Ahuzzam, Southern Israel
Torah Sparks
Leviticus 25:1 – 26:2
Leviticus 26:3 – 27:34
One of the beauties of the adherence to the traditional annual Torah reading cycle is that it unites Jews all over the world in the same pace of Torah study from week to week. But this year something happened so that we fell behind the reading in Israel by a week. This Shabbat the Diaspora communities of the Jewish people will catch up in their Torah reading cycle with their sisters and brothers in Israel and we will be synchronized again. What happened so that we fell behind and had to catch up?
This year Passover ended in the Diaspora on Shabbat. That meant that we read a special holiday related Torah reading and did not resume our weekly cycle of readings until the following Shabbat. But in Israel the holiday ended on Friday, the day before it ended for us. Therefore congregations in Israel started reading the regular cycle on that Shabbat, a week before us. So, for the last 5 weeks, we have been trailing behind Israel in the Torah reading. This Shabbat we catch up by reading two Torah portions together. In Israel the first portion, B’har, was read last week, and this week only B’huqqotai will be read. By reading these two portions together we rejoin our people in Israel in this sacred practice.
The connection we have with Israel is a profound element in Jewish identity and values, but it sometimes requires effort and ingenuity to maintain it. If only our solutions could always be as easy as the tactic of reading a double Torah portion! In our present environment we notice how complicated and challenging it can be to foster a healthy relationship with Israel in the face of rampant apathy, antagonism from our foes and small-minded nationalism from within.
Our reading includes a consoling verse that follows the harrowing description of sufferings and exile that the Jewish people will suffer if we turn away from God. The verse highlights the value of maintaining the centrality of Israel in our consciousness: “And I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and even My covenant with Isaac, and even My covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.” (Lev. 26:42) Rashi points out that the word “remember” is repeated in the verse in connection with Jacob, Abraham and the land. But it is only implied and not explicitly stated with regard to Isaac. His midrashic answer is that remembering implies the possibility of forgetting. But Isaac is so intimately close to God, because of his willingness to offer himself on the altar of the Aqedah, that there is no need to remember him. His presence is immediate and constant before God.
There is one more aspect of Isaac’s life that produces this sense of perpetual closeness. Only Isaac, from among all the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, never left the land of Israel. His connection with the land, as with God, was unbroken and continuous. The double Torah reading we observe this Shabbat can remind us that we need to redouble our efforts to forge our connection with Israel. May it be a connection exemplified by love and devotion and a strong dedication to the moral values and obligations that the land calls us to fulfill.
Image by Flavio 
used with permission via Creative Commons: Attribution License
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