Walk It Out!

Parashat Acharei Mot, Leviticus 16:1–18:30

Matthew Absolon, Beth Tfilah, Hollywood, FL

 You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. (Lev 18:4 ESV)

This week’s portion deals with the laws regarding forbidden sexual relations. Like many of the mitzvot given to our people, they come with the charge: “You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes” (Lev 18:3 ESV, emphasis added). Alternatively, the Lord declares the positive commandments to “follow . . . keep . . . and walk” in the mishpatim (judgments/rules) and chukotai (statutes) he has given to us. This following, keeping, and walking is to effect sanctification of the Jewish people from the nations that surround them. We should be different from the nations around us in that we hold fast to the godly virtues of love, truth, justice, hope, faith, and life. This sanctification is memorialized as we pray every day, “Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with your commandments . . .” and so forth. In order to guard this sanctification, Israel is enjoined to walk in the rules and statutes of the Torah.

But how do we do this? And what does it mean to walk in the Torah?

Commenting on Leviticus18:4, Rashi gives us timeless advice:

TO WALK IN THEM — do not free yourselves from their environment, i.e. that you must not say, I have acquired Jewish wisdom, now I will go and acquire the wisdom of the other peoples of the world in order to walk in their ways.

Through long familiarity, there is a tendency for God’s people to replace the spiritual discipline of walking in the Torah with the acquisition of rationale. In a luciferian way, we surmise that once we know the rationale behind a mitzvah, it is no longer a matter of practice, but that of extraction; that is, I can extract the lesson from the mitzvah and, therefore, actually doing the mitzvah becomes subordinate to the extraction. In this way our pride trumps our obedience. This is a great danger.

Spiritual discipline through the repetitive action—the “walking” out—of the mitzvot builds within us emotional muscle memory. Given that we are largely driven by our emotions (good and not-so-good), any repetitive action binds itself to our personhood, our heart, our mind, and that same action builds within us an emotional response. The more repetitive the action, the deeper the emotional muscle memory.

Take for example the mitzvah of Shabbat. We keep the Shabbat as a reminder of the sovereignty of God over time and space (Exod 31:17). The observance of Shabbat reinforces to us the fundamentals of who God is and who we are in relationship to him and with him. The Shabbat sanctifies us from every other creation story that exists among the nations, and it acts as an inoculation against the spiritual acidity of “Ex nihilo nihil fit” (nothing comes from nothing). So that when we are confronted with the scientific myths and carefully woven theories which exclude God from the work of creation, we become emotionally uncomfortable with the sales pitch.

In a parallel way, the discipline of limiting our sexual relations to those outlined in today’s mitzvah creates in us emotional muscle memory that inoculates us against the sordidness of the nations around us. Those practices that they deem to be acceptable, even “liberating,” we find repugnant and contemptible (see 1 Cor 5). As we walk in the Torah, we reinforce the process of sanctification.

This gift of emotional muscle memory is a direct result of walking in the Torah. It does not come from a carefully articulated apologetic, ready for an opportunity to pontificate. It does not come from hours of study and academic acquisition. It does not come from allegorical extractions.

No, it’s much more powerful than all that. It’s an emotional response that is so inextricably bound up in our spiritual DNA such that any intellect, luciferian or otherwise, cannot move us from the place of knowing in our kishkes that we “shall live by them” (Lev 18:5).

Additionally, we have the indispensable gift of our traditions to help us discipline our spiritual walk and to guide us as we walk in the Torah. This past week, we all opened our Haggadot and observed the Pesach Seder. The Haggadah is a wonderful example of how our traditions help us to walk in the Torah. As we read of our slavery, our outcry, our deliverance, and our freedom; as we partake of the four cups of God’s promise that “I will . . .” (Exod 6:6–7); we strengthen the emotional muscle memory that helps to sustain us during the trying and doubtful times.

For each of us, there will be both similarities and individual uniqueness in our walking in the Torah. Our traditions offer a tried-and-true track to follow, providing a way to walk in the Torah. Beyond that, I encourage us one and all to consider how we might walk in the Torah, through spiritual discipline and inculcating the mitzvot into our daily lives.