R. Ben Hassan, Rabbi of Sephardic Bikur Holim in Seattle WA wrote about Treating Hashem with Keri, which he translates as to be treated with happenstance or nonchalance or to take something or someone for granted.
R. Hassan is concerned, correctly, with our relationship with HaShem, but I would posit that this sin of "keri" applies equally on a human-to-human basis.
Although Parashat Behukotai is history for this cycle, we still need to keep the sin of "keri" in mind as we deal with each other - in particular spouses, parents, and children, as well as people on whom we depend in our daily lives.
The rabbi's words, taken from the Va'ad Harabanim Of Greater Seattle Web site for Friday, May 16, 2014.
Parashat Behukotai - Treating Hashem with Keri
In Parashat Behukotai we have a long section of curses called the tochacha. The tochacha is a frightening list of curses that will happen to the Jewish People if we don't keep Hashem's commandments. The curses appear twice in the Torah once in this week's portion and once in Parashat Ki Tavo in Sefer Devarim.
The Ramban writes that the first set of curses were fulfilled with the destruction of the First Temple and the second curses came about with the destruction of the Second Temple. What is it exactly that causes Hashem to want to bring upon us such destruction? The Gemara in Masechet Yoma says the First Temple was destroyed because of the three cardinal sins - murder, sexual immorality and idolatry and the Second Temple was because of baseless hatred.
But when we look at the curses there is no mention of these sins. Instead there is a phrase that appears 7 times and only in this week's portion. That word is keri which we can translate here to meaning to be treated with happenstance or nonchalance or to take something or someone for granted.
This by itself you might think is not such a big problem. But this world view can snowball into a man forgetting God and deluding himself into thinking that life is merely a series of coincidences. He believes that there is no divine hand guiding his personal existence or in the unfolding of world history. The conclusion of such an approach is atheism. Based on this life of coincidence, seeing a world without God is the first step toward an abandonment of all values.
As the Gemara in Masechet Shavuot says who is the most dangerous man? The atheist; even if he is moral he is dangerous because there is no basis for his morality. Today's moral atheist may become tomorrow's murderer. The Jews who no longer feels a connection with God can soon find themselves alienated from God to the extent that idolatry, sexual immorality and bloodshed not only were they no longer taboo but they had become the norm.
For us to stop the curses from ever happening, we must first treat Hashem with respect and treat every mitzvah with its proper care and attention. No matter how many mitzvot we do we must serve Hashem with proper devotion. That is why he took us out of Egypt not to be free to do what we want but rather free in order to serve him and do his mitzvot. May we all have the merit of seeing the Third Temple and to merit to serve Hashem with the proper devotion.
