Date: May 27th 2022

Rabbi Ganz’s weekly d’var torah was a labor of love. He spent many hours every week learning and delving into the commentaries of each week’s torah portion to discover a new insight (chiddush), and many more hours writing it over for the email that would go out. The Rabbi’s ideas would illuminate ethical, social, psychological, or relational principles divined from within the words of chazal with practical applications for everyday life. In his memory the family hopes to continue the Rabbi’s weekly email from his archived divrei torah. May it be an aliyah for his neshama (merit for his soul) and a vehicle for his talmidim and friends to continue to connect to the teachings of Rabbi Ganz and his mesorah of chochmas hamussar from his rebbe Rav Henoch Leibowitz zt”l and Slabodka.

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Parshas Bechukosai begins with Hashem’s promise of blessings for B’nei Yisroel if they keep His mitzvos, and a warning of the severe consequences that will befall them if they do not. The pasuk says (Vayikra 26:16), “If you revile My statutes (chukim), and your soul rejects My judgements (mishpatim) so as not to perform all My commandments (mitzvos), and you annul my covenant (brisi).”

The Ramban explains the different types of commandments listed in this verse and how they will be rejected:

The statutes (chukim) refer to mitzvos for which no explanation is given in the Torah. Two examples of chukim are the prohibition of shatnez - wearing a garment with wool and linen, and the sprinkling of the ashes of the red heifer to cleanse one who is ritually impure. One who rejects chukim claims that he does so on the grounds that they are illogical and that it is irrational that G-d should care about such meaningless things.

The next two subjects of the pasuk are judgements (mishpatim) and commandments (mitzvos), and the Ramban says that one’s rejection of these two types of laws are connected.

The Ramban explains that the judgements or jurisprudence of the Torah that a person rejects are not those for violations of civil laws, like murder or assault, since these laws are necessary for society to function. The “judgements” people reject are the punishments for forbidden behaviors such as adultery or violating Shabbos.

The process actually begins with people wanting to free themselves of the burden of the commandments (mitzvos) of the torah, (the next step in the pasuk). The way people do this is by condemning the torah’s “judgements” of moral laws by claiming that punishing someone for violating a moral law is unethical. With this excuse they can then justify rejecting all of the Torah’s commandments.

The obvious question on the Ramban is- if people want to reject the burden of the mitzvos of the Torah, why don’t they simply reject them? Why does the Torah describe such a convoluted process of first denouncing the judgements in order to reject the commandments?

The answer must be that when Jews want to cast off the yoke of the Torah, they cannot do it directly. There is a charge for Jews to keep the Torah that is deeply rooted in the Jewish conscience, and in order to be free of it they must first undermine the torah’s validity. Once they convince themselves that the torah is unethical, they are then free to reject all of the Torah in its entirety.

Possible Application

The Ramban explains that when one feels spiritually uncomfortable, the defensive psychological response is to denigrate the source of one’s discomfort. An example of this phenomenon can be a poor person who finds himself amongst the wealthy. When this person looks around at the fancy cars and opulent houses, the designer clothes and gaudy jewelry, he feels great discomfort. He might feel badly about himself and jealous of what he doesn’t have. Rather than admitting his jealousy or acknowledging his pain of having less than the wealthy people around him, he labels them as shallow, materialistic, and gluttonous. He invalidates and ridicules the lifestyle of the wealthy to ease the discomfort in his heart.

Another example might be someone who chooses to have an “open” marriage. God help us, this is a growing trend in our culture. Such a person will not say that he is simply choosing a lifestyle that he feels suits his personality or lifestyle. Or not only that. He must also attack the institution of marriage and monogamy. He will invent a moral theory that marriage is archaic, it is untenable and outdated, foolish, ignorant, close-minded, and whatever else. He cannot abide the subconscious knowledge that he acts immorally. He therefore destroys the source of his discomfort which is the sanctity of marriage.

Something we can learn from this chazal is to try to be aware of our own psychological discomfort when it arises, so as not to make this subconscious error. We’re much better off if we can engage with the actual issue in any given situation rather than resorting to tangential and questionable criticisms of the people, ideas, or situations we find ourselves challenged by.


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