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Behar-Bechukotai: Very Interest-ing · A Thought for the Week

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to a Thought for the Week, a Torah in
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  Speaker 1: Motion podcast. I'm Jake Hellman, founding director of Torah in Motion,
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  Speaker 1: and it's a pleasure to have you here with us.
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  Speaker 1: This week's podcast is sponsored by paulin Kavi Jacobs, an
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  Speaker 1: observance of the York State of Paul's father, Harold Jacobs,
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  Speaker 1: Fi mayor Benachiel, whose your site is on lag ba Omer.
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  Speaker 1: May we be blessed with good health and long life.
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  Speaker 1: Shabat is the most impactful of the assert HEDI brought
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  Speaker 1: the one that most speaks to our unique identity. It's
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  Speaker 1: the most powerful of the asserrat had he brought. As
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  Speaker 1: ahada Am famously said, more than the Jew keeps Shabat,
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  Speaker 1: Shabat keeps the Jew. Chabat is sort of the defining
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  Speaker 1: character of what makes Judeas and Jewish people unique people.
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  Speaker 1: All the other deebra pretty much everyone of the other
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  Speaker 1: debraut is accepted by all religions. They believe in God.
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  Speaker 1: You shouldn't they're not, I mean, the monotheistic religions courts
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  Speaker 1: only one God. Everybody believes you should honor your parents,
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  Speaker 1: don't kill, don't commit adultery. Even atheist secular humanists can
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  Speaker 1: believe in the last six of the Asseradhadibrut, it's Shabbat
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  Speaker 1: that is the marker of the jew it is the
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  Speaker 1: it's what he It's the sign of the special relationship
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  Speaker 1: between God and the Jewish people. That's a time with notes.
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  Speaker 1: It is one of It's actually a special gift, one
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  Speaker 1: of the few special gifts can live with the land
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  Speaker 1: of Israel that God gave to the Jewish people. So
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  Speaker 1: much so is that the sort of this very funny
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  Speaker 1: law that non Jews are not allowed to observe Shabbat.
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  Speaker 1: I don't exactly know what non Jews one observe shabat.
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  Speaker 1: This comes up a little bit, but according to some
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  Speaker 1: people it's an issue when somebody wants to convert. Be
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  Speaker 1: that as I may. But it's the idea that chabbett
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  Speaker 1: is unique, Its membership has its privileges. You want to
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  Speaker 1: keep shabbat, become part of the Jewish people. I would
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  Speaker 1: even say in modern times, you know where we have
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  Speaker 1: many non observant people who become observant what we call balichuva.
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  Speaker 1: So usually you know, how do you know that someone's
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  Speaker 1: about shuva when they start keeping Shabbah, keeping koshers not
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  Speaker 1: quite it. When you keep Shabbat, then you know it
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  Speaker 1: changes your whole life and change where you have to
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  Speaker 1: live your whole The way you conduct your life is
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  Speaker 1: much different when you keep Shabbah. Chabbat. Of course I
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  Speaker 1: don't know. Of course we don't alw think about it.
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  Speaker 1: But to me it's of course, Chabbat is more than
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  Speaker 1: the time period between sunset and Friday and when it
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  Speaker 1: gets dark on Saturday night. It infuses the entire week.
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  Speaker 1: And again when not be observant to recognize what quote
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  Speaker 1: unquote a day of rest, having a separate day, obviously
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  Speaker 1: it it makes the whole week a little bit different.
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  Speaker 1: It gives us a charge for the rest of the week.
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  Speaker 1: But this is expressed from a Jewish point of view,
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  Speaker 1: is that you know, Monday, we don't have Mondays and
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  Speaker 1: Tuesdays in Jewish law, not just because it's in English
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  Speaker 1: and where it comes from, but we don't have hebron
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  Speaker 1: names for the day of the week. It's JOm shaney
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  Speaker 1: Bashabat in the second day of the Shabbat and Slishiba Shabad.
