This week’s Torah reading, Behar, begins: “And G‑d spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying...,” and continues to describe the laws of the Sabbatical year.
Our Rabbis ask: “Why does the Torah associate the Sabbatical year with Mount Sinai?” After all, the Sabbatical year is observed in the Holy Land only. What connection does it have with the Sinai experience?
All the Mitzvot
In resolution, our Rabbis explain that with this expression, the Torah is teaching us that on Mount Sinai, the Jews were given not only the general concept of the Sabbatical year but all its particulars.
Moreover, they continue, the fact that the Torah makes this association teaches us not only about the Sabbatical year, but about all the mitzvot: All their particulars were given on Mount Sinai.
The association with Sinai conveys more than a historical point. Associating the mitzvot with Sinai means that every individual mitzvah a person performs — whether it be putting on tefillin, lighting Shabbat candles, eating kosher, or helping a person in need — is more than an isolated good deed. It is an extension of the revelation at Sinai.
Sinai Today
On Mount Sinai, every person had direct contact with G‑d. They all heard Him speak and felt His presence.
When we perform a particular mitzvah, we may lack the external trappings of the Sinai experience, the thunder and lightning that the people perceived, but the fundamental dimension of what happened there — the establishment of a bond with G‑d’s essence — continues to prevail.
The Sabbatical year and all the other mitzvot are not isolated details, but rather integral elements of a larger whole. G‑d gave us the mitzvot to establish a multi-dimensional connection with Him and draw His holiness into our material world.
Friday Afternoon
The Sabbatical year makes us conscious of a more inclusive pattern that pervades our entire existence. Time is structured in sets of seven. In his Commentary to the Torah, the Ramban (Nachmanides) explains that just as there are seven days of the week, there will be seven millennia in the existence of the world, each one paralleling the corresponding day in the seven days of creation.
The culmination is the seventh millennium which, like the Sabbath, will be a time of rest, peace, and spiritual fulfillment.
According to that conception, the present age can be compared to Friday afternoon, past midday. Now in every traditional Jewish home, at that time, the house begins to look a little like Shabbat. Similarly at this time, G‑d’s home, the world, is beginning to anticipate the era of the Redemption.
We can see how the advances in science and technology have prepared the backdrop for Moshiach’s coming. What is necessary is for us to contribute the foreground by living in the spirit of the Redemption and mirroring to the fullest of our potential the mindset that will prevail in that era.
From the teachings of the Rebbe; reprinted from Keeping in Touch with permission from Sichos in English.
And if your brother becomes poor...do not take from him any usury or increase (Lev. 25:35, 36)
Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar said: "The Psalms say about one who lends money without interest, 'His money was not given to extract usury, and a bribe was never taken against the innocent.' He who does these will never stumble." Conversely, one who lends money with interest is forewarned that his wealth will eventually dissipate. (Talmud, Baba Metzia)
For the children of Israel are servants to Me (Leviticus 25:55)
The Jewish people are sometimes referred to as G-d's servants and sometimes as His children. As far as the Jewish body is concerned we are His servants, unconditionally accepting the yoke of heaven to carry out His will. As concerns the soul, however, every Jew is a child of G-d, for the soul serves G-d with love as a child serves his father. (the Rebbe Rayatz)
Do not take from him interest and increase, and let your brother live with you (Lev. 25:36)
When a person lends money on interest, he wants the days to pass as quickly as possible, because with each passing day he makes more money. When a person borrows money on interest, he feels the opposite. Time should go slowly, because with each passing day he owes more money. They have a different outlook on time, which would not be with an interest-free loan. Thus, the Torah says, "your brother will live together with you," with the same outlook on time. (Alshich, from Vedibarta Bam)
Do not take of him any usury or increase ("ribit") (Leviticus 25:36)
The numerical equivalent of the Hebrew word "ribit" is 612 -- one short of the 613 mitzvot of the Torah -- teaching us that the mitzva of not charging interest is considered as great as all the other mitzvot combined. (Baal HaTurim)
