Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] I am very proud of myself this week and I'm very proud of you. This is Rabbi Shlomo Cohen with the Practical Parasha podcast. I hope you are well. I'm proud of myself this week because we're finishing Sefer Vayikra, the book of Leviticus, the third of the five books of the Torah. I haven't missed any parsha in the book of Vayikra and I'm proud of you for listening each and every week.
[00:00:27] Thank you.
[00:00:28] Before we begin, if you'd like to reach out to me, say hello, tell me how long you've been listening to this podcast.
[00:00:37] Feel free to reach out to me at Rabbi shlomokon k o h nmail.com I'd love to hear from you. This week's parsha is Parshas Bahar Bechucosai. Parshas Bahar starts off with God speaking to Moshe Rabbeinu on Harsinai, telling him the laws of Shmita, the sabbatical year. And we'll talk about this a little bit later. How, huh? Once every seven years in the land of Israel, the land has to stay fallow. No crops are grown.
[00:01:08] You can't work the land.
[00:01:11] Parsha tells us about the jubilee or the yovel, the 50th year. It's also similar to a Shemitah, but there's different, uh, halachos that are special to the jubilee year, such as any slaves that a person would have would go free, any lands would go back to their ancestral families who they belong to.
[00:01:31] And the Torah continues with different halachos, different laws of redemption of the land, as well as the Levite cities, the special cities that the Levites would have in the land of Israel, as well as special mitzvahs in this week's Parasha about taking care of your brother, about helping another Jew out, as well as how the Jewish people are supposed to treat any resident of the land of Israel.
[00:01:55] Parshas Bechucosa tells us, um, primarily of the blessings that will come upon the Jewish people if they follow the Torah, if they keep the covenant between Hashem and the Jewish people, all the different blessings that will come upon them.
[00:02:12] And, and as well, the covenant comes with a flip side that if we, God forbid, break the covenant, we don't listen to the Torah, then these hair raising curses will come upon the Jewish people. And the parsha finishes, Bechu Kosay finishes with a promise from God to the Jewish people that despite all their sins, God will never reject them from the covenant and the Torah tells us at the end of this week's Parasha, the different halachos, the different laws regarding the gifts to the temple, as well as sanctification of animals, as well as the redemption of houses and fields, the special laws, uh, that would apply to redeeming a house that someone had to sell that was an ancestral field or a house that belonged to their family. There's different laws that the Torah tells us of how and when it could be redeemed. The first idea I wanted to share with you today focuses in on the Mitzvah of Shmitah.
[00:03:13] Now, Shmitah is the sabbatical year.
[00:03:17] That means once every seven years, the seventh year, the Jewish people in the land of Israel would have to let their fields lay fallow. They would not be able to plant, they would not be able to harvest, they would not be able to prune.
[00:03:36] The land would have to be not touched.
[00:03:39] And the fruit that would grow by itself would be considered ownerless. It would be considered hefker, that anyone could come to get the fruit to eat it. Obviously, the fruit itself. There's different laws that are applied as to when it could be eaten and how it should be eaten.
[00:03:55] The fruit of Shemitah has a certain sanctity to it, has a certain kedusha to it, a holiness to it.
[00:04:02] And this is a mitzvah which is still in effect today.
[00:04:06] Last year in the land of Israel was a shmita year. And I believe 51% of the farmers, the majority of the farmers, the Jewish farmers in the land of Israel, observed shmita. They did not work their land. They followed all the different halachos, all the different intricate laws to participate in this special mitzvah. And just to give a little bit of a background, before we even get into this thought, I wanted to share with you. We see in Judaism, the number seven has a special significance. You know, obviously the first thing we think of when it comes to number seven is the Shabbos. Shabbos is the seventh day, the Sabbath, right? It's the seventh day when God rested on the seventh day. So we rest as well. But there are other, um, sevens as well besides Shabbos. And the Midrashim tell us, is the. There was seven heavens. The world is divided into seven regions.
[00:05:01] But the number seven itself in Jewish sources connotes a certain specialness, that the number seven is sort of the end of a series, and it's special, right? So we see Shabazz is a special day, and the seventh month of Tishrei is a special month.
