HOWEVER, THERE WILL NOT BE AMONG YOU ANY

NEEDY PERSON,

FOR GOD

WILL BLESS, YES, BLESS YOU

IN THE LAND

THAT THE LORD YOUR GOD IS GIVING YOU

 AS AN INHERITANCE, TO POSSESS.

WHEN THERE

WILL BE AMONG YOU A NEEDY PERSON

FROM ANY ONE OF YOUR BROTHERS,

WITHIN ONE OF YOUR GATES IN THE LAND

THE LORD YOUR GOD IS GIVING YOU,

YOU ARE NOT TO TOUGHEN YOUR HEART,

YOU ARE NOT TO SHUT YOUR HAND

TO YOUR BROTHER, THE NEEDY ONE.

RATHER YOU ARE TO OPEN, YES, OPEN YOUR HAND TO

HIM

AND ARE TO GIVE PLEDGE, YES, PLEDGE TO HIM,

SUFFICIENT FOR HIS LACK THAT IS LACKING TO HIM.

(Devarim 15)

"Will Not Be" Or "Will Be"

– Promise or Challenge?

"However, there will not

be among you any needy person" – And further on it states

(verse 11) "For the needy will never be gone from amid the land"!?

– but [this contradiction can thus be reconciled] when you do the will of

the Omnipresent, there will be needy amid others, but not amid you; when you

fail to do the will of the Omnipresent, there will be needy among you. A 'needy' person (evyon)

has less than a 'poor' person (awni); the 'evyon' is so

called because he craves for everything.

(Rashi

15:4)

"However, there will not

be among you any needy person" – If you release [forgo a

debt], The Holy One, Blessed Be He, will repay you.

"For the needy will never

be gone from amid the land" – For there is no person in the

land so righteous that he does only good and never sins.

(Rashbam,

ibid.)

"However…"

This provides the

rationale: Know you, that which I commanded you, not to oppress your brother

heed God's voice, then

there will not be among you any needy person to whom you will have to lend.

 (Ibn Ezra, ibid.)

… Those who willingly accept the yoke of Torah and mitzvoth do

not have the right to exempt themselves, to remove from themselves these

obligations and pass them on to He who opens His hands and satisfies the desire

of every living thing. We are charged with a great mission, to make great

efforts to strive always towards a reality in which there will be no needy and

poor in the Land and in the world.

 (Y. Leibowitz: Seven Years Of Discussions On The

Parasha Of The Week, p. 836)

YOU ARE NOT TO TOUGHEN YOUR HEART;

YOU ARE NOT TO SHUT YOUR HAND TO YOUR BROTHER,

THE NEEDY ONE

Zvi Mazeh

This

twenty one years since his passing.

Parashat

Re'eh, like the first three parshiyot of the Book of Devarim, deals with

the entry of Children of Israel into the Land, an event which will introduce

far-reaching changes in their lives. The verse in our parasha that

relates to the offering of sacrifices – "You are not to do – according

to all that we are doing here today" – can also be interpreted

as representing the radical change awaiting the people.

One

of the central components of life in the wilderness was the manna, which

supplied the needs of the Children of Israel for forty years. Manna had its own

unique laws, among them, "He who gathered much had no excess and he who

had gathered little had no deficiency". The manna was

apportioned in such a way that each received according to his needs, despite

the existence of "he who gathered much and he who gathered little"

– two types of people who exist in every normal society.

Egalitarian

distribution of the manna is possible only in the ideal situation of wilderness

life. In the Land of Canaan, rules of the game will be different. Food will not

descend from heaven, and society will change from a society of food gatherers

to a society of farmers. Such a society requires initiative, hard work, and

diligence; not all men are equal in these respects. In a society which

functions according to rules of a free economy, there will always be those who

gather more and those who gather less, and therefore "the needy will

never be gone from amid the land".

The

Torah makes a great effort to minimize the economic inequality. It legislated a

series of social enactments aimed at helping those in distress. An apt title

could be the verse: "You are not to toughen your heart;

you are not to shut your hand to your brother, the needy one." Two

of the most important of these laws appear in our parasha in close

proximity – the relinquishing of debts and the freeing of serfs. The aim of

these two mitzvoth is the prevention of concentration of resources – land and

manpower – in the hands of the powerful. The Torah commands us to return the

means of production to the hands of the weak, and to create a second chance for

people who failed economically and slid down to the bottom of the social

ladder.

The idea which is at the heart of these mitzvoth

is that the prince and the pauper are of the same essence and of equal

worth; only a chain of happenings resulted in the pauper reaching his present

state. Therefore the Torah reemphasizes – in these two mitzvoth – fraternity.

