He shall have redemption – גאולה תהיה לו
We are now standing in the aufruf Shabbos of Rashbi [Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai], the Shabbos before the great day of Lag B’Omer, his yahrzeit. We will mention the teaching brought down in the Gemara (Succah 45b) that Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai said, ‘I am able to exempt the entire world from judgment’, and who would not want Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai to exempt him from judgment? Everyone wants this, so what judgment would he exempt us? Perhaps if we understand how this applies to us, and what is the judgment that Rebbe Shimon wants to exempt us from, perhaps then we can understand what we can accomplish on his yahrzeit, and what is the great joy on this day.
In our parsha we learn the topic of the eved Ivri – Jewish servant, and this is what the Torah says (25:47) 'ותושב עמךוכי תשיג יד גר ' – ‘If the hand of an alien and resident with you will achieve’, and Rashi explains: ‘Who caused him to become rich? His attachment with him (the non-Jew), through his having learned from the non-Jew’s actions.’ This unfortunate man saw the goy succeed and become rich, and he does not understand because the whole reason the goy was successful was because he attached himself to the Jew, and this brought him his prosperity. But one who does not understand this and envies the success of the goy, and he goes and sells himself to a goy, the Torah commands us (25:48) 'אחרי נמכר גאולה תהיה לו' – ‘after he has been sold, he shall have redemption’, and Rashi explains: ‘He shall have redemption – immediately, do not let him become assimilated’, we have to rush to redeem him before he becomes assimilated between the goyim and forgets who he is and to whom he relates.
Who do we have greater than Rebbe Shimon who is able to exempt the whole world from judgment, and is able to redeem every one of us from all our inane subjugations, even someone who willingly subjugates himself to the yetzer hara, by thinking that רשעים צלחה''דרך – ‘the way of the wicked prosper’ (Yirmiyah 12:1), even if one has already sold himself to a goy, and he has completely thrown off the yoke of Torah and mitzvos from himself, Rebbe Shimon can even redeem these! At this time, on the joyous day of Rashbi, let us pray a lot for ourselves and our families that we should be redeemed with a spiritual redemption and also a mundane redemption in the merit of Rashbi, and it will be fulfilled in us 'ויצא הוא ובניו עמו ושב אל משפחתו ואל אחוזת אבותיו' – ‘Then he will leave you, he and his children with him, he will return to his family, and he will return to the heritage of his ancestors’, for it is worth relying on Rebbe Shimon!
-Tiv HaTorah – Behar, Tiv Rashbi