[00:05:20] And so also as well, the. The seventh year is a special year. The Torah tells us that as a reward for keeping shmitah, uh, God gives us enough food in the sixth year to provide for the seventh year, which there will be no plants grown. And for the eighth year, until the new plants are ready to be harvested. That's the bracha, the blessing for observing shmitah.
[00:05:45] Now, one idea I wanted to focus on is this concept of shmitah. What does it mean? What can we learn from it? And how does it apply to us today?
[00:05:58] Even though we don't live in the land of Israel, Some of us, I'm sure some of our listeners out there are in the land of Israel.
[00:06:04] But for those of us outside the land of Israel, how do we connect to this mitzvah? So happen to be. There are organizations that during a shmita year, you can support them, and they help support the farmers who are doing this mitzvah. They're observing it.
[00:06:19] But the, uh, one idea that's expressed in the commandment of Shmitah is the fact that we don't own the world. You know, it's very easy for a person.
[00:06:32] We live on this earth. We own a house, we own things.
[00:06:37] We come to feel very possessive about the things that we have.
[00:06:42] We think they're ours Now, Tua, you are right. They are ours. We do own them. But do we really own them? If we take this a step further, when we make, uh, a parnassa, when we make a livelihood for ourselves. Earlier days, right during the times of the temple, the main occupation that people were busy with was farming. That was the main source of livelihood of a person.
[00:07:04] And it happens to be a farmer, especially in those days and still true today, would have to have a certain reliance on God, because if the rain wouldn't fall in the proper time, the crops wouldn't grow.
[00:07:20] And if a damaging wind could come at any time and it can ruin the whole harvest, there was so much of this process that the farmer recognized was out of his hands. So maybe today we feel less of that because we have irrigation and we have technology. But it's still true that anything can happen. A freeze can come and ruin a, uh, farmer's whole crop.
[00:07:43] So a farmer in general was still more connected to G D, but yet still, hashem, God gave us a commandment that on the seventh year, he shouldn't work his field, he should stop and he should go learn Torah. The idea is that a person needs time to realize, to recognize, to reinforce himself of, uh, where is the parnassah coming from, where is the livelihood coming from? Is it coming from me? Is it from me that I'm the one working the land and I'm the one growing the crops and I'm the one who owns this land?
[00:08:20] Or is it Hashem? Um, am I dependent on something higher, on someone higher? That God is the one giving me the success? God is the one who's making the plants grow. And therefore, it's important for me to focus on the things that are truly important in life.
[00:08:35] Spirituality, connection to God, family, and so on and so forth. And that's what the farmer would do during the year of shmita, that they would stop, they wouldn't work the field. Right. That's something which would be total. It would be extremely consuming, that would be extremely time consuming.
[00:08:54] They would stop, they would let the field stay fallow and go to the study hall to learn Torah for the entire year.
[00:09:02] And through that, through that recognition, they would gain enough inspiration and bitachem to help push them through for the next six years.
[00:09:12] And really, you don't have to be a farmer to connect to this idea of Shemitah, because no matter what profession that you have, whatever you do could be a doctor, a lawyer, a truck driver, or you could be retired. You could be collecting a Social Security check, a pension. You know, we have to remember who's the one paying our paycheck. Obviously, we have to do our due diligence. We have to put the effort in the histadlos in order to receive the blessing. We have to remember, though, that Parnassah, that livelihood, ultimately is determined by God. God is the one who controls how much we're going to have.
[00:09:57] Every year on Rosh Hashanah, it's determined how much money a person is going to have for the entire year.
[00:10:04] And we have to remember that no matter how hard we work, we still need to put our faith in God that He is the one who's going to give us that livelihood.
[00:10:15] And just to really bring this idea home, when we make the blessing on bread, what's the special bracha that we make? It's hamotzi lechem. In aretz, we say hamotzi um lechemin aretz. The blessing on bread is that blessed. Are you, Hashem, King of the universe, who takes out bread from the ground?
[00:10:36] I don't know about you, but I never saw bread grow out of the ground.
[00:10:40] Have you?
[00:10:43] The answer to that is that bread doesn't grow out of the ground, but wheat does.
