YOU MAY SOW YOUR FIELD FOR SIX YEARS, AND FOR SIX YEARS YOU MAY PRUNE YOUR VINEYARD, AND GATHER IN ITS PRODUCE, BUT IN THE SEVENTH YEAR, THE LAND SHALL HAVE A COMPLETE REST A SABBATH TO THE LORD; YOU SHALL NOT SOW YOUR FIELD, NOR SHALL YOU PRUNE YOUR VINEYARD.

(Vayikra 25:3-4)

 

The commandment of the Shemittah year is similar to the commandment of the Sabbath, since just as the commandment of the Sabbath serves to strengthen the belief in the peoples' heart that they are a holy nation, so too the commandment of Shemittah instills in their heart the belief that their land is a holy land since it rests in that year as God rested on the seventh day. See Don Yitzhak (Abarbanel's) pleasant words in his Nahalat Avot chapter five s.v. galut ba la'olam. Just as God gave them two portions of food on the sixth day while they were in the wilderness, so too when they dwelled in their land He would command His blessing towards them in the sixth year that there should be enough grain for the Shemittah year as well. The land's holiness was a strong factor keeping the people from making the land impure or desecrating it with abhorrent deeds. Necessarily, when the land rested the slaves and animals could also rest a bit from their labors, similarly to the way slaves and animals rest on the Sabbath. That year's grain was considered ownerless out of compassion for the poor; thus the wealthy and the indigent were made equal, and the wealthy man's pride was brought low, reminding him that all human beings are equal. The cancellation of debts is also a matter of compassion and grace towards the poor. Furthermore: just as the people were given other holidays beyond the Sabbath in which to rest and be joyful for God's sake, so too the Holy Land was given the Jubilee year in addition to the Shemittah year. Like the Sabbath and the Shemittah, the Jubilee makes the rich and the poor equal by taking a break from agriculture, and by making the crops ownerless; in addition, tracts of land return to their owners and slaves are set free [in the Jubilee year], and this is a great act of compassion towards the poor and a great reinforcement of equality among the citizens...

And for your slave and maidservant - It says in parashat Mishpatim: and the poor of your people shall eat it, and here it adds the slaves and residents who are not Israelites. Know that I possess a manuscript which has Rashi state regarding the verse and for your hired workers and your residents: "including gentiles" (not converts), and so it is found by R. Emmanuel Hai Ricci, and in Torat Kohanim Behar parsheta 1.

(ShaDaL Vayikra 25:2-6)

 

 

And the Sabbath of the land shall be yours to be eaten...

Oshrat Shoham

Parashat Behar begins with the commandment of Shemittah: When you come to the land that I am giving you, the land shall rest a Sabbath to the Lord - the land's Sabbath in the seventh year. After describing the preparations and prohibitions involved, the Torah concludes its account of the Shemittah with the verse, And [the produce of] the Sabbath of the land shall be yours to be eaten, for you, for your male and female slaves, and for your hired worker and resident who live with you.

In effect, the Torah distills the Shemittah, with its prohibitions of work in the field and vineyard with a general, egalitarian, and comprehensive expression: to be eaten [Hebrew: le'okhla]

This expression occurs only a few times in Scripture. Its first occurrence is in the end of the Creation story, in the twilight between man's creation and the completion of God's work, when God speaks His first words to man:

"Behold, I have given you every seed bearing herb, which is upon the surface of the entire earth, and every tree that has seed bearing fruit; it will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and to all the fowl of the heavens, and to everything that moves upon the earth, in which there is a living spirit, every green herb to eat [ le'okhla ]," and it was so. And God saw all that He had made, and behold it was very good

It appears that God's instruction to His creatures upon the completion of creation is to be found in the expression to eat - le'okhla, alongside be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and conquer it. Even if man is to be fruitful and multiply and to fill the earth and to even conquer and lord-over every living thing, human existence and the existence of the entire world depends upon the fulfillment of the clear instruction of le'okhla; not just the le'okhla of human beings, but also the le'okhla of every beast, fowl, or creeping thing. The perfect and original state of the world is one of harmony in which every living thing is provided with its appropriate le'okhla.

What is this guiding principle that stands at the foundations of the world's existence?

