Nothing Happens By Chance
SICHOT OF THE ROSHEI YESHIVA
ParashOt BEHAR-BECHUKOTAI
SICHA OF
HARAV MOSHEH LICHTENSTEIN SHLIT"A
Nothing Happens by Chance
Translated by
A PLEA,
RATHER THAN A CONSOLATION
The
haftara for Behar-Bechukotai, as is the case with the other double
parashiyot, is the haftara of the second parasha. We, therefore, read this week the
haftara for Bechukotai, which is taken from the book of
Yirmiyahu (16:19-17:14). The
core of Parashat Bechukotai is the rebuke, and the haftara serves
as a response to that reproach. The
haftara's opening words "O Lord, my strength, and my stronghold,
and my refuge in the day of affliction" (16:19) prepares us for a prophecy of
consolation. But the continuation of
the haftara includes a harsh reproach, and even the concluding verse
"Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for You
are my praise" (17:14) does not describe consolation and redemption, but
merely expresses a wish and a desire for salvation and healing that are not yet
visible on the horizon. Even at the
end of the haftara, then, we still find ourselves far from salvation,
which fails to arrive. The truth is
that anyone who follows the reading of the haftara in the synagogue from
a complete Tanakh, rather than from a Chumash, will be surprised
to discover that the final verse of the haftara is actually the opening
verse of a new section. In its
context in the book of Yirmiyahu, the plea for healing and salvation is
uttered out of distress and persecution, and as part of Yirmiyahu's bitter
struggle with the people of his generation.
It does not herald salvation, but rather it is a petition and prayer in
anticipation of continued struggle and troubles.
REACTION
IN A TIME OF TROUBLE
It should,
then, be understood that the haftara is not one of consolation in the
classical sense, that it does not come to describe a rosy future that will
replace the gloomy present, and that we must understand its goal in a different
manner. If we come to summarize its
message in a single word, it is trust.
Over the course of the parasha, the Torah describes the ups and
downs that will befall the people in the wake of their actions. God will bring upon them a sword that
will avenge His covenant and make them flee before their enemies, and at the end
of the parasha, we are told that He will return them to the desolate land
in the wake of the covenant that had been made with their forefathers. All this is described at length in
the section of the reproach. One
component, however, is missing, namely, man's reaction and response. We hear nothing about the
relationship between
It is important to emphasize the haftara's place in the framework
of the book of Yirmiyahu. It
is found not in the context of chapters of consolation, but rather in the very
heart of a series of chapters of harsh and threatening reproach. To illustrate this, let us cite a few
verses from the beginning of chapter 16, the same chapter from which the
haftara is taken:
For thus says
the Lord concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this
place, and concerning their mothers that bore them, and concerning their fathers
that begot them in this land.
They shall
die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be
buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be
consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcasses shall be food for the
birds of the sky, and for the beasts of the earth.
For thus says
the Lord, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan
them: for I have taken away My peace from this people, says the Lord, both love
and mercy.
Both the
great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither
shall men lament for them, nor gash themselves, nor make themselves bald for
them: neither shall men break bread for them during the mourning, to comfort him
for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for
his father of for his mother.
You shall
also not go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.
For thus says
the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this
place before your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of
gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride. (Yirmiyahu 16:3-9)
The prophet's expression of the feeling that God is his strength and
stronghold does not come against the backdrop of success and rescue, but out of
the depths of crisis and threat, and here lies its significance.
TRUST, AND
NOT OPTIMISM
At this point, let us cite the words of the Chazon Ish regarding
trust:
An old
mistake has settled in the hearts of many with respect to the idea of trust. The term bitachon, "trust,"
which describes a meritorious and essential quality among the pious, has come to
be understood as an obligation to believe in any situation where a person
stands before an unknown future, and there are two possible future outcomes, one
good and one not that surely it will turn out well, and that if he remains in
doubt, and worries about the opposite result, he lacks trust. This understanding of trust in
incorrect, for as long as the future has not been clarified through a prophetic
vision, it is not decided, for who knows God's judgments. But the idea of trust is to believe
that nothing in the world happens by chance, and that whatever happens under the
sun is all by God's decree.
The gist of what he says is that trust in God does not mean optimism that
God will only do nice things for a person, but rather trust that whatever will
happen to him is most appropriate for him, and that it will be done because of
God's relationship with him. In
words, it is not that I am confident that God will act in a particular way on my
behalf, bur rather I trust in God and in His judgment.
