behar
5771 פרשת בהר
In this week’s Parsha the Torah spends almost all of the Parsha describing all the detailed Halachos that relate to the year of Shemittah and Yovel as well as the laws that relate to how properties that were sold can be redeemed. The Parsha ends with two Halachos that have already been mentioned in other places. Those 2 Halachos are to guard the Shabbos and fear my Beis Hamikdash to which the Parsha ends I am God.
The Siforno explains that this Pasuk is teaching us two Halachos that we had not yet learned. The first is that even when Bnei Yisroel is in Galus we must keep Shabbos. The Siforno explains that the reason a person might think he would not have to keep Shabbos in the exile is that Shabbos is a remembrance of freedom and if we are in exile we should not keep Shabbos so the Torah tells us that no matter what our situations we must continue to keep Shabbos.
The other Halacha that we are being taught is that even when we do not have a Beis Hamikdash when we are in exile we still have to treat our shuls and Batei Midrash with respect as they are considered to be a Mikdash Me’at .
If we look at this Siforno a little bit closer we can ask the following question. These two Halachos as important as they are seem to be out of place in the context of the Parsha. As we mentioned above the focus of the Parsha was on Mitzvos that actually did relate to the periods that Bnei Yisroel were living in their land so why would the Torah place two seemingly unrelated Halachos that relate to periods of time when Bnei Yisroel was in exile.
The answer could be that in essence the Torah is teaching us a very important lesson. A person can feel that, when we are living in a time of exile where we no longer have a Beis Hamikdash and many of the Mitzvos that we were given we can’t do, that the bond we had with God is not the same and our ability to get close to God is not the same after all our years in the exile.
However, that is not the case as the Siforno explains to us that Shabbos even though it symbolizes freedom (many different aspects of freedom) still applies the exact same way when we are in exile as it did when we were ruling ourselves in our own land. The same thing applies to the fact that we must treat our shuls and Batei Midrash with awe similar to the way we treated the Beis Hamikdash albeit with some small differences. Both of these laws reiterate to us the fact that even though we are in the midst of a long exile God is constantly with us and the bond symbolized by Shabbos and the connection we had with the Beis Hamikdash is still with us and we can still be very close to God.
With this idea we can now explain why the Torah placed these two Halachos after the laws that applied only when we lived and ruled ourselves in Eretz Yisroel. At a time when we would feel despondent by the fact that we are in exile after learning the laws that applied to a period when we had true self rule in Eretz Yisroel the Torah gives us chizuk and reminds us that even though we are in exile the bond between us and God is still very strong and will never ever be broken.
5770 פרשת בהר- בחוקתי
In this week’s Parsha, the Torah tells us about the rewards that Bnei Yisroel will receive if they do the Mitzvos and the punishments that Bnei Yisroel will receive if on the other hand they do not keep the Mitzvos. When the Torah begins describing what things are in the category of keeping the Mitzvos it begins with the words “If you go in the way of the chukim”.
The commentaries explain that when the Torah says the word chukim, it is talking about expensing effort to learn Torah.
The Ohr Hachayim asks, why is it that when discussing toiling in the learning of Torah does the Torah use the language of chukim which is used to mean a law that we do not understand?
The Ohr Hachayim explains that it is a Mitzvah to learn something over and over again with tremendous effort even if it is something he already knows. This is inherently something we would not understand. The Ohr Hachayim continues and explains that toiling in Torah is so important that God decreed that a person will forget what he learned if he doesn’t keep learning the same things over and over with effort.
If we look at this Ohr Hachayim more closely, we can ask the following question. Why would God need to create a situation where a person needs to forget his learning in order to ensure that he learns with effort? Why should this be different than any other Mitzvah in the Torah that God commanded us which we do many times?
The answer can be that the nature of a person is to always do something that they feel is constructive. If a person felt that he already knew a certain part of the Torah then naturally he would not feel a sense of accomplishment when he would do it again. This is actually true regarding other Mitzvos too, however by other Mitzvos if a person doesn’t do the Mitzvah with all his energy and desire he might not accomplish the Mitzvah to perfection but it won’t impact his overall Service of God. Learning Torah, on the other hand, if it is not learned with energy and desire could potentially impact a person’s overall Service of God. This could be why God had to put it into the nature of a person to forget his learning if he did not constantly review it. However, this is not the best way a person should want to learn Torah but rather it can be used as a tool to help a person get to the highest level of toiling in Torah which is the appreciation of the tremendous reward that a person will get for learning Torah.
This is actually what we ask for when we say in Birchas Hatorah every morning, “Make the words of Torah sweet in our mouths…” We ask God to give us the desire to love learning Torah so that we will constantly learn Torah with all our efforts which as Chazal explain is the foundation for Bnei Yisroel to successfully fight the Yetzer Hara and keep the Mitzvos.
