Additional thoughts on Tochecha

The prevailing minhag for the reading of the Tochecha in the synagogue is to read it faster and softer than the normal layning.This is because we don't want to be reminded of the bad stuff, and want to get it over with quickly. Whether or not it is a correct custom is irrevelant here...that's the way it's usually done. A good Ba'al K'riya will only be a little faster and a little softer than usual, because after all everyone still is required to hear every word clearly and distinctly.

In his weekly video D'var Torah this week, Rav Shlomo Riskin tells of the Klausenberger Rebbe in the early 1950's, having escaped from the Shoah, who insisted that the Tochecha be read out loud...he said the Jews had no more to fear. All the curses had happened, now it was time for the blessings. He then also told his people that the blessing would only come to Israel, and within six months had moved all his Hassidim to Netanya in Israel.

It's a moving story, and I can understand how someone who lost so much and escaped the Shoah would feel...and hope...that this must be the end of the punishments. And maybe it would have been so, as Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik wrote in Kol Dodi Dofek, if we had listened to Hashem's knocks on our door in 5708 (1948) and all packed up and moved to Israel.

But I can't believe it now. We continue to go against God in so many ways; sinat chinam and stubborn stiffnecked selfishness parading as frumkeit are rampant. So maybe we're wrong to read it quietly. Maybe we should tell the Ba'al K'riya to speak up loud, and maybe we should listen harder. Maybe then we can get some of the message through our thick skulls.

Another prevalant minhag is to consider the Aliya containing the Tochecha as 'bad luck.' To avoiding insulting anyone, rather than call up a member of the congregation, it is often given to the Ba'al K'riya since he is already there...in some shuls they don't even call him up by name.

Rav Chaim Wasserman was always opposed to this minhag, and when he was the Rav in Passaic he insisted on being called up (normally and by name) for the Tochecha. It is, after all, part of the Torah. And how do the two rebukes end?

B'chukotai: "These are the statutes and judgements, and the teachings which Hashem gave between Himself and the Children of Israel, at Har Sinai by the hand of Moshe. (Vayikra 26:46)

Ki Tavo: "These are the words of the Brit which Hashem commanded Moshe to make with the Children of Israel in the land of Moav, in addition to the Brit which He made with them in Horev." (Devarim 28:69)

The Tochecha is an integral part of our Brit with Hashem! You can't have one without the other. If you want to sign a business deal but refuse to accept any penalty clauses, the other side won't sign. If we had refused to accept this list of punishments, Hashem wouldn't have made the Brit with us! So we should be honored to be given this Aliya, with it's lofty closing sentiments.

The last time I layned a Tochecha at my shul here in Kochav Yaakov, the Gabbai gave me the Aliya and then apologized. I explained that I wasn't upset because of Rav Wasserman's reasoning. This past Shabbat there was someone else layning, because it was his Bar Mitzva parsha, and he was a Kohen...no way to give him the Tochecha. The Gabbai remembered what I had told him, and so he called me for the Aliya. I was honored and pleased.

If we could all open our ears a little more to the two Tochechot, if we could honestly examine our ways instead of rationalizing them and blaming everyone else, then maybe we can get back to the place the Klausenberger Rebbe had hoped we'd reached, and we can listen peacefully to the curses as we enter the blessing time of Mashiach.

Plenty of Warning

(basedin part on the final Meturgeman Drasha, Parshat Behar-Bechukotai, 22 Iyar, 5762)

The Tochecha (Divine rebuke) in Parshat Bechukotai is unique because it comes in stages. Unlike the longer Tochecha in Parshat Ki-Tavo, which just keeps piling on more and more bad things, in this rebuke Hashem is giving us a piece at a time with a chance to do T'shuva.

There are five stages altogether. Each stage after the first begins by saying, IF we haven't learned our lesson from the previous stage but continue to rebel, ONLY THEN will we get the next stage, which is seven times worse.

In other words, we have plenty of chances to wake up and smell the beef-fry. If we can't figure out what's happening and mend our ways, then He will have to pound us some more. So whose fault is it? Our enemies? The politician? Nope. It's us. God is practically begging us to learn our lesson before it's too late, and we just don't get it.

Once again, I'm not the only one saying this. In this year's (5769) Torah Tidbits for the Parsha, Phil Chernofsky compares us to Par'o. We often comment about how seemingly impossible it was for Par'o to ignore plague after plague and stick to his stubborn evil ways. But we don't do any better! We ignore, we rationalize, we blame others for the bad things that happen. So Hashem has to smack us down, again and again.

There is a prevailing opinion in Jewish tradition that the first Tochecha refers to the destruction of the Bayit Rishon, and the second one to Bayit Sheni. This can seem very comforting, because it makes it seem as if it's all behind us. But I'm not so sure it's completely true. Certainly in a general sense, the warnings in the Torah about the cost of sin still apply. And there are frightening parallels from this Tochecha to the current time. I mentioned before, based on the insight of a friend, how the first stage of this Tochecha sounds a lot like the Hitnatkut from Gaza. That was nearly four years ago, and all the evidence seems to indicate that we are not listening yet to Hashem. And what is the second stage? (Vayikra 26:18-20) No rain leading to no crops.

Israel right now is in the midst of the worst drought in modern history. One of the places the government has cut back on water use is agriculture...leading to less crops and more imports.

Coincidence? Enough people seem willing to believe so that there is no attempt to correct our actions. Are we so willing to risk the next stage? (Which is to be overrun with wild animals; followed by besieging of the cities and resultant famine in stage four, and the final stage of cannibalism, destruction, and exile.) It would seem we are.

We need to change our ways; to work on the Spiritual lessons of Torah, to learn and to teach, and to lead others back to the correct path. If we can't do that soon, I fear we are in for more difficult times.