Vayikra Chapter 26 – Transcript

Vayikra Chapter 26: The Covenant of Blessings and Curses

Introduction and Placement within Sefer Vayikra

Today we’re learning chapter 26. We’re going to start at Pesach after the beginning of the chapter, which is also the beginning of the parasha, and that’s the correct way of starting this. This chapter is pretty long—44 pesukim—so we’re going to go through it quickly. I’m mainly going to try to show the story, the structure, what it says, because most people don’t really get that when they read this parasha.

First, to talk about the general place of this parasha within the structure of Sefer Vayikra. We discussed Vayikra has its own sort of version, its own story of the Torah. It gives us what the Torah is—Torat Kohanim—and as we read in every version of the Torah, it ends just like in Mishneh Torah, the Deuteronomy, the second law, ends with curses, which is the conditions, the reward and punishment that are promised for following or not following the Torah.

In a similar way, in a short way, we have in parashat Mishpatim, which we’ll read next week in the parasha. We’re going to have in parashat—we have a very short version in parashat Yisrael already, which we can talk about over there. And the same way, this is for Sefer Vayikra—what happens, what you get out of, or what the reward and punishment is for reading the Torah. This is, as we call, the brit. This is the covenant made between the noten Torah, between Hashem and the mekabel of the Torah. It goes that you will follow my laws and I will give you this, and if you don’t, I will give you that.

So that’s the general place, and therefore it’s the end of the book, as is this order, as is the style of Sefer Vayikra. After that there’s still one more mitzvah, so it’s not like the literal last parasha, but it is the end of the book, and it also gives us an ending. The end of this chapter says, you’ll see here, these are the chukim, the mishpatim, the Torot—these are three words called for the Torah, for the laws—that Hashem gave between him and them. So that’s the language of a brit, like it’s a brit between him and them, what he will do and what they will do and what he will do according to what they will do. And that’s the end of Sefer Vayikra. Although there’s one more halacha after that, it’s still sort of the ending. This is all the laws that he gave them.

The Basic Structure: Blessings and Curses

The way this is structured is very simply: If you will go in my—this is an image, right—if you will walk in my laws, you’ll follow my laws, then you will have this and that. And if you will not, then you will have this and that. So that’s the first major structure you can see.

You can see also, as I’ve organized it here, that it’s written in a poetic style. The poetic style of the Tanakh, as everyone knows, is that it doubles everything. It says everything twice, or sometimes intensifies it in the second part, sometimes just repeats it in different words. That’s really sort of the same thing. Of course there’s nuances, difference in each one, but it should be read this way.

The Order of Blessings

What you will get is: the rain will come. Therefore—and there’s an order to these things, they’re not just a random list of blessings, there’s an order—this is how a successful polity works. This is what it means to be successful:

– When there’s the rain in the right time

– And then the earth gives its fruits

– The trees give their fruits

– You have a lot to eat, and you’re sated

– You have enough to eat, to survive, to live happily

– And you live with security, because of course if the economy goes well, then you have enough money to spend for security

– And you have peace, nobody will bother you

This might—I’ve cut this like this, but it might be really the same thing. If the chayot ra’ot might be emotional for enemies, it might not literally mean bad animals, the question. And you will win your enemies. And it gives this exaggerated, extreme version: five of you will chase after—what is the result of a successful battle in the whole Tanakh?—a hundred. A hundred, ten thousand. That’s the standard way of poetry, right? So from a hundred you get to ten thousand. And they will fall. And you will have the brit with you. This is like the good side. That’s when he will follow his part of the deal.

Now that’s the main basic story here. We get into the same regular order that we keep on noticing, how after we finish the main story there’s still some things going on. It repeats, which already said somehow before, that’s the general deal. That’s the general brit really said in the whole Torah. This includes everything: I will be your God, you will be my people. And it’s signed. And then again, after the signature, there’s this little more blessing: you will have independence and success. That is the most simple, the basic blessing. That’s this. This is what happens when things go well.

The Structure of Curses: Stages of Descent

Now, what if that—and here you see that there’s a structure, and it’s a structure of descent. It’s a structure of decline and fall. So in each part, and there’s many ve’im, so it seems like the point is that he gives you one—of course there’s only one way of things going good and many ways of things going bad—but more than that, it’s saying that there will be a lot of stages. And this is really how, if you read the end of Sefer Melachim, right, which sort of describes this, you see the stages of the descent from their greatness.

