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 18 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 man-made 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 and, of course in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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 Peretz, Livni, Barak, Beilin, Sarid, Peres, Ramon, Snei and others, who have lost touch with how they got here, 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, or whatever other bogus, contrived statistics to cover up their craving for divorce from anything jewish and their self-enrichment schemes. All the while, Kassams continue to fall in Sderot, Carmiya and Ashkelon. And eventually, if the trend is not reversed and the haters not cast out of governing power, 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 Kadosh 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? Isn’t all of Eretz Yisrael imbued with the connection, the inseparable link with thousands of years of Jewish heritage, history, service to Hashem and great Tzadikkim? 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”, expulsion, consolidation or whatever misleading title assigned it at any given time?
And there are still others, the Gimmel Hareidim who claim to cleave to Torah but who silently, sheepishly waited for their leaders regarding the expulsion of their fellow Jews. Their leaders didn’t lead but joined a coalition with rashayim just as
May we be zocha in this coming year that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole, that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard and the 3 captive Chayalim and the other MIAs be liberated and returned to us and that we fulfill 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, as Dov Shurin sings; “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.
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