[00:10:48] And it's very easy for a person who makes bread to forget where it comes from. Right? You ever made challah? Right. There's a certain sense of satisfaction after you take the flour, you mix it and you do all the steps and you make into a challah and said, I made this challah. I made it. This is mine.
[00:11:08] I did it. God didn't do it. I did it. So it's very easy to forget where it came from. Who made that? Who gave you that flower? Who gave you that Parnassah, the money to buy the flower? Who caused the stalks to grow? It was God. And that's why the sages instituted in the blessing Hamotz Yilechem En Aretz, that it should be a reminder for us at the moment that we think we're in control the most. We're not in control that it's Hashem, it's G D who's the one who gave us that success. And the same thing when it comes to our Paranasah. Uh, this is the underlying concept of Shemitah, the commandment that Hashem gave us that it's for us to remember that Hashem gave us this world to use. But he's the owner, he's in charge, and he's the one who's ultimately giving us our success in all our endeavors that we do. And we still have to give our best shot. But we have to remember ultimately who determines our success or failure.
[00:12:03] The second idea I wanted to share with you today is on Parshas Bechu Kosay.
[00:12:09] And as I mentioned before, the Parasha Bechu Kosay tells us about the blessings and the curses, the Brachos and the Clalos.
[00:12:19] And just as a little bit of a background, there's two times in the Torah that it mentions the Brachos and Klolos, these blessings and curses that come upon the people if they follow Torah and G D forbid, if they don't follow the Torah. The different curses that will come upon us once is here in this Parasha in Bechucosa, and later on in Devarim it lists again the Brachos and the Klelos by Hargrezim and Har Evel.
[00:12:52] Now, the commentary tell us there's different reasons that are given as to why it's said twice.
[00:13:00] One is that the blessings and curses here are referring to the era specifically of the First Temple regarding that time frame and the blessings and curses later on, Devarim are talking about the Temple, the Second Temple era, and that in ensuing destruction. Now, just before we get into this idea of the curses. I want to talk about the brachos. The parshat starts off, if you will follow my decrees and observe my commandments and perform them.
[00:13:37] The Torah goes on to tell us about all the blessing we will receive if we follow the Torah, if we listen, we do the mitzvahs, we study Torah, we do what we're supposed to do, we keep the covenant, how rain will fall in its time.
[00:13:52] Um, everything will be good. We'll eat, we'll have plenty of food to eat. There will be peace.
[00:13:57] The blessings will rain down upon us and our people and the world.
[00:14:02] And then the Torah pivots to the flip side that imbechu Kosai timasu. If we don't follow the laws of the Torah, what will happen to us? And the parsha goes on to tell us the different.
[00:14:20] A, uh, series of here raising curses that will come upon the Jewish people if we don't listen to the Torah, if we don't do the mitzvahs, if we don't do what we're supposed to do. It goes through five different sets of curses which are, uh, one is worse than the next. And the idea is that these curses are not meant as revenge on the Jewish people, but more as an impetus for the Jewish people to learn their lesson and to repent.
[00:14:47] Now, before we get into the curses, I was giving a class this week, and one of the participants in the Shi' a in this discussion asked, like, you know, what's going on over here? You know, it seems like in Jewish history, there's like a cycle that we go through.
[00:15:06] We do, uh, we first come in, we listen to the Torah, then gradually we start slipping, and then G D comes in and sends us into exile. We go through all these hardships, tragedies, um, different challenge. And seems, if you look through history, many of these curses have come upon the Jewish people at one point or another. And then there's a cycle again. We start again, we start afresh, we build ourselves up, and then the downturn happens, and it keeps happening and happening. And he was sort of asking me, you know, what's going on? Why is God doing this to us?
[00:15:44] And, uh, what I try to explain, and I want to, God willing, talk today a little bit about, is this idea of the curses. You know, you think about the curses and they seem harsh, they seem extreme.
[00:15:56] But if you think for a moment and you have a recognition of the overall picture, we can have a better appreciation for what's going on in the parsha.
