Kommentar zu Wajikra 26:15

ואם בחקתי תמאסו AND IF YE WILL SCORN MY ORDINANCES — scorn those who practise them.

AND IF YE SHALL REJECT MY STATUTES. Because “statutes” are commandments the reasons for which have not been revealed to the majority of the people,⁸⁵To the “majority of the people” the reasons for “the statutes” have not been revealed, but actually there are reasons for each and every precept of the Torah. See Ramban on Deuteronomy 22:6, where he develops this theme at great length. therefore fools reject them, saying: “Why does G-d desire that I should not wear this garment which is woven with threads of linen and of blue wool?⁸⁶See above, 19:19. And how do we benefit by burning the [Red] Heifer, and sprinkling upon us the ashes thereof?”⁸⁷See Numbers Chapter 19. The “ordinances,” however, everyone desires and everyone needs, for there can be no civilized life for any people or country without ordinances. No one will reject the ordinances of: he that smiteth a man so that he dieth;⁸⁸Exodus 21:12. and if men strive together;⁸⁹Ibid., Verse 22. and the laws of the ox and the pit⁹⁰Ibid., Verses 28-37. and the [four] guardians,⁹¹Ibid., 22:6-14. and so on. However, the judgment that we execute upon those who transgress the commandments, such as one who has forbidden sexual intercourse, or profanes the Sabbath, or does [the sorcery of] the ov or yid’oni⁹²Above, 19:31. See “The Commandments,” Vol. II, pp. 9-11. they will despise, because of [the necessity of keeping these] commandments, which constitute a heavy yoke upon the wicked. Therefore He said, and if your soul abhor Mine ordinances so that ye will not do all My commandments,⁹³Verse 15 before us. for their abhorrence of the “ordinances” is in order that they should not keep the commandments.⁹⁴In other words, they reject even the rational parts of the Torah in order to “free” themselves entirely of the commandments which they find a burden to keep.

ואם בחקותי תמאסו, that you do not only ignore them but actively despise them;

ואם בחקתי תמאסו, "And if you will despise My statutes, etc." Why did the Torah have to repeat the conditional word ואם once more instead of being content with the opening word ואם in the previous verse? Besides, why did the Torah write בחקתי instead of merely חקתי תמאסו, "you will despise My statutes?" The letter ב is no more appropriate for describing a negative attitude to G'd's statutes than it would have been to the reference about G'd's social laws of which the Torah merely says את משפטי תגעל נפשכם, "your soul abhors My social laws" without adding the letter ב in front of the word משפטי. Moreover, why does the Torah again use the word ואם when speaking of our attitude to G'd's משפטים? Why did the Torah not simply lump together our attitudes to both G'd's statutes and G'd's social laws by writing ואם בחוקותי תמאסו, or something similar? Furthermore, why does the Torah describe the attitude of the sinners to the "statutes" as one of מאוס, i.e. "despicable," whereas the attitude to the social laws is described as תגעל נפשכם, "something your soul abhors," i.e. a stronger form of rejection? Having already described the sinful Israelites' attitude to G'd's respective commandments, why did the Torah have to elaborate that "they would refuse to carry out all these commandments?" The Torah had already mentioned in verse 14 that we speak about a situation when the Jews would not carry out the positive commandments! We had offered an explanation to that statement but we must not forget that the verse must make sense as it is written! What does the Torah mean by adding: "to break My covenant?"

