BEHAR
Torah
Haftara: Jeremiah 32:6-27
THE LAND
BELONGS TO G-D
"To G-d belongs the land and its fullness, the earth and its
inhabitants." (Psalms 24:1). "The heavens, the heavens belong to G-d,
but the earth He GAVE TO THE SONS OF ADAM. The dead will not praise G-d nor all who go down to desolation. But we will praise G-d
from now and forever! Halleluyah!" (Psalms 115:16-17).
Our
present parshah, BEHAR, and its "sister",
next week's parshah of BECHUKOSAI, which in some
years is read on the same Shabbat, explain under what conditions the Earth and
its treasures are given in trust to the sons of man, and when the trust is
taken back by its rightful Owner -- if men breach the deed of trust, which is
the Torah, G-d's Covenant.
The social, economic,
ecological and environmental lessons of BEHAR are particularly urgent today,
when men act as lords of the Earth, owning and controlling vast tracts,
depleting and destroying her gifts, despoiling her of her treasures for their
own short-sighted gain and pleasure, without ever pausing to consider: Who
really owns all this? For what purpose did He make it? On the contrary, the
Torah commands us to appoint seasons and special years in which we all reflect
on Who owns everything and learn to respect His creation.
BEHAR continues with the
theme of the cycle of time, which was also central in last week's parshah of EMOR in the section dealing with the annual
cycle of festivals (Leviticus
Our parshah
of BEHAR thus begins with the Shemittah cycle in
which the land is to be worked and tilled for six years, after which it is to
be left "fallow" throughout the seventh year. The Torah gives us a
picture of an idyllic world in which independent owner-farmers are raising
their wheat and grains for bread and tending their vineyards for wine. After
all their gifts to the poor and tithes to the priests and Levites etc. during
the six years of labor, they are to go a step further in the seventh year,
giving their very fields and vineyards back to their true Owner. In the seventh
year, they are not allowed to work their own land. Instead, they must open
their gates to everyone so that all can have a share in the fruits from the
holy Table of G-d -- the produce of
The fifty-year Jubilee
cycle takes us to even higher levels of this awareness. The Jubilee cycle is
like a gracious cosmic game in which even the losers eventually get to go back
and have a fresh to start all over again -- because G-d, the true Owner and
Master of all the land and its inhabitants, is truly compassionate. Even in the
idyllic world of independent land-owners, one tends to be more successful,
while another is less successful. In time, one is forced to sell his land and
even his house. Then he falls into debt, and eventually he becomes enslaved. In
the Jubilee year, signaled by the trumpeting of the Shofar
of Freedom on Yom Kippur of that year, all the slaves go free and all the
fields and orchards go back to their original owners.
In our parshah, the Torah sets forth the code of laws applying to
ownership of land in particular, and also of other forms of property, and under
what conditions. The laws in our parshah include
those of sale, and of business honesty and integrity. The forms of property
include people's own selves: under the law of slavery, one person might become
the "property" of someone else, whether in the legal or economic
sense, or in the spiritual sense, where a person may even fall so low as to
sell himself to some form of idolatry.
Rashi on Leviticus 26:1 explains the
"moral logic" underlying the sequence of laws set forth in our parshah: "At first the Torah warns about the
observance of the Sabbatical year. But if a person is greedy for money and
falls under suspicion of violating the Sabbatical year, he ends up selling his
possessions. That is why the Torah juxtaposes here the laws of sale, including
the sale of moveable articles. If the person still does not repent, he ends up
selling his hereditary land. If he still does not repent, he ends up selling
his house. If he still does not repent, he has to borrow on interest. in the end he sells his very self, not just to an Israelite,
but even to an idol-worshipper."
Yet even the most
degraded goes free in the Jubilee year, in which the blast of the Sinai trumpet
of Freedom on the Day of At-One-ment signifies that
all the debts have been paid through the redemptive power of Binah, the Fiftieth Gate. This theme of freedom in our parshah is particular relevant to us in the present season,
as we count the days of the Omer in the seven-fold count of the days and weeks
leading up to the Fiftieth Day, the Day of the New Offering, season of the
Giving of the Torah: Freedom.
