Behar 5763 – Gilayon #289


Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat


(link to original page)

Click here to
receive the weekly parsha by email each week.

Parashat Behar

DO NOT MALTREAT ONE ANOTHER, BUT FEAR YOUR GOD;

FOR I THE LORD AM YOUR GOD

YOU SHALL

OBSERVE MY LAWS AND FAITHFULLY KEEP MY RULES,

SO THAT YOU MAY

LIVE UPON THE LAND IN SECURITY.

(Vayikra 25: 17-18)

 

"Do Not Maltreat… That

You May Live Upon The Land In Security"

DWELLING IN THE LAND IN SECURITY IS DEPENDENT UPON THE

EXISTENCE OF AN ENLIGHTENED SOCIETY.

Rebbi prepared a feast for his disciples. He served them both soft

tongues and hard tongues. They began to select the soft tongues, rejecting the

hard ones. He said to them: My sons, so should your tongues be soft one with

the other. Thus did Moshe admonish Israel "Do not maltreat one another."

"Do not maltreat" – Scripture refers to

verbal maltreatment. … For example, one should not say to a baal teshuva,

a penitent, "Remember your earlier behavior", and one should not say

to a convert, "Remember your ancestors' behavior". If a sojourner

comes to study Torah, one should not say to him "Shall a mouth which

consumes carcasses and animals torn to pieces and abominations and crawling

things come to learn Torah which emanated from the mouth of the Shechina?"

If one is in agony, or he is burying his progeny, say not to him – as did Job's

friends say to him – "Is not your piety your confidence, your integrity

your hope? Think now, what innocent man ever perished?" If

donkey drivers ask one to sell them grain, he shall not tell them "Go to

so-and-so" – knowing that so-and-so has never sold grain. Rabbi Yehudah

says: One should not haggle over price when he has no money, for this a matter

known to the heart only, of which it is written "Fear your God."

 (Yalkut Shimoni, Behar, 247: 661)

 

"Do not maltreat one another"

– This is an admonishment against wrongdoing by means

of words; one should not taunt his fellow, nor – for the sake of personal

advantage – give another inappropriate counsel. And should you ask: Who can

tell if one's intentions were not honorable? Therefore it says, "Fear your God" – He who knows all thoughts knows. Matters known to the heart only, known

only to one who thinks about them in his heart, regarding him it says, "Fear your God."

 (Rashi,

Vayikra 25:17)

 

 

FOR

WHOM THE BELL TOLLS

Binyamin

Hollander

          

In Philadelphia a couple of months ago, I was taken by my host to the

famous Liberty Bell. In 1776, and for years afterwards, the bell was rung to

commemorate American independence. The guide, explaining the Liberty Bell to

visitors, asked rhetorically: "Why do two million people a year – of all religions, of all nationalities, of

all colors – come to look at a

bell which, aside from its well-know crack, has deteriorated to the point of

being unusable?" "The answer," he asserted, as he pointed to the

words engraved on the Liberty Bell, "is contained in that great verse from

the Bible, "Proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants

thereof"! (Vayikra

25:10).

My thoughts turned, ruefully, to the children of Jerusalem – West and

East – who play in Gan Pa'amon Ha-dror (known to them simply as Gan

Ha-pa'amon), unaware that the bell in their playground is a replica of the

historic Liberty Bell and oblivious to the revolutionary message it bears above

their heads. There is no explanatory sign next to the bell, no reference to the

fount of democracy in Philadelphia, not even the Hebrew original of the

Biblical verse whose English translation is engraved on the bell.

True, a knowledgeable Israeli might belittle the famed association

between that verse in Leviticus and American independence. Since in its

original context, the verse refers to the release of Hebrew slaves at the time

of the Jubilee year and the return of ancestral property, its relevance to the

American situation could be questioned. More-over, the Jubilee year itself has

not been implemented for well over two millennia, since its implementation

requires that all the tribes be settled in the Land.

