AT THE END OF EVEN YEARS YOU SHALL MAKE A SHEMITAH

REMIT THE DUE THAT HE CLAIMS FROM HIS FELLOW; HE SHALL NOT DUN HIS FELLOW OR

KINSMAN, FOR THE REMISSION PROCLAIMED IS FOR THE LORD.

(Devarim 15:1-2)

To abandon debts in the Shemitah

year, about which it is said but

you must remit whatever is due you from your kinsman (Devarim

15:1). The charge

of this commandment is made twice, for it is said This

shall remit the due, and in the Tosefta they said

that Scripture refers to two shemitot, one

relating to land, the other to money.

I already wrote what I

know regarding the reasons for this commandment in [the section on] the Shemitah of lands in [parashat]

Mishpatim (commandment

#84); the Shemitah of money is

explained the same way, to teach our souls high virtues – the virtues of

kindheartedness and generosity, to instill great trust in the blessed Lord in

our hearts. Then our souls will be prepared to receive beneficence from the

Master of all in blessedness and mercy. We shall also find in it a strong fence

and a wall of iron to keep us far from stealing and coveting anything belonging

to our fellow, for we shall make an a fortiori argument in our minds,

saying: "Even if I lent my wealth and the Shemitah

year arrived, the Torah told me to remit the claim against the debtor – certainly

I should distance myself radically from stealing or coveting his property!

(Sefer HaHinukh

# 477)

For the Shemitah year also gives rise to solidarity and peace.

This occurs because one does not sew seed and grow [crops] and the poor can eat

acting as the land-owner and taking hold of the seventh year's grain. All of

this doubtlessly causes peace, since all conflicts derive from the trait of "mine

is mine," i.e., "it is all mine." All of this is less evident in

the seventh year, because while action [i.e. agricultural production] involves

inequality, all are equal in inaction, and that is really what peace is about.

(Keli Yakar

Devarim 31:12)

"The Curse in the Blessing and the Blessing in

the Curse"

Shlomo Fox

See,

and follow other gods whom you have not known. (Devarim 11:26-28)

The parasha's opening passage offers two alternatives: the way

of the blessing and the way of the curse. The blessing comes when we hearken to

God's commandments and observe them; the curses come if we do not listen to God's

voice. Apparently, it should have spoken of a punishment rather than a curse: "And if you do not

listen to God's voice" – "you shall be punished" – why a "curse"? Perhaps the solution is that the

blessing and the curse are interwoven? Every blessing can be a curse and curses

can bring a kind of blessing.

Rabbi Haim

ben Atar explains:

That

is why He says this day

I set before you a blessing and a curse. This means that the blessing is

also a curse – tranquility for the wicked in this world…

…it

becomes clearer in light of their dictum (here

in the Sifrei): It is like someone who sat at a crossroads. There were two paths

before him, one started smoothly but ended in thorns, the other began with

thorns but ended smoothly. He would tell the passersby: "You see this path

that begins smoothly? After two or three steps… and its end…

When

He says to them this day I set before you etc. He refers to two

different types of good things. Each of them involves a blessing and a curse;

the path of the wicked begins smoothly and ends in thorns – that is a blessing

and a curse. The way of life starts with thorns and ends smoothly – that

is also a blessing and a curse… When He said a blessing and a curse – that

means that this gift involves both a blessing and a curse. He continued and

explained the blessing: if you obey – meaning: "If you obey, then

this gift will be a blessing for you, but if you do not listen it will only be

a curse; because of it all the nations shall be jealous of you and remove you

from it [the land] with great vengeance." The benefit they draw from it

shall also be their loss in the eternal world, as is says, Who

instantly requites with destruction those who hate Him (Devarim 7:10). (Or Ha'Hayyim Devarim 11:26)

It appears

that man decides if it is a blessing or a curse. Accordingly, deep

contemplation is required; sometimes that which seems to be a blessing is

actually a curse and vis-versa. The

emphasis on today teaches us to think about tomorrow.

Later

in the parasha, the Torah commands that those who

preach idolatry be killed (be they individuals or an entire community). How is

this commandment a blessing?

