Introduction to Parashat Hashavua
Yeshivat Har Etzion

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YCT and Michlelet Herzog's Yemei Iyun
on Bible and Jewish Thought

Tuesday, June 27, 2006 - Thursday, June 29, 2006

At Ma'ayanot Yeshiva High School, Teaneck, NJ

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PARASHAT BEHAR-BECHUKOTAI

Context and Content

by Rav Michael Hattin

INTRODUCTION – Parashat Behar

            With the reading of the double section of Behar and Bechukotai, the book of Vayikra draws to a close.  Parashat Behar begins with the provisions of the Shemitta/sabbatical year and the Yovel/jubilee observance, both of which involve temporary suspensions of agricultural activity and abolition of land ownership.  During the seventh year of the Shemitta, the farmer is abruptly divested of the ability to cultivate his land.  He may not work his fields and all people (and even beasts) may freely partake of the produce of the land that has grown of its own accord.  The Yovel, falling in the fiftieth year after seven Shemitta cycles have been counted, has the additional effect of restoring ancestral lands to their original owners.  Any real estate, excluding that of walled or Levitical cities, that has been bought during the intervening forty-nine years, is now returned to its earliest title-holder.

            The overall effect of these statutes, that highlight human mortality and Divine eternity, is to discourage acquisitiveness and rapacious greed, the buying up of land and assets that, unchecked, frequently become an insatiable and consuming drive.  Instead, the Shemitta and Yovel provide us with an opportunity to "let go," so that we might refocus our priorities on those things that are lasting and of ultimate meaning.  The rest of the Parasha – prohibiting the taking of interest, mandating the release of Hebrew slaves, and commanding the redemption of indentured Hebrew servants from their pagan owners – constitutes an extension of these basic principles that are at the core of the Shemitta and Yovel observances.   When human beings are freed from the bonds of avarice and released from the all-consuming jaws of materiality, they are then able to identify with the plight of the less fortunate and devote themselves to their rehabilitation.

INTRODUCTION – Parashat Bechukotai

            Parashat Bechukotai opens with the so-called "Blessings and Curses," a lengthy series of rewards and punishments that lie in store for the people of Israel when they enter the land, as a direct function of either their allegiance to the provisions of the Torah or else their abrogation of them.  The blessings pertain to rainfall, agricultural bounty, physical health and security, political stability and the overarching experience of Divine proximity and closeness.  The curses, constituting a much lengthier litany, relate to the antitheses of these things – drought, famine, illness and uncertainty, subjugation to oppressors, exile and the terrible anguish of Divine remoteness and indifference.  The ominous tone of the section, though it does end on a hopeful note, long ago inspired the Rabbis to assign it with a particular moniker: the "Admonition."  The provisions of this admonition are in fact the conditions of a formal covenant, for Israel is called upon to fulfill their obligations to God while He in turn obligates Himself to make them His special nation.  Climactically, the passage concludes: "I will remember the covenant with the earlier ones, for I took them out of the land of Egypt in sight of the nations so that I might be their Lord, I am God…" (26:46).

            The second half of Parashat Bechukotai introduces the matter of pledges and valuations.  Should a person desire to contribute to the House of God, he may choose to pledge his worth or "erekh" where this valuation is exclusively a function of his biological age.  Thus, this valuation fluctuates in accordance with lifespan, so that the most productive years between the ages of twenty and sixty are valued highest.   Alternatively, a man may decide to contribute an animal as a sacrifice, but if that animal is blemished, then its value must be assessed by the ministering priests and forfeited by the owner.  Should a man dedicate either his house or else his field, then redemption of the said object from the Temple treasury involves the payment of a 25% premium.  With these provisions, emphasizing the centrality of the Mishkan on the one hand and the importance of fulfilling one's pledge and keeping one's word on the other, the book of Vayikra appropriately ends.  Leviticus, much of which concerned the laws of the Mishkan and their relevance to the people of Israel, is thus concluded.

AN UNCOMFORTABLE JOINT

            While each one of these Parashiyot is entirely comprehensible as a freestanding unit, the meaning of the textual joint between them is less clear.  Parashat Behar, concerned as we have said with agricultural and economic laws that are calculated to inculcate recognition of God's sovereignty and its corollary of appreciation of another's vulnerability, winds down with a summary proclamation:

For the people of Israel are servants to Me, they are My servants whom I have freed from the land of Egypt, I am God your Lord! (26:55).

            Parashat Bechukotai, pivoting upon the covenant between God and Israel and the centrality of fulfillment of pledges, fittingly begins with the conditional associated with the observance of God's laws:

If you will follow My statues and observe My commandments to do them, then I shall grant you your rain in its right season so that the land will give forth its bounty and the trees of the field will give forth their fruit… (26:3-4).

But right in between these two sections, uncomfortably wedged with no apparent link to either one of them, are the following verses:

Do not fashion for yourselves idols, do not erect for yourselves sculpted images or cultic pillars, and do not place ornamented stones in your land to bow down upon them, for I am God your Lord.  Observe my Sabbaths and revere My holy place, I am God (26:1-2).

