BEHAR- BECHUKOSAI,
LEVITICUS 25:1 to 27:34
We read about proper conduct to a fellow
Jew:
At 25:17 -
“And you shall not wrong, one man his fellow
Jew, and you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord, your God”.
At 25:25 -
“If your brother becomes destitute and sells
some of his inherited property, his redeemer who is related to him shall
come forth and redeem his brother's sale”.
At 25:35 -
“If your brother becomes destitute and his hand
falters beside you, you shall support him [whether] a convert or a resident, so
that he can live with you”.
At 25:36 –
“You shall not take from him interest or
increase, and you shall fear your God, and let your brother live with you”.
At 25:37 -
“You shall not give him your money with interest,
nor shall you give your food with increase”.
At 25:39 -
“And if your brother becomes destitute with you,
and is sold to you, do not work him with slave labor”.
At 25:43 -
“You shall not work him with rigor, and you
shall fear your God”.
At 25:47-48 -
“If a resident non Jew gains wealth with you,
and your brother becomes destitute with him and is sold to a resident non Jew
among you or to an idol of the family of a non Jew.
After he is sold, he shall have redemption; one
of his brothers shall redeem him”.
Being a Member of the Tribe is not a bad deal.😃
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At 25.23 we learn just who the Land of Israel belongs to:
וְהָאָרֶץ, לֹא תִמָּכֵר לִצְמִתֻת--כִּי-לִי, הָאָרֶץ: כִּי-גֵרִים וְתוֹשָׁבִים אַתֶּם, עִמָּדִי.
"The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land belongs to Me, for you are strangers and residents with Me".
This is a profound idea: the land that we are commanded to
possess as an inheritance is fundamentally not ours because we are only
guests. Hashem is the only one who truly possesses the Holy Land.
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SHIMITAH
Just as we must rest on the seventh day, so must the Land rest.
At 25:4 -
וּבַשָּׁנָה הַשְּׁבִיעִת, שַׁבַּת שַׁבָּתוֹן
יִהְיֶה לָאָרֶץ--שַׁבָּת, לַיהוָה: שָׂדְךָ לֹא תִזְרָע, וְכַרְמְךָ לֹא
תִזְמֹר.
"But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of solemn rest
for the land, a sabbath unto the LORD; thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor
prune thy vineyard".
This rest for the Land is called the "shimitah"
year. It is observed in Israel, making it one of the special privileges
that one gets by living in the Land.
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We
are given a message at 26:3 -
אִם-בְּחֻקֹּתַי, תֵּלֵכוּ; וְאֶת-מִצְוֺתַי
תִּשְׁמְרוּ, וַעֲשִׂיתֶם אֹתָם.
"If you follow My statutes and observe My
commandments and perform them,"
At 26:11 -12
וְנָתַתִּי מִשְׁכָּנִי,
בְּתוֹכְכֶם; וְלֹא-תִגְוְהִתְהַלַּכְתִּי, בְּתוֹכְכֶם, וְהָיִיתִי לָכֶם,
לֵאלֹהִים; וְאַתֶּם, תִּהְיוּ-לִי לְעָם.עַל נַפְשִׁי, אֶתְכֶם.
"I will place My dwelling place in your
midst, and My soul will not reject you; I will walk among you and be your
God, and you will be My people."
I think today Israel has become Hashem's dwelling place where
among other things He is walking among us and we are His people.
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LAG B’OMER
We traditionally treat the seven weeks of Counting the Omer as a period of
mourning. However on the thirty third day of the Omer counting, many of
us stop mourning for the day or until Shavuous. The 33rd day is called
There is a tradition that on Lag B'Omer Rabbi Akiva's 24,000 students who had been dying from a plague stopped dying.
Contrary to this tradition I
think that it is a remembrance connected to the Bar Kokhba Revolt, and Akiva's students were soldiers fighting and dying for our freedom.
Initially in 132 CE the revolt was successful, and for three years the Province of Judea was an independent Jewish nation with Bar Kokhba at its head. He had the title of Nasi Israel.
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BETAR
During the Bar Kokhba revolt the city of Betar functioned as our last stronghold. The destruction of Betar in 135 put an end to the Jewish–Roman wars against Rome.
Following the Fall of Betar, the Romans went on a systematic campaign of wiping out the remaining Judean villages, and hunting down refugees and the remaining rebels, with the last pockets of resistance being eliminated by the spring of 136.
That was 2,000 years ago. In the 20th century Betar took on a new meaning: In 1923 Ze'ev Jabotinsky founded the Zionist youth movement called Betar. It had chapters all over Europe. In Palestine, Betar was closely affiliated with the paramilitary organization Irgun.
The
Irgun followed Jabotinsky’s policies:
Every Jew has a right or duty to enter
Palestine.
Only active retaliation will deter the Arabs.
Only a Jewish armed force will ensure the Jewish state.
The Irgun developed into a serious and well-organized paramilitary organization. The movement had a hierarchy of ranks and a sophisticated command-structure and came to demand serious military training and strict discipline from its members. It developed clandestine networks of hidden arms-caches and weapons-production workshops, safe-houses, and training camps, along with a secret printing facility for communication with the public.
Menachem
Begin served as head of the Betar movement in Poland. He arrived in Palestine
in 1942 and assumed leadership of the Irgun in 1944.
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This week’s Haftarah portion is
from Jeremiah 16:19 - 17:14.
JEREMIAH
The Haftorah for
Behar-Bechukotai is from Jeremiah.
We all know that sooner or later Hashem judges
us. But how does He actually do it? For the Prophet Jeremiah (17:9-10), 2,600
years ago, it is by examining a person’s heart and kidneys.
"The heart is deceitful above all
things, and when it is sick, who will recognize it? I, the Lord, search the
heart, test the kidneys, to give everyone according to his ways, according to
the fruit of his deeds".
The heart and the kidneys at the time of
Jeremiah and in the Chumash, 100's of years earlier, were held to be the
location of a person’s psyche, the totality of the human mind, both conscious
and unconscious.
Think about that when you recite the Shema Yisrael.
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GRATITUDE
At Jeremiah 17:7-8 -
"Blessed is the man who
trusts in the Lord; the Lord shall be his trust For he shall be like a
tree planted by the water, and by a rivulet spreads its roots, and will not see
when heat comes, and its leaves shall be green, and in the year of drought will
not be anxious, neither shall it cease from bearing fruit.
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GRATITUDE WHEN GETTING UP IN THE MORNING
Sleep, traditionally is regarded
as 1/60th of death. Getting up in the morning, being alive is
considered as a reward for our trust in Hashem. We show our gratitude for this
heavenly reward when we first wake up with the following prayer:
מודה אני לפניך מלך חי וקיים שהחזרת בי נשמתי
בחמלה
רבה אמונתך
“I thank you, living and
ever living king, for You have returned my soul within me with pity. Great is
your faithfulness”.
Is חמלה compassion, mercy or pity? I think “pity”.
This conclusion is based on Tractate Menuchot 53b, where חמלה is found:
“I have heard your voice, and I will take pity”.
This is what Rabbi Seltzer has to say: If pity means that Hashem
puts his faith in me even though I may not deserve it than I agree. We
thank Hashem for the great gift of life and understand that He is displaying faith
in us by doing so even though we may not feel like we are worthy of His
faith. That sounds more like "pity" then compassion or mercy.
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We conclude the Book of
Leviticus:
חזק,
חזק, ונתחזק
Be strong; Be strong,
and let us strengthen one another.
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