This quality of trust in God despite the punishment and the price that He
extracts fits in well with the words of Yirmiyahu, which come in response to the
difficult reality of his time. "God
is my strength and My stronghold" despite the fact that mirth will cease and
people will die this is the message of our haftara. This is why the haftara opens
with an expression of trust, continues with a description of sin and its
punishment, and concludes with another expression of trust.
THE
HAFTARA IS BUILT IN PIECES
When we come to examine the haftara, we see that that it is
composed of a series of sections. It
is comprised of several units of short prophecies which are set apart in a
Tanakh as parashiyot setumot.
Moreover, there are sharp transitions from third person to first person, and
the reverse. Thus, for example, the
opening verse refers to God in the third person, expressing man's desire to rely
on God "O Lord, My strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of
affliction" whereas the third verse is formulated in the first person as the
words of God "Therefore, behold, I will make known to them this once, I will
cause them to know My hand and My might; and they shall know that My name is the
Lord." Thus, we see that in the same prophetic vision, we encounter a prophet
who speaks in the name of man and from a human perspective, and a prophet who
speaks in the name of God. The
continuation of the haftara follows a similar pattern. Some verses are formulated in the
first person as stated by God, whereas in other verses the prophet speaks
directly to God or else he talks about Him in the third person. The end of the haftara brings
us back to verses uttered by the prophet and directed to God as a person who
relies upon Him, expresses his trust in Him, and awaits His salvation:
O Lord, the
hope of
What follows from all this is that the haftara combines a prophecy
of rebuke from God, on the one hand, and verses of hope and trust on the part of
the prophet, on the other. The
haftara opens and closes with statements expressing man's reliance on God,
and it seems that they constitute the essence of the haftara. The prophecies of rebuke in the
middle provide the background for man's expression of trust, but the primary
message for us lies in man's expression of trust in times of affliction and
difficulties. Therefore, were a
person to hear the beginning of the haftara, doze off in the middle, and
wake up toward the end, we could say that he has received the primary message of
the haftara of Bechukotai, because the essence of the haftara
is man's expression of trust in God.
CONNECTION
OR ABANDONMENT
If we examine the concluding verses, we will immediately discern that the
final verse is a call from man to God and an expression of his hope for
salvation. Expression is thereby
given to the continued connection between the prophet and his Maker, despite the
troubles, and to his trust that God is the address regarding his difficulties. But this verse expresses hope in a
better future and thus it exemplifies less the point that we have emphasized. In contrast, the two previous verses
which belong, from the perspective of the structure of the chapter, to the
reproach that precedes them, as opposed to the final verse which in the
prophetic source relates to what follows well express what we said above. The prophet presents man with two
alternatives: continued cleaving to God and trusting in Him, which at some point
in the future will be translated into salvation from trouble, or else abandoning
him. Connection or abandonment
this is the choice that a person must decide between in a time of crisis.
The verse, "A glorious throne exalted from the beginning is the place of
our sanctuary" (17:12) is difficult, and its meaning is not self-evident. It is not even clear whether it is a
continuation of God's words in the previous verses, or else the words of the
prophet in his capacity as representative of man in the following verses. For our purposes, we shall follow in
the footsteps of those commentators who see the verse as pointing to the deep
and eternal connection between God and the people of Israel that exists at all
times.[1][1] The prophet's
expression of trust in the throne of glory, even in a time of trouble, is the
quality of trust that the haftara comes to express.
In this context, we must relate to the verses in the middle of the
haftara that relate directly to the quality of trust:
Thus says the
Lord; Cursed be the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose
heart departs from the Lord. For he
shall be like the juniper tree in the desert, and shall not see when good comes;
but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not
inhabited.
Blessed is
the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.
For He shall
be like a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out its roots by the
river, and shall not be anxious in the year of drought, nor shall it cease from
yielding fruit. (17:5-8)
The verses illustrate our assertion that the quality of trust constitutes
the essence of the haftara, and they are well integrated into this
framework. On the other hand, they
seem to contradict the Chazon Ish's argument cited earlier, for they
describe the success promised to him who trusts in God and the failure that
awaits him who puts his trust in flesh and blood.
