May 16, 2009 Devar Torah: Parshat B'Hukkotai – Hallie Goldstein, Bat Mitzvah Shabbat Shalom.     This weeks Torah portion is B’Har B’Hukkotai. It is a double portion and is the end of the book Vayeekra, or in English, Leviticus. The ironic part is that Ari and I are twins, so there are 2 of us, double the fun, double the trouble, and double the work, and out of all of the Torah portions we might have wound up with, we got a double portion, B’Har-B’Hukkotai. Okay, enough about that.     When I was reading through  B’Hukkotai, the part about G-d rewarding and punishing the Jewish people really caught my eye. G-d went on for literally eight and a half pages about how if we didn’t obey G-d, we will be punished severely. For example, it said,”If you do not obey Me, I will act against you in wrathful hostility; I, for My part, will discipline you sevenfold for your sins.” I found it very interesting and slightly upsetting that G-d went on for so long about punishment, and just 2 pages about reward. Why does G-d emphasize punishment more? Which one is more effective in teaching us to do Mitzvot, commandments, or even the right thing? I thought to myself how much this question about reward vs. punishment relates to our modern-day lives, and how it also applies to teaching a child right from wrong.     I have fond memories from when I was little of the treats my brothers and I would receive after getting shots from the doctor. Like any other little kid, we would throw a temper tantrum and refuse to go through that painful situation. My Mom and Dad of course felt badly that we had to go through this, and so the solution they came up with, was after us getting shots, they would often let us get something we wanted. Even from the time I was little, it was an item of clothing, or a pair of shoes. All my life, I have been into fashion. In my brothers’ cases, it most definitely was not clothing. They would get a toy or a stuffed animal or some cool new gadget that they wanted. This is a form of reward because we had the choice of not cooperating where we would face consequences and if we cooperated we could be rewarded. In the way of punishment, we would be sent to our rooms and depending on what we did, maybe not be able to have a play date at a friends house or watch tv for a day. The question is: is punishment or reward more effective as teaching people to do the right thing? To research this question, I took a survey asking that very question and there were 44 participants. The people who took the survey were ages 10 and up. They were people from my school, Kol Shofar, and home. It was really interesting to see the results and compare my thoughts to other people’s. 5 people said punishment was more effective, and 39 said reward was more effective. Oh, and did I mention, I didn’t vote in the survey?  To this moment, I am still making up my mind about which is better to teach someone the right thing to do. Then, Rabbi Derby and Rabbi Chai came up with a great point: there is a difference between punishment and consequences. First off, there are 2 kinds of consequences; a natural one and a logical one. The natural one is when you touch a stove that is hot and it burns you. The logical one is if you don’t study for a test, you get a bad grade. Punishments are simple, they go like this: No tv tonight. No dessert tomorrow. No friends over next week. So now, I have a new question; which is more effective in teaching a child how to behave: consequences, or reward? There are so many blossoming questions within the question I started with; is punishment, or reward more effective as a method to teach people to do the right thing?     When I first read  B’Hukkotai, I wondered, why did G-d go on for so long about punishment and so little about reward? I thought about this for quite a long time and the answer I came up with was this: In my opinion, reward and punishment and consequences are all equal in terms of how they work for bringing up a child. I think rewards help a child grow, emotionally. They give the kid a reason to be motivated and look forward to the future. Punishments and consequences on the other hand, give a child a reason not to do something, for if they do, they understand it will not have a good outcome. Both possibilities make a child fit for growing up, and they teach them right from wrong. I am now able to fully understand why G-d went on for so long about punishment. You can look at it in 2 ways: 1. G-d wants to instill fear in us; or 2. Maybe instead of trying to scare us, G-d was just trying to tell us that there are consequences that result from our actions. Before I went into depth about this, I chose number 1 where I thought G-d just wanted to make us fearful. Now that I am able to fully understand this, I choose number 2 where I think G-d wants to teach us for every move we make, there will be an impact on our lives or on the lives of others.     As I conclude, I want to tell you yet another thing. Although rewards sound good because we do the right thing, and rewards are always fun, you should be able to do them simply because it is the right thing to do and your heart tells you too. Perhaps my Bat-Mitzvah is a transition from childhood where I am motivated by rewards, where as now I can do Mitzvot because I know they are the right thing to do. I hope you had as much fun listening to my drash as much as I did writing it. Thank you, and, Shabbat Shalom.