by Reb Herschel Alpert

Behar: The commandment of Shmittah – The Sabbatical Year 

The first seven verses in Parshas Behar deal with the laws of Shmittah, the Sabbatical Year.  In terms of these laws, the Jewish People are commanded that in the seventh year in Eretz Yisroel, the land shall be given a “Sabbatical Rest” during which the land may neither be sown, pruned nor reaped and during which fruits may not be picked.  According to the commandment of Shmittah, the land is to be left untended and unguarded for a full year.

A number of noteworthy principles can be gleaned from the verses dealing with the commandment of Shmittah.

1. The first is that all property in the world belongs to Hashem (as we say in the first brocha of the shmone esrei “v’koneh ha’kol” – “Who acquires everything”).  We know this because in the second verse dealing with the commandment of Shmittah it states that “when you come into the land that I give to you, you shall observe a Sabbatical Rest for Hashem”.  While it is common human nature to consider one’s land, one’s possessions, and one’s money one’s own, the Torah here teaches us that Hashem is the true Owner of everything in the world.
2. The second is that the Torah was authored by Hashem Himself and not a human being, G-d forbid.  We know this because the Torah guarantees that the year before the Shmittah year will produce crop of sufficient quantity to last for three years (until the next available harvest).  Obviously no human being in their right mind would guarantee something in relation to which the statistical likelihood is that he will be proven wrong!  Therefore only an Almighty G-d of Truth who knows, understands, and controls everything in the world could provide such a guarantee.
3. The third is that all the Torah’s commandments in all their detail (even those recorded many years after the Mount Sinai experience) were transmitted by Hashem Himself to Moses at the undisputed Revelation at Mount Sinai.  We know this from Rashi’s explanation of why Mount Sinai is mentioned in the first verse dealing with the commandment of Shmittah.  Rashi explains that since we see that the laws of Shmittah were not taught later “at the Plains of Moav” (where Moses taught the Torah to the Jewish People), we learn an extended principle that all the Torah’s commandments in all their detail must have been transmitted by Hashem Himself at Mount Sinai. 

Based on the three principles we have learned above, we can now understand more deeply and with greater intensity that the entire world belongs to Hashem, that Hashem was undoubtedly the author of the Torah, and that all commandments in all their details were given by Hashem Himself at Mount Sinai (an undisputed event in the Jewish People’s history).  With this understanding in mind, we are surely enjoined and obligated to safeguard and keep Hashem’s Torah, as is His Will!