obligation to take care of each other.

The second of this week’s double portion is B’chukotai, meaning “my Laws” and in it are the system of rewards and punishments for either observing or ignoring the commandments. These are troubling verses and we as progressive modern Jews struggle with their interpretation. However, in her Contemporary Reflection on this portion, Cantor Sarah Sager posits that this system of blessings and curses presents a vision of a moral order in the universe. We humans created in the image of God and acting as partners with God in bringing justice to the world through the choices we make and how we act each day.

I look forward to the time, may it not be distant, when we can greet each other with real hugs in person and enjoy the friendships that mean so much to us all.

Liz McOsker is an at large member of the WRJ Executive Committee and First Vice President of WRJ Central District.