Parshat Behar-Behuchotai
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
ב ס ״ ד Torah It IS His Business miracle which occurred in This concept is as true today the Land of Israel every as it was in the Land of Israel Weekly This week’s Torah reading seventh year! For centuries, millennia ago. By Rabbi talks of the prohibition every sixth year the crop Naftali Silberberg Are May 2-8, 2021 against performing would be so abundant that it 20-26 Iyar, 5781 People Inherently agricultural work during lasted for three years for Torah Reading: the Shemittah (Sabbatical) Good or Evil? How do Behar-Bechukotai: Leviticus 25:1 those who were committed - 27:34 year. to abstain from work on the you view humanity? Are Haftarah: If you shall say, “What will seventh. people born innately good or Jeremiah 16:19 - 17:14 we eat in the seventh year? Perhaps it can be posited that essentially evil? Do we have PARSHAT Behold, we will not sow, nor greater than the miracle of a basically good nature that BEHAR-BECHUKOTAI is corrupted by society or a gather in our produce!” I will the abundant crops is the We have Jewish command My blessing for trust the Jews demonstrated basically bad nature that is kept in check by society? Calendars. If you you in the sixth year, and it in G-d. would like one, will yield produce for three If society today is any It’s a fundamental question please send us a years. You will sow in the indicator, people have a that has been debated letter and we will eighth year, while [still] strong tendency to relegate endlessly. send you one, or eating from the old crops G-d to the synagogue. Those A study conducted by Calendars ask the until the ninth year; until the who are more pious allow Scientific American tested Rabbi/Chaplain to arrival of its crop, you will G-d into their personal lives people’s responses based on contact us. eat the old [crop]. (Leviticus as well. But fewer indeed are two mechanisms: intuition or 25:20–22.) Do you have family reflection. “Intuition is those who welcome Him on the outside Very few people can into their businesses and automatic and effortless, struggling? financially survive taking an pocketbooks. “I’ll pray to leading to actions that occur Please contact or unpaid leave of absence G-d, I’ll study Torah and do without insight into the have them contact from work for an entire year. His mitzvot, but business is reasons behind them. our office to learn We can only imagine what a business . ." The biblical Reflection, on the other more about our country would look like of law requiring ten percent of hand, is all about conscious family programs. entire segments of its earnings to be given to thought—identifying You and they are population decided to take a charity and the prohibitions possible behaviors, weighing Family Programs not alone, we are year of vacation; it would against lending with interest, the costs and benefits, and here to help. take years for the economy rationally deciding on a cheating, deception, and to lift itself out of the working on Shabbat and course of action.” We offer free Grape ensuing shambles. Just holy days are swept under Based on these responses, Juice and Matzoh think: strikes by small the rug in the interest of the study suggested that for you to be able to groups which last for mere making ends meet. people’s first and intuitive make the blessings days cause billions of dollars Shemittah teaches us that we impulse was to cooperate; every Shabbos. of damage to nations’ are not intrinsically weak; only upon further reflection Please have your economies. we do have the ability to did they decide to be more chaplain / Rabbi Yet it actually happened. contact us to enroll trust in G-d. And He, in turn, selfish. The test concluded Regularly. Citizens of an (available to all has the ability to provide for that people are instinctively agrarian nation dropped their Grape Juice & Matzah prisons). those who do so. G-d pleads, willing to give for the good plows and sickles and “Is My hand too short to of the group, even at our own Hyman & Martha Rogal Center “sabbaticaled” every redeem, or do I have no personal expense. 