[00:16:07] The Chavitz Chayyim writes in the Mishnah Bruh. It's his book on his opus Magnum on Halachah, the Mishnah Bruh. And he also writes on his commentary on the Torah that there were many communities where they would skip the actual admonition. They wouldn't read this portion of the Torah. Or maybe if they would read it, some of the people would run out. They would run out of the building. They didn't want to hear it. Or maybe they would swallow the words and not pronounce it clearly because they were afraid of it. They figured that if they just didn't hear it, it would be better for them. And the, uh, Chavitz Chayyim writes, he says that's the improper thing to do. You. There is a certain way how the balkore, the Torah reader, is supposed to read the curses. It's read. No one's called up for an aliyah. Only the balkore is called up to take that aliyah. And actually, he's not even called up. He just starts with the blessings over the Torah, and he reads it quickly.
[00:17:05] But we don't skip it. We read the whole thing.
[00:17:09] And he tells us it's important to read it, to not run out and to not skip it. And he gives an example to help us understand how we can look at the curses, the klelos, and how it could be helpful for us. You know, the parable that he gives, if you have a person, he's going to take a long journey.
[00:17:29] He's going through treacherous terrain where there's cliffs and mountains and wild beasts and different dangers all around.
[00:17:38] So he says to himself, you know, this journey is going to be a dangerous journey. I'm really scared.
[00:17:46] So I think the best thing I could do for myself is to blindfold myself.
[00:17:51] I'll just take a blindfold. I'll put it on. I won't see any of the scary cliffs or mountains or animals, and I'll walk on my journey. I'll be good to go.
[00:18:02] What do you think of that person?
[00:18:06] He's a fool.
[00:18:08] He's a total fool.
[00:18:09] Because just because you can't see something doesn't mean it's not there. It reminds me of a Bugs Bunny episode where Elmer Fudd is chasing Bugs Bunny, and he chases him off a cliff, and they're flying in the air, they're running in the air. They're not falling down.
[00:18:24] So Bugs Bunny hands a book to Elmer Fudd. It says, the laws of gravity. He opens up the book. And all of a sudden he falls down.
[00:18:36] And the point is, is that life is like a treacherous journey. There's so many cliffs and valleys and wild beasts. Maybe it's not in the literal sense, but there's so many challenges to life and there's so many things pulling us away from the things that we believe are true and right.
[00:18:56] And there's so many things that influence us negatively and, and want to pull us away from the Torah.
[00:19:04] So if we know what the risks are, if we see what happens if we don't follow the Torah, we're in a better place than if we wouldn't listen to it. And that's the way we should look at the, uh, klelos. Because a commitment, if there's no consequences for the actions that we have, then there's no rules, right? If everyone would just pass medical school, would you feel good going to the doctor? Nobody fails, right? Everyone passes.
[00:19:36] No, there's consequences, meaning you have to perform on a certain level. You have to pass the tests, you have to make sure you're knowledgeable. Because if you're not knowledgeable, then you don't know what you're doing, right? Would you get onto a plane if the pylon didn't take any tests to be certified?
[00:19:53] Of course not. Because commitments need to be double sided. If the commitment doesn't have consequences, then there's no commitment there. There's no everything, just. There's no rules, there's no nothing. So therefore we have this commitment to the Torah. We have God brought us into this covenant and there's so many great things about it. There's so much benefit and blessing when we follow it. But we have to know that if we, God forbid, slide or go away from that covenant, we don't listen to what we're supposed to do.
[00:20:25] Hashem has to. There's different consequences. And if we know what the consequences are, it'll help. It'll be a impetus and a springboard to help us stay on the right path. And this is, I guess, one of the ways that we could look at the brachos and the Klelos. Doesn't mean God is not coming to strike us down.
[00:20:46] No, he wants us to be good. God is a merciful God. He wants us to stay on the right path. But if there's no accountability, then there's nothing to keep us in check. Because human nature is such that we're just going to keep pushing the limits and pushing and pushing and pushing. And we need something to keep us on the right path. And that's just the basic overview of the Brachos and the Klalos. And God willing, I hope we can use these ideas to help uplift us to be the best we can be and to fulfill our true potential. With that, I'm going to finish for today's podcast. I hope you enjoyed. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out to me at rabbi shlomo kon kohenmail.com have a great day.
