Immediately after the Tochacha, the Torah continues with the parsha of Eruchin [Evaluations]. Every person has a certain set value (based on his or her age range and gender). A person can donate his “Eruch” [value] to the Beis HaMikdash. An entire section in the Torah and a whole Tractate in the Talmud are devoted to the laws of Eruchin.
In past years, we discussed why the Parsha of Eruchin follows the Parsha of the Tochacha. It is somewhat of an anti-climactic ending to Parshas Bechukosai. If we were to write Parshas Bechukosai we would probably end it at the conclusion of Chapter 26: “These are the decrees, the ordinances, and the Torahs that Hashem gave, between Himself and the Children of Israel, at Mount Sinai, through Moses.” Where would we have put the laws of Eruchin? We would have stuck them somewhere else in Sefer Vayikra! However, Parshas Bechukosai, with the dramatic Tochacha that should literally send shivers down a person’s back – especially with our knowledge of the hindsight of history – ends with this very technical section of the laws of evaluations.
The Kotzker Rebbe once said a vort, but rather than say his vort and then tell a story; I want to tell the story and then say the vort.
Rav Mordechai Kamenetsky writes up this incident, and I have seen it in other places as well. The Nazis, yemach shemam [may their name be blotted out], had a sinister habit when they came into a town and rounded up the Jews. They wanted to first humiliate the Jews. It was not bad enough to cart them off and kill them; they first humiliated them before sending them to their deaths.
They would take the primary Rabbinic figure in town and pick on him and humiliate him. When they came to the village in which the Klausenberger Rebbe, zt”l, (who survived the war) lived, they brought him into the town square and gathered all the people. The Nazi guard threw him down to the ground and kicked him. The Nazi then sneeringly said to him, “So, you still think that you are the Chosen People?” The Klausenberger responded “Yes.” Then the Nazi guard hit him with the butt of the rifle. He repeated his question, “You still think you are the Chosen People?” The Klausenberger Rebbe again responded, “Yes.”
The Nazi said, “You stupid Jew! How could you say that? How could you say you are the Chosen People? Look what I am doing to you.” The Klausenberger Rebbe told the Nazi guard, “As long as we are not kicking and beating innocent people we are the Chosen People and you are not!” This means – even when a person is degraded physically, emotionally, and psychologically, he can still maintain his sense of humanity and his sense of dignity. Such a person is still a member of the Chosen People.
The Kotzker Rebbe once explained that the reason why the parsha of Eruchin follows the parsha of the Tochacha is that the Torah is trying to teach us that no matter what befalls a person, he must always keep in mind that a person always has value. A human being has an “Erech“; come what may, even after the greatest degradation and the greatest humiliation – nevertheless, a person has an Erech-Atzmi [a personal value]. The Klausenberger Rebbe’s reaction personified that concept: As long as I am not beating an innocent person, I am considered an Am HaNivchar [(a member of) the Chosen People].