ואם בחוקתי תמאסו, “However, if you will despise My statutes, etc.” Nachmanides writes that the reason why the Torah described the חוקים, statutes, as the laws that the people would refer to with disdain, distaste, is, that no rational justification has been offered by the Torah for these kinds of laws. This is why fools jump to the conclusion that these laws are of no use or value to man. The social laws, משפטים, on the other hand, which any fool can understand as being useful tools in any society and which therefore should enjoy ready acceptance by the people, also do not fare better when they involve the violation of the Sabbath, the prohibition of sexual intercourse with family members or consenting adults, or when it involves forbidden foods. These restrictions are considered as capricious denial of a person’s freedom and therefore, in the right atmosphere, result in one’s feeling revulsion against them and the authority who imposed such laws. The Torah describes the people not observing those mishpatim as excusing themselves by their being revolted at the Creator Who demanded from them to so restrict their desires, i.e. that is the meaning of the words לבלתי עשות את כל המצות, “as a reason for not performing all the commandments.” Nachmanides goes on to write that the curses following contain allusions to both the first and the second exile of the Jewish people, as well as the total redemption that will follow the second exile. The references to חמנים “symbols of sun-worship” (verse 30) and גילולים, (man-made idols) (verse 31) were the major sins of the period of the first Temple; G’d predicts that He will have to destroy the Temple which the Torah calls “your Sanctuary,” on account of their sins. (Verse 31) The entire verse is a threat not to accept offerings tendered to Him. As a result of such rejection of even their offerings, the people would experience death by the sword, at the hands of ferocious beasts, as well as pestilence, famine, and, ultimately, exile if all that had not brought about a change in their attitudes. (Verses 32-33). During this exile the land would make up for all the sh’mittah years that the people had not observed while they were enjoying prosperity in their land. The seventy years of the Babylonian exile would match the number of years the sh’mittah legislation had been neglected. The redemption from that exile is not described as a real redemption, but only as a manifestation of the fact that G’d had not allowed His covenant with the Jewish people to become severed. (History records that men of the caliber of Daniel, Ezra and Nechemyah, did confess the guilt of their fathers, and this is why the second Temple endured for hundreds of years, though it lacked many features symbolizing the close ties between G’d and His people. The admonitions by Moses in the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 28,15-68 describe the destruction of the second Temple and the vicissitudes that the remnant of the people would experience during the far longer second exile. During that lengthy paragraph the Torah does not refer to specific sins as it had done in our portion here. On the contrary, the wording there suggests that even relatively minor disobedience and failure to observe Torah in its entirety by all the people could bring about such a catastrophe as is described there most vividly. In fact, we know that during the existence of the second Temple large sections of the people did devote themselves to intensive Torah study and to meticulous observance of the Torah’s commandments, and still the Temple was destroyed and the people experienced terrible times, all because too many of them had become guilty of senseless hatred of one anther, totally unjustified and unjustifiable animosity between different sections of the society. The reason why the Torah does not bother to mention the manifestation of G’d’s displeasure by His refusal to accept the people’s sacrifices, is that heavenly fire had never resumed to consume these sacrifices as it had done during the hundreds of years that the first Temple had stood. In the admonition in Deuteronomy 28,49 we find the following line: ישא ה' עליך גוי מרחוק מקצה הארץ וגו', “Hashem will bring a nation against you from afar etc.,” a reference to the Romans, a nation described a speaking a tongue you are not familiar with. It is a nation not knowing the meaning of pity, etc. It is clear that these lines do not refer to the Babylonians who were relatively close at hand, and whose tongue the Israelites certainly were familiar with. The Assyrians who exiled the ten tribes while the Temple remained standing were even closer to the land of Israel in terms of physical distance. Seeing that the Jewish people had their historical roots in those Mesopotamian regions, the Torah in verse 49 in that chapter most certainly could not have referred to either one of those nations. It is clear from reading the remainder of that chapter that the exile we still find ourselves in at the time of writing these lines, is the one referred to by the Torah in that chapter in Deuteronomy. Verse 36 in which Moses predicts that the victorious nation will appoint a king over the Jewish people whom they never had heard of, is also clearly a reference to King Agrippas, (Herod). It was during his reign that the uprising against the Romans in the year 66 occurred which ended with the destruction of the second Temple. The covenant referred to in our portion is the one that we have to thank for the presence of the Shechinah during all the years of the first Temple, whereas the covenant in Deuteronomy, which enabled the Temple to be rebuilt, was of an inferior type of relationship with Hashem, seeing that only the כבוד השם, “G’d’s honour”, manifested itself during the over four hundred years that the second Temple was standing. This is what was meant by the author of Torat Kohanim who describes the admonitions in our portion as having originated from G’d Himself, directly, whereas those in Deuteronomy were initiated by Moses. [Reflecting the far weaker bond between G’d and His people during that era. Ed.]

Despise others who do perform [My statutes]. Because if not so, it already written above “and you will not fulfill,” which is to despise the mitzvos. If so, why does the verse need to say, “If you despise My statutes? Therefore, it must mean to despise others. This too is the explanation of [Rashi’s interpretation of] “[if] your souls loathe My laws.”

ואם בחקותי תמאסו, “but if you will despise My statutes;” this is the opposite of “if you will “walk” in My statutes, אם בחקתי תלכו, “when you will “walk” according to My statutes, because you find them appropriate.”

משפטי תגעל נפשם [IF] YOUR SOUL LOTH MY JUDGMENTS — This implies hating the Sages.

