Rabbi Guy Matalon - Weekly Torah Portion: Behar - Part 1

we start with spoke to Moses on Mount Si saying then it starts speak to the children of Israel there's a rule I don't know if you know this rule already but is harsher thano when the Torah says that's a harsher type of speech than Amo and theim ask why is do we have and then we have am but if you have why do I need an am like and say speak you don't have to say speak to him and tell him speak to him is enough look speak to him so here the for example says is a harsh language it's a little stronger more emphas because of whatever is coming next okay what's coming next and he says speak to the children of Israel and say to them when you come into the land that I give you okay what land is that that I give you the land shall observe a Sabbath rest for Hashem the land also has to observe a Sabbath for Hashem for six years you may sew your field and for six years you may prune your Vineyard and you may Gather in its crop but the seventh year shall be a complete rest for the land a Sabbath for Hashem exactly correct you just did another one you just did you just keep make this two yes I got one more left so you're saying that that am I I'm just reading the Torah I know I'm saying you're mentioning that the Torah is stating that we should keep the fields should keep shabas every seventh year people don't keep shabas every seventh year we keep shabas every single week no no no no he's asking a very very good question you don't have to explain it to them I if you hav an ask if you ask a really bad question I will say you know that's a really bad question and even if they like it it's bad question I move on but if you ask a good question they all say Ah that's stupid what he talking but if I'm telling you it's a good question it's a good question so I will re I will restate the question and then they're all going to say oh that's a good question says right the torist says that you have to keep the Sabbath and we keep Sabbath what every week we have six days of work we have to work six days Sunday through Friday comes Friday night shabbat enters until m Shabbat no work the Torah here uses the language the lon as we say in Hebrew the L the language of Shabbat but it's talking about six years and the seventh year to be left fellow right to rest this says wa is Shabbat is every week if you're going to use Shabbat maybe you should use a different term for the years so what say you it says like that on Shabbat also I think that it's just like referring to shabaz because it's like a very ho the day every years okay year yeah that's what he meant yeah I think that if you're if you just keep shabis like every week then okay then it's a nice thought and it's a very self-contained thought I mean it applies to Creation this and that but if you're keeping the shabas then every year and then in a cycle of every seven years then you're showing that it applies to bigger and bigger and more important things there's a deeper reality rning yeah don't know but keep Shas every seventh year we should keep the full shabas each CH every single day no that's one you like that a metaphor why don't let it rest every sh like you do that's what you call shab we do we do let don't call Sunday shabas and we don't call Monday shabas yes you do okay fine till Tuesday and then Tuesday we we we said no we said that is throughout the week we're thinking of Shabbat look I would tell you I would I thought they would come up with better answers so the answers don't really answer what he's asking what exactly is he asking he's asking if a if the word Shabbat means a day in a week then how can you take Shabbat to mean one year in a cycle of seven time works differently for the land than it does for us that's a very good answer you see so the timing for land it works different for when it comes to land than it comes to human being I had a simpler answer it's very good a very good answer I would say we are taking the concept of Shabbat and applying it to the land the concept of Shabbat when it comes to human beings when it comes to um whatever it is Shabbat means secession of work secession of taking fruits off the of the trees consider like shat no no but the L but you're not you're not plowing the land you're not working the land whatever the land produces on the seventh year by itself you're not allowed to sell you're allowed to pick it cuz God doesn't want you onab on on the but not on Shabbat but the that we learned that the 39as that you're not allowed to do have to do with Shabbat and the B Mishka it's not exactly for the line so we're taking a concept we're borrowing a concept that Hashem when he used when he created the universe and it applies to human beings in one way it applies to the land in a different way okay the real question that the mefor that Rashi brings on this p is the following it starts with right hasem spoke to MOS and what is the first Mitzvah that he's talking about so Rashi asks brings that question from the mid from he says what is the connection between shita and Mount Si why does it make that connection that God spoke to Moses on our on Mount Si and he gave him the laws of shita wait a minute is that that something special to shita mhu went to Har right and God God gave him what all of the mitz all of them why here is there a focus only on shmita why is the Tor saying Shem gave it har oh really and what about chabas regular chabas not from har what about out uh oh let's pick something really really good um P the P sacrifice by the way it's today there's a Min of eating Matas if you want so is accustomed to eat mat today what those things are mentioned just another but it doesn't say wouldn't not be a wait wait let's we're raising hand for a while yes I think it's possibly because isical because shita is what illogical illogical so anything that's illogical should Beal there's no land that has survived doing this system other than Israel so the fact that um it needs to mention this was mentioned that H stress it more important so it shows that it's got importance it can't be just dismissed it's just but it's logical so the natural human reaction to it would be this is ridiculous very good very good there's one one of theim says a like this he doesn't say it's illogical it says that it's very very difficult for a person to accept that he is going to have to leave the land for three years why figure the seventh year he doesn't plan correct so the sixth year he has to plant and that food has to last for three years right for the sixth year for the seventh year and he can't plant on the seventh year so he