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  Speaker 1: Every day of the week revolves around Shabbat and the
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  Speaker 1: tumult relates Shamai you know Hilo and Shamai Shamai. Whenever
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  Speaker 1: he would have good foods, meat, whatever, he would save
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  Speaker 1: it for Chabain. If you found the better one, better piece,
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  Speaker 1: he would eat the first one and save the second
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  Speaker 1: one for shabad. Hillo didn't do that, but met herat
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  Speaker 1: it was different every day you bless God. But the
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  Speaker 1: idea that even that to keep it best for Shabbat.
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  Speaker 1: And many of the commentary to explain the midst of
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  Speaker 1: zahor at yoma shabat li cut show right the Ten
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  Speaker 1: Commandments one time. It's a whore to remember or mention
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  Speaker 1: and uh and shamour to guard. So when they have
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  Speaker 1: to remember something, you remember something when you don't have it.
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  Speaker 1: So the midst of zahor too much Shabad is all week,
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  Speaker 1: all week after word, but not actually saying yo Shabbat
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  Speaker 1: is one of the ways we fulfill the midst of
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  Speaker 1: zahor y Shabbat. It's good, you know, don't run out
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  Speaker 1: of show before they say this shear show yo. You
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  Speaker 1: know when we say hey, yom yo rashan that seems
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  Speaker 1: to be a fulfillment of the mitzvah of the hot
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  Speaker 1: yo Shabbat liqut show Parshat Bahar, the first of the
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  Speaker 1: two parshat. This week opens up that with another type
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  Speaker 1: of Shabbat, with the laws of Shmita, which is a
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  Speaker 1: you look at it, it's pretty obvious. It's a year
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  Speaker 1: long long Shabbat, and the Torah says in like five
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  Speaker 1: verses or seven verses, the Torah uses the word shabbat
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  Speaker 1: eight times. If my count is correct, I would expected seven,
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  Speaker 1: but I'll take eight. Right vishafta aret chabat la m
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  Speaker 1: shabat chavatoni rat chabat la m. Again Shabata chavati bashaba aretz.
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  Speaker 1: So you get the idea. Schabat is play a central
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  Speaker 1: role in Swita. That's what sweet is. It's a shot
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  Speaker 1: out onto God every seventh year. The same way, once
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  Speaker 1: a week we recognize God's dominion over the world. So
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  Speaker 1: once a year we don't have to observe all the
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  Speaker 1: technical details of Shabbat for the whole year, but we
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  Speaker 1: have to can't work our field in theory. The laws
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  Speaker 1: of Shwita are very beautiful. Unfortunately they are next to
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  Speaker 1: impossible to observe today for all kinds of reasons that
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  Speaker 1: are beyond this little uh vartara, But it really is
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  Speaker 1: a Conceptually, it's a beautiful idea. Can you imagine the
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  Speaker 1: whole country taking a year off. The port can go
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  Speaker 1: in and take the fruit that no cost everybody. As
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  Speaker 1: a a a sabbatical, the land rejuvenates. It's really many
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  Speaker 1: beautiful things that it's impossible to observe, and for good reasons.
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  Speaker 1: Right now it's impossible to observe. But be that as
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  Speaker 1: it may, that we have a year of Shabbat. And
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  Speaker 1: of course it's linked to Mount Sinai because the tour
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  Speaker 1: begins by the Vershinai. God spoke to most Mount Sinai
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  Speaker 1: and Russia said the price of tea in China, right,
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  Speaker 1: ma Hearsinai. Why specifically by Shwmita does it say Harsinai.
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  Speaker 1: But again, I think it's this idea that the main event,
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  Speaker 1: so to speak, at Sinai, the key de bra was
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  Speaker 1: in a sense keeping keeping Shabbat. The Jewish people already knew,
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  Speaker 1: but there was one god in the world. So I
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  Speaker 1: think that's linking Shabbat, Shmita, Mount Sinai all comes together.
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  Speaker 1: Then the torque in Shmita is really part of a
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  Speaker 1: larger cycle I'll tackle of seven times seven, and then
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  Speaker 1: we sanctified the fiftieth year. Of course, this is the
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  Speaker 1: second week in a row we have this idea of
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  Speaker 1: seven by seven times fifty. Last week in the Mitsva
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  Speaker 1: of spherus Omer we count seven days, you know, every
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  Speaker 1: day and every week seven times seven week, and the
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  Speaker 1: fiftieth day is what we call holiday of Chavo. So
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  Speaker 1: here the fiftieth day is wikitash dem at shannataka machine
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  Speaker 1: uses sanctify the fiftieth year. And the Ramban actually notes
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  Speaker 1: on his comment heary and the satait he brought that
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  Speaker 1: jovel is like our shabbat, just like the hor battle.