THAT YE MAKE VOID MY COVENANT. [This means that they desire] that the covenant be completely voided so that they will thus be without Torah, in order to permit themselves openly forbidden sexual intercourse, and every desire which is sweet to their soul.⁹⁵See Proverbs 13:19. By way of the Truth, [the mystic teachings of the Cabala], the verse means that this covenant will be made void and annulled, [this being] the opposite of [the Divine assurance], and I will give peace in the Land.⁷³Verse 6. It is with reference to this that He said, forasmuch as they voided My covenant, although I ruled over them,⁹⁶Jeremiah 31:31. [meaning that] “because they annulled My covenant of peace,⁹⁷Numbers 25:12. I Myself ruled over them.”⁹⁸I.e., the punishment was not done through a messenger.

ואם את משפטי תגעל נפשכם, if you treat them as a person who deliberately spits something out because he detests it. You would not have any objective reason to do this as you are familiar with the purpose of such commandments, knowing them to be fair and just.

You hate the Sages [lit. the wise ones]. (Gur Aryeh) Why does the verse say “Your souls loathe My laws (משפטי)” regarding this, [and not “If you despise My statutes (חקותי)”]? Because [monetary] laws (משפטים) require wisdom [to understand]., This is as the Sages say (Bava Basra 175b), “He who wants to be wise should occupy himself with monetary laws.” And so they expounded (Sifri 9, 10) regarding Shlomo, “Would he, of whom it is said (Melachim I 5:11), ’He was wiser than any man,’ say (Melachim I 3:9), ’Who can judge this, Your great nation’?’” [This indicatesing that judging monetary laws requires wisdom and logic].

Clearly, we must understand the wording of these verses as corresponding to the manner in which Satan operates in seducing us into neglecting G'd's commandments. Satan is clever enough to attack the weakest link in the chain, i.e. observance of the commandments called חקים, the ones for which the Torah does not offer a reason and which we ourselves find impossible to rationalise. Satan appeals to us on two fronts; on the one hand he claims that it is impossible to believe that someone as clever as G'd could have legislated laws that appear to make no sense. Alternately, he argues that granted that G'd may indeed have legislated such a law, but surely the legislation was not meant to be understood literally. Once Satan finds that he has the attention of his prospective victim he begins to attack other commandments also even though they appear to have good reasons. He will then easily inveigle his victim to transgress one of G'd's commandments due to some ficticious argument he presented. The doubts he sowed in his victim's mind previously had already caused the victim to become somewhat removed from holiness. Once a person has committed the first sin without experiencing negative fallout it becomes ever easier for his evil urge to lead him further astray. Eventually the evil urge will convince a person that instead of facing punishment for each one of his transgressions he might as well commit a trangression of a cardinal nature and face only a single punishment for that transgression, i.e. his treason against the covenant he became a party to at Mount Sinai.

ואם את משפטי תגעל נפשכם, “or if your souls despise My social laws;” this is the opposite of ואת מצותי תשמורו, “and you will observe My commandments.”

לבלתי עשות (lit., that my commandments should not be done) — this therefore implies that one prevents others from practising them. (That they themselves do not do them has already been stated in v. 14).

לבלתי עשות את כל מצותי, your supposed detestation of My commandments was not an objective evaluation of them, but a signal that you wanted to throw off the yoke of Divine legislation, a deliberate act of disobedience. Our sages have often stated that the Israelites who worshipped idols were perfectly aware that these idols were totally helpless, could not help themselves, much less those who professed to worship them. If they worshipped them in spite of knowing that they were all nothing but sham, it was only in order to anger G’d. They did so in order to be free to practice incest in public. (Sanhedrin 63) The Prophet Hoseah 5,4 states explicitly when he writes: “their habits do not let them return to their G’d because of their lecherous impulse within them. They pay no heed to the Lord.”

The verses we have here confront the different stages of seduction and deception by the evil urge. The Torah first deals with the opening argument of the seducer which was aimed at undermining observance of the חקים by saying "if you will despise those of My commandments which have no rationale;" our sages in Bamidbar Rabbah 19, portray both Satan and the nations of the world as questioning the reason for the law of the red heifer. The letter ב in the word בחקתי, is a letter denoting a reason. You may translate the verse as: "If you despise My statutes because they do not have a rationale, etc." The Torah continues with the word ואם, leading to the next level of seduction by Satan, i.e. that you may follow up your initial sin by even transgressing some negative commandment. The additional ואם also means that there is separate culpability for failing to observe negative commandments.

