Paths Up the Mountain

Is there a connection between the two names of Behar and Bechukotai? Not really, but we could think of one.

What does behar mean? "In the mountain". And bechukotai? "In my statutes". Of course, everyone is impressed

Moses was summoned to the peak of Mount Sinai. We are not given much detail about the climb.

by mountains. Those who try to climb them are not only impressed by the vision, but daunted by the task. People rate mountains by their levels of difficulty. It applies metaphorically too. Some ambitions are harder to fulfil; others are less of a strain.

In the Bible, Abraham was told to ascend Mount Moriah, Moses was summoned to the peak of Mount Sinai. We are not given much detail about the climb, even though there are not likely to have been well-trodden paths up either mountain. Maybe they almost sailed up the heights, carried along by the Divine command.

Religion confronts all of us with heights to try to reach, heights of spiritual exaltation, heights of ethical excellence. In our case, there are paths which have been marked out by predecessors who found that the Divine statutes and commands were the way to go. It could never have been easy. It required perseverance and dedication, and it still does. We might not reach the final peak, but we will certainly get higher than those who wouldn't even contemplate making the effort.

Reversing the Order

The Dubner Maggid was asked why God promises to remember His covenant "with Jacob, with Isaac and with Abraham" (Leviticus 26:42), when the usual order of the Patriarchs is the other way around - Abraham first, then Isaac, then Jacob. The Maggid answered with a parable.

"Once," he said, "two thieves were brought before a court. The judge found that one derived from ancestors who were themselves known as thieves, while the other had impeccable ancestry studded with saints and scholars. The judge gave a lighter sentence to the first and a harsher sentence to the second.

This one complained, 'Why am I worse than my companion? Why should I receive a harsher sentence than him?'

The judge replied, 'He comes from a dishonest family and he knows no better, but you are from an upright background and have broken away from their fine example, so you deserve a worse punishment.'"

The Maggid added, "God will act similarly when judging the Jewish people. Their father Jacob was an upright man, and so were his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham. With such a fine example, I will punish them more severely if they do wrong; whereas, nations who did not have such righteous ancestors don't always know any better."

Commandments Before Moses

After detailing the blessings that will reward obedience to God's laws and the curses that will punish disobedience, the sidra, Bechukotai, tells us, "These are the statutes and ordinances and laws which the Lord established between Him and the Children of Israel on Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses." (Leviticus 26:46)

Nothing could be clearer: every manner of commandment came through Moses at Mount Sinai. So why does

Could there have been a pre-Mosaic Torah?

tradition challenge this statement by saying in a number of places that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob kept the Torah long before Moses and Mount Sinai? Could there have been a pre-Mosaic Torah?

It seems there was. Cain was punished for murder generations before the Ten Commandments. In rabbinic tradition, the generation of the flood were punished for robbery, the men of Sodom for lack of charity, and other generations for other sins. So even without the Torah, there were obligations that had to be honoured. What these proofs have in common is that they deal with basic moral attitudes which even the earliest generations could and should have realised were necessary.

At the time of Moses, God strengthened these moral duties and built around them an entire code. But the moral mitzvot were obligatory from the time of Adam onwards.