At the very heart of the
entire system of redemption set forth in the Torah through the festival cycle
and through the Sabbatical and Jubilee cycles lies the Shabbat, which is the
very essence of the Sinaitic code. When Moses first
asked Pharoah to free the Israelites, all he
requested was that they should go "into the wilderness" (away from
the technology of civilization) in order to liberate themselves from slavery to
earthly lords of the land like Pharaoh. The commandment of Shabbat was given at
Marah (Exodus 15:25), prior to the Giving of the
Torah at Sinai. The concept of Shabbat is built into the concept of the Manna,
which appeared for six days of the week with a double-portion on the sixth day.
Shabbat is the fourth commandment. Immediately after the Ten Commandments in
Exodus ch. 20, the Torah begins MISHPATIM with the
laws of slavery, which involve the Sabbatical and Jubilee concepts.
Now in BEHAR, as we
approach the conclusion of the elaboration of the Sinaitic
code (BECHUKOSAI sets the seal on this, while the name of our parshah -- "On the Mount" -- reminds us of Sinai)
the Torah returns to the theme of Shabbat as being at the very center of the
Covenant. The concluding verse of our parshah is:
"Guard My Sabbaths and have reverence for My Sanctuary, I am Hashem"
(Leviticus 26:2). The entire time-scheme set forth in BEHAR -- the Shemittahs and Jubilee year -- is founded on the concept of
Shabbat. Then in the following parshah, BECHUKOSAI,
we see that the vengeance of the Covenant is built around a structure of
seven-fold punishments for the spiral of sin caused by the violation of the
Shabbat.
It is a strange irony
that the observance of the Shabbat as set forth in the Shulchan
Aruch, the practical Code of Jewish law, is something
that most of the contemporary world finds impossible to accept. While the
entire world accepts the concept of the Work and Leisure cycle, the world is
unable to accept that a person may voluntarily take upon himself to abstain
from all kinds of activities on the Sabbath day, and so too in the Sabbatical
year, in order to show that he takes upon himself the Kingdom of Heaven, the
world of the true Sabbath.
No serious political or
intellectual commentator today would take seriously the idea that the complete
observance of Shabbat and Shemittah, including
abstinence by Israelites from the 39 prohibited labors on Shabbat and all the
prohibited labors of Shemittah, could be the key to
the redemption of
This contemporary neglect
of the concept of
"For so says HaShem to the castrated who will guard My Sabbaths and
chose what I desired and who hold by My Covenant. And I have given them in My
House and within My walls a place and a name better
than sons and daughters, I will give him an eternal name that will never be cut
off. And the sons of the strange people who will be attached to HaShem to minister to Him and to love the name of HaShem, to be to Him as servants -- all who keep the Shabbos and do not transgress it, and who hold by My
Covenant -- I will bring them to My holy Mountain and make them rejoice in the
House of My Prayer, their whole-offerings and peace-offerings will be for favor
on My Altar, for My House will be called The House of Prayer for all the
peoples. Thus says HaShem, Who gathers the scattered
of
In other words, in the
world of truth, where everything belongs to G-d (as opposed to the world of the
lords of the land, where everything is falsehood) the pride of place goes to
those who weekly take on the discipline of Shabbat, abstaining from every form
of the 39 forbidden labors as explained by the sages, in order to receive the
holiness of the day.
It is in strange contrast
that the observance of Shabbat and the Shemittah in
the
In order to save
The observance of Shabbat
and of Shemittah is an art-form, in which man submits
himself to a code which focuses his mind on the ways we interact with and
manipulate the environment on the days of the week and during the non-Sabbatical
years.
It is through abstinence
from manipulating the environment for one day of the week that we learn how to
elevate our activities on the other six days, and we turn our daily work into
the work of building a sanctuary of holiness around us here in this world.