5804 Beacon Street seventh year, and survived strength to save? Behold, Pittsburgh, PA 15217 But does this mean that we and flourished! We speak with My rebuke I dry up the are naturally cooperative, or 412-421-0111 often of miracles such as the Fax: 412-521-5948 sea, I make rivers into a that it has become instinctive www.alephne.org splitting of the Red Sea and desert.” (Isaiah 50:2.) Yes, because cooperation is [email protected] the Jordan River, of the ten the same G-d who split the rewarded by society? plagues and Elijah’s Red Sea can even provide us wonders, but we neglect to and our families with a mention this awesome steady income. IN JEWISH HISTORY Sunday, May 2, 2021 --- 20 Iyar, 5781 Researchers at Yale University Journey From Sinai (1312 BCE) experimented on babies, who have the On the 20th of Iyar 2449 (1312 BCE)--nearly a year after the Giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai--the Children of Israel departed their encampment near the Mountain. They minimum of cultural influence. Basing resumed their journey when the pillar of cloud rose for the first time from over the their study on the fact that babies will reach "Tabernacle--the divine sign that would signal the resumption of their travels throughout for things they want or like—and will look their encampments and journeys over the next 38 years, until they reached the eastern bank longer at things that surprise them- their of the Jordan River on the eve of their entry into the Holy Land. results suggested that even the youngest Monday, May 3, 2021 --- 21 Iyar, 5781 humans have an instinct of good over evil, Kfar Chabad Established (1949) friendly helpful motivations over The Chabad-Lubavitch village in Israel, Kfar Chabad, was founded by the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, on Iyar 21 of 1949. The first malicious ones. settlers were mostly recent immigrants from the Soviet Union, survivors of the terrors of But if we’re born good, why do parents World War II and Stalinist oppression. Kfar Chabad, which is located about five miles have to devote major efforts to raise south of Tel Aviv and includes agricultural lands as well as numerous educational institutions, serves as the headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidic movement in the children to become good adults? Why Holy Land. don’t we naturally express gratitude, and instead need to learn it? Why does every Tuesday, May 4, 2021 --- 22 Iyar, 5781 civilization require so many laws and Shabbat Commanded (1313 BCE) Following the descent of the manna (the miraculous "Bread from Heaven" that sustained consequences to control human behavior? the Israelites in the desert), G-d commanded the Children of Israel to keep the Shabbat. And why has so much evil been This Shabbat was the 22nd of Iyar, of the year 2448 from Creation (1313 BCE) On that perpetuated by humanity over the Friday morning, enough manna fell for two days' worth of meals, as on the Shabbat it centuries? would be prohibited to gather the manna. The "Two Loaves" of challah bread (Lechem Mishneh) that form the foundation of our Shabbat meal are in commemoration of the Bechukotai begins with the verse: If you double portion of manna. walk in My statutes (Lev. 26:3) Wednesday, May 5, 2021 --- 23 Iyar, 5781 The Talmud explains that the word “if” is Water from a Rock at Rephidim (1313 BCE) to be understood as a plea on the part of G The Children of Israel arrived at Rephidim on the 23rd of Iyar, 1313 BCE -- 38 days after d: “If only you would follow My statutes . their exodus from Egypt. Rephidim was desert land and waterless, the people grumbled that they and their flocks were in danger of dying of thirst. G-d commanded Moses to take the . ” But the word chok (“statute” or elders of the people to a rock which he was to hit with his staff. Moses hit the rock and “decree”) literally means “engraved.” from the dry stone, a well sprang forth. A rabbi once remarked: “Every Jew is a Thursday, May 6, 2021 --- 24 Iyar, 5781 letter in the Torah. But a letter may grow Germany Surrenders (1945) somewhat faded. It is our sacred duty to In Rheims, France, the Chief-of-Staff of the German Armed Forces High Command signed mend these faded letters and make G d’s the unconditional surrender documents for all German forces to the Allies, thus marking Torah whole again.” the official end of World War II in Europe. The surrender took place following a fierce seven days of battles and truces across Europe. Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Lubavitch objected: “No, the identity of the Jew Friday, May 7, 2021 --- 25 Iyar, 5781 cannot be compared to erasable ink on Passing of R. Yaakov Lorberbaum of Lissa (1832) R. Yaakov Lorberbaum was a well-known halachic authority who served as rabbi in the parchment. Every Jew is indeed a letter in Eastern European cities of Kalish, Lissa, and Stryi. Among the famous and widely-studied G d’s Torah, but a letter engraved in stone. works of this prolific author are Chavos Daas and Nesivos Hamishpat, both in-depth At times, the dust and dirt may accumulate commentaries on the Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law).