Perashot Behar-Behukotay 5778

Perashot Behar-Behukotay 5778

Perashat Behar begins by speaking about the laws of Shemittah, the Sabbatical Year in which we allow the land to rest. The commentaries point out that the Torah gives unique importance to this missvah by stressing that this was commanded "on Mount Sinai", something that is not mentioned for any other missvah, and also by comparing Shemittah to Shabbat in several different Pesukim, such as "Shabbat onto G-d" (Vayikra 25:2). Why is such importance given to this agricultural law?

The Rambam suggested that Shemittah is simply agriculturally beneficial to the land. By allowing the land to lie fallow for a year it renews itself after being drained of its nutrients. Other commentators disagreed with Rambam by pointing to the pasuk in this week's perasha, "I will command My blessing for you in the sixth year, and it will yield produce for three years" (Vayikra 25:21). If Shemittah is meant to rejuvenate the land, how can we explain a yield of three times as much as previous years?

The great sage the Ketab Sofer offers a magnificent idea: Shemittah is purely a lesson in faith. A farmer wakes up early each day and diligently works his field. When it is time to harvest his crop, it's natural for him to think that the harvest produced is a direct result of the hard work that he invested in his field. He starts singing to himself, "My strength and the might of my hand that has accumulated this wealth for me" (Deuteronomy 8:17). To counter such presumptions, the Torah commands us to pause from working the land for an entire year. Someone without faith would question a commandment that prevents the farmer from making a living for an entire year. However, to our astonishment, not only does the farmer not incur any financial loss, his land yields more blessings when it is given a respite in the seven-year cycle than when it was tilled for six years straight.

This Sunday we will be celebrating fifty-one years since Israel's wondrous victory in the Six-Day War and the subsequent reunification of Jerusalem under our control. Just like the Shemittah, G-d showed us in the Six-Day War that it is not our might that achieved the victory. According to all the military analysts and pundits, Israel was extremely outmatched and destined for a cruel defeat. The IDF had half the amount of troops than the combined Iraqi, Syrian, Jordanian and Egyptian armies. The unified Arab forces had double the number of tanks and close to four times the amount of combat aircraft. The weeks preceding the Six-Day War were terrifying days for the Jewish population in Israel.

However, miracles atop of miracles ensued, and by the time the war ended, Israel had successfully defended itself against its enemies and tripled in size! Above all else, Jews returned to Jerusalem and our holiest sites. We returned to our Patriarchs and to our Matriarchs in Hebron and Bet Lechem. And all of this in just six days.
We must always remember that it is not our might and strength that brings us success but rather when we put our trust in Hashem we will be exponentially blessed.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Mimoun Miller