For the children of Israel

are servants to Me; they are My servants, whom I took out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord, your God.

(Vayikra 25:55)

You shall not make false gods for yourselves, nor

Lord, your God.

(Vayikra

26:1)

You shall not

make false gods for yourselves: [This]

is addressed to the one who has been sold [as a servant] to a non-Jew, that he

should not say, "Since my master has illicit relations, I will also be

like him! Since my master worships idols, I will also be like him! Since my

master desecrates the Sabbath, I will also be like him!" This is why these

verses are stated here. – (Torat Kohanim 25:106). Also, the passages [in

this whole section (namely, from the beginning of Chapter 25 until the end of

Behar),] are written in a meaningful order, [as follows]: At first, Scripture

admonishes us to observe [the laws of] Shemittah [and Jubilee (25: 124)]; then, if

one covets money and becomes suspect of [unlawfully doing business with produce

of] Shemittah, he will eventually [become destitute and] have to sell his

personal belongings. Therefore, Scripture juxtaposes to it, And when you

make a sale [to your fellow-Jew] (25:14) (What is written therein? or make a

purchase from the hand…, something that is transferred from hand to

hand). If he still does not repent, he will eventually have to sell his

inheritance (25:25).

If he even then does not repent, he will eventually have to sell his home, and

if even then, he does not repent, he will eventually have to borrow money with

interest (verses

25:35-38). Now, the later the scenario in this passage, the more severe

it is [i.e., first he sells his belongings, then his property, then his home

and then even borrowing with interest which is more severe than selling one’s

property; (Nachalath

Ya’akov) thus, the passage continues accordingly, for] if he still does

not repent, he will eventually have to sell himself [to his fellow Jew as a

servant] (verses

25:39-46); and [finally,] if he has still not repented, not enough that

he had to be sold to his fellow Jew – but he will [be forced to sell himself]

even to a non-Jew!- (25:47-55;

Kidd. 20a).

(Rashi Vayikra 26:1, Judaica Press translation)

You shall not make false gods [elilim]

for yourselves. He calls the celestial forces that are

worshipped elilim, as in the word eiylut – power. He did not say eilim

– the powerful, but rather elilim [a diminutive formed by repetition of

the last syllable, as the word kelev – "dog" – becomes klavlav

– "puppy"] to denote their slight power, for while they are great,

they are not autonomous, but rather derived from Another. After mentioning the elilim,

which are celestial powers, he mentions statues and monuments, which are human

artifacts made to receive those [celestial] powers…

you shall not place a pavement stone – [Not] even one dedicated

to God. It was the custom of idolaters to paint a beautiful picture on a rock

and place it before the idol; they would prostrate themselves on the rock

towards the idol. This was similar to the monument which is prohibited by the

Torah even if it is dedicated to God, and so too with saplings planted by the

altar, for all of these were customs of the idolators. In Sifra (Behar 9:5) they expounded upon the verse, in your land… on which to prostrate yourselves – in

your land you shall not prostrate yourselves, but you shall prostrate

yourselves upon the stone [floors] of the Temple.

(Rabbeinu

Behayeiy ad loc)

For all the land is Mine

Ronen

Ahituv

Shmitat hakarka

– leaving the land fallow in the seventh year – is not currently practiced in

any significant way. Halakhic scholars took various steps to neutralize this

commandment in recent generations: heter mekhira [sale of land to

gentiles], otzar beit din [produce made property of the court], matz'a

menutak [horticulture disconnected from the earth], etc. These methods are

usually explained to be necessary for the protection of modern agriculture and

agricultural consumption, which are completely different from ancient

agriculture; modern agriculture is intensive and its products are traded in a

global market, making it unfeasible to stop working the land and selling its

produce for the course of a year.

