Comentario sobre Levítico 26:12

והתהלכתי בתוככם AND I WILL WALK AMONG YOU — I will, as it were, walk with you in the Garden of Eden as though I were one of yourselves and you will not be frightened of Me. One might think that this implies: you will not fear (reverence) Me! Scripture however states, “but I will be your God” (Sifra, Bechukotai, Chapter 3 3-4).

AND I WILL WALK AMONG YOU. This means that My conduct with you will be well-known, as when a monarch walks in the midst of his army, supplying them with all their needs.
This then is the way of the simple sense of the words of the covenant, and it is true, for so indeed will He do with them. Now Scripture did not mention here the reward of the existence of the souls in the World of Souls,⁷⁰This is the world to which the soul of a person goes immediately following the death of the body. At the resurrection, body and soul will be reunited in the World to Come, which is the Olam Haba. and in the World to Come after the resurrection, for their existence [following the death of the body] is a matter of necessity in the way of creation, as I have explained in [the section on] excisions,⁷¹Above, 18:29. this form of punishment being the “cutting off” of the guilty ones [from life eternal], and all the other [souls] will continue to exist on account of their fundamental nature inherent in their creation. But by way of the Truth, [the mystic teachings of the Cabala], these blessings [in this section] are also heavenly blessings in matters above, as I have explained.⁷²Above, Verse 11. Thus, And I will give peace in the Land;⁷³Verse 6. and My soul shall not abhor you,⁷²Above, Verse 11. and similarly, and I will walk among you,⁷⁴Verse 12 before us. allude to the [Divine] attribute which our Rabbis have called Shechinah (the Divine Presence), of [the root found in the expression], And I will set ‘mishkani’ (My dwelling) among you,⁷²Above, Verse 11. and as the Rabbis say:⁷⁵See Rashi to Deuteronomy 30:3. “The Shechinah (Divine Presence) dwells with Israel.” And in Bereshith Rabbah they have said:⁷⁶Bereshith Rabbah 19:13. “The Divine Presence was mainly in the lower world.”⁷⁷That is, even after Adam committed the first sin, the Divine Presence was still mainly in the lower world. With each progressive sin on the part of mankind, this Presence withdrew to the remote heavens, until the patriarchs appeared and gradually brought His Presence back into the lower world. When the Tabernacle was completed and His Glory came to dwell therein, the process of return was completed. Thus the Garden of Eden [i.e., the World of Souls] and the World to Come [after the resurrection] are mentioned here⁷⁸In the expressions: And I will set My dwelling (Verse 11); and I will give peace in the Land (Verse 6), as hinted to above (Ma’or V’shamesh). to those who know [the way of Truth].
Now these blessings in their perfection will only occur when all Israel do the will of their Father [in heaven], and when [as a result of this] the structure of heaven and earth will be perfect, in accordance with its [original] plan. There are no other blessings in the Torah as perfect as these, which constitute the words of the covenant and the conditions between the Holy One, blessed be He, and us.
Know, [however], that Israel never attained these blessings in their perfection, neither many of them [i.e., as a people] nor as individuals, since their merits were never sufficient for them, just as the Rabbis have said with reference to David’s [captains]:⁷⁹Moed Katan 16 b. “And he [Adino the Eznite] lifted up his spear against eight hundred, whom he slew at one time.⁸⁰II Samuel 23:8. But he [David] was troubled about the [remaining] two hundred.⁸¹As the verse states, How should one chase a thousand (Deuteronomy 32:30) (Moed Katan 16b). Thereupon a Divine Voice came forth and said to him, Save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.”⁸²I Kings 15:5. In other words, because of the affair of Uriah (see II Samuel, Chapter 11) King David did not completely achieve that particular blessing mentioned in the Torah. Therefore you will find our Rabbis of blessed memory speaking of [the fulfillment of] these verses [containing the blessings] in the future [which is yet] to come. [Thus they have said].⁸³Torath Kohanim, Bechukothai 2:2. “This teaches that a child of Israel will in the future stretch forth [his hand into the pupil of an adder’s eye, and remove his gall through his mouth.” Similarly they have said]:⁸⁴Ibid., 3:3. “The Holy One, blessed be He, will in the future walk about with the righteous in the World to Come.” This is because [these blessings] have not yet been fulfilled, but they will be fulfilled for us at the time of [our] perfection.