To be sure, one can occasionally find traditional commentaries supportive

of a broader meaning for our celebrated verse. Commenting on the subsequent

phrase in 25:10 – "it shall be the Jubilee/Yovel for

you" – Sforno explicates these words as referring to national

independence. And Rabbi Elie Munk, pointing out the double meaning of "ha-aretz" – Eretz Yisrael and the whole earth – suggests that peace and liberty in Israel are

intrinsically tied to freedom in the world.

Nevertheless, the irony stands. Leviticus 25:10 still reverberates with

an ever-relevant message to Americans and their visitors, whereas here in Eretz

Yisrael itself, it isn't heard. In the United States, where a "wall of

separation" of religion and state has long been established, the Bible is

frequently cited for guidance and inspiration in public life (recall recent

examples at the time of the loss of the Columbia spaceship and in connection

with the war in Iraq). Whereas in Israel, though the Tanakh was once the proud

possession and national spiritual guide of the generation returning to Zion,

today its study and application is largely restricted to the religious sector.

Another example: American citizens annually celebrate the holiday of

Thanksgiving, whose inspiration was the Biblical harvest festival of Sukkoth,

but whose eternal nondenominational message has spoken to all Americans since.

In contrast, here in the Holy Land, civil religion is undeveloped, and shared

Biblical values – already incorporated into

the global humanist ethos – are

not elaborated in a way which could inspire Israelis of all sectors in a spirit

of national community.

Our parasha is pregnant with untapped inspiration of this sort. An

example: "…the Land is Mine, you are but sojourners resident with Me."

(25:23) How this great idea humbles us,

reminding us how partial and fleeting are the separate narratives, myths, and

histories we so aggressively fight over.

Why not, during the week when this portion is read, establish a national

"Shavua Ha-Aretz" in which all citizens and groups can affirm the

love of the land, commitment to its ecological preservation ("the seventh

year shall be a complete rest for the land"

[25:4]), and willingness to work together to bring to

fruition its potential.

Along with the physical rejuvenation of the land meriting new meaning and

inclusivity, the theme of economic and social justice, so central to our

parasha, deserves similar treatment. The Torah ensured "constitutional safeguards"

for freedom and economic opportunity in ancient Israelite society: Shemittah

and Yovel

– and interest-free loans (25:37) and tzedaka in response

to "You shall not allow your brother to be impoverished" (25:35). It is difficult to reconcile that

heritage with the social inequality and huge economic gaps between citizens in

21st-century Israel.

The JNF was established over 100 years ago to maintain the land according

to the spirit of our parasha ("The land shall not be sold in

perpetuity…" (25:23); its successor, the government of Israel, surely needs new energies and

reforms other than Thatcher-like privatization to do so. Also, the religious

sector could be more active in advocating and building toward a more equal and

just distribution of land and wealth for the land and its inhabitants.

Study-institutes could focus on providing Torah-inspired economic and social

policy suitable for the modern state. What more urgent time to work for the

economic and social security of "then you shall dwell securely on the

land" (25:l8,19) than in this period of economic distress when there are so many

impoverished brothers – and citizens ("One

manner of law shall you have, as well for the stranger as for the native-born

shall it be, for I God am your Lord" [24:22]) – who need to be "strengthened" (25:35)? What more appropriate time than ours, when

material excess has grown so inordinately in some circles, to be reminded of

the necessity of acknowledging our dependence, our obligation to share, our

need for quality time to recover human relationship and our bond with our

Creator, Creation, and the Blueprint of Creation?

Indeed, our parasha has not received the national attention that it

warrants. How many people outside the religious community know, much less have

internalized, the laws of Behar – which the text

so pointedly describes as being given to us on Har Sinai, which form the

"summit" of the holiness laws in Leviticus, and neglect of which is

regarded as a prime cause for Exile (26:43)?