has the eighth year you get it he gets it he plans on the sixth year that whatever he plans has whatever he plans at the end of the sixth year comes in through the seventh and you don't have half of seventh and half but you have to have enough but you have have enough in the sixth year to give you the sixth the seventh and the eighth correct you don't get right the eth year you don't course it did that's what Asher is talking about non observant of this whenever they grow they grow them Brandon app for all of all of is so what do we do obvious we no you can there is you say import that is one solution is to import but the other solution which and it wasn't the it was how it was probably was done it's not that you're not allowed to eat the fruit of the land you're not allowed to sell it you're not allowed to make money on it so that let's say I have a farm and on my farm agricultural Farm I have avocado trees I have chicken tree no chicken right I have let's say I have mangoes I have watermelon you name whatever your you you like what it means is that field is no longer mine you anyone can come on the field and pick whatever they want that's what shita means the seventh year you could eat you you can eat for yourself that's right you can eat for yourself well I don't know that you can really do extra sometimes you can you you can only put so many seeds in this field so we could have just raided someone strawberry it's not raided it's this year but it's not red so let's go right now no it's foras but remember there are there are those who hold so but it's not all because sometimes there's something called Basin so the Basin says you know this land is mine like the and then they distribute the food right so then it's not he it's not he then there are those who say no we can sell it to a non-jew you sell the land to a non-jew so then the land has to work kind of like if you you know if a Jew sells his cow to a non-jew then the cow's got to work but what if the cow's into the habit of not working on and she's got a problem cut rabbit comes and Whispers in the cow's ear but we hold that you shouldn't do that it's not it's not a question of honorable it's a Mitzvah to keep so when you have a Mitzvah right if you look at Mitzvah as a tax then what you want to do is try to evade paying the tax right whereas if we look at a Mitzvah as an opportunity to earn right to improve our world to come then you want to find every Mitzvah that you can do right it used to be today it's a Minh that everybody wears a TI but it used to be that if you wanted if you had a four cornered garment you would wear a and if you don't wear a four corned garment you don't have to right so the gamar says that one of the an angel appeared before one of the rabbis and they tell him why aren't you wearing TI he says what do you mean it's a Mitzvah that if I have four cornered garments I have to do it if I don't I don't have to he said that's only when in good times but in bad times when Hashem is mad you should find other ways to do Mitzvah so you should wear and the Jewish people took on as a Minh you see most people who observe Torah they wear right so that's the idea that if you're looking at shita the seventh year as an opportunity to do what God wants to do a Mitzvah then why would you sell the land even if you could there are people who say you're not allowed to sell the land because the Torah says that you're not allowed to sell the any land that is yours in we're going to get to that in this para to a non-jew my thought on that was that it's a requirement for you to treat the land that way if it's a requirement how come you're able to get a Mitzvah out of it it's already a requirement no but the requirement is a mitzvah the requirement is follow right that is when we when you second no no no no no the question this is a s a bit of a of a I'm very I'm very glad that you're you're bringing this point up because a lot of people get confused people hear the word Mitzvah they think it means a good deed which means what it's not obligated but if you do it then you get like a bonus point just but that's not true Mitzvah means it is something that God commanded you to do so in a sense it is required and but when you do what you required you get a reward in Western culture we think when somebody does something voluntarily they should get more of a reward than doing something that they have to but not in Judaism the gamar says there's a Toho to explain that says that a person who does what they're obligated to gets greater s reward than a person who's not obligated and does it and tosan explains why and I think we talked about this before that when somebody comes to you and says Bernie stand up immediately your body is like I'm not standing up who the hell is he right no he's like who who who is he to tell me what to do they're not the bosam me get you get up and you do it that's why you get a reward you know what's funny wait wait wait when you don't have to do what somebody tells you and you do it the yet is not forcing you to rebel against it when God says do this immediately thear says I don't want to do it why are you listening to that don't do it all these people they nonsense and when you do it because you're commanded to you get a greater reward than if you didn't command weren't commanded so on shita there is a commandment Hashem says you have to do this you have to do it and when you do what you have to do you get a reward it's kind of like a reward program for the program right awes right you get points for doing what what you're supposed to do when I was talking to rosi about it I said wait we're going to reward people for doing what they are expected to do shouldn't we give them a reward for doing Beyond but the whole point of Judaism is yes you do what you have to do you do what you're obligated to do and you get a reward for it okay yes did you want to say something so it says but like I just put on 6 in the morning and all day long yeah why I just said you it's initial but every second you wear it you're doing a Mitzvah no you're doing a Mitzvah every second that it's on you just imagine yeah you wear it all day like ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding what you just think about it well you don't put it on your body unders so wash it you have only one then get another one you know it's um uh who did I see this oh the G of villa the VNA gone before he died he was crying and it's brought down and the one of his students wrote about him and they asked him like re why are you crying he says because in this world in this world for a few coins I