Musar su Levitico 26:42

וזכרתי את בריתי יעקב . Whereas this verse (26,42) is one of the verses comforting us, why does the Torah continue with verses which indicate that the תוכחה is not yet at an end? I have heard that this verse (42) is also still part of the admonition/curse. The Torah distinguishes between wicked people who are the children of wicked parents and those who did not see such wicked examples before them when they grew up. The latter kind of רשע deserves to be punished much more harshly than a person who has never seen a model of good conduct before him. Similarly, if one has been raised in an environment which was hostile to Torah and religion one is not nearly as guilty for not following the dictates of the Torah as one is if one had the good fortune to be raised in a community of Torah observant Jews. G–d is on record that He will remember that we had the advantages of having the patriarchs as our models before our eyes, as well as the advantage of having been given ארץ ישראל the holy land; in spite of these advantages we breached the holy covenant with G–d. The Torah therefore exhorts us to consider our additional guilt in this context.

I would like to offer an additional thought on this anomaly. Rashi in his commentary on Leviticus 26,42- where the Torah writes that even while in exile, and while being persecuted, G–d will always remember the covenant with Jacob, Isaac and Abraham (in our favour)- states that the name יעקוב is spelled with the letter ו on only five occasions in the Bible. The name אליהו, on the other hand, is spelled without the final letter ו on five occasions. Rashi views Jacob as having "borrowed" a letter from the name of Elijah on those five occasions. He considers that letter as a pledge by the prophet Elijah that he will come to announce the deliverance of Israel. The mystical dimension of these five occasions is that they refer to the last two letters ו and ה in the Ineffable Name. Jacob, because he is the מרכבה, "carrier" of G–d's Presence, "borrowed" the letter ו from the name of אליהו five times. This letter was to serve as guarantee that the eventual redemption would be a full and comprehensive one. It should be able to combine with the letter נקבה תסובב גבר, the female element. This is an allusion to the promise in Jeremiah 31,22, that at that time שירה חדשה, "woman will court man," as we have mentioned elsewhere, and that the שירה חדשה, will be transformed into a שיר חדש. When Moses speaks about האות הזה, instead of האות הזאת in Exodus 8,19, this is an allusion to the time when the word אות will be treated as masculine in all its aspects. The word אות refers to the extra letter which will be added to the spelling of the word פדת, so that it will be seen to be פדות. Moses speaks of האות הזה as in (זה לך האות), to show that at the time of the final redemption the numerical value of the word זאת (when you ignore the "zeros,") will be 12, the same as the numerical value of the word זה. It is an allusion to the 12 צירופים, different permutations, in which the Ineffable Name can be spelled when using a word for each letter. It is significant that in Michah 7,15 we read concerning such a time in the future: כימי צאתך מארץ מצרים אראנו נפלאות. The prophet describes that the miracles performed by G–d at the time of the Exodus will pale into insignificance, and he describes how the nations of the world will react to G–d's manifesting His power anew. It is at that time that the real thrust of Moses' promise in Exodus 8,19: "I will set these My signs," will truly be fulfilled.