More, the laws of Behar represent the culmination of the Shabbat and

festival laws of last week's parasha, the sacred sequence of seven in the days,

weeks, and months of the Emor year coming to full realization in the sevens of

years of our parasha. Indeed, the Shabbat, so central an institution in

Judaism, is itself incomplete with the "seventh year Shabbat Shabbaton"

(25:4) of the Shemittah year (called

so in Deut 15:1ff) and the end of "seven cycles of Shabbat years, seven

years seven times" (25:8) of the Yovel-Jubilee year. Note the verbal links of Shabbat with the

Shemittah and the Yovel ("Shabbat Lashem" (25:2,4), "Shabbat Shabbaton

(25:4), "You shall sanctify"

(25:10) – and the ideational: abstention from work and domination, expression of

the Divinely-bestowed dignity and equality of man.

Just as Shabbat is both a remembrance of Creation ("zicharon

l'maasei vereshit") and a reminder of the Exodus ("zecher

l'yetziat Mitzrayim"), so Shemittah and Yovel seek to restore

the original harmony of God's world and redeem the individual from being a

slave to human and material forces. These remarkable institutions seek to curb

the human urge to dominate nature and other human beings, and to refocus the

individual to dwell in a world of human solicitude and devotion to Torah and

Creation. Concluding our parasha is the reminder of our ultimate status: "For

unto Me are the children of Israel servants, they are My servants whom I

brought out from the land of Egypt. I God am your Lord" (25:55) – and our ultimate purpose: "My Sabbaths you shall keep and My

Sanctuary you shall venerate" (26:2).

God's sanctuary will be found in the ever-expanding holiness when we live

Shabbat as a sanctuary in time, Shemittah as a sanctuary in place, and Yovel as

a sanctuary in human society (cf. Rabbi A. J. Heschel).

In light of its paramount importance, it is not surprising that Yovel is

part of the heightened spiritual sensitivities of the High Holydays. The

changeover to the Yovel year begins at Rosh Hashanah and it is sanctified with

the blowing of the shofar on the Day of Atonement (25:9). Rabbi S.R. Hirsch teaches that

just as Yom Kippur is the day of moral rebirth for the individual, Yovel is a

Yom Kippur for the nation, with the awesome responsibility placed on society to

restore and regenerate its social and political morality. In a similar vein,

Rabbi A. I. Kook in his "Shabbat Ha-aretz" elaborates on the

responsibility of the nation that dwells in Zion, urging that the spirit of

repentance and forgiveness that pervades the individual on Yom Kippur should

also move the nation to soul-searching and repentance in order to rectify the

distortions of its past.

The association of Yovel with Yom Kippur is also made by Rashi (on 25:10), who comments that the name

"Yovel" for the fiftieth year derives from the "yovel" – another word for the shofar/ram's horn

– sounded on Yom Kippur (and calling to

mind the shofar sounded on Har Sinai). Our tekiah gedola

at the culmination of Yom Kippur echoes the shofar's

sanctification of the Yovel, while the Haftara's prophetic plea to "let

the oppressed go free" and "give bread to the hungry"

(Is58:6-7) echoes its content. Indeed, through the Yom Kippur liturgy, we pray for

the realization of the Yovel ideal of joining "joy in Your land"

("simcha b'arzecha") with "coming

together as one society to do Your will with a full heart" ("v'yeasu

kulam agudah achat la'asot ritzoncha b'levav shalem").

May we, as God's partners, be worthy of bringing that ideal closer to

reality.

(Rabbi Binyamin Hollander came on

Aliya over 30 years ago, and teaches Torah in Yerushalayim and other places in

Israel and abroad).



"For

The Land Is Mine"

Do not resent these laws [of Shemittah and Yovel], the land

not being really the property of any man.                                                        (Rashi, Vayikra 25:23).

 

An admonishment against permanent transfer of ownership [of land] in

Eretz Yisrael, as it says: "And the Land shall not be sold into

perpetuity."

