Earth Day
Six years work your field, the seventh is shmitta. Six days we work and rest on the seventh. Are the two connected?
The Malbim suggests that it is: on Shabbos we cease work. We don’t work our servants or animals either. Yet our fields get no respite; even on Shabbos they continuing growing. This is rectified by Shmitta, when the lands loaf about, doing as they please.
A day in human terms is the revolution of the sun. But what is a day to Earth, who sees the sun all the time?
Earth-Day is the sun’s revolution in regard to itself – when the sun goes from North to South. Each year the Sun revolves the Earth from North to South. A day in the earth’s experience is a year, a full revolution.
Seven earth-days are seven years; the seventh is Earth-Shabbos!
You And Real Estate
A field that is sold can be redeemed until Yoval, when it then reverts back to its original owner. Same is with a house in an un-walled city.
But only one year is given to redeem a house sold in a walled city, thereafter, it belongs forever to the buyer. This applies to cities that are not Levite cities, those, however, can be redeemed forever because ‘they are their inheritance’. Why the difference between a field and a house in a walled city?
While man’s field is completely his own, his home is a partnership – for he is a partner in the city and its institutions. This has its many advantages, – such as busing, a library, police and fire services – but it means that his ownership is diminished. A neighbor is within his rights to build and expand next-door, causing hardship, noise and disturbance. Had one wished a place all to oneself, he can go build a house in the forest. Choosing to live in a city means living with others, sometimes with expense.
Perhaps this provides framework for the laws here; ownership in the city means less than owning in the fields. Accordingly, city houses have only one year of buyback. But Levi’im, for whom their cities are their only inheritance, can always buy back what they have sold.
One side notation: the Torah values having a homestead, a parcel of land belonging to him forever. He has extraordinary rights on that land, enabling him to buy it back against the wishes of the buyer.
Man is wired to worry about his future parnassah. Someone with land to support him feels some security in his life. This is important in being a whole, healthy person.
Family Matters, or Family; Matters!
Israel was parceled out to the original settlers according to families. Certainly within few generations, as the original portions were divided and subdivided, whole clans were living together. And someone who sold his lot when finances pressured him to, essentially left the group.
When Yoval came around, each man returned to his field. Clans reunited. People became whole. (Perhaps this is an additional level to ‘and each to his family return’, i.e. that he will return to his family group)
Families living together is a Torah value, beautiful and correct. When someone calls you ‘clannish’, thank him! We do care for others, but put on your own oxygen mask first…
What Exactly Was Given At Sinai?
‘…just as Shmitta was said with all it’s detail at Sinai, so were all the Mitzvos given in all their detail at Sinai’ (- Rashi)
Some Mitzvos, such as writing a sefer Torah and the laws of inheritance, the laws of kashering non-kosher vessels and so on, seem to have been definitely given later on. For they were said in response to certain situations that first arose years later, and the Torah indicates that new laws were given in response to the situation, laws that Moshe did not know.
So was it really ALL given in detail at Sinai?
Perhaps Rashi refers only to those Mitzvos repeated in the Torah; were these Mitzvos done in instalments, or was the general Mitzvah said at first and the details later, or was it all fully laid out at Sinai, and later merely repeated? Rashi explains that those that were said at Sinai were given in full detail. But perhaps other Mitzvos were not said at Sinai at all.
Any ideas?
Jewish Monopoly
A. If one buys a field, it reverts back at Yoval. B. A slave goes free at shmitta, and C. it is the buyer’s obligation to provide for the family of the slave in the interim. D. We must leave the fields free for all every seventh year and D. lend money for no charge. E. We are prohibited from making large profits (ona’ah) and F. houses are bought with the stipulation that they can be redeemed at the buying price. And so on.
These are some of the economic limitations the Torah places on amassing a monopoly. The Torah blocks against anyone gaining unusual wealth. It seems that the Torah ideal is that instead of one person making it big, everyone should be able to make ends meet.
The message seems to be; more is not better. Just as a pack-rat is simply a junker collecting stuff he will never use, so is someone collecting too much money collecting baggage he will never use. Life’s collecting focus ought to be on collecting virtue and collecting chessed. The Torah keeps us focused by discouraging excessive money-making.
Another aspect is social: big money means control. Why ought one person control an entire neighborhood? And simply by virtue of his being rich? Is that wise?
