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From:          "Ohr Somayach" <ohr@virtual.co.il>
To:            weekly@vjlists.com
Subject:       Torah Weekly - Behar

* TORAH WEEKLY *
Highlights of the Weekly Torah Portion
Parshat Behar
For the week ending 15 Iyar 5760 / 19 & 20 May 2000
================================

OVERVIEW

The Torah prohibits normal farming of the Land of Israel every
seven years.  This "Shabbat" for the land is called "shemita."
(5754 was a shemita year in Israel.)  After every seventh
shemita, the fiftieth year, yovel (jubilee), is announced with
the sound of the shofar on Yom Kippur.  This was also a year
for the land to lie fallow.  Hashem promises to provide a
bumper crop prior to the shemita and yovel years.  During
yovel, all land is returned to its original division from the
time of Joshua, and all Jewish indentured servants are freed,
even if they have not completed their six years of work.  A
Jewish indentured servant may not be given any demeaning,
unnecessary or excessively difficult work, and may not be sold
in the public market.  The price of his labor must be
calculated according to the amount of time remaining until he
will automatically become free.  The price of land is
similarly calculated.  Should anyone sell his ancestral land,
he has the right to redeem it after two years.  If a house in
a walled city is sold, the right of redemption is limited to
the first year after the sale.  The Levites' cities belong to
them forever.  The Jewish People are forbidden to take
advantage of one another by lending or borrowing with
interest.  Family members should redeem any relative who was
sold as an indentured servant as a result of impoverishment.

================================

INSIGHTS

EL AL TO GO BANKRUPT?

"And G-d spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai..."

About fifteen years ago El Al, the Israel national airline, was
losing money hand over fist.  In spite of the best market
research that money can buy, the number of unoccupied seats
continued to grow, and the company's profitability continued
to plummet.

By a strange twist of what some would call fate, it was
decided that the national airline of the Jewish State should
no longer operate on the Sabbath.  El Al flights which began
on Friday and could not reach Tel Aviv before the onset of the
Sabbath, or which originated in Tel Aviv between sunset on
Friday until after dark on Saturday night, would no longer be
offered.

>From being one of the least profitable airlines in the world,
El Al rapidly became one of the most profitable.

You could call this a coincidence.  But isn't it counter-
intuitive to cease operations for one seventh of the week and
find your revenues jumping through the ceiling?  The laws of
production and return would dictate a loss of at least one
seventh on overall revenue.

It's interesting to note that one of the promises that G-d
made to the Jewish People if they keep the Sabbath is that
they won't lose out financially.  Why should G-d make such a
promise?

We live in a world of illusion.  The illusion is that the
harder we work, the more we will profit.  G-d wants us to know
who is running the world.  He tells us clearly in His Torah
that if we keep the Sabbath, He will bless us not just with
spirituality but with material bounty as well.

The greatest demonstration that we know from where our
livelihood comes is to put down tools on Friday afternoon, and
while the rat-race runs on relentlessly through Friday night
and Saturday, we retreat to a world of spirituality, family,
closeness -- connecting to the real purpose of this physical
world.

In the Torah portion which is read this Sabbath in the
synagogue, we learn about the commandment of shemita.  When
all the Jewish People lived in the land of Israel, every
seventh year was like a Sabbath.  (Incidentally, this is the
source of the Sabbatical Year so prized by academics.)  No
planting or harvesting was permitted during the seventh year.
The land of Israel was to have its own Sabbath.  However, this
was not an agricultural rest.  Ask any soil expert, and he'll
tell you that six years of farming followed by one year fallow
will not help your crop yield.  Rather the reverse.  The
shemita year was a year when the land needed to lie
spiritually fallow.

This week's Torah portion starts with an unusual phrase "And
Hashem spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai..."  All of the
commandments were given on Mount Sinai.  Why then,
specifically, does the Torah record that it was on Mount Sinai
that G-d told Moshe about the commandment of shemita?

A Sabbath for people and a Sabbath for the Land.  What
connects these two ideas is that our  relationship with G-d is
based on our realization that it is He and only He who makes
the wheels of our lives turn, whether on a personal level or
in business.

It's ironic that even though El Al's business has soared, they
said at the time that not flying on the Shabbat would mean
curtains for them.  At the height of the controversy, El Al
workers even physically attacked obviously religious
travelers.

