Shabbat Be-Hukkotai
Written by Rabbi Professor Marc Saperstein Thursday, 22 May 2008
ואתכם אזרה בגוים: “I will scatter you among the nations” (Lev. 26:33).
This is the beginning of one verse from a long and powerful passage (26:14–41) describing the terrifying consequences for the people of Israel if they fail to live up to their obligations under the covenant. It is an ominous depiction of suffering in history: disease, drought, famine so extreme it leads to cannibalism, military defeat, destruction of the land, exile, oppression, physical deterioration and psychological trauma.
In this context, the verse “I will scatter you among the nations” is clearly part of the series of curses. The verse continues, “I will unsheathe the sword after you; your land shall become a desolation and your cities a ruin.” Later in the passage, a similar verse speaks of God bringing the people “into the land of their enemies” (26:41). Being scattered, and being among the nations, are both clearly part of the punishment in this passage. The “ingathering of the exiles”, the removal of the Jewish people from being scattered among the nations, is an integral part of traditional Jewish messianic expectation.
Yet taken out of its context, that phrase from the parashah has a different resonance for us. Even strongly committed Zionists recognize that there are advantages for the Jewish people not to be all concentrated in one place. Many pre-modern thinkers saw a benefit in being scattered during the period of exile: if an anti-Jewish regime arose in one place, not all Jews would be threatened, and there would be other options for refuge.
Some even saw a benefit that transcended the protection of geographical diversity. In the early 1620s, the Amsterdam Rabbi Saul Levi Morteira wrote, “If we were all in one place, our witness would be before only one nation. But our duty is to confess God’s greatness before all the peoples of the earth.” This anticipates what would become a central idea of the early Reform movement: the mission of the Jewish people fulfilled precisely through their dispersion throughout the world.
Historians have recognized that being scattered “among the nations” has not been an unmitigated disaster for the Jewish people. The interaction with other nations and their cultures has enriched the Jewish heritage through the absorption of some of the best aspects of the majority culture in a manner that did not necessarily undermine Jewish authenticity or loyalty. The flourishing of Jewish culture under medieval Islam and in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century Germany and Austria are obvious examples.
This is not, of course, to minimize the enormous contribution that has been made by the State of Israel over the past 60 years: as a home where Jews anywhere in the world can come as a matter of right, and as an environment in which a strong Hebrew-language culture has flourished and thrived, much of it rooted in the study of age-old traditions, much of it intensely modern. Nevertheless, with all their challenges and failings most Jewish communities of the Diaspora, scattered among the nations, are not like those described in the parashah. They are not faint of heart, fleeing from the sound of a driven leaf (26:36), but proudly self-assertive; they do not feel themselves to be “in the land of their enemies”, but as neighbours and partners with much of the surrounding population.
For the parashah, being scattered throughout an alien and hostile environment, suffering the oppression of enemies, perishing among the nations, serves as an impetus for the confession and atonement of iniquities before God (26:40, 43). This bleak reality has indeed characterized Diaspora experience at some times and in some places, even in the recent past. But being scattered among the nations is not just a punishment. It may serve as an opportunity and a challenge.
