Leviticus 25:1-27:34
Very Very!
The second part of this week’s double reading, the portion Behukkotai, contains of a long list of misfortunes that will befall the people of Israel if they fail to keep God’s commandments. These punishments—including various diseases and their consequences—are presented in terrifying detail, even more terrifying this year than most. Since merely reading these details aloud is, at it were, to tempt fate, it is customary in many communities for the Torah reader to pronounce them in an ominous undertone.
However, the reading does not consist solely of bad news. It begins with a brief mention of the good things that Israel will enjoy so long as it upholds its covenant with God. These opening blessings, although quickly listed, are worthy of some consideration. First come various blessings crucial to Israel’s agrarian economy: plentiful rainfall that will yield bounteous harvests. Next is Israel’s continued possession of sufficient military might to ward off any attackers, human armies or wild beasts. Then comes human fertility and the resultant population increase. All this ends with God’s solemn promise:
“I will place My dwelling in your midst and not be repelled by you, but I will walk about in your midst and be your God, while you will be My people. I am the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt to be their slaves no more, who broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk komemiyyut.” (Lev 26:11-13)
The last words of this blessing return us to the exodus: God is the one who freed Israel from Egyptian slavery and “broke the bars of your yoke”—that is, freed you from the bowing posture of a yoked ox plowing the yield—and caused you to walk komemiyyut. This last term occurs only once in the whole Bible, in this particular verse, but its meaning is not particularly obscure. It comes from the common root k-w-m, “rise up” or “stand.” In this form, and following the previous clause’s mention of being bowed down under a yoke, komemiyyut seems to mean standing up straight and tall. (That is why, in modern Hebrew, komemiyyut has acquired the meaning of “independence,” or “self-rule, sovereignty.”)
It’s interesting, however, that the Torah here asserts the very opposite of what is prescribed in this week’s first portion, Behar. There, Israel’s enslavement is said to have continued after the exodus, with only a change of masters. Apparently, when God acquired those who had been slaves in Egypt they automatically became His slaves, obligated to do all that was commanded in the Torah. “For it is to Me that the Israelites are [now] slaves—they are My slaves, whom I took out of the land of Egypt” (Lev 25:55). In light of this, the curses that follow this verse acquire a rather different perspective. How dare a bunch of slaves “reject My laws and spurn My rules”? A slave’s first and unarguable duty was to obey.
And then there is the matter of standing up tall. Is the Torah implying that this is ever afterwards to be Israel’s proper posture? Actually, this brings to mind a famous dictate of the Talmud:
Rabbi Joshua b. Levi said: “It is forbidden to walk for four cubits with an upright posture, as it is written ‘the world is full of his glory’ [Isaiah 6:3;].” R. Huna, the son of Rabbi Joshua [said]: “Let no one go more than four cubits with head uncovered.” (b. Talmud, Qiddushin 31a)
The idea is that walking with an arrogant, ramrod posture is a kind of self-glorification, so that if, as the prophet Isaiah said, the whole world is full of God’s glory, then there is no room for your own. In other words, don’t walk komemiyyut. By the same token, don’t go more than a few feet with head uncovered, because that too was considered to be a sign of arrogance in rabbinic times.
Thus, the Torah recounts that when the Israelites left Egypt, they walked out “with hand held high,” (Exod. 14:8), that is, they did not flee the Egyptians but walked out proudly. To capture the same idea in its own day, the Aramaic targum translated “with hand held high” as “with head uncovered.” Hence the prescription not to walk with an upright posture or walk more than four cubits with head uncovered. Don’t be arrogant.
The reason is not particularly obscure. Israel’s special connection with God, embodied in its having accepted to keep God’s commandments in the Torah, might easily lead people to become puffed up with pride—to walk about arrogantly: after all, we alone accepted the Torah and its laws. This seems to be the reason that rabbinic writings consistently stress the value of humility: “Be very, very humble,” the Mishnah cautions in Pirkei Avot, and reiterates this sentiment in various particulars.
I sometimes wish that the little head covering that observant Jewish males wear today, the kippah, was still a sign of humility, but every once in a while it seems to signify just the opposite, as if those who wear it are obviously better than everyone else; for such people, it has become a sign of entitlement. Perhaps the temptation to arrogance was dyed in the wool, inevitable in the very idea of God’s covenant with Israel. In any case, there must have been a good reason for the Rabbis to say, “Be very, very humble.”