Behar-Bechukotai / Daniella Goodman

Our Sages find similarities between the Mitzvah of Shmita, opening Parshat Behar, and the Mitzvah of Shabbat.

Shabbat – “The seventh day is a sabbath of the lord your God” – ויום השביעי שבת לה’ אלוקיך (Shmot 20,10)

Shmita – “The land shall observe a sabbath of the lord” – ושבתה הארץ שבת לה’ (Vayikra 25,2)

Both Mitzvot have a 6 day/year count, where we are ordered to work, before the 7th day/year. These Shabbatot complement each other, the Shabbat of Bereshit surrounds man and living beings and the Shabbat of the earth (Shemita) adds vegetation and inanimate objects to the cycle of Shabbat holiness. When we observe the two Shabbatot we are accepting the existence of Hashem and acknowledging the fact that Hashem created the world “The earth is the lord’s and all that it holds, the world and its inhabitants” – הארץ ומלואה תבל ויושבי בה.

“If you follow My laws and faithfully observe My commandments” – אם בחוקותי תלכו – Rashi interprets that “if” = a condition. The result is that if you observe my commandments and keep my Mitzvot then Hashem will “grant your rains in their season, so that the earth shall yield its produce and the trees of the field their fruit” – ונתתי גשמיכם בעתם, ונתנה הארץ יבולה, ועץ השדה יתן פריו. If the opposite occurs, the results will be bleak. The Gemara in Masechet Avoda Zara 5 says “In this context, “if” is a term that means nothing other than supplication” (please walk in My statutes). Is Hashem really begging us to walk in His ways? It sounds strange that He would do so.

The Netziv of Volozhin brings a Midrash that explains the words “My Laws”. “If you follow My laws” – these are the laws that I used to create the heavens and the earth, as is said “If not My covenant with the day and the night, that the statutes of heaven and earth I did not place” – אם לא בריתי יומם ולילה חקות שמים וארץ לא שמתי (Yirmiyahu, 31:34):

1. The laws I used to create the sun and the stars” – Who gives the sun to illuminate by day, the laws of the moon and the stars to illuminate at night – כה אמר ה’ נותן שמש לאור יומם חקת ירח וכוכבים לאור לילה (ibid, 31:34);
2. The laws that I used to create the sea – “when He gave the sea its boundary” – בשומו לים חקו (Mishlei, 8:29);
3. The laws I used to create the sand – “for I made sand a boundary for the sea” – אשר שמתי חול גבול לים (Yirmiyahu, 5:22);
4. The laws I used to create the depths – “when He drew a circle over the face of the deep” – בחוקו חוג על פני תהום

He ends by saying that the words “Law” – חוק, and “Circle” – חוג, have the same meaning, which was learned by Gezera Shava – a comparison that is learned by analogy (Vayikra Rabba).

The entire existence of nature is defined in the word “Law” – חוק, which Chazal explain in the Midrash “I set laws”, if you follow My laws, then the world will exist. This means that God made a condition in Bereishit, he created the world, but there is a purpose which is for the people to keep the Torah.

Hashem wants us to keep the Torah and the commandments to justify the existence of the world – He created the world in Bereshit. Its existence is the world that is Reishit (first) and the Torah which is Reishit (first). There is no existence and meaning without the Torah. Rabbi David Lau says that God created the world with different time zones so that at any given time there would be those who are learning Torah. When in one place people are sleeping then people on the other side of the world are engaged in Torah and Mitzvot, as is said “Thus said the lord: As surely as I have established My covenant with day and night—the laws of heaven and earth” כֹּה אָמַר ה’ אִם לֹא בְרִיתִי יוֹמָם וָלָיְלָה חֻקּוֹת שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ לֹא שָׂמְתִּי. If My people listen to me then there is justification for the existence of the world and it survives, and then Hashem can fulfill “I will grant your rains in their season, so that the earth shall yield its produce and the trees of the field their fruit” – ונתתי גשמיכם בעתם, ונתנה הארץ יבולה, ועץ השדה יתן פריו and the world will be with everything we need to live in it and engage in the Torah.