The Rebuke - Part I

In the Parasha of Bechukosai, we are told the results of keeping the words of the Torah. Rain will come in its time, there will be peace in our land, and a sword will not pass through it. If, however, we do not obey the words of the Torah, there are catastrophic ramifications. These are the curses which are recounted in chapter 27. Unfortunately, these are not the only time that curses are mentioned in the Torah. In Deuteronomy chapter 28 we are also given dire warnings of what will happen if the laws of the Torah are not kept.

The question which predominates in the commentaries is the obvious question - why provide two sets of curses? Surely one is more than enough! In this essay, I will focus on two primary opinions, that of Nachmanidies and of the Abarbanel.

Nachmanides believes that the first set of curses relates to the end of the first temple, which was destroyed by Babylon, and the exile which resulted from that destruction.

He says of the curses in our Torah portions:

These first curses relate to the first exile, after the destruction of the first temple, and the transgressions that led to it…

All of these punishments - swords and dangerous animals, pestilence and famine, ending with exile in the end…The years of exile amount to the same number of years that the Jews annulled the Shmita year.

The Jews were exiled for 70 years in Babylon, which is equivalent to the number of years in which the Jews gave up on the Shmitta years. Furthermore, he adds that G-d’s fire from heaven burned the sacrifices in the first temple, and once that temple was destroyed, G-d will no longer smell the pleasing aroma of the sacrifices.

The second set of curses mentioned in Deuteronomy relate to the destruction of the second temple, and the exile in which we still live today. Nachmanides explains that the warnings are completely prophetic of the second temple destruction at the hands of the Romans, for the following reasons:

In the curses it states that G-d will lift from afar a nation from the edge of the earth (Deuteronomy). This refers to Rome, which was geographically far away from them, which is why they didn’t understand their language. This is reflected in the curses “a nation that you have not heard his languages”.

Our exile at the hands of Rome spread us across the diaspora, another fulfillment of the curse “G-d will spread you across the nations, from one edge of the world to the other (Deuteronomy 28) Titus sent Jews via boats back to Egypt, taking our sons and daughters according to their will.

The answer of Nachmanidies seems a very neat solution to the problem posed by two sets of curses. The first curses relate to the exile of Babylon, and the second set of curses relate to the exile of the Jews at the hands of the Romans, which lasts to this very day. However, there is a catch, and it comes from Christian theologians whom the Abarbanel quotes. At the end of the first set of curses, G-d tells the Jewish people:

(40) and they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forebears, in that they trespassed against Me, yea, were hostile to Me. (41) When I, in turn, have been hostile to them and have removed them into the land of their enemies, then at last shall their obdurate heart humble itself, and they shall atone for their iniquity. (42) Then will I remember My covenant with Jacob; I will remember also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham; and I will remember the land. (Leviticus 26).

After the curses inflicted by G-d, the Jewish people will repent, and G-d will then remember his covenant and connection with the Jewish people. If we suppose, as Nachmanides does, that this refers to the first temple, then this is a neat solution. G-d will forgive the Jewish people, and they will return to the land of Israel and rebuild the temple, which was the case after the Babylonian exile.

The second set of curses are far less encouraging. After telling the Jewish people the awful punishment awaiting them for not following the laws of G-d, there is no immediate comfort of G-d remembering his covenant with his people as was the case in Leviticus. Here, all we are told is

These are the terms of the covenant that GOD commanded Moses to conclude with the Israelites in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant that was made with them at Horeb. (Deuteronomy, 28:69

Where is the comfort of G-d remembering his covenant? Where is his promise to protect his people? Christian theologians in Abarbanel's day believed that this was a direct proof that because the Jews refused the salvation of their saviour, that there would be no comeback for the Jewish people. The Jewish people would be cursed for not upholding their covenant, and was therefore replaced by a new covenant between Jesus and his disciples.

Nachmanides sidesteps this polemical approach of Christian scholars by quoting in Chapter 30 of Deuteronomy, where we are told:

(1) When all these things befall you—the blessing and the curse that I have set before you—and you take them to heart amidst the various nations to which the ETERNAL your God has banished you, (2) and you return to the ETERNAL your God, and you and your children heed God’s command with all your heart and soul, just as I enjoin upon you this day, (3) then the ETERNAL your God will restore your fortunes and take you back in love. You will be brought together again from all the peoples where the ETERNAL your God has scattered you. (4) Even if your outcasts are at the ends of the world, from there the ETERNAL your God will gather you—from there you will be fetched. (5) And the ETERNAL your God will bring you to the land that your ancestors possessed, and you shall possess it; and you will be made more prosperous and more numerous than your ancestors.

It is clear from these verses that G-d will “restore our fortunes” if we repent and obey G-d’s commands, and that He will not forsake us, as the Christians have claimed. Yet, I still wonder, why are these verses so far away from Chapter 37 in Deuteronomy where the curses are mentioned? It is two chapters late! Perhaps Christian philosophers would argue that this is the promise to those who believe in their theology. Why do these verses take such a long time to arrive? Please read my next essay to find out more!