[00:00:00] Hello, my friends, and welcome back to this week's episode of the Practical Parsha Podcast. This is Rabbi Shlomo Cohen, and I hope you are well.
[00:00:08] This week is a double parsha, so we're going to get right into it. But before we do, as always, say hello, introduce yourself. Tell me how you like this podcast. It would be great to hear from you. My email address is Rabbi Shlamokon Kohmil dot com. I'd love to hear from you. This week's parsha is Parshas Behar b' chokosay, a double parsha.
[00:00:34] And, uh, in addition to being a double parsha, it's also Shabbos chazak, meaning that we finish the Shabbos in the shul when we learn from the Torah, we're going to be finishing the third book of the Torah, the book of Leviticus. We say, chazak, chazak, venish chazayk, that we should be strengthened, right?
[00:00:58] Be strong, be strong, and may we be strengthened. So we continue the journey through the Torah, and next week, God willing, we'll pick it up with the Book of Bamidbar, the Book of Numbers.
[00:01:11] Now, just to give a quick overview of the two parshios, the two Torah portions for this week. Parshos Bahar begins with the commandment of the Shmita that once every seven years, the Jewish people are to let the land of Israel lay fallow, not to plant, not to harvest. They have to let it sit.
[00:01:33] And there's a lot of commentary, a lot of discussion about the significance of the mitzvah, of the commandment of Shemitah, which is letting the land sit and not planting.
[00:01:45] And in fact, Hashem makes a promise to the Jewish people that if they're going to rely on him, they'll have enough food in the sixth year for the seventh year and the eighth, until the crops will regrow.
[00:01:58] Now, the parsha also continues with every 50th year in the cycle is referred to as the jubilee year, the Yovel year.
[00:02:11] So the Yevah year is also similar to Shmita. It's also similar to the sabbatical year of Shmita. There's no planting, there's no harvesting.
[00:02:20] And in addition to that, there was other halakhos, other, you know, mitzvos that were commanded upon the Jewish people that, for example, all the slaves that they would have, all the Jewish slaves that would be in their possession, they would have to set them free. And in fact, the verse that the Torah uses is, you shall declare liberty throughout the land. And just to make A separation. This is actually inscribed in the Liberty Bell, right? They got it from the Torah from the jubilee year where it says that every slave has to go free. And that is on the 50th year. The parsha continues with the different redemptions of the land.
[00:03:12] That additionally, one of the things that happen on the jubilee year is that ancestral holdings, ancestral lands would go back to their original owners. That if land was sold due to somebody not having money or a certain situation, that on Yovel it would go back to the original owners and they would have it again.
[00:03:34] The parsha also spells out for us the commandment for a Jewish person to help out their brothers and sisters, that if somebody becomes impoverished, you have to strengthen him, you have to help them out. And that's a mitzvah in the Torah. We're going to maybe get into that a little bit later. The commandment of helping your brother and sister parsha finishes with the halachos, the laws of a Jewish slave, that if somebody decides to sell himself to pay off a debt or to pay off, um, for something that he stole, there's different halachos, different laws about how he is to be treated and how long he is owned. For Parshas, b' Hokosai primarily deals with the blessings and the curses that the Parsha spells out for us very clearly. The benefits and uh, the punishments that await the Jewish people that if they follow the Torah and they live by the word of Hashem, all the good life and the reward that will follow. And on the flip side, what happens if we don't follow the Torah and we don't do what we're supposed to do? And in fact, throughout our history, unfortunately, we've seen many of these hair raising curses or at these come upon us as a nation.
[00:04:56] And really, one idea which I saw brought down from the Ramban, from Nachmanides, is that the blessings and the curses that are listed here were the second time that the Jewish people were entering into a covenant with God. The first time before the Jewish nation committed the sin of the golden calf in Parshas Mishpatim, God enters the Jewish people into a covenant with him through offerings and giving carbonos. But after the sin of the golden calf, where Moses Moshe begs for forgiveness from Hashem, and now the Jewish people are sort of recommitting themselves to Hashem. Hashem is setting up the system a little bit differently that the covenant. When we recommit ourselves to, to serving Hashem, it's not done just by giving offerings and, you know, committing ourselves but rather that our survival as a people is dependent on us fulfilling the will of God. And that's why this covenant has this flip side to it. It has the blessings that if all the good things that await us, if we follow the word of Hashem and we go in his path, and if, God forbid, we don't listen to the Torah and we don't follow the commandments, all these terrifying, uh, things that will happen to the Jewish nation are there as well. Because once we went through a sin of the golden calf, it became necessary for us as a people to sort of make our existence dependent upon, um, following the Torah. And that's why the covenant that we recommit ourselves now in Parshas Bechu Kosai is a little bit more, stronger, more serious covenant than the first one that we had done originally, before the sin of the golden calf.