Observance of Shabbat and Shemittah enhance our
respect for the natural world around us and for the various grades and levels
of life and being. The Shemittah teaches respect for
the environment and ecology.
Shabbat is the key to the
entire redemption: "If
* * *
Shabbat Shalom!!!
Avraham Yehoshua Greenbaum
BECHUKOSAI
Torah
Haftara: Jeremiah 16:19-17:14
IF YOU WILL GO IN MY
STATUTES
Our parshah,
BECHUKOSAI, puts the seal on the book of Leviticus, which is the
"heart" of the Torah (Genesis being the "head", Exodus the
"arms", Numbers the "legs" and Deuteronomy the
"mouth", Malchus). BECHUKOSAI marks the
conclusion of G-d's revelation to Moses in the
Sanctuary in the camp at Sinai and the sealing of the Sinaitic
Covenant, while the coming book of Numbers recounts the journeying of the
Children of Israel on their way to the Promised Land.
As the seal on Leviticus,
the book of the "heart", BECHUKOSAI addresses the two sides of the
heart: love and fear. Our love of G-d is aroused by the promises of blessing if
we will GO in His statutes, while our fears are aroused by the dire punishments
for failure to do so.
What does it mean to GO
in His statutes? This is explained by Rabbi Nachman
of Breslov:
The life of Torah and mitzvos should be one of constantly striving to move
forward from level to level in our fulfillment of the actual commandments. In
every commandment that we carry out, there is a level of meaning that we can
grasp within our minds, yet at the same time, the mitzvah has profoundly deeper
meaning that is now beyond our grasp. These two levels are those of NA'ASEH
("we will do") and VENISHMA ("we shall hear") respectively.
NA'ASEH applies to that which is within our grasp now, the physical mitzvah
with its plain intention -- WE WILL DO. We must go ahead and do it now on the
simple level even if as yet we do not have deeper understanding, even if the
level of VENISHMA, WE SHALL HEAR -- understanding -- is still beyond us. To GO
in G-d's statutes means to strive constantly to turn
that which is as yet beyond us -- our VENISHMA -- and make it into our NA'ASEH,
something that we CAN meaningfully accomplish. This is brought about when we
pray to G-d to help us in our practice and to give us deeper understanding.
Deeper understanding also depends upon deeper study.
When we thus turn what
was our VENISHMA into a new level of NA'ASEH -- because we now incorporate our
newly attained, deeper insight into our practice -- we thereby discover that a
new level of VENISHMA opens up ahead of us. It is this higher level of VENISHMA
that we must now strive to attain and turn into a new, higher level of NA'ASEH
for ourselves. We must continue this way striving to go from level to level,
constantly integrating new levels of understanding into our practice. Thus we
constantly GO from level to level in our practice (Likutey
Moharan Part I, Torah 22).
* * *
AND
IF NOT.
Rashi in his commentary on BECHUKOSAI
explains how the terrible penalties for failure to follow the path of the Torah
are built upon a seven-fold schema, because the essential cause of the exile
was the violation of the Sabbath and the Sabbatical years. At the very core of
the sins that invoke the terrible cycle of punishment are seven basic sins,
each of which drags the next in train: (1) Neglect of study. (2) Neglect of
practice. (3) Despising others who practice. (4) Hatred of the sages. (5)
Preventing others from practicing. (6) Denial of the divine origin of the
commandments. (7) Denial of the existence of G-d.
Graphic illustrations of
the fulfillment of all of the terrible penalties described in our parshah in actual Jewish history are recounted in the Midrash. The infringement of the seven basic sins causing
the exile has been a recurrent theme in all of Jewish history from biblical
times until today. The rebellion of the Ten Tribes under Jereboam
son of Nevat against the House of David under Rehav'am represented a craving for greater license than was
permitted by the House of David, whose royalty depends upon constant study of
the Torah and in particular the oral tradition. Under the northen
king Ahab [whose influence is said to have been
worldwide], hatred and persecution of the sages -- the prophets -- became
institutionalized. Later on, the Assyrian King Sennacharib's
chief spokesman marching against
After the end of the
Babylonian exile, the return to the land and the building of the
Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, the Rambam (Maimonides) wrote a letter known as IGERET TEIMAN
encouraging the Jews of Yemen to remain faithful to the Torah and give their
lives if necessary rather than submit to forced conversion by their Moslem
rulers. In this letter, Maimonides explains the difference between the assault
upon the Torah by Greek thought and the assault upon the Torah by Christianity
and Islam.
