Parashat Behar-Bechukotai

May 7, 2021
25 Iyyar 5781
Parashat Behar-Bechukotai
40th day of the Omer
Leviticus 25:1 - 27:34

Dear Friends,

As we once more encounter Behar/Bechukotai, the double portion that ends the book of Leviticus, we are faced with the complexity that is our tradition. In brief, these two portions are not easy or straightforward. They make us uneasy. They highlight the impermanence that is life, whether it is the year of shmita (the seventh year when the land is to rest) or the curses that follow us at the end of the book if we do not observe the laws we have been given. We come to the end of the book of Leviticus feeling as though we are not on solid ground.

In many ways, the tone at the end of the book echoes where many of us find ourselves after a year of Covid, when we were (and are) forced to live our lives in ways we could never have imagined. We have been unmoored; unlike our ancestors who had time to prepare for the sabbatical year, we have adapted to a changing reality on the fly. 

But if we are honest about this past year, what has kept us going is our ability to remain connected and rely on one another. In the shmita year, people must have had to rely on one another more in order to get through the year. It would be nice to imagine that the time they would otherwise have spent on agriculture was given over to other pursuits, including more time with those around them.

At the same time, our planet took a rest. This year, pollution decreased, endangered animals received a second chance, and goats wandered through the empty streets of a village in Wales. The world looked different. Although many of us worked from home, the pace of our lives changed.

We were made to rest -- to go more slowly or, at the very least, to do things differently.

The end of Leviticus leaves us with a blessing: “Yet even then, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or spurn them so as to destroy them, annulling My covenant with them, for I the Eternal am their God. I will remember in their favor the covenant with the ancients, whom I freed from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God: I the Eternal.” (Leviticus 26: 44-45)

To this blessing I add my own:

A Blessing
A blessing realized when there are many voices joined together
A blessing realized as each of us plots our own sacred journey
A blessing realized when the deep individual “why” for each of us is revealed
A blessing realized when the love and care is deep, wide, and unboundaried
A blessing realized when we are reminded that we are indeed stronger together and supporting one another makes it possible to continue
A blessing realized when the sacred makes an appearance when it is least expected
And finally or maybe not so finally
A blessing realized that the holiness each of us carries within makes our work sacred able to provide healing in a broken world

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Linda Shriner-Cahn