A third is that money makes money. Eventually the rich get richer and the poor poorer. That is not social equity.
There are many more things involved here. Our point here is merely that the Torah actively seeks to prevent monopoly. There are many good reasons why…
Un-Achievement
What does Shmitta really mean? It means that we are willing to cease producing. We self-negate, cease self-actuating and creating, and relinquish being useful. We do nothing in this year, and this is submitting to His rule.
For an accomplished man, the hardest thing is to stop achieving. Tell a gadol to stop learning Torah, and it is torture. Yet that too – even the drive to learn – is personal ego. And crowning Hashem means surrendering all. All.
Surrender is not depressing. On the contrary, it is exceptionally liberating, freeing a person from the weight of thinking that all depends on himself. And that is the work of the Shmitta year…
Bechukosai
Clean Focus
Do good, the Torah says, and ‘you will take out the old before the new’. Rashi explains that there will be a great overstock of grain, so that you will empty the granaries of the old stock and store it somewhere, to make place for the new.
Is having too much worthwhile? Wouldn’t it be better to have exactly what we need, and no baggage? What can we do with all the surplus???
Man is built to worry about his future. Theologically, worry makes sense: a contented person is not driven to grow. It’s spiritually healthy to be uncertain; on close tether, his concern for his livelihood keeps him praying to Hashem.
Too much worry, however, cripples. Sometimes one needs worries off his head, freeing him to concentrate on vitals. Having too much grain means that one is free of worry. Now he can grow.
Rabbenu Tam and his successor, the Ri, are reported to have taught Torah with a pile of gold ducats at their feet. This put their minds at ease, knowing they had financial security, and they gave their total attention to study.
Sometimes its important to be rich…(if only for financial reasons!)
Un-disgust
Hashem promises ‘I will put My Shchina amongst you; I shall not be disgusted by you’ If we do good, why would there be any thought that Hashem be disgusted by us?!?
The Shchina does not feel at home among humans. Objectively, we are disgusting – physical, lazy, stupid and fat. But the Shchina overlooks this, dwelling among us despite all. It is an act of love, a show of His relationship. Hashem is happy to sacrifice for His children, as a parent holds their child with a dirty diaper, out of love and devotion.
Manifestation of Providence in our lives shows not only has He allowed His presence to be felt, but also His self-sacrifice, controlling His disgust to be with us. We sense overriding love.
(Someone in Shul asked me ‘what have you thought of today?’, and I told him this thought. He replied ‘Keep your shoes on, will ya?’ I suspect he felt this was way over the top…)
Righteousness Prosperity?
The Torah says: Do Mitzvos and things will be great, do aveiros and it will be terrible. However our perception is that slimy people often live a good life. And that good men suffer too. The Mishna in Avos says ‘We do not understand the success of the wicked, nor the difficulties of the righteous’. Questions of ‘tzaddik v’ra lo, rasha v’tov lo’ are legion.
Is objective observation at odds with the Torah? Do we perceive the Torah to be false? More to the point; why would the Torah promise something that is demonstrably false?! (Why wouldn’t the Torah just not talk about it!? Isn’t that a lot smarter?)
X eats bran for breakfast, doesn’t smoke, and exercises regularly. Yet he dies at forty, by heart attack. How could it be – what of his lifestyle??
The life he led actually does prevent heart attacks. Yet despite the protection, sometimes genetics or a weak heart conspire to bring on a heart attack anyhow.
So too, doing mitzvos and keeping from sin generates prosperity. But it’s not the only player on the field. Other factors account too. Sometimes it may be good for us that things are tight financially, or our health be broken, so we may need Hashem. Sometimes we owe Hashem; He bestowed upon us more than our fair share, and payback time is come. Doing good is the greatest success factor, perhaps, but its not the only one.
In the greater scheme, wicked men fall and righteous men succeed. Long run – in the global picture – the good wins. The contradictions we notice are single exceptions; eddies in the current, small aberrations from the rule.
We do not understand them; we are quite chagrined by them. However they do not deny the overall rule; on the contrary, the surprise we feel underscores that they are exceptional. In contemporary idiom; the exception proves the rule.
In general, Hitlers die violent deaths. The Torah truth is indeed vindicated by our observations. The Torah is confident enough to express a truth even if its deniable. In fact, that’s the mark of a truthteller…
The Talking Sword
If we do wrong we incur ‘the sword, revenging the covenant’ (i.e. revenging that we did not keep our part of the covenant – performing mitzvos. – Onkelos).