The second occurrence of the expression le'okhla in the Torah is found in God's command to Noah to enter the Ark with all the living things, "And you, take for yourself of every food that is eaten and gather it in to you, and it shall be for you and for them to eat[ le'okhla]" (Bereishit 6:21).

Noah, who was to preserve the existence of all the world's living things and to share the Ark with them, is told to collect enough food le'okhla - enough food to sustain the passengers of Creation's rescue-Ark.

The Torah's third use of the expression le'okhla is found in connection with the manna: When the children of Israel saw [it], they said to one another, "It is manna," because they did not know what it was, and Moses said to them, "It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat [le'okhla]. This is the thing that the Lord has commanded, Gather of it each one according to his eating capacity, an omer for each person ... And they measured [it] with an omer, and whoever gathered much did not have more, and whoever gathered little did not have less; each one according to his eating capacity, they gathered " (Shemot 16).

There is no doubt that one verse comes to interpret its fellow; the choice of the expression le'okhla is surely not accidental.

The detailed command that each person should collect manna, each according to his fill, each according to his precise needs without hoarding or accumulation constitutes an exegesis upon the expression le'okhla found in Bereishit. The secret to our survival is the readiness to make due with life's necessities according to our precise needs, whoever gathered much did not have more, and whoever gathered little did not have less. The situation described is not competitive; it is not a situation of power, rather a situation in which human needs are completely and fully met, but in a measured way.

It does not seem a mere coincidence that the manna as well as the rainbow displayed to Noah upon his emergence from the Ark both appear in the list of ten things that were created in the twilight of the first Sabbath eve (Avot 5), together with the primordial command of le'okhla. God's word at the completion of creation is accompanied by the creation of the rainbow which reminds us of how all the passengers of the Ark made do together with the food Noah had stored up; the manna teaches us how to deal with food and how to sustain ourselves.

And now, back to the Shemittah: It seems that the earlier uses of the expression le'okhla help us to understand that aspect of Shemittah. Now, in the seventh year, in the Shemittah, we again try to return to the state of Bereishit, to the Divine instruction given on the twilight of the first Sabbath eve according to which the earth and its fruits were given to us - its inhabitants - to eat le'okhla; we must restrict ourselves to filling our needs each one according to his eating capacity, as if we were living the primordial existence described in Bereishit or a miraculous existence like that in the wilderness, or as if we were together with the world's other creatures in the Ark. We must free ourselves of classes, free ourselves from power, competition, the accumulation of property and food, and be satisfied with le'okhla, that which we need to eat. It is not accidental that the Torah insists that le'okhla includes for your male and female slaves, and for your hired worker and resident who live with you.

We have wandered far from the primordial situation of man described in Bereishit and far from the generation that ate manna. We have stored up, accumulated, and fought. We are divided into classes and annihilate all living things. We have even strayed from the wilderness existence of whoever gathered much and whoever gathered little. However, once in seven years we once again "reconnect" to Bereishit, to the Ark, and to the wilderness, to the sufficient distribution of needed goods. We open our fields, our gardens, and our warehouses. We share the goods and limit our consumption to that which is genuinely needed.

Only by internalizing the value of le'okhla can the blessing and behold it was very good of Bereishit and our parasha's promise of and the land will then yield its fruit and you will eat to satiety, and live upon it securely be achieved.

Oshrat Shoham is a member of the Bak'a Egalitarian Minyan and a criminal attorney in the office of the Jerusalem district attorney.

 

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 its 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)

 

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)

 

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)

 

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

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)

 

You shall not therefore wrong one another, and you shall fear your God, for I the Lord am your God.

(Vayikra 25:17)

 

Our Rabbis taught: You shall not therefore wrong one another; Scripture refers to verbal wrongs... E.g., if a man is a penitent, one must not say to him, ‘Remember your former deeds.’ If he is the son of proselytes he must not be taunted with, ‘Remember the deeds of your ancestors. If he is a proselyte and comes to study the Torah, one must not say to him, ‘Shall the mouth that ate unclean and forbidden food, abominable and creeping things, come to study the Torah which was uttered by the mouth of Omnipotence!’ If he is visited by suffering, afflicted with disease, or has buried his children, one must not speak to him as his companions spoke to Job (4), Is not your fear [of God] your confidence, And your hope the integrity of your ways? Remember, I pray you, who ever perished, being innocent?...

