The Torah section of Bechukotai begins with an account of the blessings that await the people of Israel if they fulfill their covenant with G-d. We then read the tokhocha (admonition), a sobering report of punishments, frustrations and curses that G-d promises those who undermine His covenant. The main thrust in G-d’s admonition to His chosen nation can be summed up in one of the verses (Vayikra 26:17): “I will turn My attention against you, you will be struck down before your enemies; those who hate you will subjugate you, and you will run when no one is chasing you.”
An intriguing insight to the above verse can be garnered from an account of a personal admonition to a student by the renown rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Ohel Torah in Baranovich, R. Elchanan Wasserman (1875 – 1941), killed by the cruel hands of the Nazi murderers during World War II.
It is related by an eyewitness (Paysach Krohn, In the Footsteps of the Maggid, p. 137) that one evening, when R. Wasserman was not feeling well, he asked that a group of his students come from the yeshiva to form a minyan (quorum) in his home for the daily ma’ariv services. A newcomer to the yeshiva was asked to lead the services.
In contrast to the steady and deliberate pace to which the students were accustomed in their prayer, the young man launched into a quick-paced recitation of the services – to the apparent consternation of the rosh yeshiva. Once the accelerated version of the evening’s prayer was completed, R. Wasserman called over the newcomer who led the services. After first chatting with the young man for a little while, the rosh yeshiva gently remarked, “Young man, I want you to know that the verse, ‘You will run when no one is chasing you’ is part of the tokhocha (the admonition, ed.) .”
The young man was being admonished for running through the prayer without any tangible sign of any justifiable cause that was chasing him to do so.
R. Wasserman’s gentle criticism made a long-lasting impression upon all his students. Thoughtlessly racing through prayer is a dreadful act. When engaged in duty to the Al-Mighty G-d, we must do so with thought and deliberation. Doing otherwise shows a dreadful lack of understanding of our position in life. By approaching G-d thoughtlessly we are in fact heaping evil upon ourselves as we are admonished in the tokhocha.
A similar point is stressed by the great medieval Torah scion, Nachmanides, in a prior comment on the Torah section of Acharei. There we find the prohibition of giving one's children over to the pagan worship of Molech, a form of idolatry that involved handing one's child to the priest of Molech who in turn would pass the child through fire – in some cases actually burning the child to death – as an act of worship to the pagan god. The verse prohibiting this act states, "You shall not present any of your children to pass through for Molech, and you will not profane the Name of your G-d, I am the L-rd" (Vayikra 18:21).
Apparently, besides the actual prohibition involving idolatry, there is a prohibition of desecrating the Name of G-d.
As regards the desecration of G-d's name connected to the worship of Molech, Nachmanides explains that it will be a desecration when the gentile nations will hear that Jews honor their G-d by only offering animal sacrifices, but that they honor Molech by offering their children.
In his Sukkat David, R. David Kviat notes that the idea that one can desecrate G-d’s Name by exhibiting more respect to some other area in life than to the Master and Creator of the World is far less foreign to us than the worship of Molech. In fact, one can be guilty of this even without engaging in such worship.
In the prophetic book of Shmuel (Shmuel I, chapters 4-6), we read of the Philistines’ capture of the Holy Ark. While with the Philistines, the Ark wreaked havoc upon them, leading them to send it back to Israelites. Upon its initial return, a plague broke out in the land of Israel, befalling the residents of Beit Shemesh. The Midrash explains that the residents of Beit Shemesh were punished because they were more concerned at the loss of their hens than the capture of the Ark – an awful desecration of G-d’s Name akin to that described by Nachmanides in relation to the worship of Molech.
The aforementioned desecration of G-d’s Name, R. Kviat notes, is of the type that many of us sadly engage in to some extent, when we do not exhibit the appropriate priorities when manifesting our care and concern. When a window breaks or a floor tile cracks, we get upset. If an animal sneaks into our home while we are away leaving a mess in its wake, everyone is up in arms – all are upset.
The situation in our homeland, on the other hand, should upset us much more. Our shortcoming in devotion to our Creator and Master should bother us more. Yet, which concerns us more? Which gets under our skin more? Which takes us longer to stop talking about: the broken window or the dangers and tragedies in our homeland? What bothers us more: the floor tile or our insufficient concentration when praying to G-d? What upsets us more? What causes us to lose sleep at night?
G-d was upset at the people of Israel for being more concerned about their hens than about the Ark. Reading the Midrash, we may look disparagingly at the people of Beit Shemesh, wondering how they could be more concerned about chickens than about the Holy Ark!
Yet, we should look in the mirror and ask ourselves: Are we more concerned about our dining rooms, kitchens and businesses and other trivialities of life than the terrible tragedies that befall our people from day to day in our homeland and without? Do we savor and put more thought to our meals and forms of recreation than to our prayers and obligations to our Holy Creator?
Showing greater concern and thought for the former than the latter is what is reflected in the verse, "You will not profane the Name of your G-d, I am the L-rd" and G-d’s admonition, “You will run when no one is chasing you”.
We can run but we cannot hide. We can thoughtlessly run through our obligations to G-d – or run away from them completely – but we cannot hide from His watchful eye. It is a question of priorities. We must demonstrate the proper sense of priorities, for, as is attested to in the tokhocha, G-d will hold us accountable for our priorities – how we treat Him and that which is close to Him versus how we treat matters of less importance.