can buy a Mitzvah that I could see the face of Hashem for a few shekel where I'm going I can't get any Mitzvah at all that's the idea we look at this world as an opportunity for every second every minute you have an ability to do a mitvah and by doing a Mitzvah you have that are prescriptive things that you're doing and there are things that are prohibitive that hasem said don't do and when you do those things you're raking up massive amount of points and it says in is aah the reward for a is that hm allows you to do another Mitzvah and and if you sin the reward for the sin is another sin and they come like in Chains boom boom bo boom boom boom so much easier doah doah and vice versa you know once you get started it says also the mishna it says that they that from sh wherever he wants there are two doors open you want to go to the mitvah you want to come to Shiva and learn go like this you want to do nonsense you know mess around with Chas you know you're going go like that you know you get into trouble that's it whatever a person wants that's where they move because we have free will the the fear of Heaven is not under hm's control he left it for us it's up to you you want to work on then okay okay so back to the question at hand why what is shita doing at har so there are those who want to try to figure out there's something specific about shita like Asher said that shmita is something very hard to accept because it is it requires tremendous amount of in the K right think of if you a farmer and someone and and you know you're told listen on this year the sixth year you can only this is it for the next three years so he wants to say but it's not a full year because in the end three months into the end of the sixth year you could plant correct but K say if it's three months is considered a year so you have now a real real difficulty does a person have enough of a to trust Hashem for the next according to him two years according to three years three years and it's the same thing the same concept exists on Shabbat but somewhat a smaller scale right there are people who believe that if they don't work on shabas they will lose their job they won't be able to make a living it used to be the case when immigrants came into the US from Eastern Europe in the 1880s right before World War I there was about a million Jews I think came to America if not more and many of them were traditional Jews right they were sh shabas eating kosher and so on and there weren't that many jobs for sh shabas there was a huge labor pool so business is had you have to work seven days a week and I know of you know of a story of a woman she would get a job on Sunday she would work till Thursday Friday half day and she would be she knew she was fired and she would have to find a new place to work it take her a day or two to find a job you know start again on Monday you know work till Friday and then get fired cuz that's what happened every week but she maintained it she was a widow her husband died she had small kids but B because she was so committed to shabas every single of her grandkids a great grandkids or is Sher shabas it is really a a matter of amuna and this is why shita is here so that's one way to answer the question now Rashi TR yeah absolutely you mentioned where we're saying Hashem is one we can you know like we can give up a day for work or whatever we can give up a year and Hashem will still keep our crops going and still take care of us we have to understand the land is not ours yeah because it says here read verse the verse two again right I'll read it again speak to the children of Israel and say to them when you come into the land that I give you why is it I give you and not I gave you giving God is doing it in the present tense it is a constant gift from Hashem that the land is out yeah but correct absolutely absolutely contingent correct but it also means that it's his it's a gift when someone gives you a gift what should you do con so what should you do thank him first thank you thank him whatever you have whatever you have is a gift everything that you look around you have an ability to think you have an ability to look you have ability to smell ability to to laugh ability to get angry ability to do whatever you were thinking is a gift from Hashem he doesn't know you anything but I didn't want to come into this world I wouldn't say that too loudly come back right there's a story of a woman her husband passed away and she was very very saddened and she would go to the Kev to the Grave every day and would lay on the Kev and cry oh Moshe why did you die take me with you you know you left me with all the bills and all the problems and all that take me with you take me with you every day and the guard at the cemetery like had enough like this woman is coming every day take me with you take me with you so when she was laying like this take me with you take me you took a big rock and put it on her dress and she didn't notice and then she was done crying she she gets up and she feels like a tugue she goes MH I was kidding I was kidding I don't know when push comes to sh everybody wants to stay here just a little bit longer you know let's kidding king no when a rabbi tell that type of story oh Noom so rashi rashi tells us the following the why is this here what is the connection so he says with regard to we see all the details the general principles and the specific cases all of them are given here in this para from har we should learn from this to every other mitzvah that all of the Mitzvah all the general principles and all the specifics were giving were given at har to the Jewish people okay you understand the Raji so it's not only the broad the broad outlines but also all the details everything was given at once okay and it's why har because it's a proof that no human being can make this up a human being cannot promise another human being the following listen if you listen to me and don't plant you'll have enough food for six for three years no one's going to no one is going to put that down no one only Hashem can guarantee this and that's why we have here so we see all of the laws that have to do with sabatical year we have in the beginning up to verse 8 and then verse sorry verse eight yeah 7 1 through 7 verse eight we have yovel yel is it is the 50th year that is you have seven shita Cycles okay and then you have yo so you count you know seven then another seven and another seven and then the 50th year is called the Y and it has special rules to it and we're going to learn about those rules tomorrow so we'll stop here and we'll continue with tomorrow