[00:06:44] The first idea I wanted to share with you today takes us, uh, to Parshas Behar. The beginning of the parasha begins with the mitzvah of Shemitah, the seventh year of letting the land sit, and continues with the mitzvah of Yovel, the jubilee year. And the verses read as follows.
[00:07:04] Shnayim sheva shonim sheva pa' amim vahayu luha yime. Sheva shabbos Hashanim. Ah teishava arboim shana.
[00:07:12] You shall count for yourself seven cycles of sabbatical years. Seven years. Seven times. The years of the seven cycles of the sabbatical year shall be for you 49 years.
[00:07:27] Uh, haki purim tavi ru shuifer becholar tzechem.
[00:07:34] You shall sound a broken blast on the shofar in the seventh month, on the 10th of the month, on the day of atonement, Yom Kippur. You shall sound the chauffeur throughout the land, throughout your land.
[00:07:57] Toshuvu.
[00:07:59] You shall sanctify the 50th year and proclaim freedom throughout the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be the jubilee year for you. You shall return each man to his ancestral heritage, and you shall return each man to his family. Now, as I mentioned earlier on the jubilee year, aside for having the mitzvos of a regular shmita year of not planting, not harvesting, it also had this mitzvah of freeing the slaves that anyone who had a slave had to set them free. And in addition to that, any land that was sold in the past 49 years in the land of Israel had to be returned to the ancestral holding that when the Jewish nation entered the land of Israel, the Land was split up according to the tribes and the families of each tribe. And now, after the 49 years, no matter how many times it was sold, it, it would have to go back to the original owner. So you could just imagine that on the 50th year, there was sort of this social upheaval, right?
[00:09:02] Slaves are going free.
[00:09:04] Land is being returned. The fields are laying fallow.
[00:09:10] Freedom, freedom for all.
[00:09:12] Now, when we think of those words, you know, everyone goes free. All the land gets, you know, taken back from the oligarchs and given back to the people. We think of like, you know, these, you know, movements and periods of time in more recent history where maybe countries got overthrown. You know, that was freedom, right? When the Communists overthrew Tsarist Russia, right.
[00:09:39] Everything went back to the commoners and the people, the poor people, right?
[00:09:45] And we could think of other social upheavals where there is this underlying tone of freedom, right? Think of any type of anytime a government is overthrown. And even in the United States, the 60s were a time of cultural upheaval as well, where there was a certain sense of freedom, right? Breaking free from traditions of the past.
[00:10:11] It wasn't, you know, acceptable to, uh, listen to your parents. You got to do the opposite, what your parents say. And marriage was looked down upon, right? There's a social movement to, uh, freedom. But really, the question that really begs to be asked is what does freedom really mean?
[00:10:29] What does it mean to be free? Krasem Drarb Aretz that there should be liberty proclaimed throughout the land.
[00:10:39] And I think that this really brings to a fundamental idea in Judaism.
[00:10:45] Being free doesn't mean to do what you want when you want, but rather it's a, uh, responsible freedom. It's a productive freedom. It's a freedom that's going to lead to beneficial things for you and for society.
[00:11:02] You know, it's such a concept that if you look in the verses, it says, ish el mishpakhtoi toshuvu. Each man shall return to their family, right? That doesn't mean that they are free, that they can just do whatever they want. It means that they should go back to their family to start again, to get themselves on the correct path. And it's not just when we talk about freedom, liberty, you know, it's not doing what you want and when you want, because you can have a person who does what they want, when they want, but they're not free. But rather when it talks about freedom, the ultimate freedom that we can have is freedom from our desires. Freedom from our instincts pulling us to do whatever we want, when we want. The Talmud tells us that the Ten Commandments, aceris, uh, adibros were inscribed on the two different tablets. The Talmud tells us that the word for inscribed is charus, but charus means inscribed, that they were etched out. But the same reading of those words could also mean khairos, that by observing the commandments and when a person dedicates himself to Hashem and they channel their energies to doing what Hashem wants and not just giving into their urges and their inclination, they're.
