If we follow the commandments, we are assured of food, peace in the land, and sleep without fear. If we do not obey, we are warned that we will suffer the horrors spelled out in the Tochecha – passages we read quietly this Shabbat.
We are warned; “I will bring such insecurity upon those of you who survive in your enemies’ land that the sound of a driven leaf will make them flee as from the sword. They will fall with no one chasing them.”
What sin must we commit to suffer this terrible outcome? Perhaps if we consider the laws stated immediately before the blessings and the curses, we can determine what laws are being referred to.
Behar, which immediately precedes blessings and curses of Bechukotai includes the laws of Shemita, Yovel, a provision that we are to come to the aid of the poor, a provision that admonishes us not to charge interest, laws of slavery, and repetition of the provision against making false gods. It ends with, “Keep My Sabbaths and revere My sanctuary, I am God.”
How are these laws related?
The Parsha begins “When you come to the land that I am giving you, the land must be given a rest period, a Shabbat to God.” It has been suggested that, since no one may plant crops, landowners would not know where their next meal would be coming from. Owners would have no greater rights to the produce than anyone else so they would be in the same position as the poor, hoping for their next meal. Imagine a year in which no one worked? What must it have been like for a community of people from all walks of life to come face to face with each other in those circumstances? Would that experience change the way they dealt with each other during the other six years?
On Yom Kippur every 50 years, the year of Yovel, there is a celebration. All farmland is returned to the hereditary owners, families are reunited and slaves are freed. We are told, “Since the land is Mine, no land shall be sold permanently” and if we keep these laws, we will “live in the land securely.” The original owners must be grateful for new beginnings.
We are then ordered to take care of each other; if someone can’t support himself, it’s up to us to come to his aid.
We then learn about interest and slavery (I will not address all of the issues related to slavery and interest – only how they may relate to the Tochecha). We are told, if someone needs to borrow money, we are not to charge them interest, making it more difficult for them to repay us and, if someone is destitute and sells himself to work off a debt, one is not supposed to work him as a slave but as an employee. When addressing how Hebrew slaves are to be treated, the Gemara teaches that the phrase “because it has been good for him with you” means he should be “with you” in food, “with you” in drink, that you should eat the same bread, drink the same wine, sleep on the same kind of mattress. On account of this, the Gemara says, “Anyone who buys a Hebrew servant has virtually bought a master for himself.”
Our employees may not work on Shabbat or in the seventh year. Even our lowliest workers must be treated with respect – we can’t do with them what we please. Perhaps these are the first laws regulating fair labor practices.
Those better off than others must learn to live like the poor once every seven years and they must take responsibility for the poor every day of every year. We all must also be careful not to take advantage of someone by profiting on their need of a lending hand. Perhaps this is the first economic model that provides a system of social support.
While these ideals are important and may be the reason rewards and punishments are spelled out here, there appear to be more references in Bechukotai to the land than to labor, economics or social services.
In the blessings, we read;
“I will provide you with rain at the right time, so that the land will bear its crops and the trees of the field will provide fruit.”
“Your threshing season will last until your grape harvest and your grape harvest will last until the time you plant.”
“I will rid the land of dangerous animals.”
“You will continue eating the previous years crops long after their time.”
And, after the curses are spelled out, we read, “As long as the land is desolate and you are in your enemies’ land, the land will enjoy its Sabbaths. The land will enjoy its Sabbatical years. Thus, as long as it is desolate, the land will enjoy the Sabbatical rest that you would not give it while you lived there.”
Why does the resting of land receive so much focus?
In the past, scholars learned that the laws of Shemita taught us that God is the master of the universe and that man is his servant. Furthermore, the wealthy were given an opportunity to understand the poor and appreciate their problems. The land could certainly related to idol worship – trees were worshipped and man habitually turned ore and stone into edifices and structures that would earn admiration across time.
But could someone from 2,000 years ago or even someone 200 years ago imagine a future in which the laws related to the Earth itself may have led to the warning here? We could see how the laws imposing rest on the land would be considered a “Chuk,” or a super-rational, inexplicable law between God and Man.
We know better.
We know that, if we were to think the land was ours, we’d work it endlessly, using up its nutrients until it is unable to grow any more. We’d mine it endlessly, turning a millennium’s production of mass into energy. We’d spoil the waters, change the weather, and shrink the mountains. We’d steal the resources for use today from tomorrow’s inhabitants. While we know that hurting a person may destroy a life, destroying the land may cause damage for many lifetimes.
We can learn from the laws of Shemita that the land needs rest and that we are commanded to see it as God’s land so we don’t allow the land to become denuded, forcing destitute people to fight with each other to survive because they are unable to grow food, drink the water or breath the air.
We can choose between a world in which we may be chased by the sound of a driven leaf or a world where the poor may be rich, the hungry may be fed, and children can grow secure in knowing their hereditary portion will return to them in the same shape we receive it.
May we enjoy our Sabbaths and appreciate our sanctuary.
Shabbat shalom.