לבלתי עשות, “by not performing (them);” this is the opposite of ועשיתם אותם, “and you will perform them” (in verse 3, of this chapter.)

את כל מצותי ALL MY COMMANDMENTS — This refers to him who denies the Divine origin of the commandments, asserting that I have not commanded them. It is for this reason that Scripture states, “all My commands” and does not state, as in v. 14, "all these commands”.

להפרכם את בריתי, in order not to be different from the other nations surrounding them, neither of whom have been burdened with ethical/moral legislation and rituals such as demanded of the Jewish people by the Torah. The prophet Ezekiel, in Ezekiel 20,32 already challenges the people who would use the fact that they were now in exile, apparently abandoned by their G’d, as an excuse do divest themselves of the claims the Torah makes on them. He accuses them as making all this an excuse to serve deities made of wood and stone.

Concerning the second assault on us by Satan, his attempt to seduce us further, the Torah writes ואם את משפטי תגעל נפשכם, this is a reference to commandments for which there is ample rationale. The reason the Torah uses the stronger "your soul loathes them" is that unless one did so what possible reason could a Jew have to defy those of G'd's laws which are demonstrably beneficial and reasonable? Ignoring G'd's statutes could at least be due to one's failure to appreciate the purpose of that legislation.

Thereby breaking My covenant. This includes two connotations: One is the covenant that the people of Israel made with Hashem to be His nation, to keep the Torah and mitzvos. They would break this covenant solely due to their desires. It also includes breaking another covenant which Hashem made with the people of Israel to watch over them. Because they wanted to throw off the yoke of Torah and mitzvos, they increased in rebelliousness and did things to anger Hashem, disgusting things of which they were in truth not worthy. They only did them so He would remove His Divine Presence from the Holy Land and from the people of Israel. They thought that if Hashem would remove His Divine Presence from them they could be like all the other nations and all the other lands, under the guidance of the celestial kingdom, which is the sun. The Torah numbers seven transgressions: 1) Agreement not to do for the sake of Hashem. 2) Not to do at all. 3) Despising one who does according to the ways of tradition. 4) Despising the study of Torah in general. 5) Trying to prevent anyone from doing according to the Torah. 6) Trying to cast off the entire yoke of Heaven’s kingship. 7) Doing deeds to anger Hashem so that Hashem will break His covenant with us.

להפרכם את בריתי, “thereby breaking My covenant;” this is the opposite of והקימותי את בריתי אתכם, “I will maintain My covenant with you,” (in verse 9.)

להפרכם את בריתי TO MAKE VOID MY COVENANT — denying the great principle of the existence of God (Sifra, Bechukotai, Section 2 3). — 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: he has not studied and therefore has not practised the commandments; consequently he scorns others who do practise them, hates the Sages, prevents others from practising, denies the Divine origin of the commandments, and finally denies the existence of God.

Another reason why the Torah attributes non-observance of the social laws to such strong feelings on the part of the sinner may reflect a statement in the Sefer Hayashar by Rabbenu Tam chapter 9 who views an attitude such as described here as reflecting a diseased psyche and body. Berachot 61 describes this as saying that the wicked are judged by their evil passions. This is the reason the Torah writes לבלתי עשות את כל מצותי, such people object to doing anything which G'd has said merely because G'd has said it. Finally, the words להפרכם את בריתי are the Torah's reference to Satan's ultimate challenge when he asks his victim to commit a provocative act against G'd justifying it by promising his victim that he then will have to face only a single penalty namely the one for that ultimate act of rebellion. The Torah goes on record that the prospective sinner should not be deceived but that he would be held culpable for all his transgressions. We also have this spelled out in Ezekiel 25,8 and Ezekiel 20,33 respectively. Satan had argued that the same rules which apply to mankind at large also apply to Yehudah (25,8), whereas the prophet threatens Israel in the name of G'd that it will be treated with G'd's full retributive arm (20,33).

The verses under discussion may also be understood along the lines of the Zohar volume 1 page 100 that in order to achieve perfection in one's service of the Lord three ingredients have to be present, i.e. thought, speech, and deed. By repeating the word ואם, the Torah alludes to all of these three factors. The words ואם לא תשמעו refer to a flaw in one's speech when serving G'd; the words ולא תעשו refer to a flaw in the deeds required when serving the Lord. The words ואם בחקתי תמאסו refer to flaws in the thought processes which accompany one's service of G'd. Inasmuch as one's thoughts are generated both in one's brain and in one's heart, the Torah employed the term תמאסו when speaking about thoughts originating in one's brain, whereas it used the term תגעל נפשכם when referring to thoughts originating in one's heart.