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  Speaker 1: The cut show we sanctified the shabbat. We sanctify the jovel.
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  Speaker 1: And here too we demonstrate even more than an shabbat,
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  Speaker 1: God's mastery of the world. Not only can't we work
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  Speaker 1: the land, we kind of even keep the land. The
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  Speaker 1: land's got to go back to its original owners. It's
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  Speaker 1: a fascinating law. Right, you can clearly that's it. After
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  Speaker 1: the fiftieth year, it goes back. Our slaves go free permanently.
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  Speaker 1: Right on Shabbat. You have to let your workers have
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  Speaker 1: the day off, right if you have a non Jewish
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  Speaker 1: worker working for your law firm. You're counting firm here,
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  Speaker 1: and whatever you do, so you muss gives your non
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  Speaker 1: Jewish workers off on Shabbat, so right, and we keep
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  Speaker 1: shabat because we were slaves in Egypt and we were
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  Speaker 1: made we left Egypt the exodus, so on the Yva year,
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  Speaker 1: all slaves go free, all servants. The Torah then adds
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  Speaker 1: another law of the ovel. It's really sort of almost
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  Speaker 1: out of left field, and that's the laws of ownah,
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  Speaker 1: the laws of price fraud. The tour tells us as
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  Speaker 1: is discussing the laws of yo belt. You know, if
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  Speaker 1: you ask the temple that you're on the street, when
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  Speaker 1: was the last jovel? You know, every fifty years, so
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  Speaker 1: you know, if he knows a lot, he'll know we
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  Speaker 1: haven't had yovaal in twenty seven hundred years. But you
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  Speaker 1: need the majority of the Jewish people living in the
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  Speaker 1: last the Israel to have yoval, and please God, we're
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  Speaker 1: very close to that, and you know when they will
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  Speaker 1: have over fifty percent of the Jewish people living in
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  Speaker 1: Angel has not happened since the exile of sun faird
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  Speaker 1: and seven to twenty one bce that the majority of
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  Speaker 1: the Jewish people are living in the Land of Israel.
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  Speaker 1: But so, but the people who you know don't really
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  Speaker 1: know that. Then that's what I think. A lot of
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  Speaker 1: people I don't know what was last year field. And
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  Speaker 1: I can tell you when our last shwita was, and
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  Speaker 1: that's every Semen shweeta two years, three years. So Yova
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  Speaker 1: was a forty two years ago. I'm only twenty eight
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  Speaker 1: years old, right, So a lot of people are not
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  Speaker 1: going to know when Yobel is. So the Torah is
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  Speaker 1: aware of that. I can take advantage of you. Right,
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  Speaker 1: knowledge is power, so I know it. And so when
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  Speaker 1: I sell you my field, the Torah tells us, well,
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  Speaker 1: if I'm selling a field in year four or in
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  Speaker 1: year twenty three, it's worth very very different amounts because
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to have the field either he's going to
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  Speaker 1: have the field for forty six years or for twenty
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  Speaker 1: seven years. So you can't sell the same you can't
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  Speaker 1: sell the field for the same price. Whenever you sell
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  Speaker 1: a field, you have to you sell it according to
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  Speaker 1: the count in Yova. I mean, it's very obvious that
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  Speaker 1: tour would say that, but it's very fascinating. You know,
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  Speaker 1: we're talking about recognizing God and Shabis and Yovl and
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  Speaker 1: Shmida and all these beautifuls, and all of a sudden
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  Speaker 1: we talk about business ethics, how charging, and it's what
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  Speaker 1: we call the laws of all Nah. And right there,
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  Speaker 1: the tor also throws in the laws of oh not
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  Speaker 1: environment oppression by speech, and there's oppression by words. Oh not.
