Haftorah Archive

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HAFTARAT BECHUKOTAI

(Jeremiah 16:19-17:14)

This is the last Haftarah of the Book of Leviticus. It deals with the fundamental principle of reward and punishment in Judaism--the idea that good people will be blessed, and bad people will be cursed. But how should society define one's goodness? What kind of people should be punished? Traditional Judaism always stressed the importance of behavior over feelings, actions over motives. Contemporary America, on the other hand, is preoccupied with rationalizing people's behavior, especially when it is evil. There is a whole industry in our society that can be called, "Blame Others For Your Problems." This industry has spawned careers, studies, experts, college departments, films, books, laws, TV shows, federal programs....

Misbehavior has been redefined as disease,and the list of victims continues to grow. By some estimates, one-third of Americans suffer from diagnosable psychiatric disorder. Not only are we victims of internal forces, but we also consider ourselves victimized by external powers. According to Aaron Wildavsky, if you add all the groups that consider themselves to be oppressed minorities--women, blacks, Native Americans, the unemployed, the poor, etc.--their number adds up to 374% of the population.

If everyone is a victim, who is the oppressor? In place of evil, our society has substituted "illness"; in place of consequence, it wages therapy and understanding; in place of responsibility, it argues for a personality driven by impulses. The illness excuse has become almost routine in cases of criminal behavior.

Is there a solution to this crisis? Jeremiah gives us an important insight in our Haftarah. In Chapter 17:9-10, he says:

The heart is deceitful above all things; it is perverse--who can know it? I the Lord probe the heart and search the mind--to repay every man according to his ways with the proper fruit of his deeds.

The prophet reminds us that only God truly understands our motives, and what we humans should focus on are the deeds and not the heart. In fact, even if we could understand the heart, the best known Jewish prayer, the Shema, warns us, "Do not follow your heart." We must earn God's blessings by our deeds. Actions do, after all, speak louder!

(Leonid Feldman)

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