Parsha Beckutachai

I've struggled with the question - do your thoughts matter when it comes to lashon hora?

Blessedly, we are judged by our actions and not our thoughts - but our thoughts certainly influence our actions and our actions influence our thoughts. They are inextricably entwined. Obviously we can only be accountable for what we DO and what we SAY - but what we THINK is important to our development as Jews on a journey towards living a holier life.

When our actions change, often our thinking changes too. When we make an attempt to avoid speaking lashon hora, eventually we cease from thinking lashon hora too.

So what has all this got to do with Parsha Beckutahai?

The subject of thoughts vs actions is extremely relevant to the ideas expressed in Beckutahai. We are basically told to do things right or suffer terrible consequences. What it comes down to is motivation.

Do we do the right thing because it is right? Or because we are scared of punishment. There are many commentators who believe that this is a moot question - as long as you do the right thing it doesn’t matter WHY you are doing it. There is no difference between a person who does the right thing because he or she is trying to live a more Torah-centered life and a person who does the right thing because he or she is afraid of what will happen if they don’t. Both of these motivations produce the same result.

God lays it on the line for us in Beckutahai. Keep My commandments or else. And the Tochecha - the “Rebuke” is pretty frightening - with escalating punishments that will increase 7-fold and affect many generatons after us.

We looked at some Rashi - pretty cool stuff actually. We examined closely Rashi’s take on Leviticus 26:15 - “If you reject My laws and spurn My rules, so that you do not observe all My commandments and you break My covenant” - God's preamble to the tochecha. Rashi tells us that the phrase “And you break My covenant” means denying God’s existence. Seems like a huge leap - or is it? Rashi explains that “Thus you have here seven sins the first of which brings the second in its train and so on to the seventh.” And these are:

A Chain Reaction of Sin

1. People will stop studying Torah.
2. Without the foundation of study, they will come to see the commandments as matters of personal choice rather than moral obligation.
3. They will resent people who do study and practice and who make them feel guilty for not doing so.
4. They will try to stop others from fulfilling the ommandments so they will feel less guilty themselves.
5. They will deny that the commandments come from God.
6. They will deny the existence of a covenant between God and Israel.
7. They will deny the existence of God.

Incredible! The ultimate result of breaking our covenant with God will lead us to denying God’s existence. Putting this into a modern context - we can use the “unaffiliated Jew” as an example. This might be the Rashi-progression of the Chain Reaction (or maybe we should call it the Train-Reaction!)

1. The person has nothing to do with Torah or Jewish education.
2. The person chooses to lead his or her life according to personal choice rather than moral obligation.
3. They resent or mock peple who do study and practice and who make them feel alienated for not doing so.
4. They mock the commandments and mitzvoth - calling them irrelevant - implying that people who follow them are ignorant, unenlightened, foolish.
5. They deny that the commandments come from God.
6. They deny or don’t care about a covenant between God and Israel.
7. They deny the existence of God.

You gotta love Rashi!

The bottom line is this. Following the commandments strengthens our belief in God. Not following the commandments destroys it. What we do matters and affects what we think.