Obviously the sword revenges the covenant – all catastrophes mentioned here do – but why mention it specifically now?
Jews are attacked for contradictory reasons; Jews are capitalists, Jews are communists. Jews are too religious, Jews deny G-d.
Jews tend to dismiss hate-talk as meaningless babble. The Torah says otherwise; a hint to why Hashem punishes them is in the patter of those who would kill them. If they say Jews are money grubbing, perhaps they are remiss in giving charity. If they deem Jews corrupt, Jews ought to doubly ensure their honesty.
Hashem puts a specific idea into the minds of their Haters, so that their hate and violence avenges a particular shortcoming. The enemy sword is not merely avenging discarding the Mitzvos, but even the nature of the sword will be an avenging sword, advertising the specifics of WHY it came.
We need to read swords very carefully, for they tell us their function. We can take cue from what caused them, to improve our act.
“And I shall command My blessing….”
Do farmers keeping shmitta need financial support? Glossy brochures in shul solicit help for these people, yet the Torah promises clearly; And shall you ask “what will we eat in the sixth year – we do not plant nor gather our crops? I shall command My blessing to you, and the fields hall produce [in the fifth year] enough for three years!”.
So why do they need money? What happened!?
We discussed a number of options;
1. Shmitta today is merely Rabbinic, not Biblical, therefore that blessing does not apply.
2. People have enough to survive. Its extras that they want. Those were never promised…
3. The promise indicates that the farmer intends to keep shmitta. However a farmer who does not intend to keep Shmitta will not merit any great blessing. These farmers first decided to keep Shmitta now, after the harvest, when it was too late for the blessing to work.
4. The blessing takes many forms. Although the plain reading is that the fields will simply produce more, we find that sometimes this was achieved by the enemy peoples running away and leaving their produce to the Jewish farmers. So too, the promise today can be achieved by other means, and one of them is by having concerned Jews help financially…
5. Finally, the blessing was promised in response to an ask – What will we eat in the eighth year? These farmers never asked, for they were promised financial support…
It All In The Ask
The Pasuk says that “if you will ask What shall I eat in the eighth year…”.
When the Jews were trapped at the Yam Suf they asked for salvation, and then the sea split. When they subsequently needed water they asked it of Moshe, and received the Be’er. When the needed food, they asked and were granted the Mun.
Why did they always need to ask? Why could it not be given on the basis of their need alone?
I don’t know. But it does seem that asking is necessary. To receive one must ask…
A Nation Of Priests
The Sefer Hachinuch describes the effects of Maaser Sheni. He describes how a man would set aside ten percent of his crop each year (a bit less, actually almost nine percent, after reckoning Maaser Rishon into the story) and bring it to be eaten in Jerusalem. As each man and his family are in Jerusalem only a few days out of the year, there was naturally a vast surplus of grain that needed to be left behind in safekeeping, reserved exclusively for eating in Jerusalem. What did people do with it? How could they possibly dispose of it (no, they could not sell it to their neighbor – he had his own overstock in Jerusalem as well!)??
What actually ended up happening was that a man would send a son or two to stay and study in Jerusalem, and live off the family grain reserves. It cost him nothing for the kid’s upkeep, for the food was already there, and this was the only rational thing to do. The son would spend a few years in the Holy city, visiting the Beis Hamidkash, and soaking up wisdom and piety.
Eventually, every home across Israel had a few sons who were talmidei chachamim, well versed in halacha, who would return home and influence their brethren. The effect on the nation was awesome. It turned all of Israel into a G-d-fearing folk, a people attached to their G-d. Simple Maaser Sheni!
Price It Right
A cardinal fact of Human attitude is that a man will pay more to protect is money than his money is worth. In other words, a person values money he already has above money he can gain. He will invest an hour to save $10, even though he profits $20 an hour from his labor. Makes no sense.
The Torah teaches in a number of cases – a person who redeems a working animal that he had dedicated to Hekdesh, or a field he dedicated to Hekdesh, or redeems his own maaser sheni – that an owner adds a fifth to the price. The simple idea is that the money is indeed worth more to its owner, and therefore he ought to pay more. How much more? One fifth. The Torah recognizes this attitude, and prescribes a one fifth value increase to it.