Dear Friends;

I hope that you’ll enjoy the following Parashiot summaries, followed by a Dvar Torah;

” Parashiot in a Nutshell ”

On the Mount Sinai, G-d tells Moshe the laws of the sabbatical year: every seventh year, all work on the land should cease, and its produce becomes free for the taking for all, man and beast.

Seven sabbatical cycles are followed by a fiftieth year — the jubilee year, on which work on the land ceases, all servants are set free, and all ancestral estates in the Holy Land that have been sold revert to their original owners. Additional laws governing the sale of lands and the prohibitions against fraud and lending money for interest are also given.

G-d promises that if the people of Israel will keep His commandments, they will enjoy material prosperity and dwell secure in their homeland. But He also delivers a harsh “rebuke” warning of the exile, persecution and other evils that will befall them if they abandon their covenant with Him. Nevertheless, “Even when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away; nor will I ever destroy them and to break My covenant with them; for I am the L-rd their G-d.”

The Parshah concludes with the rules on how to calculate the value of different types of pledges made to G-d.

“ Dvar Torah “

In the first two Parashiot that we read this week, Behar, the main topic of discussion is about the laws of “Shemitah”- the Sabbatical year for the land of Israel. All agricultural work in the Land of Israel must come to a stop during every seventh year cycle. The laws of Shemitah requires the land to be at complete rest for the entire seventh year. It means that on the seventh year there should not be any planting of seeds, plowing, pruning or harvesting. Additionally, any fruits which grow of their own accord are deemed ownerless and may be picked by anyone.

If you really think about it, this is a very difficult mitzvah to observe, especially in the old days, when the majority of the people were either farmers or shepherds. Not only you were unable to plant in order to feed your own family, but cutting off your livelihood completely for an entire year, can be very worrisome and challenging.

However, Hashem gives his assurance for those who keep the laws of Shemitah. The Torah says: ” The land will give its fruit [in the preceding years] and you will be satisfied; you will dwell securely upon it”. After such a powerful promise, the Torah then brings up a hypothetical question raised by the people, namely, “What will we eat in the seventh year — behold! we will not sow and we will not gather our crops!”. And then Hashem reassures the people by saying: ” I will ordain My blessing for you in the sixth year and [the land] will yield a crop sufficient for three-year period “. This means that the sixth year will give sufficient crops until the end of the eight year, since anything planted in the eight year, will only produce its crops in the ninth year.

Although, it’s great to have such a guarantee by the G-d Almighty himself, but the Chachamim are bothered by the way the assurance is given. After the Torah tells them that ” The land will give its fruit and you will be satisfied”, why should there be a doubt in people’s mind to ask ” What will we eat in the seventh year?” Why does Hashem need to promise again that the sixth year will produce three times a regular year?? Shouldn’t the first assurance be sufficient??

Rabbi Yissachar Frand gives the following beautiful explanation to the above question. In order to answer the question, first we need to see why did Hashem give us the mitzvah of “Shemitah”. He says, the reason that Hashem has given us this mitzvah is not because the land needs to rest. Land does not need to rest! This is apparent from observing the lands outside Israel. The non-Jews work their fields year after year after year, without a break, and they still produce good quality crops and fruits! Do you think that the vineyards in California or France produce less quality grapes than the ones in Israel? Accordingly, Rabbi Frand says that the whole purpose of Shemitah is for the farmers to take a break from their routine lives and come to realize that it’s not because of their hard labor that the land produces so much crops, but rather, it’s because of G-d’s will. Hashem can still feed the farmer even if he doesn’t do any work! The seventh year is the time for the farmers to take their minds out of the physical world and engage themselves in spirituality. It’s the time to remind themselves that their livelihood comes from the Heaven above, and not from the strength of their arms, nor from the intelligence of their brain!

Accordingly, Rabbi Frand concludes that the mitzvah of Shemitah is a test! It’s a test of faith! Those who are true believers are satisfied with Hashem’s first assurance; that ” the land will produce its fruit and you will be satisfied “. They fully trust in Hashem that he will provide, and they are satisfied with whatever Hashem provides for them! But those who lack in faith, they want to see a physical miracle. That’s why Hashem gives a second assurance for those people, that ” in the sixth year you will yield three times the regular crops! Since these people don’t have a strong faith, Hashem doesn’t want them to enter the seventh year being worried! He shows them the miracle beforehand! Hashem can tolerate people who lack in faith, since even these people are blessed to get crops for the seventh year. But G-d forbid, for those non-believers who don’t keep the Shemitah laws at all, the Torah says that they will eventually be thrown out of their lands!

Yes my friends, all of our sustenance comes from the Heaven above. No matter how smart we are or how mighty is our physical strength, our livelihood is fully dependent on G-d’s will! And to realize that, we need to take sometime off from our routine lives and spend it with the Almighty. Although the laws of Shemitah does not apply to many of us anymore, but we still have the Shabbat. Accordingly, our sages use the same reasoning to explain Shabbat. The reason that Hashem has given us Shabbat is not because we need a day of rest, but rather, once a week we need to stop working and come to realize that whatever we’ve achieved in the previous week is not because of our hard work and our intelligence, but it’s because of Hashem’s generosity and blessings, and He’s the one who provides our livelihood! It’s a day we should spend with the Almighty, go to Shul, pray and be thankful to him!

So my friends, remember that Hashem will provide and all we need to do is to have faith in him. He’ll stand up to his task, if we’ll stand up to ours!!

Shabbat Shalom & Regards;

Martin