parsha bit: B'har - B'chukotai

[cellio]

Parshat B'chukotai contains the tochecha, or rebuke: a long list of bad things that will happen if Israel does not follow God's commandments. The torah describes our potential sin in seven ways -- if you will not listen, if you will not perform the mitzvot, if you will reject my rules, and so on. Rashi, commenting on this, sees seven corresponding stages of sin: not trying to understand torah, which leads to not performing the mitzvot, which leads to being disgusted by those who do, which leads to hating the wise, which leads to preventing others from keeping the torah, which leads to denying God's commandments, which leads to denying God's existence.
(Yeah, I got exciting stuff for my "birthday" portion. :-) )