Your pleasant fragrances

(Leviticus 26:31)

Iyar 23, 5777/May 19, 2017

Parashat Bechukotai, the final Torah reading of the book of Leviticus, and the second of this week's double parashah, Behar-Bechukotai, devotes twenty nine verses to a vivid and painful description of the negative ramifications that will hound and pursue Israel, should she stray from following G-d's statutes and observing and performing His commandments. This laundry list of horrors is preceded by thirteen comforting and uplifting verses describing the abundant blessings which will be Israel's should she faithfully "follow My statutes and observe My commandments and perform them." (ibid 26:3)

It is clear that the choice is Israel's to make. Maintain the covenant with G-d and be blessed. Stray from the covenant and face the fearful consequences. Is G-d issuing a threat? A warning? Are the tribulations that Israel will face should she stray a form of punishment or an expression of G-d's anger or need for retribution? Just what kind of god is the G-d of Israel? He is our Father and Creator. We are essentially the apple of His eye, and there is no reason to believe that G-d finds any comfort in our distress. So why are the consequences of a wayward Israel so very harsh?

In the thick of the list of calamities that will strike Israel should she stray, right after "I will lay your cities waste and make your holy places desolate," is "and I will not partake of your pleasant fragrances." (ibid 26:31) "Pleasant fragrances" is a translation of the Hebrew phrase "re'ach nichochem." Re'ach Nicho'ach is a phrase used exclusively to refer to offerings, for the fragrance of what they represent is overwhelmingly pleasant to G-d. From the beginning of time man has expressed his desire to draw near to G-d by making offerings. Adam made an offering to G-d. Cain and Abel made offerings. Noach made an offerings after the flood which placated and comforted G-d. Avraham made offerings, and the akeidah- the binding of Yitzchak - was a lesson in just how powerful and meaningful the act of making an offering is. The act of making an offering is essentially a non-verbal, non-intellectual act of love. Its meaning is ultimately inexplicable to man, and it may be inexplicable to G-d, as well, and that may be the source of its power and message of love. It is a pure love, a guileless love, a love with no ulterior motive, a love with no alibi.

Immediately following the uttering of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, the Ten Commandments that changed man's relationship with G-d forever, G-d gave an eleventh commandment: "An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall slaughter beside it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your cattle. Wherever I allow My name to be mentioned, I will come to you and bless you." (Exodus 20:21) G-d is so enamored with man's offerings that He made certain to add it as a signature, so to speak, to the Ten Commandments. The fact that making offerings was an act through which man expressed his longing for G-d long before G-d designated it as a commandment, may be the very reason it is so beloved by G-d. From the time of Adam, making an offering was a spontaneous and profoundly sincere expression by man. It was man-made, not G-d commanded. This is why offerings are so dear to G-d. Man's natural and innate love for G-d is the re'ach nicho'ach - the pleasant fragrance - that so pleases G-d.

So why does G-d insist, as quoted above, that "I will not partake of your pleasant fragrances?" Is G-d not punishing Himself?

The answer to this question is the answer to our earlier question: What is Torah telling us by listing before us such an uncompromising and unbending litany of catastrophe followed by cataclysm, should Israel distance itself from G-d? If a man wrongs his wife and tries to win back her affection by giving her her favorite perfume, she will no doubt be repulsed and find the fragrance repulsive. So too, Israel cannot rely upon offerings to win back G-d's favor, and our prophets tell us this in no uncertain terms. Such an attempt is an abomination. But just as G-d promises to uphold His covenant with Israel no matter how far she strays, so too He maintains His delight in Israel's, in man's, most ancient and foundational expression of love and devotion to Him. It times of trouble, in times when Israel has banished G-d from her presence by abandoning His statutes and commandments, G-d is in pain no less than Israel is in pain. G-d is also hurting, as it were. The inclusion of "your pleasing fragrances" in the list of calamities that will befall Israel creates a context through which the entire predicament of estrangement can be understood. To quote the blues classic, "When things go wrong," G-d is saying, "so wrong with you, it hurts Me, too."

Your pain is My pain, G-d is saying, and this truly is the horror of straying from our covenant with G-d, of distancing ourselves from Him. We are causing a cosmic tear in the firmament. We are breaking G-d's heart, and that is a burden more than we can bear. G-d placed man in His world to be a companion in the perfection of creation. "And I will place My dwelling in your midst, and My Spirit will not reject you; I will walk among you and be your G-d, and you will be My people." (ibid 26:11-12) G-d loves His children and the "pleasing fragrance" of our offerings reminds Him the reason why. Nothing hurts G-d more than our distancing ourselves from Him by disdaining His commandments, causing an existential cosmic angst that parallels the devastating effects spelled out for us in Bechukotai.

A world without the Holy Temple, without the "pleasing fragrance" of our offerings is not the natural order of things, but a painful aberration for G-d, no less than for man. It is time to rebuild for G-d His place in our world, to bring Him near once again, and to cause Him comfort and joy in His children by sharing once again, the re'ach nicho'ach - the pleasant fragrance - of our abiding love for Him.

-The Temple Institute