Not Being Lost Forever

Parshat Bechukotai 

by Rabbi Avi Billet 

One of the main features of Parshas Bechukosai is the segment that spans most of chapter 26, known as the Tokhacha, the Great Rebuke. Commentaries note that it is divided into 5 segments reflecting degrees of further admonition, repercussion, and punishment for poor choices, poor behaviors, and a general disregard for the observance of the law. 

 After all that is presented, a verse which stands out is v. 38 - וַאֲבַדְתֶּ֖ם בַּגּוֹיִ֑ם וְאָכְלָ֣ה אֶתְכֶ֔ם אֶ֖רֶץ אֹיְבֵיכֶֽם – you will be lost amongst the nations, and the land of your enemies will consume you. 

 This concept, frightening as it sounds, is subject to much scrutiny in those who aim to understand and explain what is being predicted here. 

 Midrash Aggadah says that the idea of being lost simply means “you’ll be in exile.” Targum Yonatan and Onkelos suggest “you’ll be lost among the nations, and you’ll be finished when the enemies defeat them.” Perhaps he is suggesting that there will be no Divine protection when you find yourselves outside of the Land – the fate of your host nations will be your fate. 

Rashi speaks of being separated from one another, from your fellow Jews, when you are in those nations, and that your “being consumed” refers to those who end up dying in those foreign lands. Ibn Ezra looks at the idea of dying in those foreign lands as having been caused by the change in atmosphere and water – different air, different ph-balanced water, etc – which would cause turmoil in your bodies. (Chizkuni and Netziv also go in this direction) 

The supercommentaries on Rashi (Gur Aryeh, Sifsei Chachamim, Eliyahu Mizrachi) all question the notion that Jews in exile will be so separated from one another, particularly because the Torah does say a few verses later, that a. God will remember the Covenants forged with the forefathers (v. 42), and b. despite everything, God will not destroy and will remember, for example, His role in taking Israel out of Egypt – a memory that speaks volumes of our connection to Him forever. 

 More contemporary commentators (though from the 19th century), Netziv and R Samson Raphael Hirsch, look at this concern from a vantage point many of us would likely view as obvious, a question of assimilation. 

 Indeed that is how R Hirsch puts it, “What is spoken of here is a complete disappearance of a portion of our people.” 

 There is a famous story told of a Hassidic Rebbe (likely the Klausenberger Rebbe) who emerged from the Holocaust, who stopped the reader who was following the custom to read the Tokhacha in a whisper. “The Tokhacha has already come true. We don’t need to read it in a manner that could look like Ayin Hora any more.” 

And yet, the reality of assimilation has easily done more damage to our numbers since the Holocaust than it may have done in the centuries preceding the 19th century. 

While there was much assimilation in Europe following the Enlightenment and the Haskalah, and even into the founding of new streams/movements within Judaism, the idea of being unaffiliated or “marrying out” was far less a feature of Jewish life before the 1900s. 

 Some of the fealty to Jews marrying Jews exclusively may have been thanks to racial-like laws that did not allow Jews to marry non-Jews in many lands. And while the degree of observance of people on the fringes may not be calculable, at least when Jew marries Jew, the next generation remains Jewish and is not as easily “lost.” 

While halakha clearly defines a Jew as having been born to a Jewish mother, having a parent who is not Jewish most often leads the offspring down a path of becoming lost to our people. A halakhic definition may paint any number of people in the world as being Jewish, but how they live their lives, who they marry, how they raise their children, all contribute to how quickly they become lost to the Jewish people. 

We have all heard incredible stories of people searching, who rediscover their roots through a journey that brought them to the Promised Land or to their local Bet Din. There are beautiful stories of “coincidental” events and connections that brought people “home” to our People. 

And there are many more stories that haven’t been told and that won’t be told of people who generation after generation became further removed, so much so that even mentioning “I had a Jewish great grandmother” becomes an afterthought, if not a forgotten feature of one’s history altogether. 

 We are not going to all become “Kiruv professionals” in bringing closer all those who seem lost to our people. So where does this leave us? 

I believe there are a few points that can be helpful for us to consider as we look forward. 

1. Believe fully what the Hassidic Rebbe said, that the Tokhacha is behind us. 

2. Understand that nevertheless, we are suffering its aftereffects, and that those aftereffects may continue, due to free choice, the realities of our society and communities, the separation that phones, technology and social media have created in that people communicate more online than in person 

3. We can be grateful that we are not part of the statistics R Hirsch noted of people who disappear completely and are lost to our people 

4. We can champion the cause of the Jewish people through our own enhanced dedication, our continued Torah learning, our maximal Mitzvah observance, and our living storied lives that model what it means to be Torah observant 

5. When opportunities to engage with Jews who are affiliated but not observant arise, we should rise to the occasion. 

6. When opportunities to engage with unaffiliated Jews arise, we should rise to the occasion. 

7. Particularly now, when what’s going on in Israel is bringing Jews out of the woodwork to demonstrate their Jewish pride and their identification with the plight of our people in Israel and around the world, the time is ripe for further engagement 

Whether the words of the Tokhacha reflect a past that has happened, whether it reflects different time periods of exile, persecution, being lost to our People, the reality is that the question raised by the supercommentaries on Rashi is a legitimate one. Despite it all, we are still here. In many places we are thriving. Torah is alive. The Jewish people are making our mark in the world. And we have not been completely lost and assimilated, even in host nations that are not as benevolent and free as the United States. 

 May we be blessed to see our collective efforts through to turning the tide of the aftereffects of Tokhacha so that we, and all of Israel, could merit to experience the blessings laid out at the beginning of Bechukosai, with a return of all of our people to the Holy Land, with a Final Redemption worthy of the greatest of blessings.