In his D’var Torah on the portion Bechukotai this week, renowned rabbi (and brilliant, prolific writer) David Wolpe reflects on the very first word: “im,” or if. “If contains all of life’s regrets,” he writes. “But even more, im is a word of possibility. God says, “IF you walk in My ways.” We hold the im in our own hands.
What he is pointing out here is that our lives are filled with uncertainty, as well as opportunities to choose… or to reach out and ask for help when we feel we cannot choose. Bechukotai lays out such choices starkly, in a way we might find comforting or unnerving depending on the day. If you follow the mitzvot and do all the right things, God will help you. But if you turn away, rejecting God’s laws and spurning God’s rules… then God help you!
We know all too well that life does not follow such a simple trajectory, much as we long for conditions to make sense and feel fair all the time. Good people suffer. Innocent communities are shattered. All this and more happens every day. Comfort can feel scant. Perhaps the best we can do is walk within all this material. Stumbling at times and rising again. There will be surprising vistas and prickly paths. We’re not going to figure it all out today. My hope for all of us is that we commit to the journey anyway… learning a little more, walking a little further together each and every day.
Join us for Shabbat services at 7:00pm tonight during which we will be honoring our Religious School teacher and high school senior Madison Matthews. Hope to see you there!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Gutterman