An individual who promotes idolatry is

sentenced to death as is anyone who commits a capital crime. However, in the

case of an ir hanidahat

[a town that must be destroyed because it is completely involved in

idolatry] (Devarim

13:13-19), the punishment is collective:

If you hear it said, of one of the towns that

the Lord your God is giving to you to dwell in, that some scoundrels from among

you have gone and subverted the inhabitants of their town, saying, "Come ,

let us worship other gods" – whom you have not known – you shall

investigate and inquire and interrogate thoroughly. If it is true, the fact is

established – that abhorrent thing was perpetrated in your midst – put the inhabitants of that town to the sword. Doom it and

all that is in it to destruction: gather all its spoils into the open square,

and burn the town and all its spoils completely to the Lord your God. And it

shall remain an everlasting ruin, never to be rebuilt… in order that the Lord

may turn from His blazing anger and show you compassion, and in His compassion

increase you as He promised your father on oath – for you will be heeding the

Lord your God… doing what is right in the sight of he Lord your God. (Devarim 13:13-19)

Put the inhabitants of that town to the sword – all – men, women, and

children?

What of

Abraham's question when God told him that Sodom was to be destroyed: Shall You destroy the righteous with the wicked? And what of

the announcement made in the ceremony of the eglah

arufa regarding a victim whose murderer was

unknown – our hands did not spill this blood – and here an entire

town to put to death!

(See R. Zadok's comments in Yoma

23a).

When, in parashat Korah, God comes to kill

Korah and his party, He says, Separate yourselves

from this community, and Moses and Aaron reply: Shall one man sin and You become angry with the entire community?

What blessing can there be in the fulfillment of this commandment?

Tosefta Sanhedrin (Zuckermandle edition

14:3) softens

the biblical decree. The execution of capital punishment in the ir ha'nidahat is

not collective; offenders must be warned and testimony must be brought against

them:

Minors from an ir ha'nidahat

are not killed. R. Eliezer says: They are killed.

R. Akiva said to

him: And how would I explain the fulfillment of [the verse]

and show you

compassion increase you? If it is about compassion for adults, it

already said surely kill. If it refers to compassion for their animals,

it already said destroy it and all in it and its animals. How do I

explain the fulfillment of and show you compassion? It refers to the

minors among them.

R. Eliezer says: Even the adults are not killed without

warning and testimony. And how would I explain the fulfillment of [the verse] and

show you compassion? Lest the judges say, "Now we are making an ir ha'nidahat and

tomorrow the kinsmen and relatives will hate us in their hearts." But the

Omnipresent says: "I will make them compassionate and place My love in their hearts, that they shall say, 'We have

nothing against you, for you have judged truly.' And they shall not observe mourning;

they shall only grieve, for grieving is entirely in the heart [i.e., it does

not involve observable behavior).

R. Akiva deduces from R. Eliezer's

words that the minors who live in the town should be put to death, and so he

interprets Scripture in order to show that this is not so. R. Eliezer responds saying that even the adults (and the

minors all the more so) could be executed only if they had been forewarned and

testimony was brought against them, i.e., in accordance with proper legal

procedures.

The NeTziV (Ha'amek Davar Devarim 13:18) explains the great danger

involved in executing punishment on an ir ha'nidahat:

And show

you compassion – The execution of the law of ir ha'nidahat causes Israel three evils: [1] He who kills

someone develops a cruel nature. The execution of individual by a court is

performed by agents of the court, but when an entire town is involved we cannot

avoid making a group of people used to killing, making them cruel. [2] There is

no one in that town who does not have relatives in

other towns; thus hatred is strengthened in Israel. [3] Israel is diminished

and unpopulated regions are created.

That is why

Scripture requires that the commandment be carried out without profit from the

booty, then the Lord will return from His

wrath.

And will show you compassion – [instill you with] the virtue of compassion.

The NeTziV notes that the commandment must be carried out with

sensitivity and responsibility in order to fulfill the rule "with no

benefit from the booty." The commandment also requires some men of Israel

to be come cruel. Can we imagine anyone gaining benefit from the execution of

this commandment?

In exchange

and as a defense mechanism, God promises and show you compassion, and in His

compassion increase you. This commandment requires balance and a brake upon

aggressiveness. Its observance involves a Divine prerogative – the taking of

human life.