Thus, a certain clarification must be added. We have already noted the transitions
found throughout the haftara between the words of man and the words of
God. These verses are stated
by God, and they express the recompense that awaits those who do His word and
those who violate His will. As part
of His providence, God will indeed reward him who trusts in Him and disconcert
him who trusts in man; this is the promise given in these verses. This, however, must not be the
foundation for man's trust in God.
A
RELATIONSHIP OF TRUST
The trust expected of man is trust in God as part of the relationship
between them, and not the expectation of receiving a reward. Thus, it exists in times of crisis as
in times of joy, and its significance in the haftara is precisely in the
use that Yirmiyahu makes of it in times of trouble. God, from His perspective, promises
reward to those who trust in Him.
From man's perspective, as well, a good relationship of trust in God is supposed
to give rise to reward and salvation, but this is not the essence of trust, but
rather one its side effects.
If there is closeness between man and God, then in the absence of other
considerations, God will want to confer good upon man, owing to the nearness
between them. Therefore, trust gives
rise to hope in salvation, but this is all conditioned on the absence of other
considerations of providence. As
soon as there are other considerations, they can cause God not to confer good
upon His people. This may be likened
to the parent-child relationship. In
the absence of prophylactic educational considerations, a parent will want to
bestow good upon his child and give him presents and candy, and thus give
expression to his love. However,
various considerations often enter into the picture and bring the parent to
decide not to reward his child. This
does not testify to a lack of love, but rather to a more complicated situation
regarding the child's world and his parent's attitude toward him. A wise and mature child will continue
to put his trust in his parents, even if they don't provide him with his every
desire. This is also true regarding
the relationship between man and God.
It should be noted that the prophet likens one who trusts in God to a
blossoming tree, and, it should be remembered, a tree is planted for what it
will produce over the long term and it is not meant to yield immediate results.
THE WAR
AGAINST CHANCE
Besides the very expression of trust that constitutes the essence of our
haftara, it is important to emphasize another point that connects the
haftara to the parasha.
The primary battle being fought in the parasha is that between providence
and chance. The main struggle is
with the idea that everything happens by chance, rather than with idolatry in
and of itself. A famous expression
of the attitude that bursts forth from these verses, and the battle against it,
is given by the Rambam:
This is one
of the paths to repentance, for when trouble arrives and people cry out and
shout, they will all know that it is on account of their evil deeds that evil
befell them. As it is written: "Your
iniquities have turned away [these things]" (Yirmiyahu 5:25). And this will cause them to remove
the trouble. But if they do not cry
out and shout, but rather they say that this befell us because such is the world
and this trouble was by chance, this is a path of cruelty and it causes them to
cling to their evil deeds, and it leads to other troubles. This is what is written in the Torah:
"
and you walk contrary to Me, then I will walk contrary to you also in fury" (Vayikra
26:27-28). That is to say, when I
bring trouble upon you so that you should repent, if you say that it is by
chance, I will add fury. (Hilkhot
Ta'aniyot 1:3)
In general, Yirmiyahu does not fight against this attitude, but rather he
fights against those who abandon God in favor of idolatry. One who worships an idol does not
necessarily deny spiritual providence over the world, but rather he attributes
it to false gods. The issue of trust
in God versus reliance on man does not even arise, because the question is not
whether to trust, but in whom to trust.
Our haftara relates to idol worship, but it also struggles with
the abandonment of God owing to the feeling that the world is a place of chance,
and therefore a person must put his trust exclusively in man. The words of the prophet who is aware
of this problem bring him to emphasize the importance of trust in God as He who
runs man's world and they are appropriate for the parasha of rebuke which
deals with the same issue.
We can now say that the gist of the haftara lies in its expression
of the quality of trust. And this in
a twofold sense:
1)
the trust in providence as opposed to chance and human causality;
2)
the importance of trust in God in times of crisis.
These two
messages make this prophecy a most appropriate choice as the haftara for
the parasha of rebuke.
[1]
There are those who understand that the throne of glory which is the place of
our sanctuary refers to God's connection to man and the resting of His
Shekhina upon him. According to this, the Mikdash serves as proof for
providence and to God's involvement in man's world, and there is no need to
limit this to the period during which the Mikdash stands. According to
another understanding, the throne of glory [God's revelation to man] stands
above time and history ("exalted from the beginning"), and therefore it is the
true place of the sanctuary, for the connection between man and God will remain
forever, and it is not impaired by the vicissitudes of time.
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