To this day El Al continues to claim that it would make even
more money with Sabbath flights ...

================================
Ohr Somayach International
22 Shimon Hatzadik Street, POB 18103
Jerusalem 91180, Israel

*******************************************************************

From:    "Yeshivat Har Etzion's Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash"
To:    yhe-intparsha@vbm-torah.org
Subject:       INTPARSHA -32: Parashat Behar

                   YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
      ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH (VBM)


            INTRODUCTION TO PARASHAT HASHAVUA

                  by Rav Michael Hattin


                     PARASHAT BEHAR

          Parashat BeHar - The Sabbatical Year
                    By Michael Hattin

Introduction

Parashat  BeHar,  in  contrast  to  many  of  the    other
Parashiyot of Sefer VaYikra, is devoted to a single  main
topic,  namely the Sabbatical Year.  The Torah prescribes
various practices associated with the observance  of  the
Sabbatical Year and in this week's lesson we will explore
some   of   them,  in  an  attempt  to  gain    a   deeper
understanding of the Year's significance.

"God  spoke to Moshe at Mount Sinai saying: Speak to Bnei
Yisrael and say to them 'when you enter the land  that  I
am  giving  to you, the land shall have a rest period,  a
sabbath unto the Lord.  For six years you may plant  your
fields, prune your vineyards and harvest your crops.  But
the  seventh year is a sabbath of sabbaths for the  land.
It  is God's sabbath during which you may not plant  your
fields  nor prune your vineyards." (VaYikra 25:1-4).  The
Torah  here  indicates  the  primary  observance  of   the
Sabbatical Year: it is a year during which we desist from
agrarian pursuits and allow the land to experience  rest.
At  first  glance,  the  purpose  of  the  precept   seems
eminently  obvious, to allow the land to  lie  fallow  so
that  intensive agricultural cultivation does not exhaust
its  life-giving  fertility.   Upon  closer  examination,
however,  it  emerges  that in fact  there  are  entirely
different   considerations  at  work,  and   these    find
expression in some of the year's other unusual practices.


The Theme of Relinquishment

"What grows (of its own accord) while the land is resting
may  be  eaten by you, by your male and female  servants,
and  by the workers and residents who live with you.  All
the  crops shall also be eaten by the domestic  and  wild
animals  that  are  in  your land"  (25:6-7).    Thus,  in
addition  to cessation from tilling the land,  the  Torah
here  prescribes  the  relinquishment  of  ownership    or
control  over the produce that grows on its own, for  the
landowner is enjoined to allow all who desire to  partake
of  the  land's natural yield.  As Rambam (12th  century,
Egypt) explains in his Code: 'it is a positive command to
forfeit  ownership over all the produce  that  the  earth
brings forth in the seventh year, as the verse states (in
a  parallel  passage from the Book of  Shemot  23:10-11):
"you may plant your land for six years and gather in  its
crops.   But  during the seventh year you must  leave  it
alone  and  withdraw from it.  The needy among  you  will
then be able to eat from your fields just as you do;  the
beast  of  the field will consume whatever is left  over.
This  applies  also to your vineyard and  to  your  olive
grove."   Whosoever locks his vineyard or fences  in  his
field during the seventh year abrogates this commandment.
Similarly, one who gathers in all of the produce into his
own  house  (to  prevent  others from  partaking  of   it)
violates  this  precept of the Torah.   Rather,  he  must
declare  it  all ownerless so that anyone may  lay  equal
claim  to  it; he himself may store up small  amounts  as
would  one who gathers from abandoned produce.'  (Mishneh
Torah, Laws of Shemittah and Yovel, Chapter 4:24).


