This week we complete the Book of Leviticus which ends with a somber warning. G-d admonishes us to beware of the terrible fate that will befall us if we abandon His Covenant. There is one word that stands out blatantly in the parsha, and is repeated again and again, and that is “keri”, an attitude that implies casualness - coincidence. The Torah warns us that our undoing will come about as a result of “keri” a feeling that everything that befalls us is happenstance, an accident of fate. And therein lies the danger, for if things happen by “coincidence”, and we refuse to see the Guiding Hand of G-d, then it becomes easy for us to shirk our Jewish responsibility and cancel out our accountability. When we obstinately refuse to see Divine Providence in our daily lives, when we believe that things happen because they “happen”, then we create a wall between ourselves and our Heavenly Father which precludes us from doing tshuv.- repentence. The psalmist teaches us that “G-d is our shadow” (Psalm 89) - whatever we do, our shadow reflects. So if we believe that things “just happen” we will be alone in our time of need.
But despite this dark prognosis, G-d never completely withdraws Himself from us. At the end of the Parsha, after all the calamities that can befall us are enumerated, G-d makes a promise: “And I shall remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember ...” (Leviticus 46:42).
This declaration is an eternal guarantee to us that no matter what, we will be redeemed in the merit of our patriarchs.


There is one aspect of this covenant however that is rather puzzling...why the reverse order? Why commence with Jacob? And herein lies a beautiful teaching, for this is a three-fold guarantee which endures forever. At the end of days, if the merit of Jacob alone is not sufficent to redeem us, then the merit of Isaac will come to our aid. And if that should not be sufficient, the merit of Abraham will surely bring about our redemption.
This sequence appears to indicate that Abraham’s merit is superior. What was so unique about Abraham that elevated him above the rest? In contrast to Isaac and Jacob, Abraham was a trail-blazer.He was a first. He came from a home of idol worshippers and had no role models to follow, and yet, he recognized the Hand of G-d. He perceived that nothing in this world occurs by accident, and with that wisdom, he changed the course of human kind. It was this very trait of being the first, of daring to take on the world that distinguished Ruth, the Moabite convert who was destined to become the great-grandmother of King David from whom Messiah would descend. She rejected the value system of her entire nation, embraced chesed - loving kindness, and aligned herself with the People of G-d.
As we prepare for the holiday of Shavuot, when G-d gave us the Torah and we read the story of Ruth, let us bear this lesson in mind. Those who feel disadvantaged because they were raised devoid of Torah should bear in mind our two great role models, Abraham and Ruth. We need only probe our heritage and follow their path, and they will join us in our voyage of Jewish self-discovery.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Osher