Shabbat Parshat Behar Behukotai 24 Iyar, 5770, May 8, 2010

Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Behar Behukotai

Leviticus: 25:1-27:34

By Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel: “And the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai saying, ‘… when you enter the land which I am giving to you, the land must rest a Sabbath year unto the Lord…” (Lev 25:1)

The classical interpreter, Rashi (France 1040-1105), asks, “Why does the Bible specifically link the laws of the Sabbatical year to the revelation on Mount Sinai?” After all, all of the 613 commandments were given at Sinai, not only those pertaining to the Sabbatical year. He answers (based on a Midrash in Torat Kohanim) that just as the general rules and specifically deduced details of the Sabbatical laws were given at Sinai, so too, the general rules and specifically deduced details of all of the commandments were given at Sinai.

But his answer only further begs the question. If all the commandments were given with all their details on Mount Sinai, why does the Bible only mention this in the context of the Sabbatical laws?

Furthermore, I would question the very premise of Rashi's answer. Were the details of all of the commandments in fact given at Sinai? We have previously explained that there is a distinction between the initial tablets of the Revelation – which Moses smashed – and the second tablets, which endured. Indeed, the Midrash suggests a fundamental distinction between the “substantive essence of Torah” in each of these revelations. The first tablets revealed a Torah which was solely the work of G-d, written by the Lord – a Divine product of His hands (as it were). The Israelites played no role in the formation of this Torah and they could not claim any scintilla of ownership over it. Therefore, it was doomed to fail as indeed happened with the worship of the Golden Calf only forty days after that Revelation.

The second tablets, however, are revealed with the introductory words, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘You are to fashion (p’sal lekha) the two tablets of stone…’” (Exodus 34:1). In this second revelation; you, Moses, representing the leadership of the Israelites throughout the generations, are to have a hand in the formation of the tablets. This Revelation will leave room for an Oral Law, replete with interpretations, decrees and enactments of the Rabbis in every generation.

The word “p’sal” literally means to fashion in stone or to sculpt, but the Pri Zaddik (Rabbenu Zadok of Lublin) ingeniously reads this word as a derivative of “pasul,” which means "legally invalid." He explains that this time, you, the halakhic leadership of Israel, will be invested in My Torah and will be empowered to help complete it; determining what is and what is not halakhically proper. This “partnership” between humanity and G-d in Torah is expressed in the Oral Law with thirteen hermeneutic principles of interpretational methodology and Responsa literature that deals with the challenges and opportunities emanating from changing times and new scientific discoveries. Thus, the Torah can relate to organ transplants, in-vitro fertilization, and vehicles which allow the infirm to get to the Synagogue on Shabbat. This dynamic secures the ability of Torah to remain our guide throughout the generations.

But if this is the case, then not every detail of each law can hark back to the first Revelation at Sinai. Jewish law is dependent on the Oral Law interpretations of the religio-legal authorities of each generation!

I believe that we can explain the special linkage of the laws of the Sabbatical year to Sinai by referring to a passage in the Talmud (B.T. Menahot 29b). Our Talmudic Sages picture Moses at the summit of Sinai or, better still, in the supernal heavens, watching the Almighty adding the finishing touches to the crowns on various letters of the Bible.

When the greatest of prophets inquires as to their significance, G-d responds that in the future, a great scholar called Rabbi Akiva will derive many laws from each crown. G-d enables Moses to go forward in time and enter Rabbi Akiva's academy. As Moses listens to Rabbi Akiva’s Torah lecture, he is shocked and devastated to discover that he barely understands what the sage is saying! But Moses is relieved and comforted when one of the students asks the rabbi the source of his explanations, and Rabbi Akiva answers that it is “a law given to Moses at Sinai.”

I believe that this Talmudic passage is telling us that Sinai – in the initial Revelation- provided us with the goal of G-d’s Torah to develop “a Kingdom of priest-teachers and a holy nation;” to influence the world in ways of righteous compassion, justice and morality.  The twin purposes of Torah are the formation of a sacred nation (Kedoshim Tihyu, Ramban ad loc), which does what is righteous and good (Rambam, Laws of Neighbors).  The Revelation at Sinai set down the basic rules and even provided the verses to be interpreted and expanded by Torah scholars of every generation; the source of every expansion and interpretation of the law harks back to the ideals and method of implementing them, which was Moses’ prophetic vision at Sinai. 

The laws of the Sabbatical year and the Jubilee express a magnificent view of a world order in which every individual is returned to his ancestral land and homestead, debts are rescinded and freedom reigns supreme.  This is the goal of Jewish law, the messianic dream of perfecting society; this is the picture with which Maimonides concludes his Mishneh Torah legal compendium, because he understands that this is the purpose of our law and the true mission of Israel.  And the Scroll of Ruth demonstrates how the agricultural laws created such a society which supported its poor in dignity.

If we fail in the laws of the Sabbatical year and the Jubilee, we will not be worthy of owning the land or living on it, so it will be taken away from us.  And if we fail to make the values of a Sabbatical year relevant to an industrial society as well, we will be losing the indelible connection between the practical laws we keep and the spirit of those laws as enunciated at Sinai.  This is the force behind the eternal words of Rashi and the Midrash: “Just as the general rules as well as the specifically deduced details of the Sabbatical laws were given at Sinai, so were the general rules as well as the specifically deduced details of all of the commandments given at Sinai.”  The Sabbatical laws and Jubilee stand out as the model for perfecting society.

Shabbat Shalom

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