Thought for the Week:

In Torah the distinctions between physical and spiritual are not so clear. The whole physical world is spiritual because God created it. The physical world was created out of the spiritual, and the spiritual is inherently present in all physical form and action. Therefore, in Torah thought, it is a false dichotomy to separate the physical from the spiritual.

Commentary:

If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry them out ... (Leviticus 26:3)

The Torah portion of Bechukotai begins by saying, "If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry them out ... " (Leviticus 26:3). Isn't that a bit redundant? What is the difference between (1) walking in the statutes, (2) keeping the commandments and (3) carrying them out? In his classic commentaries on the Torah, Rashi wondered about this too and proposed a solution. He suggested that "walking in the statutes" refers to intensive study of the Tor…