INTRODUCTION TO PARASHAT HASHAVUA

PARASHAT BEHAR

by Rabbi Avi Baumol

"And On The Seventh - A Sabbath"

The Miracles of Shemitta and Manna

            Parashat Behar focuses almost exclusively on two commandments relating to living in the land of Israel - Shemitta (Sabbatical year) and Yovel (Jubilee year). Upon inheriting their land, the children of Israel are commanded to keep a count of the seventh and fiftieth years.

"And you shall count seven years, seven times, adding up to forty nine years.  And you shall sound the Shofar on the seventh month... on the day of Atonement.... And you shall make holy the fiftieth year, calling out freedom to the land and its inhabitants..." (Leviticus, 25:8-9)

            Interrupting the typical opening pasuk ("And God spoke to Moses, saying") are the words "Behar Sinai," (And God spoke to Moses - at Mount Sinai - saying"), yet an entire book has passed since the revelation at Sinai.  Why is there a need, now, to restate that commandments were given at Sinai?

            Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzchak, France, 1040-1105), cognizant of this peculiarity, asks, "what is the connection between shemitta and Mount Sinai?  In other words, what makes the law of shemitta so exclusive that the Torah employs it to express that the commandments were given at Sinai? He responds:

"Just as all the details and intricacies of shemitta were bestowed on Moses and Bnei Yisrael (the children of Israel) at Sinai, so, too, all the mitzvot, with all their details, Moses received at Har Sinai."

            Rashi's answer assumes no intrinsic connection between shemitta and Sinai, rather it teaches us the rule that just as this mitzva was taught at Sinai, so too were all the other mitzvot.  In contrast to this approach, Ibn Ezra (Rabbi Avraham ben Ezra, Spain, 1092-1167) accepts the premise of the verse - that God spoke to Moses at Sinai specifically about this mitzva - but rejects the chronological order that we seem to have taken for granted as we look into the book.  This is based on his exegetical belief that "ein mukdam u-me'uchar batorah" - there is no set order in the Torah.  Thus, if one parasha 'follows' another  we should not automatically assume that the chronological events in the first parasha precede those in the second. 

            One who believes that the Torah need not follow a timeline, might nonetheless want to explain the value and relevance God saw in the mitzva that motivated Him to preempt or proceed its chronological order.  Ibn Ezra explains that the relevance lies in this law's proximity to the ensuing parasha - Bechukotai, where the conditions with which the Israelites will be permitted to remain in the land are set.  In this light, it is clear that the laws of shemitta and Yovel, two prime commandments relating to the land, should be listed close to the conditions for the children of Israel to remain in the land of Israel.

            Ramban (Rabbi Moses ben Nachman, Spain, 1194-1274) offers a third approach.  He rejects Rashi for not clarifying the significance of shemitta versus any other law.  He also casts aside Ibn Ezra's answer as it assumes a non-sequential answer to the story, whereas Ramban believes that it did take place specifically where it was written. 

            Ramban begins his lengthy explanation by describing what took place at Sinai.  When Moses ascended the mountain to receive the tablets--the first time--a covenant between God and His nation began to emerge.  This bi-partisan relationship was consecrated through the formal acts of the children of Israel preparing themselves physically (through ritual washing and refraining from relations) and spiritually (through accepting upon themselves the words of God).  Moses - representing God - performed the symbolic ritual of sprinkling the blood of the covenant on the people (see Exodus 24:4; 8), and then relayed a list of the mitzvot for which the children of Israel will be held accountable. 

            The calamitous sin of the golden calf annulled this covenant, and only after Moses' pleading and arguing with God, was clemency granted.  With the instruction to forge two new tablets, God created a new, second brit - covenant (see Exodus 34:10).  When did this brit take place?  Ramban believes that parashat Behar and the subsequent parasha, Bechukotai, represent the culmination of the second covenant between God and His people.

            Parashat Bechukotai stipulates the conditions on which the covenant is based.  If the children follow in the ways of God, etc., they will be amply rewarded.  If however, they disobey, then God's wrath will be shown, the people will be disgorged from their land, and destruction will be imminent. This explains the need for the covenant to be finalized at parashat Bechukotai.  According to this explanation, what is the reason for Behar to be adjacent to this brit?  What, according to the Ramban, is the importance of the mitzva of shemitta and yovel, that they are chosen as the paradigm for the second brit between God and His nation? 

            Perhaps a closer examination into the nature of shemitta will confer upon us a greater understanding of its prominence at Sinai, and its proximity to the 'conditions of the land.'

