This week’s Torah portion ( Be-Chukotai ) {בחוקותי} describes the different blessings for obedience to God’s laws and on the other side the curses(punishments) for disobedience to God’s laws.
For this reason, this week’s Haftarah (weekly Prophet s portion) is found in the Book of Jeremiah, chapters 16-17, which discusses the blessings of following God’s statutes (like the Hebrew meaning of our weekly Torah portion’s name) and in contrast, the curses (punishments) for disobedience. In fact, I believe that if one wishes to summarize this biblical text’s primary message, it would probably be the following verse:
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD.” (Jeremiah 17:7)
The Hebrew root B-T-CH {ב-ט-ח} – which appears in the English translation as trust bears actually a double meaning in this case, a meaning that cannot be seen in the English translation.
Its first appearance, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD” sounds in the original Hebrew exactly as in the English translation.
However, the second time the word trust is used (“whose trust is the LORD”) can be understood in Hebrew as both trust like in the English translation but also as meaning faith and security.