Parashat HaShavua - BeHar-BeChukotai
After all the korbanot – all the mitzvot of offerings – and the focus on Kohanim and Levi’im, Sefer VaYikra concludes by providing many details about life in the land of Israel, as if to say, after all is said and done, we need to be grounded, both literally and figuratively. As the opening pesukim of BeHar indicate, the land is a means to an end, not an end in itself. God tells Moshe to instruct Bnei Yisrael: “When you enter the land that I assign to you, the land shall observe a sabbath to the Lord. Six years you may sow your field and six years you may prune your vineyard and gather in the yield. But in the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath of complete rest, a sabbath to the Lord / כִּ֤י תָבֹ֙אוּ֙ אֶל־הָאָ֔רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אֲנִ֖י נֹתֵ֣ן לָכֶ֑ם וְשָׁבְתָ֣ה הָאָ֔רֶץ שַׁבָּ֖ת לַיהֹוָֽה׃ שֵׁ֤שׁ שָׁנִים֙ תִּזְרַ֣ע שָׂדֶ֔ךָ וְשֵׁ֥שׁ שָׁנִ֖ים תִּזְמֹ֣ר כַּרְמֶ֑ךָ וְאָסַפְתָּ֖ אֶת־תְּבוּאָתָֽהּ׃ וּבַשָּׁנָ֣ה הַשְּׁבִיעִ֗ת שַׁבַּ֤ת שַׁבָּתוֹן֙ יִהְיֶ֣ה לָאָ֔רֶץ שַׁבָּ֖ת לַיהֹוָ֑ה.” (Lev. 25:2-4)
Note the chronology: first we are told about the sabbatical year, then about the six years of planting and harvesting, and then back to the sabbatical. Why? Because holiness – kedusha – is meant to be the lens through which we view our lives in the land. As Rashi and Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra explain, the land was rested “in God’s name, as is said for the Shabbat of Genesis / לְשֵׁם ה', כְּשֵׁם שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר בְּשַׁבַּת בְּרֵאשִׁית” (Lev. 25:2); it is “like Shabbat / כיום השבת.” (Lev. 25:2). Moreover, the fact that the sabbatical year is mentioned before and after the six years of farming literally demonstrates how, over the years of this cycle, we are meant to view the kedusha of the sabbatical year as framing the farming years.
At the same time that the Torah emphasizes the land’s kedusha, it makes no attempt to mask its complexities. We are cautioned that one “must not wrong one’s brethren / אַל־תּוֹנ֖וּ אִ֥ישׁ אֶת־אָחִֽיו” (Lev. 25:14) or “one’s friend / אִ֣ישׁ אֶת־עֲמִית֔וֹ.” (Lev. 25:17) We will encounter “brethren who are downtrodden / כִּי־יָמ֣וּךְ אָחִ֔יךָ” (Lev. 25:25), and, tragically, many bad things can happen to us there as well.
Complex holiness, holy complexity. In his poem “Love of the Land / אהבת הארץ,” Yehuda Amichai beautifully captures this reality:
And the land is divided
into areas of memory and areas of hope,
and their inhabitants mingle with each other,
like those returning from a wedding
with those returning from a funeral procession.
And the land is not divided
into areas of war and areas of peace…
And the land is beautiful.
Even its surrounding enemies adorn it,
with weapons shining in the sun,
like beads on a neck.
And the land is a packaged land:
And it is tied well with everything in it, tied tightly,
And the strings are sometimes painful.
And the land is very small,
And I can contain it within me…
לִמְחוֹזוֹת הַזִּכָּרוֹן וּגְלִילֵי הַתִּקְוָה,
וְתוֹשְׁבֵיהֶם מִתְעַרְבְּבִים אֵלֶּה עִם אֵלֶּה,
כְּמוֹ חוֹזְרִים מֵחֲתֻנָּהעִם חוֹזְרִים מִלְּוַיַּת הַמֵּת.
וְהָאָרֶץ לֹא מְחֻלֶּקֶת
לְשִׁטְחֵי מִלְחָמָה וּלְשִׁטְחֵי שָׁלוֹם
וְהָאָרֶץ יָפָה.
אֲפִלּוּ אוֹיְבִים מִסָּבִיב מְקַשְּׁטִים אוֹתָהּ
בְּנֶשֶׁק מַבְרִיק בַּשֶּׁמֶשׁ
כְּמַחֲרזֶֹת עַל צַוָּאר
וְהָאָרֶץ אֶרֶץ חֲבִילָה:
וְהִיא קְשׁוּרָה הֵיטֵב וְהַכֹּל בָּהּ,
וְהִיא קְשׁוּרָה חָזָק
וְהַחוּטִים לִפְעָמִים מַכְאִיבִים.
וְהָאֶרֶץ קְטַנָּה מְאֹד,
וַאֲנִי יָכוֹל לְהָכִיל אוֹתָהּ בְּתוֹכִי…
What might it mean to contain the land within us? At the end of BeChukotai, which concludes VaYikra, there is a discussion of the “tithes of the land / מַעְשַׂ֨ר הָאָ֜רֶץ,” which are “holy to the Lord / קֹ֖דֶשׁ לַֽיהֹוָֽה.” According to Samson Raphael Hirsch, there is a specific reason for this: VaYikra “concludes with two holy things, ma’aser sheini (second tithe) and ma’aser beheima (animal tithe), in which the happy enjoyment of life, kept within moral limits, is itself elevated to an act which is near to God, in which every home becomes a Temple, every table an altar, every Jew, every Jewess, without priestly intervention, consecrated as priests, themselves eating the holy things from God’s table. Thereby the ‘teachings of the priests’ proclaim, as the final goal of all the institutions of the Sanctuary, and of the work of its priests, the penetration of the whole of the people and the whole national life with the spirit of holiness…”
May we be blessed to be able to see and experience the land of Israel, and our lives more generally, through the lens of kedushah, and may that kedusha permeate and elevate all that we do.
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Jack Nahmod
Middle School Judaic Studies Head
Rabbinic Advisor
