20 May BECHUKOTAI: WORKING INSTEAD OF COMPLAINING

There is a halachah which,
at first glance, does not
seem to have any practical
relevance to us, but in truth,
as the Vilna Gaon explained,
conveys a vitally important
lesson for each and every

person.
The halachah addresses the situation of a
person who owns a field that is surrounded
by other fields on all four sides. If the owner
of one of the four adjacent fields decides to
erect a wall between his field and the middle
field, he cannot legally demand that the
owner of the middle field share the
expenses. Since it was his decision to build
the fence, he cannot force the owner of the
field in the middle to pay for part of the
wall.
The same is true if the owners of two of the
other fields build fences. Even the owner of
the middle field benefits from these three
fences, which separate between his field and
three of the four adjacent fields, he does not
have to pay, since the owners of the other
fields decided on their own to build the
fences.

However, if this fellow now decides to
erect a fence on the fourth side so that his
field will be completely protected, then the
owners of the other three fences can now
come back to him and demand that he pay
his fair share for those three fences. The
reason is that by fencing in the fourth side,
the owner of the middle field shows that he
is happy with having these fences built, that
he wants his field to be protected on all
sides. And once he demonstrates that he
wants these walls, he is obligated to help
pay for them.
The Vilna Gaon pointed to this halachah as
a symbolic expression of a very common
phenomenon.
The vast majority of us complain about the
“walls” that go up around us. We complain
about our spouse, our kids, our schools, our
shuls, our rabbis, our political leaders, our
neighbors, and so many other things. We
talk about how terrible these “walls” are,
how difficult and unhappy a life we have.
But that all changes once the “fourth wall”
goes up – when we go through some kind of
scare. When we feel that our life is
threatened, such as if we face a medical

issue, Heaven forbid, we all of a sudden
realize how much we want these “walls,”
how much we love our life and do not wish
for it to end.
Instead of complaining about the “walls,”
about the things in our lives which aren’t
quite right, we should be focusing on
growing and being the best version of
ourselves. Blaming other people or
circumstances is never going to help
us. What will help us is putting in the work
to make ourselves and our lives better.
Parashat Behukotai begins with Hashem’s
promises of great reward for observing
the mitzvot. Hashem assures us that we will
receive these blessings “If you follow My
statutes, and observe My commands.” Rashi
famously explains that these two phrases
– “If you follow My statutes” and “and
observe My commands”– refers to two
different things. The second refers to
fulfilling the mitzvot, but the first means that
we “toil in Torah.” Only if we do both –
fulfill the mitzvot and “toil in Torah” – will
we be deserving of these great rewards.
It isn’t enough to learn Torah; we have to
“toil,” and invest hark work and effort.

Complaining is the opposite of hard
work. We complain so that we can blame
other people and other things for our
problems and our failures, such that we
don’t have to bother doing anything about it,
since it’s all someone else’s fault. We can
just sit back and complain, instead of
working. We need to work, not complain. We
need to accept the reality the way it is, and
work to make ourselves better.
If we can make this shift in our mindset, we
will unlock so much of our power, so much
of our inner potential, and we will achieve
far more than we ever imagined we could.