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  Speaker 1: You know, there's oppression by money, and there's oppression by words. Right,
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  Speaker 1: you're not allowed to remind so many of his past midsteeds,
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  Speaker 1: all kinds of ways. We can violate that prohibition. More
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  Speaker 1: than Shabbat, more than the Shmita in a sense, and
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  Speaker 1: more than the agricultural aspect of Yovol demonstrates our belief
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  Speaker 1: in God. How we truly demonstrate our belief in God
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  Speaker 1: is through our business dealings. I like to say this
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  Speaker 1: a lot to teach us a lot of It's a
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  Speaker 1: hard thing for people to accept, you know when I
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  Speaker 1: say the definition of a religious view almost or pretty
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  Speaker 1: much is your integrity in business dealings. But that's what
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  Speaker 1: the Torah stresses all the time. And our rabbis famously
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  Speaker 1: say that the first question God will ask you in
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  Speaker 1: your final exam at the one hundred and Twentyta muna
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  Speaker 1: was your business needs done faithfully, and I often like distress.
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  Speaker 1: The word ba munat doesn't say where they've done honestly,
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  Speaker 1: it said were they're done in faith? Meaning your business
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  Speaker 1: dealings expressed that you believe in God, because if you cheat,
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  Speaker 1: that means you don't truly believe in God. Believe in
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  Speaker 1: God is heard right. You're trying to outsmart God sonata
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  Speaker 1: b muna. That fits right in with the Yova, right
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  Speaker 1: in with the Shmita acknowledging God is the master of
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  Speaker 1: the world. Then make sure you don't charge too much
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  Speaker 1: money when you sell your field. Now later on in
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  Speaker 1: Tarsha Pahar a few verses later, the Tourah has another
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  Speaker 1: very fascinating prohibition, which we'll have to discuss another time,
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  Speaker 1: and that's the prohibition of charge and interest that in
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  Speaker 1: theory I may maybe impractice too. I have a jew
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  Speaker 1: is not supposed to charge interest on a a loan.
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  Speaker 1: And then the tour says something kind of also unexpected
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  Speaker 1: why or it says at casha, but mar don't don't
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  Speaker 1: bite him. You know the long Hawai interest with but
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  Speaker 1: mar b don't take extra, don't take when you get loan,
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  Speaker 1: don't take back more. The tour says an Shemelo, take
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  Speaker 1: i'm my shirt, So I take i'm at. It's r
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  Speaker 1: I'm I'm the lord you got it took you out
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  Speaker 1: of the land of Egypt. It sounds like we're in
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  Speaker 1: the Ten Commandments again that takehem At Eric Kannan to
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  Speaker 1: give you the land of Him to be your god.
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  Speaker 1: So Rushi wonders, what's this, What does that have to
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  Speaker 1: do like we said to Arsina, what does this have
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  Speaker 1: to do with interest? So Russi quotes that why I
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  Speaker 1: took you out of Egypt, so you should accept my
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  Speaker 1: meats foot, even if they're a little bit difficult. Ti
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  Speaker 1: I feel him. And the example the tour is using
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  Speaker 1: is interest. In other words, God took us out of Egypt,
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  Speaker 1: so we wouldn't charge the interests. It would be give
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  Speaker 1: loans to our neighbors and not, you know, just as
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  Speaker 1: a wonderful, beautiful thing to do. And that's why God
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  Speaker 1: took out of Egypt. So this is the Torah, this
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  Speaker 1: is the beautiful way. The tour always says, it's what
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  Speaker 1: we call ritual and ethic. I don't think the tour
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  Speaker 1: knows of such a distinction. There is no such thing
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  Speaker 1: as ritual in the tour. Every ritual has an ethic
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  Speaker 1: behind it, right, That's what the prophets. That's I would say,
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  Speaker 1: the main message of the prophets that God is not
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  Speaker 1: interested in rituals unless what we call rituals, unless they're
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  Speaker 1: accompanied by ethics. But the tour always weaves them together,
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  Speaker 1: go from one to the other seamlessly, because they all
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  Speaker 1: come from one God, they all come from the same source,
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  Speaker 1: and they all are meant to make us better people,
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  Speaker 1: to make our better characters. So yes, belief in God
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  Speaker 1: and helping man and how we treat go hand in hand. Shabatchalm.
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  Speaker 1: We hope you enjoyed a thought for the week at
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