LECH LECHA - THE COVENANT

October 27, 2000

People have free will.  At every moment, we choose what to do, what to say, where to go.  To give us this wonderful gift, the Almighty must hide Himself, because if His presence were visible to us, we would be awed into obedience. When Man is good, he is better off because Heaven’s blessings proliferate and society flourishes.  But the Almighty cannot tell us this too directly, because that would take away our free will.  Mankind initially abused this free will, and chose to be immoral, bringing on the flood.

When Abraham publicized knowledge of the Almighty, the Almighty established a covenant with Abraham and his descendants to be His public relations firm.  This allowed for the dissemination of the knowledge of the Almighty without interfering with free will. The plan was for the Jews to be a society of holy families that, by their very presence, would show the world that holiness and goodness are a preferable option.  People coming into contact with Jews would feel the Divine presence and be inspired to be good. The Jewish mission was to be a ‘Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation’.  The reward for the Jewish people would be bountiful spiritual and wordly blessings.

But there is a downside to this covenant.  If the Jewish people don’t fulfill this mission, the world is left without a moral compass, and the result is the whirlwind of punishments described in the Tochacha, the ‘chastisements’.  Then the enemies of the Jews get stronger in fulfillment of the phrase ‘nakeme brit’, ‘revenge of the covenant’.  Every Jew carries this immense responsibility of representing a ‘Holy Nation’, and no Jew can opt-out.  The question at every moment is that when people come in contact with Jews, are the people spiritually inspired by how the Jews act?

This is discussed in Messechet Yuma 86a. It says that if a Jew who learns Torah treats others cordially (with nachas) and is honest in business (maasa vematan be’emuna), others will say ‘Blessed are those who taught him Torah’.  This is good advertising, and is called ‘Kiddish Hashem’, the sanctification of the Almighty’s Name.  But if a Jew does not treat others cordially or is dishonest in business, others will say ‘Woe to those who taught him Torah.’  This is called ‘Chillul Hashem’, desecration of the Almighty’s Name.  The word ‘Chillul’ literally means ‘empty’, just as a flute is called a ‘challil’ because it is empty.  Chillul Hashem means emptying the world of the knowledge of the Almighty.  The Gemara says that this is by far the worst of all sins, because it reduces the level of holiness in the world, and is a direct violation of the  covenant.  There is no way to atone for this sin during one’s life, and the only atonement comes with death.

A Tosesfta on Baba Kamma 113b says that Chillul Hashem towards a non-Jew is much worse than towards a Jew.  A Jew will respond by attributing the desecration to an individual, but a non-Jew will see it as casting a negative light on Jews, Torah, and the Almighty.  A commentary  (Minchas Bicurum) says that death is atonement only in relation to another Jew, because the desecrator’s death is seen as the Hand of the Almighty reasserting Itself, increasing the faith that was diminished.  The non-Jew, however, is less likely to make this connection and therefore even death will not bring atonement.

An Olympic star (Jesse Owens) who won the gold medal for the 100 yard dash once said “A lifetime of training for ten seconds”.  The years of training were preparation for the race.  A Jew’s years of learning Torah, praying, and doing mitzvas are training for those times that we have contact with others.  They are meant to raise our spiritual level and increase our connection to the Almighty.  Just as no one would enter an Olympic race without an enormous amount of training, a Jew's religious life also entails an enormous amount of training.  The moment of truth occurs when others meet Jews and judge whether their spiritual training has worked or not, and whether the Torah seems to them true or not.  The Gemarah specifies that the yardsticks in these moments of truth are treating others cordially and being honest in business.

The more the Jew is seen as representing the Torah way of life, the more effect he will have on others, either positively or negatively.  As a Jew lives a life of Torah, and the more he learns, prays, and does mitzvahs, it’s as if he is reaching a higher and higher number - 1000, 10,000, 100,000, and so on.  When his contact with others leads to a Kiddish Hashem, then the sign in front of the number is a plus sign.  If however it leads to a Chillul Hashem, the sign in front of the number is a minus sign.

We experience and use consciousness every moment, and yet science has found consciousness to be an impenetatrable mystery, and has no idea what it is.  This is because consciousness is non-physical and is our link to the Almighty Who is also non-physical.  The Jewish Sages have concretized the Torah into a way of life that is designed to refine and uplift consiousness and increase the bandwidth with which it is connected to the Divine.  This is done in a way that keeps a person connected to the world, while sanctifying the world and increasing the experience of the Almighty’s presence in the world.  The ancient Greeks associated wine with their god Dionysis that represented debauchery.  Jews lift up wine during Kiddush and dedicate their desires to sanctify the Almighty’s presence in the world.