Let us

consider another commandment in the parasha (Devarim 12:20-28) which involves a response to human urges – the urge

to eat meat. The recognition of human urges comes together with a qualification

that ties the urge for eating with that of killing, and which expresses anxiety

over wanton cruelty:

When the

Lord your God enlarges your territory, as He promised you, and you say, "I

shall eat some meat," for you have the urge to eat meat, you may eat meat

wherever you wish… and you may eat it to your heart's content in your gates…

But make sure that you do not partake of the blood; for the blood is the life,

and you must not eat the life with the meat… do not eat it – pour it on the

ground like water. Do not eat it n order that it may go well with you and with

your children after you, when you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord. (Devarim 12: 20-28)

One is permitted to eat meat, but the consumption of blood is

forbidden, because the blood is the life. On the one hand, this prohibition

comes to teach us: Learn to control your urges!! On the other hand, this

qualification reminds us of another commandment:

God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to

for in His image did God make man. (Bereishit 9:1-7)

The

permission to eat meat could have brought man to think that blood is simply

blood and that there are no limitations upon it, paving the road to murder. Therefore,

Scripture warns us: The eating of meat is permitted, but we must remind

ourselves that harm done to animals involves the taking of their lives, and

that this does not give license to kill them purposelessly; injury against 'the

image of God" is certainly prohibited.

God's

blessing for Noah and his sons can – God forbid – become an obstacle and a

curse if limitations are not observed.

R. Yitzhak Karo (Toldot Yitzhak

Bereishit 9:1) explains the verse he who spills human blood:

According to

Targum Onkelos, his

blood shall be spilt, i.e., the murderer has to be tried before a court of

law. The Sanhedrin cannot base judgment upon merely reasonable suppositions; it

needs eye-witness testimony, so too in a court of twenty three [judges].

The murderer

must be treated as an "image of God" who has

attacked an "image of God."

Idolaters

(the inhabitants of an ir ha'nidahat) and murderers must be punished through the

agency of the legal system, and the court must assure that there be no unnecessary

killing – rather it shall "pursue justice justly"!

These

commandments demand restraint and complex understanding. Inheritance of the

land can lead to cultural influences that lead to idolatry. Punishment of the

idolaters can give rise to cruelty and overzealous prosecution,

it can create a wrongful judicial system, leading the inhabitants of the land

to think them uncompassionate. Permission to eat meat can lead to the

consumption of blood and to the killing of people in God's name and through

false justice.

Here is the

mechanism of restraint that can prevent the erosion of values: And remember

that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. The Exodus from Egypt and our

past enslavement (which would seem to be a curse) are recalled several times in

the parasha in order to remind us not to backslide

and act like slaves – slaves to our passions. We must leave Mitzrayim [Egypt] which means we must escape an outlook which is tzara [narrow].

As R. Moshe

of Kobrin said regarding the verse remove your shoes[na'alekha] from your feet [raglekha]; you must remove the manulim

[locks] from your hergelim [habits]. We

must understand the blessing and the curse that are in each thing.

And as

R. Yitzhak of Berdichev said (Kedushat Levi, Avot):

The

explication of [the passage from the prayerbook] You have loved us with an eternal love you have shown us

great and exceeding mercy:

We see with

God's help that it would seem inappropriate to say "great and exceeding

mercy," a formulation expressing the excessive nature of the mercy you

showed us – that is to say, there was no reason to show mercy, but that notion

cannot apply to Him, may He be blessed.

It would

seem that this [passage] relates to that which is written in the Gemara (Shabbat 151b): "Anyone who is compassionate to others

will enjoy compassion from Heaven" for it says and He will show you

[literally give you] compassion and have compassion upon you – when

we show compassion to our fellow creatures we arouse Heaven to show us

compassion. Due to His great beneficence and compassion towards all, the

blessed Lord in His great compassion and loving-kindness does not repay us in

kind when we fail to arouse His compassion because we do not showing compassion

to our fellow creatures. Instead, in His great goodness and loving-kindness he

nevertheless [fulfils the verse] the good [God], for His compassion has not

ceased, and the compassionate, for His loving-kindness has not ceased and He

shows us compassion. And this is [the meaning of the verse] "You have

loved us with an eternal love, You have shown us great

and exceeding mercy." Even in a time of exceeding mercy – when, God

forbid, we do not deserve His loving-kindness and compassion in light of our

actions – even so "you have shown us great and exceeding mercy"

He, may He be

blessed, arouses his loving-kindness towards us in His great compassion."

"You

who bring in compassion, bring our compassion before the Master of Compassion"

(From

the Selihot service)

Shlomo Fox teaches at Hebrew Union College, at Beit Shemuel and at Kolot. He is educational director for the IDF Project at Beit Morasha.

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… – [This verse] teaches that man

enthusiastically lusts only in a situation of excessive expansion, "the lion roars only because it [possesses]

a container full of meat" (Berakhot 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, until 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 circles closer to you.

And also the further perfection requires – after the fall – physical effort,

and the replenishing of this [the physical effort] occasionally demands meaty

nourishment.

(Rav Kook: Tallelei Orot, Chap. 8)

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