The Yovel or Jubilee

Therefore,  not only is the earth to experience  a  break
from  the farmer's hoe during the seventh year, but  even
the  fruits  and other bounty that his land  produces  by
itself  are to be shared equally with all.  He is not  to
prevent  even  the beasts from partaking of  the  earth's
natural munificence.  The Torah goes on to detail how the
observances  of  the seventh year are  amplified  by  the
celebration  of the Yovel or Jubilee.  "You  shall  count
seven  cycles of the sabbatical year, seven  years  seven
times,  so  that the seven cycles of sabbath years  equal
forty  nine years.  You shall sound the shofar  blast  in
the  seventh month on the tenth day of the month.  On the
Day  of  Atonement you shall sound the shofar  throughout
all  of your land.  You shall sanctify the fiftieth  year
and  proclaim liberty throughout the land for all of  its
inhabitants,  for  each  of  you  shall  return  to   your
ancestral  inheritance and family.  It is  a  Yovel,  the
fiftieth  year  for you; you are not  to  plant,  nor  to
harvest the field's produce or the vineyards yield.   For
it  the  Yovel and it shall be holy unto you,  you  shall
consume  the produce from the field.  During  this  Yovel
year,  each  of you shall return to your ancestral  land"
(VaYikra 25:8-13).

Sharing  many  of the features of the seventh  year,  the
Jubilee  that occurs every fiftieth year is  also  to  be
observed by ceasing from cultivating the land.  The earth
is  to  be  given  rest  and to  remain  idle.    The  two
observances  must  be  intrinsically  related,  for    the
Sabbatical Year is linked to the Yovel by the consecutive
counting of seven sabbatical cycles.  In contrast to  the
Sabbatical  Year,  however, the Torah commands  that  the
Yovel  year  is  to be inaugurated by the  blast  of  the
shofar,  with this solemn ceremony to take place  on  the
Day  of  Atonement.  Agriculturally speaking, the Day  of
Atonement falls in the autumn, at the end of the  farming
year,  just  as the earth's bounty is being  gathered  in
from the fields and the farmer begins to look forward  to
the  rains.   The  timing of the shofar  blast  therefore
seems appropriate.


At  the  same  time,  though, the  Day  of  Atonement   is
traditionally  dedicated to effecting Teshuva,  spiritual
soul-searching and self-improvement.  This  is  suggested
by  the  Torah's linkage of this fast day with expiation,
for in Parashat Acharei Mot it is described as "a day  of
afflicting the soul through fasting.for on this day (God)
will  atone  for  you and purify you  from  all  of   your
iniquities"  (VaYikra 16:29-30).   The  sounding  of   the
shofar, which is annually as well as typically associated
with  Rosh  HaShanna, also carries similar  connotations,
for  we  seek  to  commence the new year with  a  revived
spirit  as  we  resolve anew to live Godly lives.   There
are,  however, no other obvious indications in the  Torah
that  the  Yovel  is a time of self-examination.   It  is
therefore not immediately apparent why the shofar  is  to
be  sounded at all on Yom Kippur of the Yovel,  for  what
special process of Teshuva is to be here announced by its
resonant lament?

Finally,  the Torah enjoins that during the  Yovel  year,
all  lands  are  to  revert  to their  ancestral   owners.
Though  one  may have sold his field or village  home  to
someone else, the sale is not absolutely final, for  when
the  Yovel  falls,  the  land or  house  must  leave   the
possession  of  the  buyer and return  to  its  ancestral
owner.  Therefore, the Torah remarks that the value of  a
field or village house is to be predicated not only  upon
its spatial and material qualities, but upon its temporal
qualities as well.  Appraisal of value is thus a function
also  of  how  many years remain until the  Yovel  is  to
occur.

To  sum  up  thus  far,  we  have  seen  how   the  simple
explanation  often  proffered for the observance  of  the
Sabbatical Year, namely that it is to allow the  land  to
physically  rest  so  as  not to  exhaust  its   nutritive
utility, is insufficient to explain the other features of
its  observance.  According to this rationale, why should
the free-growing produce of the farmer's field be treated
as  ownerless?  The improbability of this explanation  is
reinforced  by  the fact that when the Yovel  falls,  two
consecutive  years of no agricultural work are  observed.
The  Yovel's infrequency on the one hand, as well as  its
observance immediately after the seventh sabbatical  year
on  the  other  hand, argues against its primary  purpose
being the renewal of the land's sustaining strength.