In the mitzvah of Shemittah – "He shall not oppress his

fellow and his brother", and in the mitzvah of releasing

slaves, "Should your brother be sold to you, the male Hebrew or the

female". The needy and the slave are your brothers, despite

their economic state.

Such a concept was not something taken for

granted. All ancient civilizations developed a world outlook in which the

opulent and the nobility are essentially different from the poor/weak/servant.

According to this view, the origin of the social elites differs from that of

the slaves. A critical fault line separates the two sectors of society. On the

bottom are the poor and the slaves, who perform the physical tasks necessary

for the world's existence; on the other side are the nobility of wealth and

pedigree, whose responsibility is to lead society and its citizens.

According to this view, the socio-economic

stratification, which includes the pathetic status of the poor, is natural and

evolves inevitably from the world order. The Talmud places this outlook in the

words of the wicked Turnos Rufus, who argues with R' Akiva (Bava Batra 10a):

"And this question asked Turnos Rufus of

the wicked of R' Akiva: If your god loves the poor, why does he not support

them?"            

Yet more, assistance to the indigent and the

slave is a sin, for it contradicts the will of the god, as Turnos Rufus

continues:

"I will spin you a parable, to what is

this comparable? To a king of flesh and blood who was angry with his servant

and has him incarcerated, and commands that he not be given food or drink, and

a person goes and gives him food and drink. When the king hears of this, will

he not be angry with him?"

The Torah struggles with full force against

this concept, which was dominant in the ancient world; R' Akiva rebuts Turnos

Rufus, quoting our parasha of the week:

"Replied R' Akiva: I shall spin you a

parable, to what is this comparable? To a king of flesh and blood who is angry

at his son, and has him imprisoned,

and orders that he not be given food nor drink, and a certain person goes and

gives him food and drink. When the king hears about this, will he not send him

a gift? And we are called sons, as is written: Sons are you to the Lord your God."

This is to say, the deprived and the slaves

are also sons of the Lord, who loves them despite the depths to which they have

fallen. The approach of the Mishna in Sanhedrin, which teaches that "Therefore man was created singly… so that

no one should say to his fellow, 'My father is greater than your father' applies

also to socio-economic differences.

If this be the case, the entry into the Land

imposes upon the Children of Israel a difficult task: the building of a society

which has place for a free market, which rewards small segments of the

population with economic wealth, while assisting the weak and preventing their

total decline, guarding escape routes – open to all – from degrading poverty.

A

society such as this stands in stark contradiction to the land of Egypt, house

of bondage, whose entire essence was exploitation of slaves/the weak. Therefore

the parasha charges us to remember the bondage of Egypt and to

incorporate into our festival joy all the weak of society:

"And you shall rejoice before the

a serf in Egypt".

In

Egypt, you, too, now the powerful, was a serf. We all come from the same place.

The

challenge of building a just society becomes especially difficult after the

entry into the Land. The descent of the manna every day anew in the wilderness

emphasized the total dependence of man upon his Creator. On the other hand, the

creation of a normal society that produces its food and all other necessities

causes us to forget our dependence upon the Creator and the fragility of human

existence. In such a situation it is difficult to recognize the equality of all

men, and it is easy to drift towards cruel attitudes.

How

amazing it is that the Return to Zion and the building of a Jewish society in

Eretz Yisrael should lead us to the same old challenges with which we dealt at

the beginning of this article. The social struggles of the past months raise

doubts; have we adopted the basic outlook of the Torah, or perhaps the voice of

Turnos Rufus the wicked – Heaven forbid! -speaks from the mouths of our

leaders?

The

handicapped, the aged, and the single mothers, are our brothers and sisters who

find themselves in a grim economic state. The basic obligation of Israeli

society is to provide them with the means which will facilitate breakout from

the vicious cycle of penury. It is so easy to blame the weak and the oppressed

for their situation. Such an accusation makes it possible for us to separate

between ourselves and them, as though "If they really wanted, they could

extract themselves from their state." Such an approach is contrary to the

Torah approach, which charges everyone with the mitzvoth of charity and

assistance to the weak.

The mitzvah of tsedakah – of

social justice (Tsedakah is commonly translated as "charity". Modern

scholarship, relating the word to its root "tsedek" – maintain

that in the Bible tsedakah means "justice". We have chosen to C.

M. Urbach's suggestion – "social justice" – which covers both

connotations.) – of which our parasha speaks again and again, is

first and foremost the creation of a second socio-economic opportunity. It is

not just another important mitzvah; it is the sine qua non for

the return to Zion. Writes Rambam:

"The throne of Israel will be

established and the true faith will stand only through tsedakah, as is

written, "You shall be established through tsedakah" , and

Israel will be redeemed only through tsedakah, as is written, "Zion will be saved in the

judgment; Her repentant ones, in tsedakah" (Laws of Gifts to the Poor,

Chap. 10, Halacha 1).

