Shabbat Parashat Behar-Bechukotai - 5785

Shabbat Parashat Behar-Bechukotai - 5785

Rabbi Hal Miller

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

Malbim cites Sifra who asks, "what does Shemittah have to do with Mount Sinai?" Our portion discusses the laws of Shemittah and Yovel. The Torah was given to us on Mount Sinai, and most of the portions discuss laws that were given there, but for none of the others does it specify "on Mount Sinai" as it does here. There are discussions among the commentators as to whether all the laws were given on Mount Sinai and them some of them repeated in the plains of Moav, or whether only some laws were given on Sinai, some in the Tent of Meeting, and the rest before Moav, but in any case, why only here does the Torah add this phrase? This particular law does not apply until the people reach the land, but other commandments, both with similar and with differing application or immediacy of need, were given without this phrase. Does this point in the narration require returning us to a prior scene, as if the story took a break to deal with some interruption and now has to return? What came before this, and what came before that?

Some commentators say that the Torah is written chronologically, and some say it is not necessarily so that each event occurred in the order presented.  If this chapter is out of order such that the Torah had to remind us where things were before an interruption, we should be able to see both that this is a return somewhere and that there was such an interruption. But here, the chapters involved very much follow in a continuous flow, and there is no other point in the Torah where pieces of this subject could have come instead of here as a grouping of commandments.

Back in chapter 10, God spoke to Aharon directly. In chapter 11, God spoke to Moshe and Aharon together. Both of these took pace at the base of the mountain. Since then, God has been speaking to Moshe, giving commandments. Nothing else has changed. Until our verse, the Torah  has not seen a need to remind us that this took place at Sinai. The subject matter of these commandments varied constantly, beginning here with the topic of agricultural laws that will come into play upon the entry into the land of the people of Israel. But some of the preceding laws also only take effect upon that entry, such as bringing the omer.

Torat Kohanim explains our verse that "just as the general rules and specific ordinances of Shemittah were given at Sinai, so too were all the mitzvot". Rav Moshe Feinstein expands slightly on this that "even the mitzvot commanded before Sinai are binding now only because they were given at Sinai." Or HaChayim acknowledges this and asks, "While Torat Kohanim explains that this is a reminder of the fact that all the commandments were given to Moshe at Sinai, both in general terms and in all their details, this does not answer the question why the Torah selected this commandment to remind us of that fact. Perhaps it is tied to the conditional gift of the land that it reminds us of all the other mitzvot given on Sinai being the condition."

Rashi says that since the laws of Shemittah were not repeated at Moav, our verse here is telling us that all the specifics and details were given only at Sinai. Ramban comes and points out that this was true with other laws as well that do not get the phraes about Sinai in their sections. Ramban says that Shemittah is first given a couple of chapters earlier [23], and that now the Torah is returning to give the details. This fits with Sforno, "The Torah only announces a location for a commandment when giving additional details. Shemittah was given on Sinai, here the Torah will give details."

The gift of the land is permanent as established at Sinai, but there are conditions for our being able to live in it. If we keep the mitzvot, we can stay in the land, if we do not keep the mitzvot we are kicked out until we pull ourselves back together into mitzvah observance, and then we can regain our gift.