Some weeks it is hard to write about Torah. Tonight, as I write this I am trying to come to grips with the news that 18 children have been murdered, gunned down, in an elementary school in Texas and my heart is heavy with the pain of innocent children murdered and families shattered in an instant. What makes it all worse is that we know this is not the last time, but another link in a chain of murder and gun violence. We know there will be another mass killing, as surely as the night follows the day. This week’s Torah portion is about the blessings that God will grant the Israelites if they follow God’s laws. It continues with this, “I will grant peace in the land, and you shall lie down untroubled by anyone; I will give the land respite from vicious beasts, and no sword shall cross your land.” (Leviticus 26:6) Then the Torah portion continues with the curses that will befall the Israelites if they do not follow God’s mitzvot. I do not believe that God keeps books. That if we do exactly as we are told everything will be fine. That is too simplistic. Human beings have free will and can make choices. But something is terribly wrong in our land, when parents cannot send their children to school and be certain they will return home again safely. I am afraid we have lost our way. Not with God, but with ourselves. How has life become so cheap? Guns so rampant, and the murder of children so acceptable? Acceptable because we are doing nothing to stop it from happening again. Unless we come together to bring this violence under control we may never lie down untroubled.
Bechukotai, Leviticus 26:3-27:34, Parshat Hashavua for Shabbat, May 28, 2022
May 27, 2022 by Dean Kertesz • Drashot
Some weeks it is hard to write about Torah. Tonight, as I write this I am trying to come to grips with the news that 18 children have been murdered, gunned down, in an elementary school in Texas and my heart is heavy with the pain of innocent children murdered and families shattered in an instant. What makes it all worse is that we know this is not the last time, but another link in a chain of murder and gun violence. We know there will be another mass killing, as surely as the night follows the day. This week’s Torah portion is about the blessings that God will grant the Israelites if they follow God’s laws. It continues with this, “I will grant peace in the land, and you shall lie down untroubled by anyone; I will give the land respite from vicious beasts, and no sword shall cross your land.” (Leviticus 26:6) Then the Torah portion continues with the curses that will befall the Israelites if they do not follow God’s mitzvot. I do not believe that God keeps books. That if we do exactly as we are told everything will be fine. That is too simplistic. Human beings have free will and can make choices. But something is terribly wrong in our land, when parents cannot send their children to school and be certain they will return home again safely. I am afraid we have lost our way. Not with God, but with ourselves. How has life become so cheap? Guns so rampant, and the murder of children so acceptable? Acceptable because we are doing nothing to stop it from happening again. Unless we come together to bring this violence under control we may never lie down untroubled.