Hashem spoke to Moshe at Mount Sinai, saying: Speak to the people of Yisrael and say to them: When you come into the land that I am giving you, the land shall rest as a Sabbatical year for Hashem. (Vayikra 25:1-2)
Why is Shemitah mentioned in connection to Mt. Sinai? All the mitzvos were spoken at Mt. Sinai! It teaches that just as the general rules and the details of Shemitah were stated at Sinai, so the general rules and the details of all the mitzvos were stated at Mt. Sinai. (Rashi)
Parshas Behar has a very special mitzvah, which is the mitzvah of Shemitah. This mitzvah was a pretty challenging one for Jews in ancient times to fulfill. For a full year they could not work their fields, and they had to relinquish ownership of the fruits of their trees, and they needed to release all loans, too.
If a person’s entire livelihood depends on agriculture, as was the case for most people back then, keeping Shemitah meant giving up a lot. So what was the point of this mitzvah?
Keeping Shemitah demonstrates that a person’s parnassah, his whole life, is in Hashem’s hands. We trust in Hashem and do His Will and put the pursuit of our livelihood aside.
Now let’s try to apply this to life nowadays. Most of us are not farmers anymore. Yet, there is an important lesson for us, too, to learn from the Shemitah mitzvah.
Pearls of Wisdom from the Parshah
The first pasuk of this week’s parshah mentions Har Sinai. Hashem spoke to Moshe at Mount Sinai, saying. We know that Hashem spoke to Moshe many, many times. The pasuk is the most common one in the whole Torah. But here the Torah added the words, emphasizing the connection to Har Sinai.
What’s the message?
We received from Hashem all the detailed halachos of all the mitzvos at Har Sinai. This is learned from the mitzvah of Shemitah, as Rashi explains, and on a simple level, this is what the Torah is teaching us when it mentions Shemitah in connection with Har Sinai.
However, the comparison of all the mitzvos to the mitzvah of Shemitah teaches us that the message of Shemitah applies to all the mitzvos of the Torah, as will be explained.
In ancient times, the Jewish people dwelled in Eretz Yisrael, and they supported themselves mainly by agriculture, as we mentioned above. And we know that the Torah often tells us that if we keep the mitzvos, we will be granted rain and abundant produce of the field, as it indeed says in this week’s parshah:
I will grant your rains in their time, and the land will give forth its produce, and the trees of the field will give forth their fruit.
The Jewish people did not make money from gold mines or factories or stocks and bonds. They lived off the fine fields and vineyards of Eretz Yisrael.
To appreciate the point, first let’s talk about Shabbos for a moment. When Shabbos comes, and a person stops working, this expresses that he places himself in Hashem’s hands. It shows that his life and his livelihood are from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. However, resting one day a week doesn’t totally disrupt a person’s means of earning a living. He can work six days, take a day off, and pick up on Sunday morning.
What if you had to stop working for a whole year? Without unemployment insurance or a paid sabbatical or a side job or anything?
That was Shemitah. You need to let all your fields lay fallow for an entire year. Naturally speaking, this is a disaster. According to the way of the world, it means you will go bankrupt. You even need to leave your fields open for anyone to walk through. Not only that, but if you had some money on the side, and you loaned it out, you may not collect it after Shemitah. Your money is gone.
All these details of the mitzvah express a tremendous connection to Hashem. They demonstrate how a person gives himself over totally into the hands of Hashem and His Torah.
And this reflects on the nature of all the mitzvos of the Torah, which are all compared to the mitzvah of Shemitah as we explained.
Let’s say you would ask someone, “Why didn’t you come yesterday to the shiur?” He answers, “Listen, I had an important meeting with someone in Manhattan.” If you ask him, “Why did you rush out of shul this morning before davening was over?” He answers, “I got up late and I was in a hurry because I had business to attend to.” And so forth. There is no lack of examples that show how some people place mitzvos as second priority and their parnassah as first priority.
This is why the Torah connects all the mitzvos to Shemitah. The Shemitah year, with all its laws and regulations, expresses connection to Hashem and giving oneself over totally to Him. That’s how it should be with all the mitzvos. We need to realize that they are Hashem’s commandments, and He is the One Who supports us. Our parnassah comes from Him, so we should prioritize His mitzvos over our work and business.
Regarding Shemitah it says:
If you will say, “What will we eat in the seventh year, if we don’t plant and don’t harvest our produce?” I will command My blessing for you in the sixth year.
Contrary to conventional thinking, keeping the mitzvah of Shemitah will bring us more blessing than would all the mitzvos of the Torah. If we place our work and business dealings in the hands of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, He Himself will take care of us and make sure our households are plentifully blessed.
This applies to us nowadays as well. A person might feel his business matters take priority over his shiurei Torah, or might generally find it difficult to set aside time for Torah learning and other mitzvos, because he is concerned it will hurt his parnassah. However, by consistently and obstinately dedicating time to learning, davening and other mitzvos, he shows that he places his parnassah in the hands of Hashem.
And when we put our personal concerns aside, and leave it up to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, He will see to it that we will be greatly blessed.
What about scheduling that important meeting? What about putting in enough good hours of work on a steady basis to earn a proper livelihood?
If we stick tenaciously to the times of Tefilah and learning, and put our personal needs in the hands of Hashem, we will be blessed in all our endeavors, as shown by the mitzvah of Shemitah.
About this the Torah says, “I will command My blessing for you,” and you will see great siyata d’Shemaya in everything you do.