[00:12:28] They're free. And that's really, I think Judaism's view of freedom doesn't necessarily mean to do whatever you want when you want, but rather it's being able to control your desires and to control your instincts to make the decisions that you. That are truly good for you. Right? It's a responsible freedom that when we decide to do or not to do not, that our instincts are pushing us to just, to just do whatever, uh, we desire. Because everyone agrees that our freedom is limited. We can't just do whatever we want because we desire it, we want to do it. Everyone agrees to this concept at a certain point in a certain place. But the Torah makes it very clear for us that, that when it comes to our liberties and our freedom, it's not about doing what you want, it's about controlling ourselves and being in control. Because when we are in control and we can make the decisions and we don't just give in, so then we are truly free. We are not enslaved by our desires. And this is a very powerful idea regarding freedom for this week's Parasha that the Torah stresses for us this concept of kheros, of freedom, that when the Torah tells there's a commandment that everyone has to go free and the properties have to go back, it's not a hefker velt, which means it's not just a, uh, free for all. It's a responsible freedom. It's a channeled freedom. It's a realization that our freedom is about us being in control and doing what's truly right for us not. And that what's correct in our mind and not, not based on the desires of our heart. And that's what it means. Kheros. That's what it means. Freedom. The second idea I want to share with you today takes us to the Mitzvah of Shmitah. Now, it's very interesting. The Torah spells out clearly for us the different mitzvahs of Shmita, the different things that a person is allowed to do and not allowed to do in Shemitah. But it seems a little bit out of place because right in the middle of the, um, different commandments regarding the seventh year and the land laying fallow, there's a mitzvah that seems to be a little bit out of place. It says when you sell to your friend or buy from your friend, do not cheat each other. Meaning to say is that there's a commandment in the Torah to not overcharge somebody, you know, to sort of inflate the price when it's not supposed to be that high. There's, there's a law of Oinah, uh, that a person is not allowed to charge a sixth more in many situations for most things. And this is halachically binding, that if someone does charge a sixth or more, that halachically, and in Jewish law, the sale could be null and void.
[00:15:22] Um, if he's, you know, the sale is considered null and void.
[00:15:26] Now the question is, why is it here, in the middle of Shmitah, this commandment about not to cheat your friend and not to overcharge your friend? What's the connection? Nothing is by accident. Everything is exact.
[00:15:40] Maybe you could say on a simple understanding that during the Shemitah, one might say or think to themselves that there's less of a market for certain products because the land is laying fallow.
[00:15:51] And one might think to themselves, it's the perfect opportunity to, uh, price gouge. I could price gouge my friend when there's less tomatoes on the market, or there's less cucumbers on the market and I could get the best price for myself and make the most profit.
[00:16:09] And maybe that's the logic for a simple understanding of why the Torah places it here. But there's another, deeper lesson and significance of why this mitzvah not to overcharge is placed right here in the middle of the. The mitzvah of Shmitah. We know, and I've talked about this on previous years, the commandment of Shmitah is this underlying principle and concept that it is not us who runs the world, it's not us who's in charge. And we see this time and time again when it comes to Shabbos, we have to put down our tools, put down everything, and rest because God told us to rest. That's the seventh day, and we're testifying that God runs the world. And when it comes to Shemitah as well, the seventh year, our field, which in those times was the primary source of income of most people. They had to put down their farming equipment and let the land lay fallow. And the idea behind this, the commentaries tell us, is that it is very easy for a human being, for a person. We all can relate to this. For us to think that our success is because of us.
[00:17:15] We were the ones who did that. We. We were the ones who made all that success for ourselves. And really, in the truth of things, how much we make in a year and the successes we have with our business really has nothing to do with us. It has to do with God giving us that success. Sure, we have to put in the effort. But ultimately success or failure is in the hands of God.
[00:17:44] And I think when it comes to making a profit and making a living, we have to know this as well, that we know in Rosh Hashanah that every year Hashem sets for us how much money we are going to make in the coming year.
[00:17:59] And we have to do our part, uh, that's for sure. We have to do our shtadlis, which is our due diligence.
[00:18:05] That's our responsibility. And for each person might be a little bit different.
[00:18:09] But the point is that no matter how hard we work or no matter if, whatever we do, we're only going to get the amount that was set aside for us that G D determined we're going to make on Rosh Hashanah. It could be that God might make the money for us last longer. If we merit, or even if we have a lot of money that's going to come to us, he might make it have to be wasted. But the point is that the money we are going to make is set for us.
[00:18:36] So many times people think to themselves, if I cheat my friend or I charge a little more or I do this shtick, which is doing some funny business, I can make some money for myself. I could save myself a hundred dollars, a thousand dollars, a million dollars. We think we'll cut a corner and we'll come out ahead. We have to realize that Shmita teaches us that Hashem is in control.
