Drasha
וזכרתי את–בריתי יעקוב ואף את בריתי יצחק ואף את בריתי אברהם אזכר (ויקרא כו:מב)
"And I will remember my covenant with Yaakov, and my covenant with Yitzchak, and my covenant with Avraham I will remember.”
This line is central to the Selichot prayers, which we will begin saying tonight. Every day, in the heart of Selichot, we invoke Zechut Avot, the merits of our predecessors. And indeed, when we think of prayer and repentance, our lineage– our ancestry and history– are integral to our prayer experience. The Gemara in Brachot establishes that the Patriarchs played an essential role in modeling our three-time daily prayers, and the content and themes of those prayers draws heavily upon the ancient prayer of Channah. And yet, despite the centrality of our forebearers, today I want to argue that it is not so clear that Zechut Avot is a good thing.
Earlier today we read the Tochachah, The Rebuke– God’s contract with the Jewish people. If we keep the Torah, God will reward us. If we don’t, devastation awaits. The Torah describes graphic horrors, previously unseen. Women are forced to eat their children, as the poor and helpless in society are cannibalized, figuratively and literally. Like all of Deuteronomy, the Tochachah this week is actually a re-teaching of an earlier lesson in the Torah. The initial Tochachah in Bechukotai contains the same graphic warnings, but whereas our Tochachah ends without hope or salvation, the rebuke of Bechukotai ends with the following passage:
וְזָכַרְתִּי, אֶת-בְּרִיתִי יַעֲקוֹב; וְאַף אֶת-בְּרִיתִי יִצְחָק וְאַף אֶת-בְּרִיתִי אַבְרָהָם, אֶזְכֹּר--וְהָאָרֶץ אֶזְכֹּר. וְזָכַרְתִּי לָהֶם, בְּרִית רִאשֹׁנִים: אֲשֶׁר הוֹצֵאתִי-אֹתָם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם לְעֵינֵי הַגּוֹיִם, לִהְיוֹת לָהֶם לֵאלֹהִים--אֲנִי יְהוָה.
Those who survive will stew in their sin and iniquity until rock bottom is finally reached. Only then, when the Jewish people have sinned beyond return, God will invoke his initial contract with out forefathers– the Zechut Avot that we invoke regularly– and out of a sense of obligation to our patriarchs God will save us. The Tochachah caps off with the Passuk that we opened with, and that lies at the heart of our Selichot prayers. וזכרתי את ברית יעקוב… ...continued here.
Click HERE for an archive of Rabbi Staller's Drashot
