Lead Tidbit
Here We Are Again
Many times in the Torah, G-d sets down simple IF-THEN and IF NOT - THEN proposition for His People. Sometimes we are addressed as individuals and sometimes as a Nation. The first more than half of this week's sedra of B'chukotai is one of the more dramatic and emphatic of these Divine deals. Technically, this TOCHACHA is addressed to the Jewish People, but that people is made up of many individuals, so that we should always view ourselves as both individuals and as members of the Jewish People. Because we believe in our being responsible for each other, the distinction between the Jew and Klal Yisrael is often blurred. Take the first pasuk in the sedra. If you will keep My Torah and Mitzvot, G-d says, then I will give you timely rainfall and prosperous yields of the ground. And peace and security in Eretz Yisrael. Sounds like He's talking to all of us, together. He is, but each of us must take the challenge as if we can make the difference between G-d's wonderful promises and His dreadful threats. This challenge, Rashi reminds us, includes learning and teaching, preserving and doing. We have to improve ourselves. We must properly teach our children and students to follow the proper path, and we must find the best way to influence our fellow Jews to embrace the Torah and its values, and to slowly but surely increase mitzva observance.

This does not mean mechanical performance of the requirements of Judaism; it means a total commitment and immersion in a Torah way of life, motivated by a love of G-d, His Torah, His People, and His Land.

Every mitzva should carry with it a heightened awareness of the greatness of G-d and of the Jewish People.

We must grow to respect G-d more, each other too, Eretz Yisrael, the whole world and our fellow inhabitants of this world. Sounds like a lot to do, but it is really simple: IM B'CHUKOTAI TEILEI- CHU... If you will follow My laws...