Mountain Climbing - Behar Bechukotai

Mountain Climbing
Parshat Behar-Bechukotai

One of the most extreme sports and physically challenging pursuits is that of mountain climbing. Scaling a mountain with your bare hands and some climbing gear is no easy feat. So how does one set out on such an arduous task?

This week's double portion is called Behar-Bechukotai. The first portion Behar, in Hebrew "The mountain" speaks about some of the special commandments that were give "at the mountain" Sinai, including the Shemita-Sabbatical year and others. The second portion Bechukotai, in Hebrew "in my statues" speaks of G-d instructing us to follow His statutes and commandments, even when we don't necessarily understand them.

Perhaps, the lesson of these two portions, can shed some light on our lifelong ambition to scale the mountains and challenges of our lives.

If you want to scale mountains you have to be prepared. You must train and have all the necessary gear, and utensils to do the job. If you skimp on the quality of the rope and hooks, you may very well be endangering your life. So too in our lives, we need the "Bechukotai" to be grounded in the commandments and directives of G-d, in order to manipulate the vicissitudes of life. Even if we don't fully appreciate the reasons or relevance of all the Mitzvot, we must understand that it is Hashem who really understands what tools and gear we need for the task

You skimp you loose.

Shabbat Shalom,