Parshas Bechukosai contains one of the
most serious passages in the Torah, known as the Tochachah. The Tochachah
appears twice in the Torah, once here and once in Parshas Ki Savo in Sefer
Devarim. It informs Bnei Yisrael about the potential downfall that awaits them
if they do not keep the Torah.
If you look closely at the pesukim,
there are several key differences between the Tochachah written here and the
one in Ki Savo. The Ramban explains that the Tochachah here is telling Bnei
Yisrael what will happen by the destruction of the first Beis Hamikdash and the
following exile in Bavel, and what will happen by the destruction of the second
Beis Hamikdash and in the subsequent exile we remain in until this day. He
proceeds to prove this directly from the words in the pesukim in fascinating
fashion.
There is a separate reason for the
destruction of each Beis Hamikdash and each exile was different as well. The
first Beis Hamikdash was destroyed as a result of Bnei Yisrael serving Avoda
Zara. The pasuk in this week’s parshah says, “וְהִשְׁמַדְתִּי אֶת בָּמֹתֵיכֶם
וְהִכְרַתִּי אֶת חַמָּנֵיכֶם וְנָתַתִּי אֶת פִּגְרֵיכֶם עַל פִּגְרֵי
גִּלּוּלֵיכֶם” “I will demolish your edifices and
cut down your sun idols; I will make your corpses (fall) upon the corpses of
your idols” (Vayikra 26:30). We see the pasuk speaks clearly about Hashem
destroying Avoda Zara belonging to the Jews. The very next pasuk reads, “ וַהֲשִׁמּוֹתִי אֶת מִקְדְּשֵׁיכֶם
וְלֹא אָרִיחַ בְּרֵיחַ נִיחֹחֲכֶם” “And I will make your holy places
desolate, and I will not partake of your pleasant fragrances” (26:31). Hashem
says He will not be partaking of these aromas, meaning that they must be coming
from korbanos in the Beis Hamikdash (otherwise it would be obvious that He wouldn’t
be partaking of them). So we see that the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash
will be directly connected to the fact that Bnei Yisrael will have idols. This
actually did happen many hundreds of years later. (See Yirmiyahu 32.)
Additionally, the Torah also “predicts”
exactly how long that exile would last. (You will understand why I put that
word in quotations later.) The pasuk gives the reason for the first exile as, “אָז תִּרְצֶה הָאָרֶץ אֶת
שַׁבְּתֹתֶיהָ כֹּל
יְמֵי הָשַּׁמָּה וְאַתֶּם בְּאֶרֶץ אֹיְבֵיכֶם אָז תִּשְׁבַּת
הָאָרֶץ וְהִרְצָת אֶת שַׁבְּתֹתֶיהָ” Then, the
land will be appeased regarding its’ sabbaticals. During all the days that it
remains desolate while you are in the land of your enemies, the land will rest
and thus appease its’ sabbaticals.” (26:34). The pasuk is saying that the
land will remain empty of the Jewish people until the amount of desecrated shmittah
years can be had by the land. Rashi in Pasuk 35 makes a calculation and figures
out that seventy shmittah years had been ignored by Bnei Yisrael since they had
entered the land with Yehoshua. The length of the first galus in Bavel was seventy
years!
There are also references in the pesukim
for how Bnei Yisrael returned from that galus. Looking at Perek 26 pesukim 40
and 42, they don’t mention anything about the nation making a full repentance (though
it does mention them regretting their sins in the Sifrei Neviim,) or Hashem
completely forgiving them for said sins. It also only mentions that Hashem will
remember His promise to the Avos and the fact that Eretz Yisrael lies
desolate; it does not mention anything about the nation. We know that when Bnei
Yisrael came back from Bavel, only the tribes of Yehuda and Binyamin returned,
along with a smattering of Levi. They came back very poor people and with Eretz
Yisrael still under Persian rule. It’s very clear that these pesukim are
speaking about events that actually happened hundreds of years from this point when
they were said to Moshe!
The Tochachah written later in Sefer
Devarim is referring to the second exile. If you read through the pesukim
there, they make no mention of when the exile will end and show that the entire
redemption depends on the repentance done by Bnei Yisrael. We know ourselves
from everything that has been taught to us about our current exile that this is
true. The pesukim also do not reference any particular sin like they do in our parshah.
Rather, the pasuk simply states, “ וְהָיָה אִם לֹא תִשְׁמַע בְּקוֹל יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לִשְׁמֹר
לַעֲשׂוֹת אֶת כָּל מִצְוֹתָיו” “And it will be, if you do not obey Hashem, your God, to
observe to fulfill all His commandments” (Devarim 28:15).
Among
the curses foretold are that the nation that will drive you out of the land will
come from far away and speak a language you do not recognize; this was not
stated here in Parshas Bechukosai. This is exactly what happened. In the time
of the first exile, the Jews were exiled to Bavel, a country bordering Eretz
Yisrael with a language very similar to Hebrew. In the time of the second exile,
the enemy came from Rome, far away from Eretz Yisrael, and spoke Latin,
a language not at all similar to Hebrew.
The
promise of redemption is different as well. In Sefer Devarim, Hashem promises
to bring all of the tribes back from galus, and promises to punish the two
nations who always pursue us through the Galus. (See Devarim 30:7.) According
to the Ramban, these two nations are Esav and Yishmael, the two nations who
have consistently tortured us throughout these last two thousand years.
These
are just a few of the many different clues the Ramban finds in the pesukim both
in Parshas Bechukosai and in Parshas Ki Savo. I strongly encourage anyone who
is able to look through it themselves.
As
with every bad event we read about in the Torah, if we look closely, it is
possible to see Hashem giving us a sign that all will be ok. The obvious explanation
here is that Hashem does promise to bring us back out of this galus, and
if the pesukim in our Parshah came true then surely the pesukim in
Parshas Ki Savo will come true too. However, there is something more to take
out of this. Nowadays more than ever, we are challenged from many different
directions as to the truth of the Torah. Many educated people have come up with
different explanations that the Torah might not be from Hashem, Chas V’Shalom,
and sometimes these “proofs” can appear concrete enough to challenge our
beliefs. When we look at parshiyos like this one, where everything that would
unfold over the next millennium was foretold with such precision
in the pesukim, can we have any doubt that the Torah comes directly from
Hashem?
May we merit the Geulah B’Karov!
Shabbat Shalom!
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