(Sefer

HaMitzvot of Rambam, Negative Mitzvah 227)

 

One reason for the mitzvah [not to effect changes in the

designation of plots in the Levites' settlements and of their fields]: The

towns of the Levites were set aside for the needs of all the tribes, because it

was the tribe chosen for the service of God, and all their dealings were with

wisdom, in that they were not bothered with agriculture as were the other

tribes of Israel, and regarding them it is said : "They shall teach

Your laws to Yaakov, and Your instructions to Israel." And

because wisdom resided with them, all of Israel constantly had dealings with

them. This, in addition to their towns also serving as cities of refuge for the

[inadvertent] murderer, and therefore the eyes of all Israel are upon their

towns, for who can foretell what tomorrow will bring. There it was reasonable

that that these refuges be located in towns where equality reigns; town which,

being in the public eye, should be paragons of beauty and pleasantness; they

are a source of pride for all Israel, and therefore the prohibition against

effecting changes in them, for the Master of Wisdom established them, and

perfected them, and set their boundaries, and He saw that thus it was good…

 (Sefer HaChinuch, Negative

Mitzvoth 343)

 

For the Shemittah year also generates congregation and peace, by the land not being sowed and

not caused to sprout, and the poor of the nation eat with him, for he may not

hold the crops during the seventh year as a home-owner, and this, without

doubt, produces peace, for all arguments which result from "Mine is

mine" – "this one saying it is all mine" – all this does not

exist during the seventh year, for although not all are equally commanded to

"get up and do!" – all are equally ordered to "stay put and

don't do!" – and this is indeed the matter of peace.

(Kli Yakar,

Devarim 31:12)

 

What is Lag BaOmer? Cessation of the

Plague or Cease Fire and Sobering Up From the Illusion of Messianism and

Intoxication With Power?

They said: Rabbi Akiva had twelve thousand pairs of disciples, from Gevat

to Antipatress, and all died in a single period, because they did not behave respectfully one to the

other, and the world was desolate until Rabbi Akiva came to

our teachers in the South, and he taught Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehudah and rabbi

Yossi and Rabbi Shim'on and Rabbi El'azar ben Shamua, and they were the ones

who preserved Torah at that time. It has been states in a Barayta: All died between Pesach and Atseret [Shavuot]. Rabbi Hamma bar Abba, or it may have been Rabbi Hiyya bar

Avin: All died the same terrible death. Which was it? Said Rabbi Nachman: Askera

[a respiratory ailment – probably asthma].

(Bavli, Yevamot, 62b)

 

… The Gaonim had a tradition that on the 33rd day of the

Omer the dying ceased, and therefore it is customary not to practice self-denial.

 (Rabbi Menachem HaMeiri,

Beit HaBechira on Yevamot 62b)

 

From the words of the Gemarrah it appears that Rabbi Akiva's many

disciples all perished in the plague, but Rav Sherira Gaon, in his historic

epistle, explains that their deaths were due to governmental decree or war.

From this account, it would seem that the reference is to the Bar Kochba

rebellion, which Rabbi Akiva enthusiastically supported. It can be assumed that

Rabbi Akiva's disciples were numbered among Bar Kochba's troops, and with the

cruel suppression of the rebellion, marked by much bloodshed, they too were

killed.

                            (From Rabbi Steinzaltz's commentary on

the narrative in Yevamoth 62b)

 

Said Rabbi Yochanan: Rebbi used to expound (on Bemidbar 24:17) "A star rises from

Yaakov" – read not "a star" ('kochav'), but "a pretender" (‘kozev').

Rabbi Akiva, upon seeing Bar Koziba ["Son of the Lie"] said:

"This is the Anointed King – the Messiah". Said to him Rabbi Yochanan

ben Torta: "Akiva,

grass will grow from your cheeks and still the Messiah will not have

come!"

 (Eicha Rabba, Parasha 2, on

verse 2 "The Lord has laid waste")

 

 

 

 

An Urgent Appeal To All Our Readers

 

The

continued publication and distribution of

"Shabbat

Shalom"

depends upon

you.

 

If each of our readers contributes $100 to our joint effort,

we will be able to continue publication until the end of the year.

Checks should be made out to "Shabbat Shalom" and

sent to:

 "Oz

V'Shalom – Netivot Shalom"

POB 4433

Yerushalayim 91043

Payment may be made in

installments.