            What is the law of shemitta?  Six years one plows the land and the seventh shall be a Sabbath to God.  No work shall be performed on the land; a year of rest is proclaimed for the farmer, his servants, and his animals.  This process lasts throughout seven cycles culminating with the fiftieth year - Yovel.  In addition to the rest from work on this year, a general return of fields to their ancestral owners takes place, and slaves are set free.

            We can ask what was the necessity to create this concept called shemitta?  Why not let man run his business, and raise his own crops.  Why is God, in a sense, 'interfering' with the natural course of events?  The answer might stem from an understanding of God's original intention for the children of Israel at the time of the exodus from Egypt. 

            In Parashat Vaera, and throughout the subsequent stories, a constant theme permeates:  "And (through the miracles and wonders) you (the children of Israel) will know I am God, your Lord, who has taken you out of the clutches of Egypt."   What is this knowledge of God?  Ramban comments that God is telling Moses, "they will see just as I will redeem them with miracles and wonders, to the eyes of all the nations, they will come to the realization that I am God who renders miracles and wonders every day in the world, and I am their God...."

            Sforno (Rabbi Ovadia Sforno, Italy, 1470-1550) notes that to know God means to recognize and believe that God will provide for the minutiae of daily activity just as He provides the awesome miracles (Exodus, 6:7).  Through grandiose miracles and wonders, a realization on the part of the Israelites should occur.  When one witnesses the death of every first born, the splitting of the sea, and the bringing of water from rocks, time and time again, one can only acknowledge and pledge allegiance to God, the One behind it all. 

            Perhaps one of the most striking symbols of this pedagogical tool was the miracle of the Manna, which fell from the sky to sustain the people throughout their lives: "And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating...."  In contrast to the other miracles this was not a fleeting sensation, rather:

"And the children of Israel ate the Manna for forty years until they entered the land of their resting, the Manna they ate until they reached the border of the land of Canaan" (Exodus. 16:35)

The constancy of this miraculous food was meant to embed the concept of "God is the provider" into the minds and hearts of all the people. 

            With regard to this miracle of the manna, another provision was taken to implant this concept in their minds.  One often finds that a miracle loses its amazement due to its monotony.  Nature itself seems to have been taken for granted as not being miraculous anymore.  Gravity is a given.  Most of our lives we forget to acknowledge that the skies, trees, and nature around us are all a manifestation of God's intervention.  The children of Israel required an intensive weekly reminder that what they had been given daily, was in fact from the hand of God.

"And on the sixth day they collected double portions, two 'omer' for one man, and all the rulers of the congregation came to Moses.  And he said to them, this is what the Lord has said, tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath to the Lord, bake that which you would bake today...and that which remains over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.  And Moses said, eat that today for today is a Sabbath to the Lord, today you shall not find it in the field.  Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh which is the Sabbath, on it there shall be none" (Exodus 16:22-26).

            Manna represented the ideal test to man's faith.  For six days they would receive miracles from the heavens, on the sixth day a double portion was left for man to ration out for the seventh day when the heavens would 'rest' and no manna would fall.  In the beginning man went out on the seventh day as well, unable to attribute the manna to the hand of God.  "And it came to pass that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather and they found none." (16:27)  After time, the children of Israel knew conclusively that the manna was a direct link to God, and that the collecting of it for six days, and the resting on the seventh, was a test for man to remind him that God is the true provider to His people.

            Assuming the children of Israel succeeded in grasping this crucial concept, they would be ready for their march into the land of Israel, and God's ultimate plan will have come to fruition.  Their miraculous experience will have taught them to see all of nature as miraculous, to see God in everything they do. 

            Moses, at the end of his life, gives one last speech to his people.  In it, he reminds his people of the reason God led them for forty years in the desert:

"All the commandments which I commanded you this day shall you observe to do, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers.  And you shall remember the way the Lord, your God, led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you and prove to you to know what was in your heart.  He humbled you through making you hungry and then feeding you with manna, which you did not know about, nor did your fathers know, that He might make known to you that man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord does man live"(Deut. 8:1-3). 

            What characterized the Israelite who wandered in the desert for forty years?  In Deuteronomy (8:3-4), Moses describes the desert existence as a miraculous one:

"Your garment did not grow old on you, nor did your foot swell, these forty years."

Rashi comments on these miraculous clouds of honor, which ironed out their clothes, and their feet never blistered.  Upon Miriam's death, there was a dearth of water.  Rashi comments that for forty years in Miriam's merit there were wells of water which appeared during all their travels (Numbers 20:2). 

            The wilderness was a time of development. Through the use of overt miracles, God taught Bnei Yisrael who had left Egypt uncertain, unable to appreciate God, that man does not live through idols, nor through rain, sun, or cold, but ultimately through God.  For forty years this message was ingrained into the minds of all of Bnei Yisrael. 

