How great must I be? – B’chukkotai
The sidra begins, im bechukkotai telechu – “If you walk in My statutes”. Telechu, “you walk”, is the foundation of halachah, which is usually translated as Jewish law but really means walking or progress.
Living a Jewish life is a progressive experience. You try scrupulously but you never entirely reach the goal. No matter how many commandments you keep, there is progress you can and should make towards others. No matter how well you keep each mitzvah, there is progress you can and should make within it to observe it more lovingly, with more understanding.
Yes, I know there are critics who complain that orthodox Jews focus too much on minutiae, always looking for more little details to observe and more stringencies to impose. But the critics forget one thing.
You can get a tune out of the piano by more or less using the right keys, but only through care and precision will you make great music. You can operate on a patient by more or less doing things right, but only by care and precision will you save the patient’s life.
You can be a Jew by carrying out Jewish acts in a more or less recognisable fashion, but unless you refine your Jewish skills, turn every detail into an offering of love to the Almighty, and make each step in Jewish living a significant symbol of Jewish conscience and commitment, Judaism will never show its true greatness in your life.
