Reversing the order – B’chukkotai
From the moment of childhood we make the acquaintance of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were the founding fathers of the Jewish people. God guided and protected them. He had a covenant with each one. We automatically name them in chronological order. But in today’s sidra, the names are reversed: “I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac and also My covenant with Abraham (Lev. 26:42).
Rashi explains that Jacob, the youngest, deserves that Israel should be redeemed for his merits; if necessary the merits of Isaac are added; and if even these are insufficient, those of Abraham certainly suffice. What Hertz says is, “In retrospect, the last comes first to mind”.
There is another way of looking at the verse. It is at the end of the tochechah, the curses that are threatened if we disobey the commandments. Yet the suffering will come to an end, for God will remember the destiny He promised to the descendants of the patriarchs.
In Abraham’s and Isaac’s time, the Jewish family had not yet been seriously tempted to defy the will of God. Jacob, however, lived for many years with Laban and could have abandoned God and the Torah. Yet he said, im lavan garti (“With Laban did I dwell” – Gen. 32:5), which the sages expanded, v’taryag mitzvot shamarti (“And I observed the 613 commandments”).
If Jacob could face temptation and still remember God, it is his reward to be mentioned first when God assures later generations that He will remember Israel.
