05 May BEHUKOTAI: 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 Im Bechukotai
Teileichu V’et Mitzvotai Tishmaru – “If you
follow My statutes, and observe My
commands.” Rashi famously explains that
these two phrases – Im Bechukotai Teileichu
and V’et Mitzvotai Tishmaru – refers to two
different things. The second (V’et Mitzvotai
Tishmaru) refers to fulfilling the mitzvot,
but the first (Im Bechukotai Teileichu)
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. “That we
‘toil in Torah’” means that 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.