The Commentary of the Akedat Yitzhak

Perhaps  one  of  the  most moving explanations  for  the
practice of the Sabbatical and Yovel years is provided by
Rabbi Yitzhak Arama, the 15th century Spanish scholar, in
his  classic  homiletic  commentary  called  the  'Akedat
Yitzhak':  "(The purpose of the Sabbatical  Year  is)  to
open our ears and to arouse our hearts by erecting for us
great  and  awesome  markers.  How easily  are  our   eyes
blinded  by the blandishments of this world, its  deceits
and  futilities,  which  cause us  to  seour  souls   into
eternal servitude of the earth after the manner of a team
of  senseless mules!  Did we not accept upon ourselves to
serve God out of love?

In  order to liberate us from this self-imposed prison of
desire  that tightly binds us in its powerful embrace  to
the  vanities of the hour, God has illuminated for  us  a
clear means of marking our time in this world - our days,
our weeks, and our years - that we cannot overlook except
through willful blindness.  The work of six days and  the
cessation  from  labor on the seventh is  true  testimony
that  the world was purposefully brought into being by  a
Creator.Acknowledgement of this  fact  is  the  necessary
starting  point  for  all spiritual development"  (Akedat
Yitzhak, Chapter 69).

Thus,  not only are we enjoined to record the passage  of
time  on  a  weekly basis through the observance  of  the
Shabbat,  but  on  a  yearly basis as  well  through   the
observance of the Sabbatical Year.  The purpose  of  both
is  the  same,  to impress upon us that God  created  the
world.   The  philosophical aspect  of  the  doctrine   of
Creation  is  essential, for if the  cosmos  has  existed
eternally,  independent  of God's  will,  it  inescapably
follows that it has no ultimate purpose or direction.  By
extension,  our lives would therefore have no meaning  or
Higher Purpose, for God's role in human destiny would  be
correspondingly  trivial.  Only if the  Universe  is  the
product of an omnipotent and involved Creator does  human
life have transcendent meaning and ultimate worth.

The  Akedat Yitzhak, however, translates this abstraction
into  concrete reality.  We are material beings  and  the
earth  is our abode.  How devoutly we cultivate its soil,
and how devotedly we dominate its riches.  Our best years
are spent in endless pursuit of extracting its resources,
of  amassing  its  wealth, of attempting  to  thwart  the
unrelenting mortality that patiently awaits us all.   How
painstakingly  we gather landed property, precious  clods
of  terra  firma,  on which to erect stalwart  houses  of
unyielding stone to guard our gold.  But, alas, we are in
fact  but "dwellers in houses of clay.crushed before  the
moth"  (Iyov/Job 4:19).  The seventh year beckons  us  to
look   at   life  from  a  different  perspective.     Its
observance  is cessation from cultivating the  soil,  for
how  easily we can be blinded by that pursuit to  imagine
that we can maintain our grasp forever.  Its hallmark  is
relinquishment  of  ownership, for in reality  we  cannot
hold  on  to  the  earth or to its  precious  produce   in
perpetuity.


The Motif of Seven

The  number seven figures most prominently in the marking
of  the  Sabbatical  Year, for in the  Torah's  frame  of
reference, seven represents the basic cycle of time.  But
this  cycle  is  not only a convenient means  of  keeping
time.   The six days of Creation are expressed in ordinal
terms (First day, Second day, etc.) for they derive their
meaning  from the Shabbat, the seventh day.  The  process
of  Creation  as  it  unfolded  during  those  six   days,
inanimate to living and simple to complex, expresses  the
dynamic of purposeful movement towards an encounter  with
God.   It  culminates  in  the  Shabbat,  the   "Crown  of
Creation."   A cycle of time predicated upon  the  number
seven  is  therefore one that speaks  not  of   amorphous
minutes  and  hours, days and years indistinguishable  in
their monotony, but rather of precious and unique moments
awaiting sanctification.

"You  shall  count  seven cycles of the sabbatical  year,
seven  years  seven times, so that the  seven  cycles  of
sabbath  years equal forty nine years.  You  shall  sound
the shofar blast in the seventh month on the tenth day of
the  month.  On the Day of Atonement, you shall sound the
shofar  throughout all of your land.  You shall  sanctify
the  fiftieth  year and proclaim liberty  throughout  the
land  for  all of its inhabitants, for each of you  shall
return  to  your ancestral inheritance and  family."   By
marking  our years according to the seven-year cycle,  we
remain  always  cognizant of life's priorities,  for  the
period  of a Yovel is a lifetime.  A person may merit  to
experience  two Jubilees, at most three, but the  average
person  will see but one.  The typical human  life  span,
though steadily increasing in the developed world,  still
allows for no more than about fifty productive years.