Professor Zvi Mazeh

is Chairman of the Astronomical Institute in Tel Aviv University and member of

the Netivot-Shalom executive board.

The

Connection Between "Broadening of Boundaries" and the Lusting for

Flesh

"When the Lord your

God broadens your territory as he promised you, and you say: I want to eat meat…"

– teaches that man enthusiastically lusts

only in a situation of excessive

expansion, "the lion roars only from a container of meat" (Berachot 32), therefore

Scripture states: "When the Lord your God broadens your boundaries"

– this will lead you to remove the mask of shame from your face, till

you loudly proclaim, "I want to

eat meat" – and this somewhat resembles the throwing off of

the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven, to seek out the site of sacrifices. The

cause of all this is "Should the

place which God chooses be distant from you", for one's awe

of the Kingdom of Heaven is proportionate to his proximity to the Temple of

God, as is written, "My Holy Shrine you are to hold in awe"

meaning that awe of the Kingdom of Heaven will be drawn upon you from the

Temple; "Should the place… be distant from you" will result

in God being far from your

consciousness, therefore all day you will lust, and you will not be ashamed

to proclaim "I want to eat meat". I hereby permit you this thing and you shall slaughter from you

cattle, etc., as I have commanded you, not

at all times but occasionally, when lust

becomes overwhelming.

(Kli Yakar, Devarim 12:20)

The Torah delivers a veiled admonition regarding the eating of meat;

only after "And you say: I want to eat meat, because your appetite

craves eating meat" – do we read, "You may slaughter

and may eat". The only way to halt your inclination is by moral

control, and this control is still beyond you; it is still needed for closer

circles. (In his famous essay on the utopian

vision of vegetarianism, Rav sees the ideal future, when men will be companion

to animals. In this sentence, Rav Kook says that the spiritual forces essential

for stopping slaughter of animals for food are currently needed for improvement

of man's relations to his fellow man.) And also the distant perfection

also necessitates – after the fall (The

reference is to the Great Flood, during which man developed an appetite for

flesh.) – physical effort, and the replenishing of this [the physical

effort] occasionally demands meat nourishment.           

(Rav

Kook: Tallelei Orot, Chap. 8)

"It Shall Be, In The

Place That The Lord Your God Chooses…" (Devarim 12:11) – Limitations On The Location Of – And On

Of This Form Of Service.

For one kind of worship – I mean the offering of sacrifices – even

though it was done in His name, may He be exalted, was not prescribed to us in

the way it existed at first; I mean to say in such a way that sacrifices could

be offered in every place and at every time. Nor could a temple be set up in

any fortuitous place, nor could any fortuitous man offer the sacrifice: "Whosoever

would, he consecrated him" (I Kings 13:33). On the contrary, He forbade all

this and established one single house, "Unto the place which the Lord

shall chose" (Devarim 12:26), so that sacrifices should not be offered

elsewhere: "That thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that

thou seest" (Ibid. 12:13) Also, only the offspring of one particular family

can be priests. All this was intended to restrict this kind of worship, so that

only the portion of it should subsist whose abolition is not required by His

wisdom.

 (Rambam, "Guide for the Perplexed, "

translated by S. Pines)

Today, after more than 3000 years, when we come across the words "Unto

the place which the Lord shall chose", almost unthinkingly and

directly, our consciousness immediately points to – Yerushalayim. And not just

the city, but the Temple Mount in

Yerushalayim, as the chosen place of which the Torah speaks. But this must

be known and publicized: in the Book of Devarim, as in the entire Torah, there

is no hint that Yerushalayim is the place destined to be that chosen place, or

perhaps it was selected to be the place which God will chose; we know, as

historic fact, that Yerushalayim became the chosen and special place only about

five hundred years after receiving the Torah, when Kings David captured this

Jebusite city… Similarly, neither in the Book of Joshua, in which there is

first mention of Israel's battle against the King of Yerushalayim, nor even in

the Book of Shoftim, which tells of the capture of Yerushalayim by the Tribe of

Yehuda, a conquest which, it seems, did not last for generations, is there a

single hint that Yerushalayim was set aside from all other places in the land

for the purpose of serving the Lord. All these facts indicate that although the

Torah from the beginning commanded regarding the determination of a chosen cite

for the Holy Service, the Torah leaves it up to history to determine its

placement.

 (Y. Leibowitz: Seven Years

of Discussion of the Weekly Parasha, p. 825)

Editorial Board: Pinchas Leiser (Editor), Miriam Fine (Coordinator), Itzhak Frankenthal and Dr. Menachem Klein

Translation: Kadish Goldberg

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