SPEAK TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL AND SAY TO THEM: WHEN YOU ENTER THE LAND THAT I GIVE YOU, THE LAND SHALL OBSERVE A SABBATH OF THE LORD.

 (Vayikra 25:2)

 

The earth is the Lord's and all that it contains

A Sabbath of the Lord - For the Lord's sake, that you must not think like farmers who let the land lay fallow one year in seven to preserve it fruitfulness. Rather, do it for the glory of the Lord, who commanded the Sabbath of the seventh year and to whom the earth and all that it contains belong.

(R. Yitzhak Shemuel Reggio on Vayikra 25:2)

 

But the land must not be sold beyond reclaim, for the land is Mine; you are but strangers resident with Me.

(Vayikra 25:23)

 

For the land is Mine - Your eye shall not be evil towards it (you shall no begrudge this) for it is not yours.

(Rashi ad loc, Silbermann translation)

 

You are but strangers resident with Me - Lest you say: "You have given us the land for an eternal possession, and we are the citizens of the land!" That is why He said that even though in comparison to the other nations you are citizens of the land, from My perspective you are resident strangers, for the land is Mine, and you are like strangers who have arrived from a distant country, and the Lord of the land has allowed you to dwell in it. Indeed, man is like a stranger on earth; his soul is from above and it descended from its place to dwell on earth, as I have written regarding the verse, the years of my sojourn (Bereishit 47:9).

(R. Yitzhak Shemuel Reggio on Vayikra 25:23)

 

 

What does the Sabbatical Year have to do with Mount Sinai?

Menachem Klein

Thanks to Rashi, the Sages' question, "What does the Sabbatical year have to do with Mount Sinai?" has become a popular expression in the Hebrew language. The Sages' bewilderment was aroused by our parasha's unusual opening sentence. The parasha deals with the laws of the Sabbatical year, which is one of the 613 commandments. However, before going into the details of those laws the Torah adds a strange introductory verse - And the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying. What is the point of this additional verse? "After all, all of the commandments were relayed at Sinai" (Rashi, citing Torat Kohanim).

The midrash's answer is that the verse comes not merely to teach us something about the Sabbatical year, but rather about the entire Torah; just as the laws of the Sabbatical year had been given at Sinai with all of their details and specifics, so it was with all of the other commandments. Rashi offers a somewhat different explanation. The Sabbatical year is not mentioned later in Devarim, in contrast to other commandments whose main points are presented in the first four books of the Torah, while some of their details are given only in Devarim. That is why the Torah had to emphasize that all of the principles and details of the Sabbatical year were given at Sinai. Rashi makes the additional claim that everything Moses said in the wilderness of Moav (in the book of Devarim) had already been said earlier at Mount Sinai.

The interpretations offered by Torat Kohanim and Rashi share a common ground. Both are concerned with the connection between the details of the commandments and their principles, and with their source of authority. Mount Sinai is not a mere geographical location; it is a source of authority and of specific legal contents. In other words, "Mount Sinai" is identified with the Torah as a system of commandments given by God.

Ibn Ezra and the RaMBaN develop different approaches. Ibn Ezra claims that we are told that the laws of the Sabbatical year were given at Mount Sinai in order to teach us that this section was originally part of the theophany at Sinai and was given prior to all of the laws of the Tabernacle and the sacrifices. To him, "Mount Sinai" refers to the unique event in which the Ten Commandments were brought down, followed by a number of additional laws. The fact that the passage occurs late in the book of Vayikra says nothing about its place in the chronology of the Torah's narrative - and so, the opening verse dates it as having been said at Mount Sinai.

The RaMBaN follows Ibn Ezra's lead and also connects the section on the Sabbatical year with the theophany at Sinai. In contrast to Ibn Ezra, he believes that the Sabbatical year was mentioned only with the delivery of the second pair of tablets and not during the original theophany at Sinai. According to the RaMBaN, the order of the text correctly reflects the chronological timing of the reception of the Sabbatical laws; first the second Tablets were brought down, then the commandments regarding the Tabernacle and the sacrifices were transmitted, and lastly, Israel was commanded regarding the Sabbatical year.

For both Ibn Ezra and the RaMBaN, "Mount Sinai" marks a foundational event. However, we still lack a substantive explanation of the connection between the Sabbatical year and Mount Sinai. What is it about the Sabbatical year that connects it with the theophany at Sinai?