            R. Yohanan said on the authority of R. Shimon b. Yohai: Verbal wrong is more heinous than monetary wrong, because of the first it is written, and you shall fear your God, but not of the second. R. Eleazar said: The one affects his [the victim's] person, the other [only] his money. R. Samuel b. Nahmani said: For the former restoration is possible, but not for the latter.

(Bava Metziya 58b, based on Soncino translation)

 

The admonition addresses all members of the nation together and says: they are not to hurt one another in any way, each one is to fear his God, is to know that He is equally the God of each of his brethren. Thereby is described what is to be the direct result of the institution of Shemittah and the Jubilee for the whole social life of the people in the land. Inasmuch as these institutions interweave the thought "God" into all business transactions, and inasmuch as they bring the thought continually to mind that all are living together on the same soil of God, in the same Land of God, where He is the Master and Owner of all possessions, and that in the exercise of this ownership He demands the tribute of acknowledging Him in the whole of business life: these institutions immediately beget the twin thought of these thoughts, viz., that the whole of one's life takes place under God's Eye, that God is present not only in the Temple but in the midst of all intercourse between people, that He only bears and blesses this intercourse and each individual of it in His Land if the intercourse tends to the happiness of all, where none hurts the other, no one misuses the position he may have won, or the breath he draws, in the Land of God, to the loss or mortification of others, and interweaves into every phase of private and public life that fundamental truth of all truths, with all its consequences, that I am the Lord your God.

(Rabbi S.R. Hirsch on Vayikra 25:17, Levi translation)

 

Readers respond

Regarding Menachem Klein's article, "And you shall remember that you were a slave" (Pesach issue)

Dr. Menachem Klein describes the connection between slavery and skin tone made by the medieval sages, writing: "The Sages and the medieval commentators thought that people of color - the descendants of Kush - were naturally disposed to enslavement." He continues: "The identification of slaves with the dark-skinned peoples is an extreme expression of another justification of slavery: that the slaves are naturally inferior. The racist apology for slavery is the extreme form of the notion that it is natural for the slave to be under his master's control. A slave regime is built upon the essential distinction between master and slave, which views the slave's inferiority and the master's mastery as natural and necessary." However, Dr. Klein calms us regarding the implications of these ideas for the modern world: "Today, when slavery is prohibited by accepted norms...we can remove the ethnic and essentialist label that distinguishes between the Canaanite and the Hebrew slave, etc." One might gain the impression from these words that racism towards people of different skin-color is a problem that has disappeared from the modern world. True, slavery, in the old sense of the word, no longer exists in the Western world. However, there remain differences between the ways people of different skin-color are assigned to different social classes. Often, skin-color constitutes a barrier keeping individuals and entire communities from studying in various educational institutions. It directs them to continue working in basic service occupations that garner them an especially low income. Unfortunately, we have only recently heard of many instances in which religious educational institutions fought to keep away students of Ethiopian extraction or to reduce their numbers. Do they cite the medieval exegetes to justify their racist positions? The modern problem of slavery will be decided in the educational system.

Yaron Shur, Jerusalem

 

Dr. Menachem Klein, author of the article, comments:

I am pleased that Yaron Shur has added to my words rather than contradicted them. In my article I mentioned that in parts of the world of slavery continue to persist in our day, such as the trade in women, which everyone agrees is more serious than the prejudice suffered by the Ethiopian immigrants due to their skin color. The trade in women involves the objectification of human beings and deprives them of ownership over their own bodies. Discriminatory practices in education and employment do not involve similar objectification but they do prevent equality of income and of opportunity and they must also be purged from our cities. There are various degrees of evil, and today's moral norms cannot be compared with those accepted not so many years ago by the same Western culture. As I have written: in issues of human rights and liberties, normative change precedes change in practice. The more we stress the norm the more we advance its application. We must not aspire to return to a situation in which there are Canaanite slaves and Hebrew slaves; rather, we must aspire to a world without slavery of any kind whatsoever.

 

 

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