[00:19:00] And just like we attest, uh, to that, from the fact that we let our land lay fallow, we don't touch it, we don't farm. We're totally. We're showing that we're relying on God. So too, that's the connections, that's the juxtaposition with this commandment of not cheating our friend.
[00:19:17] Because the whole source of a person cheating is they think they want to get ahead. They think they could beat the system they didn't realize that the same money that they think they're gaining right now, they could have gotten that money in a legitimate way. They could have gotten that money in the proper way. And in fact, if a person goes to a bank and steals a million dollars, he could have made that money by not stealing because the same million dollars was determined for him. If it was determined for him, it was determined for him. And he could have got that way in a kosher fashion. He didn't have to go cheat or cut a corner or try to rip somebody off to get that same money. And I think that that's the connection Rabbi Fran brings down to Shmitah, uh, and this commandment of not overcharging. You have to realize that the things that we do, we're totally dependent on Hashem. And trying to take a little shortcut, a little shortcut there, a little shortcut there, is not going to get us ahead. And that's a major lesson from this week's Parsha regarding the juxtaposition, the connection between shemitah, uh, and overcharging.
[00:20:19] The last idea I want to share with you takes us to Parshas Bechucosa. Now, Parshas Bechucosa delineates for us the blessings and the curses, all the good things that will come to us if we follow the Torah, and we do, we're supposed to do, and God forbid if we don't, all the bad things that will happen.
[00:20:39] Now, when the Parasha begins, it starts off with all, all the benefits of following the Torah. All the things will be good for us, and, uh, there'll be rain, and there will be blessing, and you'll have animals and livestock and produce, and things will be good. But it also adds another verse. It says, I will provide peace in the land, and you will lie down with none to frighten. You will cause wild beasts to withdraw from the land, and a sword will not cross your land.
[00:21:18] Now, Rashi tells us that a person might say to themselves, shem ha toyima. A person might say, hare maichel, I have food, v' hare mishteh, I have what to drink.
[00:21:31] Imein shalom ein Klum.
[00:21:34] It's teaching us here, this verse, that if a person doesn't have peace, he has nothing, right? Says, tamulemir acher kol zois vanasati sholem b' aretz. After all the blessings that we've listed till this point, I, uh, will put peace in the land. Mikan shashalam shako kine GED hakou. From Here we see from the fact that the verse of peace is listed after all the other blessings, we see that peace is equal to everything else.
[00:22:05] Right? We see that peace is equal to everything.
[00:22:09] And I just wanted to bring out this idea here because many times, you know, we deal with people all the time, and we have to work with people.
[00:22:21] We have people that we live with, our family members, our friends, our, uh, community members, and M people, a lot of the times will do things that get us upset, that hurt us, that make us angry, and we'll react.
[00:22:41] Now the question that we need to ask ourselves is that is it worth it to react in a way that's going to cause a fight, that's going to cause an argument, that's going to shake the boat?
[00:22:55] And. And I think we have to realize that if we don't have peace, we don't have anything. And I think it's just a mindset that we need to follow. We need to have when it comes to dealing with other people to remember that if we don't have peace, we have nothing. And it's not just on a communal level and dealing with people and interacting with people to keep this in mind, because is it worth it? Is it worth it to make a fight? Is it worth it to not have peace? Right? When we fight with other people, we don't have shalom, we don't have inner peace, we don't have. We're just. It's a mess. So even if we have everything else in the world, we don't have the true blessing. And it's even more than that. We know the Mishnah tells us that Ein Klimachsik bracha el Hashalom, that what peace is, um, compared to, is a vessel, that the only vessel to contain all the blessings is peace. And the way that it's understood, and I've said this before, is that if someone has a vessel that has a hole in it, so no matter how much of, uh, that wine you pour into that barrel, it could be the best wine in the world. It comes right out because there's a whole. And that's the idea with peace. So, uh, when we have peace, the blessing that God wants to give to us is able to be received in a complete and unbroken barrel and therefore able to contain all the goodness that Hashem wants to give us. And I think when we just need to remember this idea, to know how important peace is. So if someone says something to us or someone did something, and maybe we're perceiving it in a certain way to think. One, two, three times. Is it worth it to make a big deal out of something? If it's going to lead to, you know, shaking the boat and breaking the peace, we need to keep the peace. It's something we need to remember. Because ultimately, when we keep the peace, we're going to win in the long run and we're going to be the receiver of all the blessing. So with that, I'm going to finish for today's podcast. If you have any questions, comments, or would like to reach out to Salo, feel free to send me an
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