Parashat Behar is entirely devoted to laws concerning the sale and purchase of real-estate and slaves. Slaves in ancient society were classified as property rather than as people. A slave owner possessed not only the slave's labor and the fruits of that labor; he also owned the slave himself. The slave was a kind of property, and, like real-estate, he was "hard" property. A unified line of thought connects the laws of real estate with those of human property. Consideration of the conclusion of that line at the end of our parasha, deepens the connection with the theophany at Sinai that opens the parasha. The final verses of the parasha are quite similar to those of the Ten Commandments as they appear in parashat Yitro. I am the Lord your God Who took you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage parallels For the children of Israel are slaves unto Me, they are My slaves, whom I took out of the land of Egypt, I am the Lord your God. The Sages even base a midrash on this parallelism in order to explain why the ear of a slave is pierced if he refuses to be freed on the seventh year:

Why was it appropriate to pierce the ear, of all parts of the body? Because it heard at Mount Sinai For the children of Israel are slaves unto Me, they are My slaves, yet he threw off the yoke of Heaven and took upon himself the yoke of flesh and blood [masters], therefore, Scripture says, "Let the ear come and be pierced for not abiding by what it had heard." (Yalkut Shimoni Mishpatim 318)

Do not make for yourself an idol or any image parallels Do not make idols for yourselves, do not set up a pillar-statue or yourselves. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy parallels and keep My Sabbaths. These are the commandments which are relevant to understanding the Sabbatical year and the real-estate ownership in the Land of Israel. Why specifically these commandments? And why does our parasha add the matter of do not place figured stones in your land to worship upon them and the command and fear my sanctuary, I am the Lord? In order to understand this, we must first consider the main characteristic of holy places.

The holy place represents a rendezvous between the earthly, material realm and the heavenly spiritual realm. The holy place lends meaning to the lives of the believers through the encounter with the world's hidden order, or with the religious entity who dwells within it. In this way, the holy place allows the community of believers direct communication with God, usually for purposes of attaining forgiveness and atonement - but not solely for those purposes. Many of the believers think that there they may be cured, gain success and redemption. Members of the societal elites use the holy place to settle judicial and political issues, and to gain legitimacy for their decisions and very sovereignty. Secondly, the holy place symbolizes the sublime within a physical reality; there the holy is anthropomorphized. These are translated into ritual acts and ceremonies which strengthen the encounter and create broad circles of support. Thirdly, the holy place is physically separated and temporally distinguished from its environment. The holy place is bounded; entry to it is limited and requires the completion of a series of rituals, especially rituals of purification. Only the exalted One, the holy One Whose place it is, is allowed permanent residence there. Those who serve the holy place or visit it are there on a temporary basis; it is only thanks to their duties that the priests are allowed to stay longer than the visitors. The latter are allowed or commanded to visit at appointed times, but not to stay there on a regular basis. The holy place contains a hierarchy of sites or rooms, whose graded holiness sorts out all comers, determining who will enter which spaces and for how long.

The holy place is connected to a salient material presence in which the encounter with the heavenly takes place: to a mountain, a tree, a boulder, or a river. In our own case, Mount Sinai marks the direct encounter with God. The connection of the physical to the heavenly is complicated and fragile. The danger exists that the believers will distort it, as R. Meir Simkha MiDvinsk warned:

Do not imagine, God forbid, that the Temple and the Tabernacle are holy in themselves. The blessed Lord dwells amongst his children, and if they transgress His covenant as one man all holiness is taken from them, and they become as profane vessels, which have been entered by robbers and defiled. Titus entered the Holy of Holies accompanied by a prostitute, and remained unharmed, for its holiness has been removed. Moreover, the Tablets written by God, even they are not holy in themselves, but only for you, and when the bride fornicated in her wedding canopy [a reference to the sin of the golden calf], they became as pottery shards, lacking any holiness of their own account - only for you [are they holy], when you observe [what is written on] them. (Meshekh Hokhmah on Shemot 32:19)

Idols and stone pillars are examples of the distortion which completely identifies the metaphysical Divinity with its physical symbol. That is why the Sages point out that Sinai was the lowest of mountains, and why Jewish tradition lacks knowledge of Sinai's exact location. Judaism wished to downplay the physical element in the encounter with God in order to keep it from becoming a cultic site.

