Shabbos Parashas Behar-Bechukosai - 5780

Shabbos Parashas Behar-Bechukosai - 5780

Rabbi Hal Miller

God spoke to Moshe on Mount Sinai, saying. [Vayikra 25:1]

Throughout the Torah we read of God speaking to Moshe, sometimes also

Aharon and/or others, but we do not find the Torah telling us where the

discussion took place. Why here? Perhaps we can find an answer in the

following verse, which is what God told Moshe: "Speak to the children of

Israel and say to them, when you come into the land that I give you, the

land shall observe a Shabbos rest for God." Somehow shemittah is tied

directly to Sinai. But how?

Rashi asks that all the commandments were given at Sinai, so why is

shemittah treated differently here? He brings the midrash Toras Kohanim

that every commandment, both in general and in detail, was given at

Sinai, then many were repeated at the Plains of Moav. Ibn Ezra disagrees

and says some commandments were given at Sinai, some at the Mishkan,

and some at the Plains of Moav. According to Onkelos, Rambam backs

Ibn Ezra, which would explain the need to specify our command as being

from Sinai, although it does not tell us why that was so.

Ramban also disagrees with Rashi, but for a different reason. He lists

commandments that were given in general at Sinai but their details not

given until the Plains of Moav, and that there are commandments such

as shemittah that were not reiterated at Moav.

Sforno gives a simple answer. "This is only a prototype. It applies not

only to shemittah but to wherever a commandment was mentioned in

general only." But the Torah does not usually do such a thing.

With regard to when commandments were given, and whether in general

and/or in detail, Malbim has a nice approach. He says that all were given

in general and in detail at Sinai, which is what our verse says, and that

the Torah spent more time earlier on the ones that were applilcable in the

desert. It now can spend some more time telling about things that will be

relevant later.

But still, we have to ask, why is shemittah the commandment chosen

for these lessons?

Rav Moshe Feinstein says that previous commandments, given to Adam

and Noach and to others, were kept because people understood the

logic behind them. Shemittah is not something we would have come up

with on our own, so it is observed merely because God said to on Sinai.

Talelei Oros tells a story comparing shemittah to the desert of Sinai, that

Jews are not supposed to ask what they will eat, but just trust that God

will supply their needs. The comparison in our verse is to teach that we

are to believe in God.