Not Kering At All

Parshat Bechukotai 

by Rabbi Avi Billet 

One of the words that stands out in the Tochacha (Rebuke) of Parshat B’chukotai, a word which very clearly refers to bad behavior that people will exhibit towards God, and the consequential response God will display towards those people, is “keri.” Leaving out all the jokes we could make about any government official who may have a similar sounding name, we must ask what the Hebrew word in this context means.

In his Living Torah, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan’s note on the word, which he translates as “If you are indifferent” towards Me, reads as follows. “Literally, 'If you walk with Me with keri.' Variously translated, 'If you make Me a temporary concern' (Targum Yonathan; Sifra; Rashi; Chizzkuni); 'If you harden yourselves against Me' (Targum; Tosafoth, Rosh HaShanah16a, s.v. Keri); 'If you refuse to walk My way' (Menachem, quoted in Rashi, Rashbam); 'If you become overconfident in your dealings with Me' (Ibn Ezra); 'If you become rebellious against Me' (Saadia; Ibn Janach; Septuagint); 'If you make it a burden to walk with Me' (Targum, according to Rashi); or, 'If You treat My [acts] as accident' (Arukh; Moreh Nevukhim 3:36; Radak, Sherashim). The word keri can thus denote triviality, harshness, refusal, overconfidence, rebellion, a burden, or a natural accident.”

This “comment” is pretty comprehensive, though I will add two more interpretations: The Midrash Aggadah defines keri as meaning Not committed to following My ways. K’tav Ve’Hakabbalah explains the term to refer to being stubborn – intending to strike at God’s honor, and to provoke Him. The result being “God will reign down punishment that strike at you, which you will feel strongly.” The prevailing argument is that there is no comparison between one who violates a sin for pleasure reasons and one who violates just to anger God.

The essence of all of these possibilities can be summarized in two words: Not caring.

Not caring about God. Not caring about mitzvos. Not caring about the Torah. Not caring about other people. Looking to provoke, looking to anger, looking to overturn apple carts, looking to destroy relationships.

The fundamental message in the Rebuke is warnings to avoid turning away from God. And maybe, this whole “not caring” bit is the hidden ingredient that puts a person in the bad camp.

In the Torchacha, the word “keri” appears 7 times: 4 times it refers to how the people will treat God, and 3 times is God saying since you treated Me that way, “I will behave towards you with keri.” Seven is a significant number in the Torah – it reminds us of Shabbos (7 days), of the counting of the Omer (7 weeks), of the years of Shmittah (Sabbatical year – after 7 years), Yovel (Jubilee – 50th year after 7 cycles of Shmittah). The Tochacha itself utilizes the number 7 to declare how manifold God will punish for malfeasance and sin (you got it – 7 times the violation!).

And so, we must ask ourselves, how often is a keri attitude the one which drives our M.O.? I think that most people are not going as far as sinning specifically to anger God. Typically, a person who has a bad moment or a bad episode is succumbing to the evil inclination, is giving into a desire for momentary pleasure which happens to be a sin.

Thank God there is plenty of pleasure for us to imbibe and enjoy without resorting to sinful behaviors and acts! So perhaps, with such a short amount of time before Shavuos, a time when many of us will crack open our Holy Books for our most dedicated hours of learning Torah in the year, we ought to ask ourselves if we care?

If all that we do is merely say things and give lip service to how we are supposed to be, but we don’t put into action the things we learn in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers), or take to heart the lesson we we were supposed to learn when poor decisions came back to burn us, we are acting in a way that is a violation of keri.

Let us take the number 7 – whether from the perspective of the specific mitzvos that include the number 7, or simply from noting how it is significant in the Torah, and let us aim to counter the 7 “not carings” in the parsha, to aim to increase our own “caring” sevenfold.

If we care for one another, if we care for our community, if we care for the global Jewish community, if we care for our brothers and sisters in Israel, if we care for God, Torah, Mitzvos, Kiddush Hashem (sanctifying God’s name), not only will the Tochacha not come true, but we will merit to be blessed sevenfold per the blessings that come from fulfilling “Bechukotai telechu” – following God’s ways.