Leviticus Cycle Four Bechukotai 26:3 to 27:34

Bekuchotai

Bekuchothai (or as to my statutes) is one of those parashas that can cause us to shake in our bones or shake our heads. It has two parts; curses/blessings and valuations. There are 10 lines of blessings (26:3-13) and 32 of curses (26:14-46). These seem to be born of the nastiest apocalyptic scenarios we can possibly imagine. This is an if/then (Deuteronomist) construct and (as a rabbinic student) I can’t help but wonder if this parsha was plugged into the end of Leviticus to transition the priestly laws back to the people. Yes, this is about us.

As for the valuations, it seems if people vow to give to God the value of a person…they can fulfill it. Men, women, children and babies are all valued at shekels. Animals as well. Is this an attempt to keep the people in line? In a setting where human sacrifice is rampant (we are continually warned against Canaanite practices) there is no need. We can give silver instead.

Let’s turn up the vibration, turn to the sages. What we see is that all is given a valuation here, the curses and blessings as well as our human bodies, the intangible as well as the tangible. This isn’t about reward and punishment after all. It’s about seeing where we can place ourselves given who we are….and how to move closer to Hashem.

As for the blessings, there are steps of ascension concealed within…the idea of the jubilee has within it’s very meaning seven times seven times seven to infinity. Once in that heightened place, we trust that we will be able to access the ladder created by this reality. More lines are spent on the curses. God, with grace and compassion, does not conceal the ladder here. There’s the constant mention of seven-fold (for example) that helps to create the steps. There are many vibrations of curses, all revealed. Finally, blessings and curses have the same structure and pattern…just a different texture and a different level of concealment.

R. Levi (Talmud Megillah 10b) emphasizes this balance/connection of blessings and curses: as the Lord rejoiced over you to do good, so he Lord will rejoice over you to cause you to perish.

The Zohar(in one of the most beautiful pieces I’ve read in this mystical writing) says…desire of the female toward the male arouses only when a spirit enters her and she gushes water toward upper masculine waters. Similarly Assembly of Israel arouses desire toward the blessed Holy One only by the spirit of the righteous entering Her. Then waters flow from within Her toward waters of the male, all becoming one desire, one cluster, one nexus. Rapture, total rapture! An amble ambled by the blessed Holy One with souls of the righteous (1:60b).

This is the artistic/poetic rendering of that same climb up the ladder I am referring to above. What we see here is the force and reach that we all take part in. We are all, after all, beings valued beyond the physical… and worthy of being soul-sacrificed to Hashem. We can all make the climb from the curses to the blessings. Every single handbreadth descending from above is met by two handbreadths emitted by the earth (Zohar 2:102a). We, the people of Israel, can assemble within the Shechinah and rise to tiferet, to Hashem, to that ultimate joining.

How? With the spirit of the righteous. With Torah. Jeremiah in 33:25 equates the covenant with Torah. After all, through idleness of hands, the house leaks….through laziness, not busying (our)selves with Torah…we are poor (Megillah 11a).

How to apply Torah to our lives? When the curses happen…and they happen…we lose jobs, get big bills, dented cars, stolen wallets…don’t get stuck in blame. See the ladder of self-healing, the listening, the compassion, the giving, the reaching out to God in the face of man. The more we suffer the more we turn the more we smile the more we give the higher we climb.

And in meditation? Bring yourself to the place of blessing. Imagine the underworld and see your offering of light to the souls who are there (include yourself). See the ladder formed by these vibrations. See the souls move up the steps on the ladder. Know we are doing our best to help all to know God. Know who we are.