Despite being

neutralized in practice, Shemittah has become the subject of ever-increasing

attention. People aspire to observing Shemittah as fully as is possible, and

its complete annulment arouses opposition. This discourse is common both to

those accepting heter mekhira as well as those opposing it. Everyone

annuls shmitat hakarka in practice, and everyone views that annulment as

an unfortunate necessity and expresses the hope that all the laws of Shemittah

will be observed in their original form as soon as conditions allow. This

discourse bears halakhic significance; it ranks the various means for bypassing

the Shemittah and it seeks the method which leaves the laws of Shemittah as

intact as possible.

Shmitat hakarka

has been dealt with differently from shmitat ksafim [annulment of

debts]. Ever since Hillel the Elder bypassed shmitat ksafim through the

legal instrument of the pruzbul, no one has seriously suggested that pruzbul

should be discontinued and that shmitat ksafim should be genuinely

practiced.¹ The halakhic sages

understood that which Hillel understood: annulment of debts is impossible

within human reality. The Torah itself points out the flaw in shmitat ksafim

– that it is liable to keep people from lending to the poor – and tried to

correct it with a warning: Beware, lest there be in your heart an unfaithful

approached," and you will begrudge your needy brother and not give him… You shall surely

your endeavors (Devarim 15:9-10). Hillel

saw that this was not a practical solution and that shmitat ksafim would

cause great societal harm, and so he bypassed the commandment.

The Torah explicitly expresses a fear regarding shmitat

hakarka as well: And if you should say, "What will we eat in the

seventh year? We will not sow, and we will not gather in our produce!" [Know then, that] I

for three years (Vayikra 25:20-21).

The economic challenge facing shmitat hakarka is met by a serious positive

consideration which is neither social nor economic, but rather educational and

ideological. Shmitat hakarka is

essentially a matter of relinquishing land-ownership, and this reflects God's

statement, for the land belongs to Me, for you are

strangers and [temporary] residents with Me (25:23). The Torah offers this

explanation as a rationale for the Jubilee Year, but it also seems to be the

most cogent explanation of shmitat hakarka

as well (Sefer HaHinukh 84).

This explanation forms the basis for the

different attitudes taken by the halakha towards shmitat kesafim and shmitat hakarka. The non-economic rationale for

shmitat hakarka keeps us from depending on an economic argument of the

form what will we eat? for its circumvention. Since shmitat hakarka has no economic rationale, the

farmer's economic difficulties do not offer sufficient justification for its

cancellation; rather, the farmer's difficulties simply require the

non-agricultural sectors of society to support the farmer so that he may

observe the commandment.

While shmitat ksafim was by-passed in

order for a law of the Torah (the obligation to make loans to the poor) to be

upheld, today's sages do not seem to think that the rationale for circumventing

shmitat hakarka has no basis in Torah

law; as a result, they present such circumvention as a temporary and contingent

fix. The claim that there is no deep foundation in the Torah for annulling shmitat hakarka rests upon the incorrect

assumption that modern agriculture does not jibe with the spirit of the Torah.

The book of Bereishit describes the two

foundational occupations of the ancient world: farming and herding. These two

modes of existence can be associated with two different cultures and their

typical attitudes towards property. Stereotypically, the herdsman relates to

the land and its flora as ownerless territory that can be utilized for grazing.

In his eyes, land does not belong to particular people, rather it is God's

property; human beings wander across the face of the earth without gaining

private ownership of it. People can only possess livestock; people cannot

posses real estate. The herdsman lacks any emotional connection to the soil, he

is only attached to his family and flocks. He is faced by the spiritual danger of

disconnection and alienation from places and people that can arise from his

disconnection from everything stable and unmoving.

The farmer, in contrast, views his land as

part of his being; he invests his work and wealth into it. He works it

intensively, returning again and again to the same plot – and he expects to

reap rewards from it. The farmer plants himself in his land, fulfilling the

notion of you are dust and to dust you shall return. He cannot live

without land; without land he would be like a tree without roots. God brings

rain to bestow a blessing upon the farmer and his land, and the farmer, in

return, brings God the first-fruits and tithes of his land's produce. Usually,

however, he does not give his actual land to God. The farmer is beset by the

danger of being overly tied to the soil, to a place, and to the land's pressing

and compulsive needs.

