Ezra’s Admonitioning Enactment

A few weeks ago we read the oscillating narrative found at the beginning of Parshas Bechukosai. The parsha opens, “Im bechukosai teleichu, if you follow in my ways, v’nasati gishmeichem, I will supply you with rain, adequate food, secure dwelling in your land, establishing a covenant with you, I will be your God, and you will be My nation.”

A few pesukim later, the Torah shifts dramatically to the contrary. “V’im lo sishme’u li, If you don’t listen to Me” and the Torah presents a series of absolutely miserable admonitions. Therein, the Torah describes consequences of straying from Hashem, and the dark distance that results. A distance that will be long, cold and painful: “V’nasati es shemeichem k’barzel, the skies will be like iron, v’es artzechem k’nechusha, your land will be like copper.”

Shockingly, the Gemara in Megillah (31b) tells us that Ezra established the practice to read these admonitioning words specifically prior to Shavuos.

Why do we read something so miserable before Shavuos? I would understand before Tisha B’Av, the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, but Shavuos? Shavuos is the day we received the Torah! Described in the Mishna in Ta’anis 26b as yom chasunaso, the day of our wedding, zu matan Torah, this is the giving of the Torah!

I believe the answer lies in understanding the word bris, covenant. The tochacha, admonition, concludes, “V’zacharti es brisi Ya’akov, I will remember my covenant with Yaakov. V’zacharti lahem bris rishonim, I will remember my original covenant with them.”

What is the nature and meaning of this covenant?

Rava and the Tzeduki

The message and meaning of a covenant is expressed poignantly in a story told in the Gemara in Shabbos 88a.

Rava was completely engrossed in Torah study, and didn’t even notice that he was sitting on his hands in a way that was causing them to bleed. A Tzeduki (a Sadducee who scorned the oral tradition) scoffingly confronts Rava and critiques him, “Hai ama peziza! You impulsive nation! You were makdim na’aseh l’nishma. You agreed to accept this Torah before you even knew what it entails! My gosh, look what you’ve done to your hands!”

Rava responds cryptically that we are a nation that acts wholeheartedly, with shleimus.

Rashi explains that shleimus in this context refers to our acceptance of the Torah as an expression of our ahavas Hashem, our love of God.

At the core, this interaction between Rava and the Tzeduki represent two models of relationships: that of the consumer, and that of the covenant.

The Tzeduki couldn’t understand Rava’s actions! Before one agrees to a deal, signs a contract or even just makes a purchase, one inquires about it, finds out the details and what it entails? But you, the Jewish people! You said na’aseh before nishmah! You agreed to the deal before you knew anything about it! How could you do such a thing?

Rava responds, our relationship with the Torah and with Hashem isn’t a consumer relationship, but is instead a covenantal relationship.

The Consumer and the Covenant

Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University, recently developed this concept of the consumer vs. covenantal relationship.¹

Sy Syms was the owner of the SYMS clothing store, a”h. He would appear himself in the company’s commercials with what became a famous tagline: “An educated consumer is our best customer.”

In the consumer relationship, the more educated a decision one makes, the better customer he is.

Not so in the covenantal relationship, the paradigm of which is marriage.

Marriage is when two people commit to come together in honesty and openness. The essential element of this relationship is commitment. Only as a result of complete commitment could the two parties truly come to know each other. “V’Adam yada es Chava ishto, and Man knew Chava his wife,” only after “vatehi lo l’isha, and she was for him, a wife.”

The consumer relationship is utilitarian in nature. One asks, what’s in it for me? By contrast, the covenantal relationship is defined by its commitment to “other” and generates something mystical, magical and transcendent.

C.S. Lewis, the famous British writer and literary scholar, wrote a memoir titled, “A Grief Observed” in response to the death of his wife. In it, he describes that he missed his wife most for the ways she surprised him, not for what he already knew.

Our relationship with Hashem is a relationship of a bris. It’s a covenantal relationship, not a consumer relationship.

When Hashem offered the other nations the Torah, they asked what’s in it? They asked to be an educated consumer. When they learned that it involves areas that will challenge them to learn a new perspective, to change the way they naturally live their lives, they declined the offer.²

The Jewish people responded “na’aseh v’nishma, we will do and we will hear.” We commit first and then seek to understand.

The nations approached the Torah for its utility, us for its mystery. They saw the Torah as a tool. We see it as a gift to explore, study and integrate into our reality.

Consequence and Reward

I want to explore an additional element of the covenantal relationship, and with that, understand why we read the tochacha in preparation for Shavuos.

The tochacha teaches the role consequences play in these two relationships:

The consumer model may generate rewards and consequences, but these constructs are mutually agreed upon by the parties. Frequent flier miles or credit card points are rewards, but they’re relatively shallow. Likewise, if I order from Amazon instead of Target, neither party is affected in a deep way.

In the covenantal relationship, consequences and rewards are natural, and they run deep. If one doesn’t take out the garbage, fails to acknowledge and appreciate an anniversary, there’s no financial penalty. But the distance that results in the relationship is a very real consequence.

Likewise, the reward for the surprise note, a genuine compliment, quality time together and so on, results in very real and genuine closeness between the two members.

“V’im bechukosai timasu.” The distance created will be real. “Im bechukosai teleichu.” That closeness will be genuine.

We prepare for Shavuos with the tochacha as a reminder that we are prepared once again to enter a covenantal relationship with Hashem and His Torah. That we commit to a real and deep relationship where closeness and distance aren’t imposed rewards or punishments, but genuine results of our actions.

We enter this relationship not as consumers, but as members of a covenant. In unison, we say na’aseh v’nishma and in response, Hashem says “ushmartem es brisi, guard this covenant, v’hiyisem li segula, and you will be my treasure.”

Rabbi Dov Fink is a fellow in the Wexner Kollel Elyon at RIETS and currently serves as the rabbinic intern at the Young Israel of Passaic-Clifton.

1 Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman presented this idea in a shiur pesicha presented to the Glueck Beis Medrash at the opening of the fall 2022 semester. For the full presentation, please find the recording at the following link: https://www.yutorah.org/lectures/lecture.cfm/1042571/rabbi-dr-ari-berman/b-inyan-get-lishma-the-consumer-and-the-covenant/

I thank Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman for the inspiration for the concept for this article, as well as many expressions utilized herein.

2 See Sifri Devarim V’zos Habracha Piska 343