Shabbos Parashas Emor - 5777

Shabbos Parashas Emor - 5777

Rabbi Hal Miller

When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not remove completely the corners of

your field as you reap and you shall not gather the gleanings of your harvest. For the poor

and the proselyte shall you leave them. I am Hashem, your G-d. [Vayikra 23:22]

All of us recognize the need to give of our abundance to take care of the poor, and might

not even need a commandment to get us to do so. Yet the Torah gives us many. This

instance in particular is puzzling.

For example, Nechama Leibowitz notes that "For the first time in this chapter, we note an

abrupt transition in the middle of a verse, from the plural to the singular." The phrase, when

you reap "is in the plural because harvesting time is common to all. The commandment,

however, is incumbent upon the individual you, the landowner shall not gather." What can

we draw from this change in verbiage in the Torah? To answer, she asks two additional

questions: "a) why is the commandment regarding the gifts to the poor inserted into the

section dealing with the festivals between Pesach and Rosh Hashanah? b) why are the

precepts of peah and leket, which appear in 19:9-10 repeated almost verbatim here?" She

cites Ibn Ezra who tells us that this period of time is when we are overflowing with abundance

which is a time when humans tend to forget about those less fortunate, thus this is when

the command is most relevant. It is repeated because, as Ramban explains, it is easier for

people to perform mitzvos related to ritual than it is for mitzvos related to other people, thus

we must be reminded constantly that this is even more important for us to remember in the

midst of all of our bounty. Thus, the reaping of the harvest applies to the entire nation,

defining the timeframe, and the leaving for the poor applies to each individual as reminders.

Rav Moshe Feinstein also addresses the timing of the command between Pesach/Shavuos

and Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur. He says that the leaving of these gifts for the poor is

equated to bringing sacrifices once the Temple is rebuilt, thus acts of charity will act to atone

for our sins. This ties the events of national freedom, in the plural, to the events of teshuvah,

in the singular, which will bring about the redemption and building of the Third Temple.

Talelei Oros points out that the Torah "did not only come to impart religious ordinances and

practices. It was also given us so that we might learn proper behavior and courtesy," which

he defines as "providing for the needs of the poor." In the ritual, we are commanded as a

nation. In the behavior issues, we are commanded as individuals.

In the end, the reasoning is in the last phrase of our verse, " I am Hashem, your G-d."

This applies both singularly and plural, as the word "your" is plural again.