It is also possible that the Torah speaks here about three different spiritual levels that are present amongst the Jewish people. One level comprises the Torah scholars, the spiritual elite of the people whose principal concern is Torah and service of the Lord. Concerning this group of people the Torah says ואם לא תשמעו לי, "if you do not hearken to Me, etc." Seeing that this group of people have to be most circumspect in their performance of the commandments it is essential that they listen to every detail of the Torah's instructions else they forfeit their very lives. We are given an example of this in Yuma 86 where the scholars themselves debate the nature of the sin of desecrating G'd's Holy Name. What may not be considered as desecration of the Holy Name for one person may yet rank as such for another, depending on his stature in the community. Rav said that if he entered a butcher store and did not pay immediately this would be accounted as a desecration of G'd's name (seeing onlookers would assume he received it for free as a sort of bribe.) Rabbi Yochanan said that if he walked around for a distance of 4 cubits without Talit and phylacteries this would be accounted against him as the sin of desecrating the name of the Lord. Concerning such people the Torah wrote: "if you will not hearken to Me." The Torah adds: "and you will not perform all these commandments." What is meant by the word all is that such Torah scholars must observe the commandments down to the very last detail otherwise it would be held against them as a great sin. There is another category of Jews who are not well versed in the Torah but who are intelligent and certainly understand the difference between right and wrong, and who are careful to practice the virtue of gratitude. Concerning this category the Torah writes ואם בחקתי תמאסו that if they display disdain for the statutes because they do not understand their reasons G'd will punish them although He will not punish them for performance of the commandments without attention to all the finer points. There is a third category, the fools, whose knowledge is so limited that they will not perform the statutes at all, but not because they despise them. Concerning this latter category the Torah writes: ואת משפטי תגעל נפשכם; G'd will hold such fools responsible for their sins only if they loathe social laws which even they are fully conversant with and the need for which they can fully understand. This latter category of people will not be punished by the penalties listed in the remainder of this chapter. G'd will treat them as if they had sinned inadverently.

לבלתי עשות את כל מצותי, "not to carry out all My commandments." G'd limits retribution to people who are still bent on defying Him by not performing the commandments. If such people have changed their attitude and plan on observing the commandments G'd will hold off punishing them until they have had a chance to prove their penitence. G'd may even hold off punishing people who have not yet expressed the intention to mend their ways but concerning whom G'd knows that they will do so.

להפרכם את בריתי, "to break My covenant." G'd makes the punishments in store for the Jewish people in the verses following dependent on their intention to break the covenant by their failure to observe the Torah. People who violate G'd's commandments merely because it is less burdensome for them or they believe they will enjoy life better by doing so (מומר לתאבון) are not included in what the rest of this chapter threatens in the way of retribution. Torat Kohanim writes as follows on the verse ואם לא תשמעו: "There are people who do not study the Torah but they do observe its commandments. Concerning such people the Torah wrote that they will be punished only ולא תעשו, if they fail to observe the commandments. There are other people who neither study nor practice Torah laws but they do not despise others who are observant. Concerning such people the Torah writes that as long as they do not despise G'd's statutes the list of retribution which follows does not apply to them. All those who neither study, nor perform and at the same time despise others who are observant and who hate the Torah scholars to boot are included in the description תגעל נפשכם. Finally, there are people who actively prevent other Jews from observing the commandments. This latter category is meant by the words לבלתי עשות, 'they do not let others perform.'" Thus far Torat Kohanim. According to what we have just quoted from Torat Kohanim one forms the impression that the whole chapter of the retribution G'd threatens is addressed only to the final category of sinners who not only anger G'd on purpose but interfere with the observance of the Torah by other Jews. If so, we must ask ourselves why the Torah bothered to list any of the other categories of sinners altogether? The reason the Torah was not content to list only the last category of sinner is that the Torah wanted to describe the stages that lead a sinner to eventually become so entrapped by his evil urge that he even prevents other Jews from observing their religion. When reading the entire passage one appreciates the terrible consequences which ensue if one takes the first step in ignoring our traditions. This is what Jeremiah 9,12 had in mind when he describes the loss of Jewish statehood as due to the people forsaking the Torah and not listening to G'd's voice. It is the first step away from tradition which is crucial.