The Greek philosophers
denied the existence of G-d (Level 7) and the revelation at Sinai (Level 6) and
accordingly provided justification for preventing Jews from practicing the
Torah, e.g. Shabbos, circumcision, etc. (Level 5). leading to open violation and vilification of the Torah by
the Hellenists. Greek philosophy was a direct assault upon the Torah, leaving
the Jews of the time with a choice -- whether to go after the Torah or after
the Greeks.
On the other hand,
Christianity and Islam did not blatantly repudiate the entire Torah of Moses.
What they did was to establish alternative Torah's that were more acceptable to
non-Jews, leaving the Jews of their respective periods with a different kind of
choice: whether to remain faithful to the traditional Torah of Moses or to
follow an alternative "Torah".
Hatred of the sages of
Denial of the pathway of
the Torah of Sinai -- the written Torah and the oral Torah -- is thus deeply
built into the very structure of Christianity, which became the dominant
religion in the western and many other parts of the world and one of the main
foundations of its culture, together with that of
Denial of the Torah given
to Moses at Sinai is also inherent in Islam, the founder of which claimed to
have supplanted Moses as the ultimate Prophet. The founder of Islam was
initially enamored of the Torah of Moses, but wanted to adapt it in his own
way. Angered at the stubbornness of the Jews in resisting his changes, he
established his own new "Torah" as an alternative to the
"old" Torah. Islam saw itself as the stick with which to beat the
recalcitrant Jews who despised and neglected their own Torah. In the writings
of Islam the "People of the Book" are depicted as renegades to their
own teachings.
During the long exile
since the destruction of the Second Temple, the Jews who have remained faithful
to the Torah of Moses have been surrounded until today by a most formidable
cultural assault against their own tradition from the two younger sister
religions, Christianity and Islam. This two have gained the ascendancy and
taken all the glory, parading their own alternative
Torahs in the face of the Torah of Moses.
It is understandable that
over the generations, many Jewish souls, subject to this cultural onslaught,
have fallen victim to the allurements of the surrounding religions. In
addition, since the time of the European renaissance and the "Age of
Reason", secularism has become a new alternative to religion of any kind,
creating yet another allurement from the stringent code of Judaism, which looks
more irrelevant than ever in the modern world.
In this way the Torah of
Sinai has been apparently completely marginalized by almost the entire world.
The Sinai tradition is guarded by seemingly powerless networks of rabbis and
their students, sitting in the Yeshivahs, daily
studying the oral tradition as brought down in the Talmud, and by the
numerically tiny proportion of the world's population who are Torah-observant.
What is it about the real
Torah that makes those who love her cling to her even in the face of adversity
on every side? Throughout the generations until today, those who keep the Torah
of Moses and abstain from the 39 forbidden labors on the Sabbath have been the
butt of every jester and jeerer. Meanwhile Christianity, Islam and every other
religion are on the ascendant, including the religion of Satanism and the
universal religion of self-indulgence and material consumption.
What love is it that
makes those who strive to follow the authentic Torah of Moses continue day after day in the face of all this? How do we
keep on GOING in the Torah, even though her face is shrouded in a dark cover --
for in this upside down world, the deeper meaning of the Torah is not revealed?
But if we keep studying
the Torah, she will reveal her face to us. The way to keep GOING in the Torah
is to GO ON STUDYING the Torah!
In the merit of our study
of the book of Leviticus and our on-going study of all the Five Books of Moses,
may we be blessed with all the blessings of our parshah:
"If you will GO in My statutes."
Shabbat Shalom!!!
Avraham Yehoshua
Greenbaum