            Inhabiting the land of Israel, represented the transition from a miraculous, pedagogical, existence, to a nature oriented, working-man's life.  No manna would fall from the sky, no wells would miraculously appear, and no clouds would protect and lead them wherever they would go.  Instead, man would work the fields, farm the lands, and make the wheat from the resources he had before him.  The land would be man's manna, the rain, his well, and the sun his clouds of honor.  It is no wonder that the holidays all revolve around agricultural time periods in the year:  Passover is in spring time - when the grains and flowers begin to blossom; Shavuot, the feast of harvest; Sukkot, the feast of ingathering, at the end of the year.  Israel's existence was converted to a labor-oriented, agriculturally-based lifestyle.

            With all the constancy of nature, and the monotony of farming, there was a fear that Israel might fall into the trap God had warned him about. Man might say of himself "my power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth" (Deuteronomy 8:17). In such a scenario, God set up various precautionary measures to remind the man that he should "remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power and wealth..."(8:18).  One of these reminders might be the law of shemitta.

            When we think of the concept of shemitta - six years you shall work the land, on the seventh, a Sabbath to God, the land shall remain fallow - we cannot help but note the parallel to the Manna - six days you shall collect the Manna and on the seventh a Sabbath to God, no Manna shall come.  Shemitta is the paradigmatic reminder of the miraculous existence that existed in the desert.  What else could it be patterned after other than the paradigm of miraculous existence - the Manna.  Shadal (Rabbi Shmuel David Luzzatto, Italy, 1800-1865), in his commentary on the Torah (Leviticus 25:2) expresses this connection.  (See in detail.)

            For six years man lives within nature, hopefully aware of how nature is another miracle of God's.  The seventh year, he is forced to leave the land, and let it die.  If one should wonder how they will be supported on that seventh year:

"And if you shall say, what shall we eat in the seventh  year?  Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather our grains. I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year and it shall bring forth fruit for three years."

            Fear not, God will provide for you, though not through covert - nature-oriented - sustenance, but once again, through a miraculous display that no one can deny.  One year out of seven to break the monotony; to remind, and re-educate the children of Israel that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that emanates from the mouth of the Lord does man live. 

            Only through a wondrous spectacle, such as shemitta, will the people once again revitalize their belief in God, re-awaken their faith, and rededicate themselves to God.  Through working the land six years, and letting it lay fallow the seventh, the Sabbath they experienced in the desert becomes a reality once again.  An appreciation of God as the ultimate provider, and a break in the monotony of the everyday miracle comes when, just as in the desert, on the sixth year a double portion is granted, one which will last throughout their lives. 

            In this light, Ramban's second covenant is highlighted by the cautionary tactic of shemitta.  If the golden calf expressed the nation's undeveloped ability to see God, a miraculous existence in the desert is ordered.  But when it is time to enter the land of the fore-fathers, and a transition must occur, the focal mitzvot will be the one's which will remind the Israelites of their once and always miraculous existence.  Hence, it is clear, as Ramban says, that Ibn Ezra's reasoning for the positioning of the mitzvot as preceding the 'conditions of the land' is perfectly understandable.  What is the primary reason the children of Israel will be exiled from the land?  Forgetting God.  How does one forget about God?  Through not seeing Him in nature, through thinking that it is the person's own might and not the hand of God which brings war, peace, famine, and plenty. 

            This might possibly be the fatal flaw of the spies.  While Moses sent the spies to determine HOW they would conquer and inhabit the land, the spies (excluding Joshua and Caleb) went to determine IF they could do it.  Their answer was a resounding no!  Only Joshua and Caleb learned the important message of the desert existence: "If the Lord wills it, then He will bring us into this land, and give it to us..." (Numbers 14:8). 

            The punishment of the entire generation reflects the inexperienced nature of the people who are therefore assigned forty years of wandering, but not without the miraculous lifestyle.  Why did God continue to provide overtly for the people?  It is possible to say that a realization came through, that the nation was not yet ready for life in Israel.  Much more time had to be extended to the educational and intellectual development, not of the people who left Egypt (since they were doomed to death) but on their children and grandchildren after them.

            Shemitta and Manna; two expressions of God's yearning for His people to acknowledge Him as their ultimate source of sustenance.  Through a constant process of education in the desert, or through a once in seven year miraculous phenomenon in their natural existence in Israel, the children of Israel learn to see, and know, God in nature as well as miracles. 

            We, who live in a mostly non-miraculous world, are confronted to see God in the hidden, natural existence, and through the prism of the Torah.  Through Abraham and Isaac, Moses and Aaron, and through the lessons of the Sabbath, Shemitta and Manna.