והתהלכתי בתוככם. The meaning of this reflexive conjugation is as if the Torah had written: “I will walk with you in whatever direction you are going, back and forth and sideways.” In other words, G’d says that He will not limit His benevolent presence to a single location or route of His choosing as it was as long as the Temple or Tabernacle stood, and only these locations were holy domains, the people having to come there if they wanted to experience sanctity and holiness. While it is true that this had been the primary objective in Exodus chapter 25 when the command to build the Tabernacle had first been issued, this was only an initial step in regaining the closeness between G’d and Israel which had been shattered due to the sin of the golden calf. During the immediate period being ushered in at that time, the operating clause for such manifestation of holiness would the words אשר אועד לך שמה, “where I choose to manifest Myself” (Exodus 30,6) Or Exodus 29,43 ונועדתי שמה לבני ישראל, “I will manifest Myself there to the Children of Israel.”
In the future, wherever the righteous would be found holiness would be present. This is the meaning of והתהלכתי בתוככם. At that time My glory will be manifest universally, not only within the confines of the Temple. This is the time of which Isaiah 66, 1-2 said “The heaven is My throne, and the earth My footstool.”

(1) And I will walk among you - the explanation of Rashi "I will walk with you in Gan Eden" - his idea is to remove from our holy Torah any and every claimant who says "I have a place to rest" by stating that there is no point in our Torah that affirms a reward for the soul, if so, the only force of mitzvot is to make one inherit the reward for a soul in the world to come, and the practical reality of doing mitzvot is to receive rewards in this world, this world tied up in disgrace. And many were already aroused to doubt - but here are seven different ideas of our sages, and I come to summarize and organize their opinions so as to stop up the mouths that say untruths about our holy Torah.

והייתי לכם לאלוקים, “and I will remain your G-d;” the word elohim here is used as a simile for judge, the one who will avenge the wrongs done to you by your enemies. (B’chor shor)

והייתי לכם לאלוקים, I will be a special G’d, yours alone. You will not have recourse to any other “leader,” any intermediary who will have an input into shaping your destiny. This is why your eternal existence will not again be threatened. This is the true significance of being בצלמי ובדמותי, “in My image (and in My form.”), meaning as it had been G’d’s original intention. This intention had been briefly realised again at the revelation at Mount Sinai, only to have again been aborted when the golden calf was made and the people danced around it. When G’d said in Exodus 6,7 “I will take you to be My people and to be your G’d, He had meant the restoration of man’s original perfection as he had been when first created, becoming the gift of the Jewish people at Mount Sinai.
On the other hand, Deuteronomy 29,12 when G’d also speaks of the result of the covenant being that He will be the G’d of the Jewish people, He did not refer to such lofty ideals at that time. At that point the Torah was satisfied with ensuring the uninterrupted function of the Tabernacle as the home of the Shechinah on earth. This was the reduced objective we had heard about in Exodus 29,45 when G’d spoke about making His residence among the Jewish people in that Tabernacle, not wherever they would be in areas beyond the Tabernacle. G’d would indeed be the Jewish people’s G’d, with all that this entails in terms of His personal providence, but He would not be described as dwelling “among” them, or “within” them, depending on how we want to understand the word בתוכם. However, we would be His people, if all our efforts would be designed to carry out G’d’s will to the extent that He had revealed it to us. After all, every people does no less than this for its king of flesh and blood.

The first opinion, Ramba"m's, is that all these promises aren't (considered) the main reward, rather all that is mentioned here are things which remove challenges and obstacles that would prevent a person from serving the Holy One, meaning, if you observe My mitzvot I will remove from you everything that prevents, such as wars, sicknesses, hunger, grief so you will be ablt to serve God without any obstacle, but the essence of the reward is of the world to Come and it is not mentioned so a person would serve the Creator for its own sake, and not because of desire of reward or fear of punishment, see Sevefr Hamada (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Teshuvah 9:1)

The second opinion is from Rabbi Avraham ben Ezra, in his commentary to parashat haazinu, and these are his words: "according to my opinion the Torah was given to all and not to one individual, and the things about the World to Come cannot be understood even in its one thousandth, because it is very deep." And in his opinion, since it is hard to picture such a reward, since what is physical cannot grasp what is spiritual, the Torah concealed this very deep issue from the many due to their limited awareness.

The third opinion is Rabbeinu Bechaye's. It is the same of the Ramban's, and this is that all the promises of the Torah are above Nature, since it is not a natural thing for rain to fall at the time when we do a mitzvah, and that rain should cease from the earth when we do not do the will of the Place, Blessed be. However, the soul going up to the place from which it was hewn is a natural thing to the soul and this is not a miracle, and the punishment of excision [karet] in the Torah is that it will be excised from the place it was hewn, and from this we can learn that if the soul does not sin, she returns to her lodge, to the place where her tent was at the beginning (Gen. 13:3) and it seems that on this it is written "Look to the LORD and keep to His way, and He will raise you high that you may inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you shall see it" (Ps. 37:34). Meaning, in that excision of the wicked, promised in the Torah, you will see that there is spiritual reward that God will raise you to inherit the land of the living, when the soul goes up to the place from which was hewn, since it is needed to cut off the souls of the evil ones from there.

