CHOCHMAS NASHIM: BECHUKOTAI: MY NAME IS BOND
By: Suri Davis
This Shabbos, is the blessing of the new month for the Jewish month of Sivan, in which we celebrate the holiday of Shavuoth, celebrating the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai from G-d to Moses and the Jews. It is a day which G-d analogizes as a wedding, we gave our conditional dedication to G-d telling him that we would follow the laws of the Torah, even before hearing all of them, and He would watch over us as we survive history.
Last week’s torah portion and this week’s torah portion discusses the year of Shmittah, the seventh year of the Jewish agricultural cycle, in which the land of Israel lies fallow and is not worked. The other nations of the world have found merit in this commandment, stating surely the root of this commandment is that following the year that the land lies fallow, it will produce more having regenerated his nutrients in the year it lay fallow.
What if I were to tell you that the cycles most productive year is not the year after it lies fallow, but the year before it lies fallow, the sixth year of the cycle. G-d performs a miracle in nature, and although one would say that the sixth year is the year with the least nutrients, having been worked a contiguous six years without rest, would be the least productive year, yet G-d promises that He will provide enough food in the sixth year to sustain the people during the seventh and eight year.
I will repeat a thought that is worth mentioning over and over. G-d distinguishes Himself from other kings, in asking His subjects not to work longer days or more days, but to work fewer hours and fewer days, for G-d has a tab of what He is going to provide us for the day/week/month/year and He has the ability to provide it to us in whatever time we allot to work. He distinguishes Himself by asking us to rest on the seventh day, on all Jewish holidays and during the seventh year of the agricultural cycle. He asks us to do this to show our trust that all we have is from G-d and Him alone. The work we do during the week is merely a pipeline to show effort knowing that the spigot is controlled by G-d. Working on the seventh day, and the seventh agricultural year shows a lack of trust in G-d that He can sustain us. When we abuse this trust, He does not provide for us and He sends us into exile.
This Jewish month of Iyar is an acronym for Ani Hashem Rofechah/I am G-d your healer. It comes the month before Nissan, the month G-d gave us the Torah, so that during this month we have the countdown of the Omer, the days between Passover and Shaavuoth, when with joy and anticipation we await the continuous giving of the Torah by G-d to His people, we ask G-d to heal us, not only physically, but spiritually, that we may be deserving our wedding anniversary, the rededication of our mutual love with G-d on Shavuoth.
Last night we counted number 38 of the omer. Rabbi Simon Jacobson in his Hayom yom echad omer counter states that the strength of this day is Tiferet of Yesod/compassion in bonding. “Bonding needs to be not only loving, but also compassionate. Feeling your friend’s pain and empathizing with him. Is my bonding conditional? Do I withdraw when I am uncomfortable with my friend’s troubles?” We need to ask this of ourselves because we cannot draw Moshiach here without bonding and unity. We are G-d’s children, and He, as our Father, wants to see His children united.
In sum: while other kings ask their subjects to work harder to show their dedication to him, G-d asks us to work less, to show our devotion to Him, our understanding that no matter how hard we work, it is G-d who is in control of all we receive. We ask G-d to heal us so we may be deserving of the giving of the Torah anew each Shavuoth.
As we leave the month of Iyar this week, the end of this week’s haftorah reminds us to work on ourselves, and love each other enough to bring all that we know closer. The last words of the Haftorah state: “Heal me G-d, and I will be healed. Help me, and I will be helped, for You are the one about whom I praise myself that You are my sole savior.”
Have a good Shabbos and a Gut Chodesh.
-Suri