Bechukosai 5774:        Not Too Disgusting

By Rabbi Joshua (tolerantly known as the Hoffer) Hoffman

In parshas Bechukosai, God tells us that if we study His Torah assiduously and fulfill His mitzvos, he will bestow many blessings upon us.  Among these blessings that He will bestow is that He will dwell among us. The wording of this blessing, however, needs to be understood. He tells us, “I will place My sanctuary among you, and My soul will not reject you” (Vayikra 26:11).  A number of commentators point out that the second half of the verse seems to be obvious and superfluous.  If God will place His sanctuary among us, meaning that His divine presence - the shechina - will dwell among us, isn’t it obvious that His soul will not reject us?  Rabbeinu Bachya, in his commentary, explains that, in this verse, God’s soul does not refer to his shechina, as His sanctuary does, but to a different kind of manifestation of the divine presence.  Readers attuned to these different terms, as explained in kabbalah, are referred to these comments.  We will mention other answers that are geared to the common understanding of the verse, taking God’s sanctuary and God’s soul as referring to the same manifestations of His presence, and thus leaving us with the question of the need for a meaning of the second half of the verse. 

The Netziv, in his Ha’amek Davar, says that no matter how true the people are to the Torah, there will always be some individuals who deviate from it.  God, in his blessing, is telling the people that when they, as a whole, follow the Torah, He will dwell among them, and will not reject them due to the few among them who deviate. This is analogous to a father with a large, devoted, family, who has one child who sometimes acts in a disgusting manner.  Rather than reject the family, he will tolerate that son and continue his close relationship. God, in blessing the people, acts similarly, and does not reject the people due to the few sinners among them. 

Rav Dovid Feinstein, in a shiur on the parsha, offered a different explanation. He said that when one grows close to another, he gets to know all of his various habits, some of which may not be appealing, and will, as a result, distance himself from him. God, however, does not act in this way.   Rather, He tells us that when we follow His Torah, he becomes very close to us, and he sees us doing something that might disgust others, He will nevertheless not reject us, but continue to dwell among us. 

The explanations of the Netziv and Rav Dovid Feinstein carry messages for us in our daily lives, as well. The Talmud tells that we must emulate the way of God. Just as God is merciful and compassionate, so, too, must we be merciful and compassionate. We learn, from God’s bestowal of blessings, that when He dwells among us, he does not cut off the relationship because of a few deviant individuals, nor does he reject any one of us due to a particularly offensive, singular act. The love that He has for his people moves Him to tolerate these deviations, and, following the directive of the Talmud, we should strive to act in a similar manner.