Behar/Behukotai 5766

This week's double parsha presents a series of blessings and curses which result from the people of Israel's obedience or disobedience of God's commandments.

Do what God asks, [and] blessings follow.  Don't, [and] curses result.  The peculiarity of the passage is that the section that describes the curses is approximately three times the length of the section outlining the blessings!  Needless to say, many commentators offer explanations and theories.  Most revolve around our human need for abundant warnings about the consequences of poor choices.  I have a slight variation on that theme.  The author of the Torah, I think, recognizes that we have a harder time seeing the blessings in our lives than we do noting the curses.

The blessings/curses passage mirrors that piece of human psychology by citing blessings only in large, abstract categories while offering a lengthy and very detailed catalogue of curses.  The implicit challenge of Behar/Behukotai is to expand the detail on the blessing side.

B'shalom,

Rabbi David M. Ackerman