Lead Tidbit
From the Tochacha to the Crossroad
On the Shabbat before the Shabbat before Shavuot (last Shabbat), we read the Divine Ultatum: Keep the Mitzvot and things will be good; if you don't, then things will go from bad to worse to worser (as most kids will say before they learn that there is no such word). Simple. Straightforward.

The next two holy days that follow the reading of B'chukotai's Tochacha are Shabbat Parshat Bamidbar (usually) and Shavuot. And we can say, that they represent the two possible outcomes of the message of B'chukotai. If you don't keep the mitzvot, you will end up in the Midbar. Despite the grand image we can sense from the counting and description of the camp of Israel in the Midbar, they are nonetheless in the wilderness. Rashi teaches us that the beginning of the Book is purposely out of sequence in order to avoid open embarrassment of our not having done Korban Pesach more than once in all the years of wandering. The episodes of the Meraglim, Korach's rebellion, and the Zimri-Kosbi fiasco head a list of complaints of the people against G-d.

Or, there is the message of Shavuot. Celebration of the receiving of the Torah, and celebration of our coming into Eretz Yisrael, building the Beit HaMikdash, and Jewish life as it should be.

IM B'CHUKOTAI TEILEICHU... seems to be followed by glimpses into the ramifi- cations of the right or wrong choice of paths.

In every generation, every year, really every day, we as individual Jews and we as part of Klal Yisrael, are given the IM B'CHUKOTAI choice. We know what lies ahead for each road leading in opposite directions from this crossroad. Let us choose wisely.