So first you have this bad thing happen, and then slowly the conditions deteriorate. This is really, one thing causes that, right? Things get worse. And then those, when you still don’t achieve it, it’s still not getting better, things get even worse. So that’s the—and that’s each one of these parts that I’ve cut up here. Each of these little parts is like one stage of the descent.

Stage One: Initial Decline

So you’ll see, first it describes what you will do bad, and there’s four lines of that. Then what will I do. So this is what you will do, this is what I will do.

So first you have a list of sicknesses. You’ll have beholah—I’m not sure what that literally means—but you have a list of the two sicknesses, which are that means you will not be healthy, you will not be sick. One more thing which means you will not enjoy the fruits of your labor—your enemies will eat it. But this can be described as something like raids. And then you will be destroyed, you will be losing battles in front of your enemies. You will run away without anyone. This is the opposite of five of you chasing after a hundred. Now you will be running away without anyone, like even worse, right, with nobody even chasing you.

But this can be described as the stage where there’s like raids, random raids, where you’re like—we see many things like this—random people coming and stealing their food, people having raids and they’re losing some battles, but it’s not yet a real loss.

Stage Two: Extreme Famine

Okay, then, if you will still not listen to me, and then I will add you seven on what you sin. This is again part of the language of exaggeration here. Seven times, sevenfold. You will have sevenfold punishment from what you do. Of course it doesn’t mean it doesn’t mean seven times there has to be fear, but the point is still, you will get, things will get even worse. That’s what it means to say.

And now what will happen here is an even extreme famine. So before we didn’t have any famine, we just had the enemies sometimes, you know, coming and stealing their stuff. Now we have a famine. The heaven will be like iron, the earth like bronze. Nothing will grow. This is precisely against what it said here—those things will not happen. You’ll not have any food. So that’s even worse in the food situation. That’s already step two.

Stage Three: Wild Animals

Now step three: if even this will not happen, which means something like you will ignore me, you will not take me seriously, then again you will have sevenfold. And what you will have is, here it’s pretty clear that this means animals literally. This is again against what we had in the blessing. The animals, wild animals will eat your animals, your domestic animals. And this is also something we see very clearly, for example, last week. Your ways will be desolate, because people, when the situation is bad outside, people don’t travel much. So that’s the step one, two, three. That’s step three.

Stage Four: Siege and Plague

Now step four: if even that will not happen, if that will not help, you will still get worse. Then again, you will be ignoring me, I will ignore you. Again you will have sevenfold. And here you will have a real war. You will have a siege really. Up until now we didn’t have a siege. Here there’s a siege stage, right? Of course we know that from the end of Sefer Melachim, when Nevuchadnezzar came and made a siege on Jerusalem.

That’s a cherev. It would be the chemist—the sword of the enemy is coming to avenge the brit with me that you haven’t followed. So not only, like before, they know the ways are not safe, we can’t defend the roads, but you will not even be able to leave your city at all. And therefore, once you’re stuck in the city, then what happens very often in siege situations: you get plague, you get plagues, you get sicknesses, because, you know, germs travel and things like that. And again, I don’t think this means literally yet the enemy will win, but you’re starting to win.

And then there will be extreme famine, right? Before we talked about famine where it’s just like they don’t have, you know, food, it’s not growing well. Here there’s, you can’t get any food into the city. So you’re really, really extreme situation of famine. Ten women will bake their bread in one oven. They will have to measure the weight of the bread, you know, to give it out, to ration it. You will have to have rations. This is an extreme siege situation. And you will not be able to eat, to be sated, because it won’t be enough.

Stage Five: Intensification

Now, next step, again, I’m not counting correctly, number five or six. This will still not happen. Then again, you can see it getting worse, right? Now it’s not only keri, it’s chamat keri. It’s like an angry keri. And again, sevenfold. Now—

[End of Chunk 1]

Stage Six: Extreme Siege Conditions and Cannibalism

Not only do they have to ration their bread, but it literally describes cannibalism: “You will have to eat the flesh of your sons and daughters,” because that’s what happens in really extreme cases of famine, of siege.