            The lack of an obvious relationship between these verses and the rest of Parashat Behar can be gauged by the fact that the numerator of the chapters (who, admittedly, was neither Jewish nor sensitive to the section divisions made sacred by Jewish tradition) assigned these verses to the beginning of Chapter 26, as if they were some sort of an introduction to Parashat Bechukotai.  But the paragraph break preserved in the original Hebrew text, consisting of a so-called "parasha petucha" or "blank space" at the end of verse 2, makes it clear that these verses are rather to be regarded as the conclusion of Parashat Behar.  What, then, might be the connection between them and the end of Parashat Behar?  What might be the association between the laws of Shemitta, Yovel and compassionate capitalism, and the prohibitions of idolatry and then reverence for the Shabbat and Temple?

RASHI'S READING

            It is Rashi who, in uncharacteristically lengthy comments, alerts us to the possibility that the sections of Parashat Behar may in fact represent a progression and that the final section may in fact constitute a climax:

Do not fashion for yourselves idols – this refers to one who has been sold to a pagan.  Let him not say: "since my master is sexually immoral, I will follow his example.  Since my master serves idols, I will follow his example.  Since my master desecrates the Shabbat, I will follow his example."  Therefore are these provisions stated now.  All of the sections of the Parasha are also ordered deliberately.  At the outset, the text warned about observing the Sabbatical year.  If a person coveted money so that he was suspected of not observing the Shemitta, then in the end he will be forced to sell his possessions.  Therefore, the section concerning "sale of objects" (25:14) followed.  If he refuses to mend his ways, then in the end he will be forced to sell his ancestral land.  If he refuses to mend his ways, then in the end he will be forced to sell his house.  If he refuses to mend his ways, then in the end he will be forced to borrow with interest.  All of these latter developments are more grave than the former ones.  If he refuses to mend his ways, then in the end he will be forced to sell himself.  If he refuses to mend his ways, then in the end not only will he be forced to sell himself to another Israelite, but even to a pagan! (commentary to 26:1).

            In his explanation that is based upon an earlier Rabbinic source (see Talmud Bavli Tractate Kiddushin 20a), Rashi remarks that Parashat Behar begins with the command to observe the Sabbatical year and then proceeds to discuss various laws of selling items.  Laws governing the sale of objects (25:14-18), land (25:25-28) and houses (25:29-34) are followed by the prohibition of usury and interest (25:35-38).  These sections are immediately succeeded in turn by laws delineating the sale and humane treatment of Hebrew slaves (25:39-42) and finally by laws that govern the redemption of Jewish slaves from their pagan owners (25:47-55).  And at the very end, our curious verses concerning idolatry, Shabbat observance and reverence for the Temple are introduced (26:1-2).  This is to suggest, says Rashi, that the sections are organized in ascending order, so that each new provision represents the natural consequence of the one that preceded it.  Failure to observe the Sabbatical year indicates an unhealthy craving for material wealth, as if the perpetrator cannot bear to relax his acquisitive desires in order to relinquish working the land or else illegally selling its produce.  The Divine displeasure directed towards the perpetrator will in then end cause him financial loss so that he will be forced to sell his possessions.  But even that may not be enough to spur the transgressor to undertake the process of teshuva and restitution, and thus the downward spiral will continue.  Finally the perpetrator, who had so innocently initiated the process by peddling produce of the Sabbatical year, will be sold to a pagan owner and succumb to idolatry, immorality and Sabbath desecration!

UNDERSTANDING AND APPRECIATING RASHI'S MOTIVES AND METHODOLOGY

            Rashi's explanation does overlook a number of textual anomalies that fail to fit the pattern, such as the Divine promise of superabundance during the sixth year (25:19-24) or the laws governing non-Hebrew slaves (25:43-46).  The underlying premise, that these sections are communicated by the narrative from the perspective of the transgressor, is also somewhat forced.  But often Rashi's intent, it should be emphasized, is not to present us with the most straightforward and reasonable reading of the text but rather to introduce us to an important ethical idea.  For Rashi, this more "midrashic" type of reading, although it may not be contextual, is critical, because the Torah demands of us more than the resolution of textual problems.  The Torah demands of us ethical and spiritual development.  And if this be the yardstick, then Rashi's explanation is nothing short of brilliant. 

            How accurately is Rashi's reading able to convey something of the insidious nature of transgression and sin, such that even relatively minor infractions (such as selling the produce of the seventh year), if not corrected, may incrementally but directly lead to the most serious transgressions of all – idolatry, immorality, and Shabbat desecration!  And in particular, claims Rashi, the root cause of the problem is a seemingly insignificant covetousness for money and gain!  In this way, Rashi succeeds not only in broadening the fundamental Shemitta theme of relinquishment so that it permeates the entire Parasha, but also in neatly (if somewhat artificially) tying together all of its sections as well as explaining its otherwise curious and disjointed conclusion.

CONCLUSION

            This year, we celebrate the 900^th year since Rashi's death.  In many Jewish communities in Israel and in the Diaspora, the anniversary is being marked and commemorated with learning seminars, public conferences and symposia.  All of this attention is for a simple reason: there is no commentator who has had such a profound effect on the study of Torah as Rashi.  His explanations on the Tanakh and especially his commentary on the Talmud are the starting point for every serious student of those fundamental texts of Jewish tradition.  And nine centuries after his demise, we continue to ponder his words and his ideas with our enthusiasm undiminished!  Though the later rationalist commentaries such as Rashbam and Ibn Ezra tended to downplay Rashi's approach, and luminaries such as the Ramban often disagreed with Rashi's reading, no one could deny the enormity of his contribution to the explication of the Torah.  May we continue to occupy ourselves with Rashi's explanations and be inspired by his words.

Shabbat Shalom