These two types feud recurrently throughout

the book of Bereishit: Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Esau and Jacob. In

most cases the farmer is portrayed as violent and dangerous, and the herdsman

is clearly the preferred character. The books of Shemot and Bamidbar also

depict our forefathers as nomads lacking a permanent home. Even their temple – the

Tabernacle – was portable.

The commandments of Shemittah and the Jubilee

Year address the ancient farmer. They limit his ownership of the land and

remind him every seven years of the nomadic life. In the Shemittah years the

farmer is uprooted from his place and his fields and must go off to gather food

in other people's lands. These commandments offer one expression of the need

not to become too rooted in the farming culture; they are symbolic reminders of

the nomadic element, as is the commandment to remember the Exodus from Egypt.²

The book of Devarim portrays the farmer in a

positive light. The People Israel is portrayed as a nation living on its land,

and the covenant between the people and their God is tied to the blessings of

the soil and the threat of exile away from it. The tithes and first-fruits

appear as the principle offerings and the Temple

has a fixed location in the place chosen by the Lord.

We find that our tradition makes room for

both of the foundational cultures. Jewish history is characterized by their

combination; we have undergone periods both of extended settlement and of

wandering; culturally and religiously, we have managed to adjust ourselves to

both situations. This combination generates a permanent condition of unease and

cultural dynamism: when in exile, the people longs for permanent settlement in

its land, as depicted in Devarim. However, when settled in its land, the people's

wanderlust keeps it from becoming too attached to the land.

Western culture is based on a global outlook

which gives preference to no particular place but which also calls for

intensive cultivation of the land and exploitation of its resources. This would

seem to be a further development of the nomadic; now land – like cattle and

other property – can be owned. The modern farmer is no longer tied organically

to his land; the land has become a means of production and a commodity; it is

no longer seen as a source of life. The modern farmer, like every modern

person, is portable. He works great expanses of land and tends to be less

psychologically and emotionally attached to a particular plot of land or to a

particular vocation. His God is not the God of Heaven, nor is He the God of

earth. He is the God of humanity and of success. The modern farmer faces the

spiritual danger of pride, alongside the danger of disconnectedness and

alienation from his territory that threatened the ancient nomads.

The modern world has internalized and

deepened the nomadic outlook originating in the Torah. This outlook itself

presents a message that jibes with the principles of the Torah; it should not

be seen as in opposition to the spirit of the Torah. Globalization and

intensification of agriculture – which require the annulment of shmitat hakarka – do not contradict the Torah,

but rather constitute its strengthening.

The modern outlook on existence, and the

modern farmer himself, are not in danger of being overly connected to the land.

On the contrary, they face the danger of being overly alienated from the land. There

is no longer any need to proclaim for all the land is Mine and to take

the land away from its human owners in order to keep the farmer from becoming

too attached to it. On the contrary, such a policy might make people turn away

from agriculture, which has become nothing more than one job among many

alternatives. In such a world there is no place for the aspiration to observe

Shemitta completely; such an aspiration may work against the Torah's goals.

The Torah-based need to fight against contemporary

rootlessness makes shmitat hakarka and

the Jubilee year irrelevant; today, the nullification of those commandments

better fits the spirit of the Torah. One might say that today the Torah is kept

through nullification of the commandment of Shemittah [via one of the

recognized halakhic methods]. There is no need to apologize for that

nullification and it should not be viewed as a contingent fix; rather, it is

the ideal.

1. It is possible – but not necessary – to

understand Shmuel as wanting to discontinue pruzbul and reinstitute the

annulment of debts (Gittin 36b). Other Babylonian sages present pruzbul in a

favorable light and even interpreted Shmuel's complaint, "This pruzbul is

an assumption on the part of the judges" positively: Havivuta

hu gaban – "He still shows his love for us."

