Rashi asks a critical question on the very first posuk of our Parsha; “Hashem spoke to Moshe on Har Sinai, saying.” (Parsha Behar, Vayikra Perek 25, posuk 1) He asks why the laws of Shemittoh are singled out as having been given at Sinai. Were not all of the Mitzvot said at Sinai?” He answers that just as all of the Mitzvot; their general rules and their specifics were taught at Sinai, so too were the general rules and specifics regarding Shemittoh taught at Sinai. Rashi then reasons that the posuk comes to teach us that every utterance said to Moshe, they were all from Sinai.
The Hatam Sofer reiterates and expands on Rashi’s explanation. He asks “Why did the Torah list all of the specific rules of Shemittoh rather than doing so with any other commandment? The reason for doing this is because the laws of Shemittoh prove that the Torah was given in Shemayim (heaven). Had the Torah been of mortal origin, how could any human promise, ‘I will command My blessing during the sixth year and it will provide produce for three years’? — something which is beyond the realm of the natural, and a way to test whether Torah is genuine.” (Torah Gems, Aharon Yaakov Greenberg, Parsha Behar, page 331)
When contemplating this posuk, I can’t help but recall, my first introduction to observance some 17 years ago in East Windsor, NJ. As vivid as day, I recall Rav Motti Berger at an Aish HaTorah Shabbaton, giving his analogy on Shemittoh.
Rav Berger, in endeavoring to prove that Torah was real, genuine and from Shemayim, would ask how, if Torah was merely a nice document which a group of guys once got together in one guy’s basement to write as a set of guidelines for how men should properly live, how could mortal man make such a fantastic promise as Shemittoh? How could man promise that if we refrain from working the land in the seventh year, we would be provided for during the sixth year to sufficiently cover needs for the sixth, seventh and eighth years? People who were not previously knowledgeable in Shemittoh and who held that Torah was manmade were hard-pressed to disprove the fact that Torah was given to Moshe from Shemayim.
But alas, we have many of our generation living in Israel and in Chutz L’Aretz, including a hard-hearted, dictatorial leadership, whose blind, causeless hatred for Jewishness, observance, for Torah has blinded them to the divine, inseparable link between a Jew and His Land — Eretz Yisrael.
For us, the Land of Israel is a one-of-a-kind, exclusive, prime piece of real estate to be loved, embraced, possessed, tended and cared for. We see this precious, beautiful land, from Gush Katif to Chevron to the Banias, as a precious gift from G’d to his special bride, his unique people. We thank Hashem at every opportunity for giving us this glorious land and for the fact that we live here; in Jerusalem, in Chevron, in Tel Aviv, in S’fat, in Yehuda, the Shomron, the Golan.
But there are others, the haters of anything Jewish, the hard-hearted, the superficial among us, including another heartless, hateful, vindictive, self-interested, self-serving dictator, and his despicable circle of friends like Peres, Barak, Beilin, Sarid, Peretz, Ramon, Weissglas and others, who have lost touch with why they are here and view Eretz Yisrael as merely another common piece of real estate, kinda like Los Vegas.
Just another piece of real estate to be swapped because they hide their self-hatred for who and what they are behind the bogus demographic dud that they try to promulgate as the reason that we must “converge”, or “consolidate.” They pull out their bogus “p.a (sic)” statistics to cover up their self-enrichment schemes as Weissglas and his ilk still plan on raking in their chunk of projected Casino profits on the projected complex that they hope to build on ruins of former Jewish homes in Gush Katif. All the while, Kassams continue to fall in Sderot, Carmiya and Ashkelon. And eventually, if the trend is not reversed and the haters not casted out, the Kassams and Katyushas will chas v’chalila inevitably fall in Ashdod, Rechovot, Tel Aviv and maybe even Beit Shemesh.
And we ask the haters, what is so special, so Kaddosh about the so-called “Greenline?” What makes Ramat Aviv or Haifa or Netanya more Kaddosh, more special, more valuable than the rest of The Land with it’s connection, it’s inseparable link with thousands of years of Jewish heritage, history, service to Hashem and great Tzaddikim? And with Arabs and their illegal brothers walking loose inside the co-called “Greenline”, how can the Olmerts, the effete Leftist politico look straight-faced and directly, eye-to-eye at the populace which they neglect and continue to promulgate the absurd concept of “separation”?
May it be in this year and beyond, that our brethren; the refugee families from Gush Katif and the Shomron (may they soon be restored to new homes and neighborhoods, Bati Knesset, Yeshivot in Gush Katif and the Shomron and only happiness and success for all time), as well as our dear brother, Jonathan Pollard (may he soon know freedom and long life in Eretz Yisrael) be central in our thoughts, prayers, chassadim and actions. May this abominable period of history called hitnatkut be as a bad dream.
May we be zocha in this coming year to take giant steps toward fulfilling Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, “Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!
Good Shabbos!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of the Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.