The Lifetime of the Jubilee

The interval of the Yovel therefore represents the period
of  time during which a person can make their mark in the
world.  But what should be a person's direction and  what
should be their goal?  That is intimated by the blast  of
the  shofar on the Day of Atonement.  The practicing  Jew
knows  of  a Teshuva that colors each and every  day,  as
well  as of a Teshuva that ushers in every New Year,  but
here the Torah speaks of the Teshuva of a lifetime.   The
freedom that the Yovel announces is not only the physical
freedom of the slave and the liberation of the land  from
its   most   recent  owner,  but  most   importantly   the
emancipation  of the human spirit from the iron  grip  of
acquisitiveness.   To  internalize  the  message  of   the
Yovel,  to understand the haunting summons of its  shofar
blast,  is to relax our grasp on the illusion of physical
permanence that land purchase and ownership affords, "for
you  are  but strangers and temporary residents with  Me"
(25:23).   Our life spans, even when considered  only  in
relation  to  the  brief epoch that constitutes  recorded
human  history,  are  short. Land  in  the  human   psyche
expresses permanence, and our feeble attempts to hold  on
to  it  are  futile grasping for immortality in disguise.
The  land and wealth that we amass will not afford us the
eternity  that we crave, for its Source is  to  be  found
elsewhere.

To  again quote the Akedat Yitzhak: "the purpose  of  the
gift  of the land of Israel is not in order that we might
devote  our  labors to it for the sake of extracting  its
riches  and  wealth (thus becoming its  servants  in  the
process).  This is the intention of all other nations  in
their  respective lands. The purpose is  rather  that  we
should search for spiritual perfection in accordance with
the will of the Creator, that the land should provide the
necessary sustenance for this endeavor to be pursued.  In
order  to  reinforce  this  essential  truth,  the   Torah
commands  that  the  earth be worked for  six  years  and
relinquished  during the seventh.   This  is  to  clearly
indicate  that  not  through  the  exercise  of   material
acquisition  is the purpose of life realized  but  rather
through  spiritual growth and perfection."   Let  us  not
misunderstand the words of the Akedat Yitzhak to imply  a
denigration of our corporeal existence, as if it is to be
considered  as  sullied  or unworthy  of  our  attention.
Rather, he indicates to us that the goal of the Jew is to
give  meaning  to  matter, to sanctify  the  physical  by
infusing  it with Godliness.  This is only possible  once
we  are able to adopt the perspective suggested by A.  J.
Heschel:  "In  regard  to  external  gifts,  to    outward
possessions, there is only one proper attitude - to  have
them and to know how to do without them."

Shabbat Shalom

Notes:   see the passage in Shemot 21:1-6 that speaks  of
the  Hebrew slave.  If after his requisite six  years  of
labor  he desires to stay on, he is to be brought  before
the  court  where  his ear is pierced against  the  door.
Then   he   serves   his   master    "forever"   (LeOlam).
Traditional  sources  explain,  however,  that   "forever"
means  until the Yovel, for afterwards he must  go  free.
This  exegesis  has often been accused of being  divorced
from  the  text, for the verse clearly states  "forever."
According  to the above analysis, though, the  intent  of
this  "forever" is to imply "for a lifetime," and  indeed
the  interval  of the Yovel from the perspective  of  the
individual  human being is in fact just that.   See  also
the commentary of Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra there.

Consider  also  the  perfect parallel between  the  seven
weeks separating Pesach from Shavuot, which falls on  the
"fiftieth  day,"  and  the seven sabbatical  cycles   that
culminate  in  the  Yovel.  In both  cases  there  is   an
intimation  of  progress, of direction,  and  of  dynamic
movement    from   physical   liberation   to    spiritual
redemption.  Shavuot celebrates the giving of the  Torah,
the  awareness  that bereft of spiritual puwe  are  never
truly  free at all.  Yovel commemorates the potential  of
living  our most productive years unfettered by a  desire
for  material permanence that distracts us from our  true
spiritual purpose.

YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH
ALON SHEVUT, GUSH ETZION 90433

Copyright (c) 1999 Yeshivat Har Etzion
All Rights Reserved

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