2. See, for instance, Franz Rosenzweig's remarks in The

Star of Redemption Part II book 1, pg. 300 (Hallo translation): "And

so even when it has a home, this people, in recurrent contrast to all other

peoples on earth, is not allowed full possession of hat home. It is only a

'stranger and a sojourner.' God tells it: 'The land is Mine.' The holiness of

the land removed it from the people's spontaneous reach while it could still

reach out for it."

Ronen Ahituv lives in Mitzpe Netufa. He

is a teacher and darshan.

"Great is Peace

for the Entire Torah was Given in Order to Make Peace in the World"

(RaMBaM Hilkhot Megilah

ve'Hannuka 4:14)

On the book Sim Shalom – Tefillot

liShlom Ha'Olam, a selection of prayers from Likutei Tefillot,

edited by Yael Levin, Sifrei Maggid, Jerusalem:

Koren Publishers.

In parashat Behukotai we read: And I will grant peace in the Land, and you will lie down

with no one to frighten [you]. The Amidah prayer concludes

with Birkat HaShalom – the blessing of peace. The Mishnah concludes with

R. Shimon ben Halafta's dictum: "The Holy One, blessed be He, found no

vessel to preserve blessings for Israel, save [that of] peace, for

it is said: The Lord grant His people strength, the Lord bless His people

with peace (Psalms 29:11)." The

title of this review is takes from the sentence chosen by RaMBaM to conclude

his account of the laws of Hannuka.

These and other examples demonstrate that

Jewish source texts throughout the ages promote peace as an aspiration and as

an important religious value.

Rabbi Natan Sternhaltz, better known

as R. Natan of Nemirov or R. Natan of Breslav (1780-1844), was a

close disciple of R. Nahman of Breslav. He composed prayers for world peace

based upon his master's teachings.

Dr. Yael Levin has edited a collection of all

these prayers and wrote an introduction to it full of historical details and

insights into the way R. Natan composed the prayers that make up Likutei

Tefillot. These were originally written as personal prayers, but they took

on a universal character making them suitable to be uttered by any person.

R. Natan intended to translate his teacher's

ideas, in accordance with R. Nahman's instruction "to make the discourses

into prayers." R. Nahman himself taught about world peace in his

discourses.

In Likutei MoHaRan 14, R. Nahman

writes that in order to maintain peace in the world, God's honor must be raised

up to its roots in the virtue of awe. Study of awe allows one to gain household

peace, prayer, and general peace, which is peace in all the worlds. The verse and

His mercy is upon all He made refers to the universal peace gained through

prayer; it means to say that God's compassion will abide for all His creatures,

that all creatures will have compassion towards each other, and that through

that there will be peace between them. Some of the prayers suggest that peace

will first appear in more confined circles – between man and his fellow,

between man and wife, among all Israelites – and then it will spread and grow

to encompass the entire world.

In one prayer from Likutei Tefillot (33

– pg. 20 in

the book) R. Natan expresses his longing for the revelation of messianic

peace already in this world. He writes:

Let the wonderful peace that You will reveal in

the future

be drawn also now into this world,

as it is written:

And a wolf shall

live with a lamb,

and a leopard

shall lie with a kid;

and a calf and a

lion cub and a fatling [shall lie] together,

and a small child

shall lead them. (Isaiah 11:6)

They shall neither

harm nor destroy on all My holy mount,

for the land shall

be full of knowledge of the Lord

as water covers

the sea bed. (Isaiah 11:9)

All religious Zionist congregations recite

the Prayer for the State of Israel each Sabbath, and that prayer includes the

verse, and grant peace in the land and eternal joy to its inhabitants. A

very few congregations, including the synagogue in which I pray, also recite

one of the prayers for peace composed by R. Natan and which appears in the end

of Dr. Yael Levin's anthology.

Yael Levin has done us a great service by redeeming

these prayers from oblivion, and she also took pains to present them in an

aesthetic and enlightening fashion.

I think that on Yom Yerushalyim, on which we

long for the city joined together – which makes friends of all its

inhabitants – these prayers gain special significance; they can develop and

deepen the appreciation of peace as a central and important religious value.

Pinchas Leiser, Editor

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