In the beginning of the theophany at Sinai, God introduces Himself and immediately warns against depicting His non-material Being in a statue or pillar. This warning is all the more important when the religious experience of encounter with God is institutionalized in a holy place and in the Holy Land. The Land of Israel is rocky, and the Temple is built of stone. Boulders, mountains, pillars, and stones are characteristic of holy places in the biblical Land of Israel. There is a danger that the stone, the mountain, and the land will become sites of worship in their own rights, making those who dwell in the land idolaters. That is why our parasha warns us of worshiping figured stones. Stone, which is only the shell for meta-physical content, should not become an object of worship. Scripture immediately adds, observe My Sabbaths and fear my sanctuary, to teach us that holiness of place should be just like holiness of time. Time is non-material, abstract, and its sanctity cannot become an object of idolatrous worship; we should relate to holiness of place in the same vein. Fear of the Temple which Scripture requires of us does not come only to teach us fear of the God who dwells in the Temple, but also fear of turning the stone from which the Temple is built into something holy in its own right.

The Sabbatical year, which is observed only in the Holy Land, is also connected with this issue. Settlement of the Land of Israel invites the danger of the Israelites making an analogy between their ownership of real estate and its holiness: both may be thought to last eternally, and the rite of land-ownership can replace or overshadow one's direction of thought towards the immaterial God. In contrast, Scripture insists that the land shall not be sold for perpetuity, for the land is Mine, for you are strangers and residents unto Me. Redemption of the land does not mean its permanent ownership by Jews. Careful reading of the parasha reveals that the word redemption refers to temporary human ownership of land, houses, and slaves. The commandment of the Sabbatical year teaches that the soil of the holy place is mere matter, a platform for revelation and encounter with God.

Menachem Klein is a member of the editorial board of Shabbat Shalom and teaches in the Political Science Department of Bar-Ilan University

 

 

Holiness in Life is Connected to Covenant and Memory, not Dead Stones

You shall not make idols for yourselves, or set up for yourselves carved images or pillars, or place figured stones in your land to worship upon, for I the Lord am your God. You shall keep My Sabbaths and venerate My sanctuary, Mine, the Lord's.

(Vayikra 26:1-2)

 

Venerate My sanctuary - The Sabbatical year, for it is written, It shall be holy for you.

(Ibn Ezra ad loc)

 

It is My Sabbaths which will bring Me and My rule home to you wherever you are, and the sanctifying place which will win your whole life over to My Presence - My Sanctuary, the Sanctuary of My Torah. Hence, You shall keep My Sabbaths and venerate My sanctuary, Mine, the Lord's.

Not by means of statue and pillar, not by means of likeness and memorial stones have we to keep ourselves conscious of God and His rule; the Sabbaths of God, the Sabbath of Creation and the Sabbath of the Land, the Sabbatical year and Jubilee, which regulate the whole of our private and public lives with the thought "God," and by great acts of sacrifice make the acknowledgment of God real in our lives, as well as the Sabbaths of God in the wider sense, the appointed seasons of the Lord, the times of gathering and reunion dedicated to the memory of His rule and management, these are our sign and covenant, and appointed time. From these, not from molded dead stone, but from the symbols of acknowledgement, bond and memories woven out of the living tissue of our active life, not so much from them themselves as from the influence they have in forming the pattern of our daily lives, from these do we draw the inspiration which makes us find ourselves at one with God.

(Rabbi S.R. Hirsch ad loc, Levy translation )

 

The Sabbatical Year as an Egalitarian Experience that Promotes Peace

At the end of seven years: For the Sabbatical year also brings solidarity and peace, since during it there is no sowing or cultivation, and the nation's poor may eat [whatever grows by itself], for one is not allowed to keep the grain for oneself in the seventh year as the owner of the estate. This no doubt causes peace; since all conflicts derive from the notion "mine is mine" –which is to say - "all is mine." None of that happens in the seventh year because while in activity all are not equal, all are equal in inactivity, and that indeed is the essence of peace...

(Keli Yakar on Devarim 31:12)

 

 

 

 

 

If you enjoy Shabbat Shalom, please consider contributing towards its publication and distribution.

• Hebrew edition distributed in Israel $700
• 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.

In Israel, checks made out to Oz VeShalom may be sent to Oz VeShalom-P.O.B. 4433, Jerusalem 91043. Unfortunately there is no Israeli tax-exemption for local donations.

US and British tax exempt contributions to Oz VeShalom may be made through:

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

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

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE NEW ISRAEL FUND IS NO LONGER ACCEPTING DONATIONS UNDER $100.

PEF will also channel donations and provide a tax-exemption. Donations should be sent to P.E.F. Israel Endowment Funds, Inc., 317 Madison Ave., Suite 607, New York, New York 10017 USA

All contributions should be marked as donor-advised to OzVeShalom, the Shabbat Shalom project.

 

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.

5,000 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.