Sometimes the first verse of a TorahRefers to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh, also called the Five Books of Moses, Pentateuch or the Hebrew equivalent, Humash. This is also called the Written Torah. The term may also refer to teachings that expound on Jewish tradition. Read more reading feels ‘skippable.’ “God spoke to Moses.” Ok, heard that before. But sometimes it can open a major question.
This week’s reading is a double portion – Behar–Behukotai and the first verse is Vayikra 25:1, let’s look at it and the second verse as well:
YHVH (God) spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai: Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When you enter the land that I assign to you, the land shall observe a sabbath of YHVH.
These two verses introduce the commandment of Shemittah, the sabbatical year. Once every seven years, God tells us we must refrain from planting and working the land in Israel. There are other essential aspects to Shemittah, such as freeing debt-slaves.
The big question in rabbinic literature about these verses is:
Why would God tell Moses about the agricultural laws of the Land of Israel at Mount Sinai? Why not wait until the people were closer?Or, God being God, there must be other ways that this information could have been conveyed less abstractly, in a more geographically appropriate location.
To paraphrase Rashi, the preeminent Torah commentator, God gave the laws of the Sabbatical at Sinai to emphasize that not only general rules, like the Ten Utterances (Ten Commandments), but every single law with all its details, general and specific, were given at Sinai. This understanding is critical to the rabbinic ideal of Torah, in all its parts, coming from God at Sinai for all time.
This Rashi reflects an important Rabbinic idea that every single bit of Torah that ever was and ever will be was given to Moses at Sinai. The point is debated and worth exploring at another time.
I suggest another reading, not in opposition to the traditional approach, but to strengthen the idea that the giving of the Torah, along with rules that seem not yet to have relevance, is an essential aspect of our belief system.
The promise of the Land of Israel, of a homeland, with rules and ethics, is vital to the entire enterprise of Judaism. You can’t just have these big rules: don’t kill, don’t do idolatry. You also need rules that are profound and connective. You need a bound and integrated way of life that creates a bond between humanity, everything that breathes, and even the inanimate, the soil.
The land can’t be just any place or treated like any other acre; it needs fair treatment and rest. When inhabited, the land that even has its own Shabbat!, pushes us to forgive debts and honor humanity and animals.
To give and receive the Torah, an individual and a nation must be bound with the care and love of the land and all those who dwell therein.
As we mourn the murders of Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., and continue to pray for freedom, healing, and peace for everyone in every corner of the land, we must redouble our efforts to stay connected to the Land of Israel. It is not merely a dwelling place where we pitch a tent, but a living, breathing reminder of a promise. It is not only a promise from God but also a promise to God of righteous stewardship and social responsibility.