פרשת בהר – בחקותי 5769
In this week’s Parsha the Torah brings down the Halacha of “Lo Tonu” which the Rabbeinu Bechai interprets as a prohibition on hurting another person with words or purposefully giving him bad advice.
The Rabbeinu Bechai brings down a Gemara that says that all the gates of Heaven are closed except for the gate of those people who were hurt through the words of others.
The Rabbeinu Bechai is bothered by why this particular Heavenly gate is always open, while many others are not open to us all the time.
The Rabbeinu Bechai answers that when a person has been hurt, his suffering is intense and because of his immense suffering he is able to pray with more intensity and concentration and feeling and he will therefore be answered.
If we look at this Rabbeinu Bechai a little more closely we can ask the following question:
If according to Rabbeinu Bechai, the reason that someone who was hurt by someone else’s words has a constant open door to God is due to the intensity of his prayers, why does the Gemara say that it is the gate of Ona’ah that is always open, it should have rather said the gate of those who pray with the proper kavanah is always open?
The answer can be that the Rabbeinu Bechai is teaching us a very important lesson about how we connect to God. A person who is going through his regular life without feeling any pain will have tremendous difficulty truly davening to God with the required kavanah for which the gates of Heaven are never shut as we see on a daily basis with our own prayers. However, once a person is suffering, he is able to turn to God in a way that would not have been possible without the suffering. This does not mean that a person who is not suffering can’t have a great davening; it is just that on a regular basis his prayer won’t have the same high level kavanah and feeling as it would when he is suffering. There is of course one caveat to this idea which is that a person does not necessarily have to be suffering himself to reach this level of Prayer; if he can feel the pain of someone else’s suffering the same way that he would feel for his own suffering his prayers can also reach this high level.
We see from here a very important idea which is that we all don’t live lives where everything is “good” all the time especially in these times of tremendous turmoil. When things are difficult we should not complain but we should take advantage of the opportunity to turn to God with a complete heart in prayer with the knowledge that with that level of proper prayer the gates will never be closed to our Tefilos and God wants us to turn to Him and he will help us get through these difficult times.
5768פרשת בהר
In this week’s Parsha the Torah discusses the laws in detail that relate to the Mitzvos of Shemittah and Yoveil. One of the laws that relates to the Yoveil is that all fields that were sold had to be returned to their original owners. The Torah then continues on and tells us:
Since the land will return to the owners at Yoveil, this will naturally impact on the price one should pay when purchasing land. The more years a purchaser will be able to benefit from the land, the more he should pay and visa versa.
The Sipurno explains the price differential the following way:
When a person buys a field for many years he should pay more per year than a one year rental since if he has it for many years he doesn’t only have the ability to plant the fields, he can also put up barns and bird coops; while if a person buys a field close to Yoveil he should pay less than the price of a regular one year rental since he is limited to hat he can plant there since when the land goes back in Yoveil it must be in the same condition as when it was sold to him (preventing the buyer from planting certain crops).
In the Pasuk right after bringing this law regarding purchases of land the Torah tells us the following prohibition:
A person should not defraud another person and you should fear God because I am your God.
The Sipurno on this Pasuk explains:
Do not defraud a person even through just giving him bad advice, I am the God of the seller and the purchaser and I care that none of them are defrauded.
The Torah then continues and gives Bnei Yisroel a promise that if they keep the laws of the Shemittah and Yoveil they will be secure in their land. However, the Pasuk uses two different languages when describing the laws that must be kept to merit this blessing of security: The first one is Chukos and the second one is Mishpat. The Sipurno explains the two different words the following way:
Chukos relates to the laws of Shemittah and Yoveil while the word Mishpat refers to not defrauding another person in business transactions.
If we follow the explanation of the Sipurno for the Parsha of Shemittah and Yoveil the following questions arise:
Firstly, it appears from the Sipurno that the Torah is coming to tell people specifics in how to make a particular business deal and to keep in mind what the person can use the field for when setting the price. The Torah does not have in it one extra word, couldn’t the Torah just said the words ”do not defraud” instead of saying of the full 10 words of what exactly was prohibited to do which would seem to be telling us what things must be kept in mind when setting the price. This would seem to be a business decision more than anything else. If a person is warned not to cheat he will make sure to set the price properly so why does the Torah need to go into so much detail?
Secondly, why does the Torah bring down the prohibition of defrauding someone right after the Mitzvah of Yoveil instead of together with the other prohibitions of stealing or together with other commandments relating to the mitzvos between man and his fellow man ?
Thirdly, the promise the God gives us of living securely in Eretz Yisroel seems to be tied to keeping the commandments relating to Shemittah and Yoveil and also to keeping the laws relating to not defrauding another person. What is the connection between these two laws, Shemittah and Yoveil relate to commandments between Man and God, while not defrauding someone relates to Mitzvos between Man and Man?
