Behar & Bechukotai 5773: When I Count My Blessings I Count You Twice

In this week’s second parsha, Bechukotai, we read the tocheha - the curse - the warning about which punishments will result if our ancestors in the wilderness  do not follow Torah.  This follows a series of blessings if the Jews adhere to Torah.

Art/Eye Chart:  When I Count My Blessings I Count You Twice

What is particularly striking about the blessings and curses is that the curses -- 49 of them in this week’s Torah portion -- outnumber the blessings by a ratio of 3 to 1.  It is also fascinating at this season of counting the omer -- when we count the number of days between Pesach and Shavuot -- that it also is exactly 49.  


Throughout the tradition there are a number of explanations about why the curses so far outnumber the blessings.  Ibn Ezra (12th century, Spain), for example, suggests the blessings aren't as few as they appear but are written in more general terms.  As a result each generalized blessing includes many more specific parts that do not need to be (are not) expressed.

My teacher and colleague, Rabbi Avi Weiss, Founder and President of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah who will be retiring this year, reminds us in this context that Torah speaks in the language of human beings.  People talk up the curses or sadness we experience much more than we talk up the blessings or goodness in our lives.  


In customer service or marketing this is known as the Rule of 3/11.  If we experience something good we tend to share that with only 3 people.  But if we experience something bad we tend to tell at least 11 people.  That 3/11 ratio is almost identical to the Torah ratio in this week's parshah.  

And something more, when we complain -- we are very specific.  We go into excruciating detail.  But when all is good, we tend to gloss over it.  

For this reason, the Torah, reflecting the thinking of human beings, speaks at length of the curses.  As human beings accentuate their suffering, so too does the Torah, in great specificity, delineate the curses.  The blessings are written in brief because people speak of the positive of life in abbreviated terms.

So in this season of counting -- not just curses, but also the days we mark each day between Pesach and Shavuot by counting the omer -- I invite us to call out and mark our blessings.  

In honor of my teacher and friend, Rabbi Peretz Wolf Prusan -- I share a story about Chelm.  You know the town of Chelm? That magical city of Jewish folk wisdom.  That is, "wisdom" in a manner of speaking. I am sure you've heard lots of Chelm stories; like the one about a woman who asked the rabbi of Chelm, "Which is more important, the sun or the moon?" "The moon of course," answered the rabbi. "It shines at night, when it is needed. The sun shines only during the day, when there is no need of it at all."

There is another story involving a mountain near Chelm. In this story, the people of Chelm wanted to honor their most "wise" (its all relative in Chelm) citizen, Mendel.  For the honor they proposed employing Mendel to sit on top of the hillside just outside of Chelm and wait for the Messiah.  

From dawn to dusk, Mendel would sit on top of the hill waiting for the Messiah.  The job was to wait and if he saw the Messiah coming, he was to run back to town and alert everyone.  Unfortunately everyone in Chelm was very poor, so this high honor paid only two Zlotys a year!  

Still, day after day Mendel, would go the hillside at dawn and wait, then when night fell with no Messiah Mendel would return to town.  
  
Finally one day as Mendel was on watch he saw, off in the distance, a man walking up and down the neighboring mountains and coming closer with each step to Mendel.  At first, Mendel was excited; it must be the Messiah.  But as this man finally approached Mendel could tell it was just an ordinary guy from the neighboring village.

Face to face with Mendel, the man asked what he was doing.  "I am working, waiting for the Messiah." "Waiting for the Messiah," the man exclaimed, "What kind of work is that, waiting for the Messiah!?!"

"Well," answered Mendel, "it may not pay much, but at least the work is steady.”

So it is with us -- we sit and we wait for the blessings in our life.  

We wait patiently -- or impatiently at times -- but we wait.  It is very steady work.  

The reminder this week is to stop waiting and start counting.  Stop waiting for some remarkable, miraculous blessing to knock us off our feet, and instead start counting the hundreds of small miracles and blessings that fill our days.  

When we wait for something or someone else, instead of taking action to advance ourselves, we have little to show for it.

This Shabbat, this week, take extra time to count our blessings to call them out and to actively bring more of them into our lives and the lives of those most precious to us. Take time to appreciate and enumerate our blessings.

May Shabbat be one of many blessings counted and acknowledged.