For additional information (dedication of an issue, tax

exemption, etc.) contact Miriam Fine:

By phone: 053-920206

Or by email: ozshalom@netvision.net.il

 Thank you.

Editorial

staff of "Shabbat Shalom" Board of "Oz V'Shalom – Netivot Shalom

 

 

Editorial Board: Pinchas Leiser (Editor),

Miriam Fine (Coordinator), Itzhak

Frankenthal and Dr. Menachem Klein

Translation: Kadish Goldberg

This weekly publication was made possible by private donors

 

To our readers:

We

will be happy to have you actively participate in "Shabbat Shalom"

by:

  • Letters to the editor
  • Publication of Divrei Torah (in

    coordination with the editorial board)

If

you enjoy Shabbat Shalom, please consider contributing towards its

publication and distribution.

  • Hebrew edition distributed in Israel $1000
  • English edition distributed via email $ 100

Issues

may be dedicated in honor of an event, person, simcha, etc. Requests must be

made 3-4 weeks in advance to appear in the Hebrew, 10 days in advance to appear

in the English email.

US

or British tax-exempt contributions to OzveShalom may be made through the New

Israel Fund or through P.E.F. Israel Endowment Funds, Inc.

Contributions should be marked as

donor-advised to OzveShalom/Netivot Shalom, the Shabbat Shalom project.

 

THE NIF IS NOW CHARGING A SERVICE FEE OF

$50 ON ALL CHECKS BETWEEN $50 and $999 AND WILL NOT ACCEPT CHECKS UNDER $36. It

may be advise to send checks via PEF for tax exemptions.

 

New

Israel Fund, POB 53410, Jerusalem 91534 (Please include Israeli address and

telephone number)

New

Israel Fund, POB 91588, Washington, DC 20090-1588, USA

New

Israel Fund of Great Britain, 26 Enford Street, London W1H 2DD, United Kingdom

(British tax exemption)

P.E.F.

Israel Endowment Funds, Inc., 317 Madison Ave., Suite 607, New York, New York

10017 USA

 

About us:

Oz

Veshalom-Netivot Shalom is a movement dedicated to the advancement of a civil

society in Israel. It is committed to promoting the ideals of tolerance,

pluralism, and justice, concepts which have always been central to Jewish

tradition and law.

Oz Veshalom-Netivot Shalom shares a deep

attachment to the land of Israel and it no less views peace as a central

religious value. It believes that Jews have both the religious and the national

obligation to support the pursuit of peace. It maintains that Jewish law

clearly requires us to create a fair and just society, and that co-existence

between Jews and Arabs is not an option but an imperative.

Oz

Veshalom-Netivot Shalom's programs include both educational and protest

activities. Seminars, lectures, workshops, conferences and weekend programs are

held for students, educators and families, as well as joint seminars for Jews,

Israeli Arabs and Palestinians. Protest activities focus on issues of human

rights, co-existence between Jews and Arabs, and responses to issues of

particular religious relevance.

9,000

copies of a 4 page peace oriented commentary on the weekly Torah reading are

written and published by Oz VeShalom/Netivot Shalom and they are distributed to

over 350 synagogues in Israel and are sent overseas via email. Our web site is

www.netivot-shalom.org.il.

Oz

Veshalom-Netivot Shalom's educational forums draw people of different

backgrounds, secular and religious, who are keen to deepen their Jewish

knowledge and to hear an alternative religious standpoint on the subjects of

peace and social issues.

Oz

Veshalom-Netivot Shalom fills an ideological vacuum in Israel's society.

Committed both to Jewish tradition and observance, and to the furthering of

peace and coexistence, the movement is in a unique position to engage in

dialogue with the secular left and the religious right, with Israeli Arabs and

with Palestinians.

Our activities are funded by donations

and are organized by one part time employee.

OzveShalom/Netivot

Shalom           Tel./Fax

972-2-5664218

Pob

4433                                       Email:

ozshalom@netvision.net.il

Jerusalem

94310, Israel                   www.

netivot-shalom.org.il