The fourth opinion - since in those days everyone was lying regarding the Holy Name's Providence, and were contending that everything that happens in the world is of necessity, and not of the will of the Creator, the Holy One wanted to prove that part of Providence is true through those promises, that eyes could see, that those who do the will of their Creator received good with all those goodnesses, and if the promise was spiritual they would still remain in this denial since the one who wants to lie could distance [oneself] from the end, and the essence of this opinion comes from Rabbeinu Nissim's commentary in the parsha of Bereshit and its root is in the Sefer Kuzari (Kuzari 1:110-112): "The anticipations of other religions are grosser and more sensuous than yours" and the friend explained "But none of them are realized till after death, whilst during this life nothing points to them. The Kuzari: May be; I have never seen any one who believed in these promises desire their speedy fulfillment. On the contrary, if he could delay them a thousand years, and remain in the bonds of this life in spite of the hardship of this world, he would prefer it." And this is, in truth, the best explanation, that the Torah is promising something that a person really wants.

The fifth opinion is that before receiving the Torah they were all idolaters and they did all sorts of specific rituals so as to continue the blessings for produce and bring rain on their time and all other bodily success, and when the Holy One of Blessing gave the Torah and prohibited those rituals, God wanted to assure them that through the keeping of the Torah they would receive those promises, and that through the idolatrous rituals they would lack all those, but the life in the world to come was not included in the promises because it was not assured through those rituals either. And this is the opinion of Rav Saadia Gaon, in the Book of Beliefs and Opinions, and also in the Guide for the Perplexed, third part.

The sixth opinion is that after it says "I will walk about in your midst"(Lev. 26:12) and "I will place My Mishkan among you" (Lev. 26:11) this is the clinging of the Shechina on Israel, even in this world where the soul is entangled in the material, that the soul should cling to the Shechina after she is separated from the material, behold, every promise of the fake religions regarding what happens after death the Torah has promised us also in this life of this world, and the prophecy found with us also proves that, and this opinion you will find in the responses of the Friend to the King Kuzari at the end of the first dialogue in his book, and Rabbeinu Nissim also supported this opinion in a new explanation.

The seventh opinion is that all the promises written in the Torah are for the nation in general, since the world is judged according to the majority, and the promise of rain, produce and peace and so on is for the whole people Israel as one, but the reward of the soul in the world to come is not included in the promises for the people in general, rather, it is to every individual, who will be judged according to that individual's deeds, and this is hinted in the mitzvot of honoring parents and in the sending away the mother bird, and this opinion is found in the Book of Principles (R. Joseph Albo) and in the commentary of the Ramban on parashat Ekev (Ramban on Deuteronomy 11:13) on the verse "with all your heart and all your soul" see there. And on those seven ways great words were said regarding our holy Torah, and so our own eyes see the greatness of the love of the Holy One for our patriarchs Avraham, Itzchak and Yaakov. And were their success in this world the end of their success, what would be the difference between Avraham and the evil Nimrod, who was a king in a domed castle, and Avraham just a wanderer from tent to tent and people to people, and also Yitzchak and Yaakov we have no idea what happened to them regarding the real reward, since this reward promised to their descendants is the end of their reward, what is the profit to the master that after their deaths their children will inherit the land, and they would take leave of this world empty despite all their efforts? What profit would be to them, even in a peaceful time in which all kings were successful and reigned in this world, and some even more than others, only if a great goodness comes to the righteous , which is their portion and the inheritance of the patriarchs, and of all their descendants, since there is only one Torah to all.

And I will walk among you, and I will be your God - there are two levels here. (1) Holiness will be inside you, really, in your divine soul, and through holiness the divine soul will again be the master in [your] reality. This is similar to the righteous being described as tenants who are partners to a king in the orchard: even though the garden is not their possession, they are partners with him in their work, by fixing and fencing and trimming the grapevines, so too the righteous are tenants with God, that keep the great garden which is the world, maintaining the world that was created through Ten Sayings through Torah and mitzvot. They stroll with the king through the work, they are partners with the Holy One of Blessing in the works of creation by keeping the great garden with Torah and mitzvot. I [God] say to them - behold I am like you [Sifra, above in this source sheet] because they with their actions sake the lines of judgment and through their decisions they make the world go through lovingkindness and punishment, as the sages say in various places "who rules over Me? The righteous. And from a second perspective (2) "I will be your God" from the side that God behaves with the righteous according to God's will, for good, and God's reverence will be with them in their recognizing of God's greatness and majesty. And regarding those two aspects it is said "I will place My Sanctuary among them forever. My Presence shall rest over them; I will be their God and they shall be My people." (Ezekiel 37:26-27). And those are two levels, the tabernacle among them and the Presence in them and above them. And there (Ezekiel 37:28) "And when My Sanctuary abides among them forever, the nations shall know that I, Ad-nai, do sanctify Israel" since once the Presence is in them, and they control all their actions, it is made known to idolaters that Israel is holy and beyond nature.