The answer is that there are two totally different ways that a person can cheat another person. The first way is to actively steal from him. For example, a person who purposely writes bad checks or uses someone else’s identity is defrauding a person but in a way that is clearly criminal. However, a person can defraud someone in his business dealings with another person where the misleading would not be obvious or even clear to the person who was defrauded. For example, if a person who is an expert in a certain type of merchandise and sells something that is not the highest level of quality for the higher price, even though the purchaser may never have any problem with the slightly lower level merchandise, the price was still too high and the purchaser was technically defrauded. Most people would never even consider doing the first type of fraud since they would feel, and rightly so, that it is 100% stealing. However, many people in their business are involved in the second type of Torah defined “fraud” without even thinking they are doing anything wrong as “this is business”.
With this idea we can now answer all of our questions. The reason the Torah was very specific in the type of things a person should keep in mind when doing business is to remind us that just because we are making business deals everything should be taken into consideration when selling to someone so no “fraud” would come about even accidentally Ensuring that we realize how far the prohibition of stealing goes required the Torah to use 8 extra words.
Now we can answer the second question also. The reason the Torah brought the prohibition of ”do not defraud” here is to show us that even what we would consider innocuous and not even wrong, the Torah must reiterate is still prohibited and is truly a type of stealing.
Now let us try to answer the last question. Why would a person feel the necessity to not be 100% honest in his business dealings? The answer is that he feels that he needs the money this “dishonesty” will afford him. The reason a person would think that way is only because they don’t have complete trust in God that whatever he is supposed to get and needs God will provide. Since he doesn’t trust God, he feels he must get the money himself. The concept of not working in the year of Shemittah and Yoveil is to help people realize that everything comes from God and that we should have complete trust in God. The reasons for both of them are the same and if a person truly keeps Shemittah and fully trusts God he will inherently not fall into the trap of the Yetzer Harah to be anything less than 100% honest.
Since today most of us are not farmers and never have the opportunity to work on our level of trust in God through keeping Shemittah, we must get it through learning Mussar and trying to see God’s hand in our life which will help us remember that he is always running the world. If we can work on this, we should merit being able to keep the Mitzvah of Yoveil again with the coming of the redemption in our lifetime.
5767 פרשת בהר – בחוקתי
This week’s Parsha discusses the Mitzvah of Shmittah and its many laws. However, when giving over the Mitzvah the Torah uses the following very interesting language:
And the land should rest a rest to God.
The Sipurno explains what is meant by the words ”rest to God” the following way:
The entire year that you are stopped from working in the fields should be set aside for serving God.
It seems from this Sipurno that if the Torah didn’t specifically tell us that when the farmers don’t work the fields they should learn Torah then the farmers would just sit back and waste their time.
Let us look at this Sipurno more closely and we can learn a very important lesson.
First of all, we know that every day of our lives we are required to spend completely in learning Torah and doing acts of kindness and other assorted Mitzvos, however we also have a requirement to make a living so the Torah gave us the Mitzvah to go and support our families along with many Mitzvos that relate to our work.
If a person would not have the need to earn a living then he would be required to spend his day fully involved in learning Torah, teaching Torah, doing acts of kindness, basically a life totally involved in the service of God.
This would seem to be the case in the year of Shemittah. God gave a promise to Bnei Yisroel that they will have such a bounty of crops in the sixth year, it will last until the harvest in the 9th year. If that is the case, there is no issue of needing to earn a livelihood so a person’s natural requirement returns, so why does the Torah have to specify that this is a year that is set aside forservice of God’, it is obvious to all.
To make the question even stronger, as we see from our own times, the people who keep Shemittah are people of high levels of faith in God and in many cases see with their own eyes the miracles that God does in the sixth year to provide enough food for those who keep Shemittah for 3 years. Would these people need to be warned that the year of Shemittah is set aside only for service of God?
The answer can be based upon an idea that I heard from a Rebbe of mine. The nature of a person is such that if a person knows they have a lot of time to get something accomplished they will not be as rushed to accomplish it as when time is short. This is something we see in all our lives, for example cramming for tests. If we put in the same effort every night for two weeks that we put in the night before everyone would ace their exams with no problem. However, that is not human nature. The same thing applies to learning. If a person feels that they have plenty of time to learn they won’t feel the urgency to put in maximum effort every day. In order to really be successful in every thing we do in life, we must try to conquer this charachter flaw as best as we can.
This is what the Sipurno is telling us. The Torah had to warn Bnei Yisroel that the year is specifically for service of God in order that their natural tendency to procrastinate would not cause them to lose out on the potential gain in Ruchnius.
If we can work on ourselves and try to put maximum effort into our service of God everyday, God should be assist us to have a long life filled with Torah and Mitzvos where we can see the rebuilding of the Beis Hamikdash and the return of many of the Mitzvos discussed in this week’s Parsha that only apply in the time of the Beis Hamikdash.