d’var torah
LEGAL DIRECTORY
The Complicated
Matter of Reward
and Punishment
BY RABBI JASON BONDER
T Parshat B’Chukotai
he message of this week’s
Torah portion, B’chukotai, is
straightforward. If you listen
to God’s laws, you will be rewarded. If
you don’t keep God’s laws, you will be
punished. I’ve found, as I suspect you have,
that the conditional statements in this
Torah portion do not match up with
the realities of life. As Rabbi Harold
Kushner famously put it, “Bad things
happen to good people.” Th e reverse is
also true. Good things happen to bad
people. Given this incongruity, can we still
fi nd meaning in this week’s Torah por-
tion? I hope so for the sake of our col-
lective future.

One crucial step toward making
meaning out of this Torah portion is to
take note of whom God is addressing
in this portion. In the paragraph above,
I was talking to “you.” But in writing
this article I am, of course, hoping
to address more than one individual.

Th e same is true for this week’s por-
tion. Th e beginning of the portion is
translated, “If you walk in my laws and
keep my commandments …” But the
verbs “walk” and “keep” in the Hebrew
are in the plural. God is not address-
ing individuals in this portion. Rather,
God is addressing the people of Israel
collectively. I used to read these promises of
divine reward and punishment on
the level of the individual, and that
seriously hindered my ability to fi nd
meaning in them. Yet I don’t attribute
my mistaken reading to a translation
error. I read it this way in the past
because I am the product of our time,
our place and the culture in which we
live. We live in a highly individualistic
society. We tend to see the world in
terms of “me” instead of “we.” Th is is a
serious problem.

Whenever I read this portion, I
always think back to the times of my
chaplaincy internship at the Hospital
of the University of Pennsylvania. All
too oft en, as I went room to room vis-
iting patients in the hospital, I heard
the following question from patients.

“What could I have possibly done to
deserve this?”
It broke my heart to see people
unnecessarily harboring guilt in their
hearts, especially while they were
already suff ering so much. Seeing this
week’s portion through the “me” lens
is part of the reason why so many
of us think that suff ering comes as
punishment for breaking God’s laws
and commandments. Understanding
that these punishments and rewards in
B’Chukotai are not meant for individu-
als can help us to break free from this
guilt when suff ering arises in our lives.

Th is shift from the individual to the
communal view can be helpful, but it
does not solve all of the problems in
this portion. I can’t accept the theology
that people are collectively punished
for their sins either.

Th e people of Ukraine are just the
latest example in an endless list of
nations that have unnecessarily suf-
fered. God is not punishing Ukraine.

Th ey are suff ering because Putin chose
to infl ict harm. Similarly, countries
that experience drought or famine are
not being punished for breaking divine
rules. Th ey are suff ering from terri-
ble weather patterns or failures of our
global community to get supplies to
that region.

I do not believe in a God that chooses
to punish some individuals and reward
others. Nor does the God I believe in
punish some nations and lift up others.

Nevertheless, the shift from the indi-
vidual to the collective is a move that
we need now more than ever.

Too oft en in our society, when we
encounter arguments with which we
disagree, we dismiss it entirely. We
choose the convenience of a “me” world-
view over the diffi culty of understand-
ing views unlike our own.

For many years, this is exactly what I
did while reading this Torah portion. I
rejected the theology of B’Chukotai on
behalf of all those who unnecessarily
suff er. But that is the kind of behavior
that has gotten us to where we are in
our “me-centered” society right now.

Only three portions ago, back in
Kedoshim, we read the famous words
from Leviticus 19:17-18, “You shall
not hate your kinsfolk in your heart.

Reprove your kinsman but incur no
guilt because of him.” B’chukotai rein-
forces this commandment by remind-
ing us that our future not only depends
on the actions of individuals. We share
our future with everyone. We share it
even with the people who think diff er-
ently than we do.

In this moment in American his-
tory, this Torah portion presents an
opportunity for us to sharpen the skills
which can move our society from “me”
to “we.” Can we read the ancient worl-
dview of B’Chukotai, disagree with
it and still fi nd meaning within it? I
hope we can. Th e future of our society
depends on it.

Th is week I will let those plural verbs
remind me that I am a part of many
communities and that all of us who
make up this society are in desperate
need of a willingness to fi nd meaning
in points of view not shared. JE
Rabbi Jason Bonder is the associate
rabbi of Congregation Beth Or in Maple
Glen. Th e Board of Rabbis of Greater
Philadelphia is proud to provide diverse
perspectives on Torah commentary
for the Jewish Exponent. Th e opin-
ions expressed in this column are the
author’s own and do not refl ect the view
of the Board of Rabbis.

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