Ziv: Parashat Behar-Behukotai

I will remember my covenant with Jacob

The last parasha of Leviticus begins with a commandment to give rest to the earth every sabbatical year - i.e. every seven years. This will happen when “When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land shall observe a sabbath for the Lord” (Leviticus 25:2). This is first in order, before mentioning all the labors related to the earth. This, we are told by the ancients, is to show that all the work of the six years is only done in order to reach the seventh year which is the summit. Man then see clearly the grace of God that sustains him, his family and all his possessions, during this year when the earth is not tilled by pure obedience to the divine will. It is during this seventh year that the blessings of God, His goodness and majesty are most evident: “Should you ask, “What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?” I will order my blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will yield a crop for three years” (Leviticus 25:20-21).

Our parasha contains two sections which place the sabbaths of God (including the sabbatical year) at the top of the commandments - also describing the consequences for those who do not keep them. The 25th chapter begins with this commandment : “Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in their yield; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of complete rest for the land, a sabbath for the Lord: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard” (Leviticus 25:3-4), after which we see successive fallings - in five stages - of a brother who does not keep the sabbaths. Rashi says : “At first, Scripture admonishes us to observe the Sabbatical year; then, if one covets money and becomes suspect of unlawfully doing business on the Sabbatical year, he will eventually have to sell his personal belongings. Therefore, Scripture juxtaposes to it, “And when you make a sale [to your fellow-Jew]” (25:14) (What is written therein? “or make a purchase from the hand…,” something that is transferred from hand to hand). If he still does not repent, he will eventually have to sell his inheritance (25:25). If he even then does not repent, he will eventually have to sell his home, and if even then, he does not repent, he will eventually have to borrow money with interest (25:35-38). Now, the later the scenario in this passage, the more severe it is. If he still does not repent, he will eventually have to sell himself (25:39-46); and, if he has still not repented, not enough that he had to be sold to his fellow Jew - but he will sell himself even to a non-Jew”

In the same way, chapter 26 which begins with : “You shall keep my sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord” (Leviticus 26:2), continues, after a list of blessings which will be fulfilled if Israel will keep the commandments, with five stages of successive fallings if they do not keep them : “And you I will scatter among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword against you; your land shall be a desolation, and your cities a waste” (Leviticus 26:33) and at time time “the land shall enjoy its sabbath years as long as it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its sabbath years. As long as it lies desolate, it shall have the rest it did not have on your sabbaths when you were living on it” (Leviticus 26:34-35).

It is now that the mercy of God toward sinners - by His fidelity to His covenant with our fathers - is manifested in all its glory. It is at the lowest moment, the most humble, the weakest, and the darkest moment that God says : “Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, or abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God; but I will remember in their favor the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, to be their God: I am the Lord” (Leviticus 26:44-45). Shabbat Shalom.