Now something interesting which it discusses here is they will destroy your bamot and your chamanim. Chamanim are literally bamot dedicated to the sun, and your dead bodies, your corpses, will be on the corpses of your idols, of your gilulim. And this is the opposite of what it says: “I will be disgusted with you, I will not be with you.” But also it’s interesting how it seems to describe the destruction of the temples—not only the temples created to God, but also the temples created to the gilulim, which are themselves, of course, the big cause, the big part of the not following what they should be following.

Stage Seven: The Destruction of Cities and Mikdashim

And here, this is sort of the stage, really, where it’s talking about the churban. Your cities will be destroyed—again, plural, all your mikdashim. Both, maybe the one, the Mikdash, the Mikdash in Yerushalayim we had, but also every mikdash that was created, their religious centers, will not accept your korbanot. And the land will be desolate. Your enemies will be sitting there in the desolation, but you will not be there, you will be empty. In other words, this is where it’s talking about the galus.

The Galus and Continued Pursuit

“V’etchem ezareh ba-goyim”—will be spread out in the nations. And even there it won’t help, right? The sword will chase you there. In any case, this ends the part of the land will be desolate. So this is—we’ve descended all the way through six or seven levels, until the end, the galus.

The Land’s Ironic Shabbat

And then it says, what will happen then? “Az tirtzeh ha-aretz”—that’s when the land will atone for its Shabbat. “Kol yemei ha-shamah, v’atem b’eretz oyvechem, az tishbot ha-aretz.” This is very ironic, and I have a lot of explanations to explain what it really means. But in other words, since the galus is framed as “you didn’t keep the Shabbat, you didn’t keep the Shabbat ha-aretz,” or the Shabbat in general—so Shabbat is a kind of desolation, right? You don’t do anything. That’s when you do it correctly. You have once a week Shabbat, or once in seven years you have Shabbat. Now you will have a forced Shabbat. You will have a forced Shabbat, since the land will be desolate and destroyed, and your enemies will be sitting there.

The Prophecy of Gedaliah ben Achikam

Even those left over—and I think, pretty sure that this is a nevuah of Gedaliah ben Achikam, right? The words “left over”—he left over some poor people. And now those poor people, what will they get? They will be scared, they will run away, like what happened with Gedaliah. Gedaliah’s killers, they ran away to Mitzrayim. They were afraid—it wasn’t even really something to be afraid of, but they got afraid. They will be stumbling one on the other, because that’s really what happened. They got into a civil war with Gedaliah. And you will not even have people left. Your enemies will laugh at you—like you have three people left and you’re already killing each other. And the ones that were staying will be lost.

And then again, I think this means not the ones left in Israel, but the ones in Bavel and wherever they went. I don’t know, something like they will become spoiled, like food that goes spoiled, because of their sins and the sins of their parents in the lands of their enemies.

The Vidui—Admission of Sin

And then they will admit. I think we read it usually as part of teshuvah, like we do vidui, but really what it means is: then you will recognize that I was right. Let’s see who was right. You will see that you were right. You will admit your sins and your parents’ sins, that you’ve done all these bad things, and you’ll understand that this is why this happened. And after all this, maybe, maybe then, which doesn’t listen, will listen.

The Brit with the Avot

And now then, and here it says, here there’s some kind of a little bit of good: “I will remember my brit with Avraham,” and the land. Of course, the brit—remember, the brit is not such a good thing to remember, because brit is these conditions. But apparently with Avraham that didn’t really have conditions. That’s a very interesting discussion. And he said I will remember that.

But the land will be left, will be left over from you, will be desolate. And you, the people, will be in the lands of their nations, of the lands of their enemies, because they have not followed my laws.

The Promise of Non-Destruction

But after all of this, after all of this, I will not forget you. I will not forget you. What does it mean I will not forget you? You will not be fully destroyed, because there’s still a brit. There’s still a brit with the avot, which means that at some point—and that’s where it ends—it says I’ll remember my brit that I made with rishonim. In other words, with you, right? This is being said in this generation of the Yetziat Mitzrayim. And I’ll remember it for your generation. These are the avot, right? I’ll remember it for your children.

It doesn’t really promise that he will take them out, so they will remember that. In other words, they will not be entirely destroyed in exile. There’s no return from exile explicitly prophesied or explained here, but it says they will remember. And like I said, there’s something good and bad, but it means that you can’t really get out of the deal, right? That’s the problem.

So, and that’s where the story finishes. That’s the end of this chapter.