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Wisdom for Living
Rabbi Noah Weinberg on the Parashah
6 min read
God spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying: 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 Sabbatical year of rest for Hashem. For six years you may sow your field and for six years you may prune your vineyard; and you may gather in its crop. But the seventh year shall be a complete rest for the land, a Sabbath for Hashem. (Vayikra 25:1-4)
When conveying the mitzvah of Shemittah, the Sabbatical year, why does the Torah specify that God is speaking on Mount Sinai?
Rashi answers that the Torah is pointing out that just as all of the laws of the Sabbatical year were taught at Sinai, so, too, all of the Torah's laws, with all their details, were taught at Sinai.
But this begs the question: All the mitzvot of the Torah were taught at Sinai. So why does the Torah teach this lesson specifically through the mitzvah of Shemittah, when any mitzvah could have been chosen?
Shemittah was chosen because it is the one mitzvah that demonstrates to all future generations that the Torah was indeed given by Hashem at Mount Sinai, for the author of the Torah could only be God, not a human being.
Let’s examine how, in fact, Shemittah demonstrates this.
Let's imagine for a moment that a group of people got together to write the Torah. And let's imagine that we are on this committee. Since our aim is to get as many people as possible to accept our book, we are going to perpetrate a hoax and pass on our religion as if it were given by God, who ostensibly appeared to the Jewish people at Sinai and gave them this Torah.
We are starting from scratch, and we are going to include a truckload of commandments. So what would be a good law to include in our Torah? How about "Thou shalt not steal”? That is necessary for a functioning society. Let's include it.
Thou shalt not murder? Okay, we'll put that in, too.
Shabbos? A day of rest and rejuvenation? Sounds good.
Now I would like to propose the following law: Every seventh year, the entire Jewish people must cease working the fields. They may not plant, plow or harvest – for an entire year, once every seven years.
Do you think this is a good law to put in the Torah?
Sure! Crop rotation is an important farming technique. Letting the land lie fallow helps replenish the nutrients, and the land yields better crops than it would if the soil were used without rest year after year. And the respite will give the nation the opportunity to spend more time focusing on learning Torah.
But there is one problem. Remember, we are an agrarian society and live off what we plant and harvest. If we do not plant for an entire year, we will have nothing to eat! How can people learn if they are literally starving to death? That's no small problem.
There are a couple of obvious solutions. We can store one-sixth of the harvest during each of the first six years and then eat from that during the Sabbatical year. Alternatively, we can divide the country into seven regions, and each year the people of a different region will let their fields rest and borrow food from all the others. Simple enough.
Suddenly, someone on the committee pipes up with a different, more radical solution. "Forget dividing the land or storing up grain. I have a much better idea. Let's write in the Torah that God promises to deliver a triple crop in the sixth year!"
The committee erupts. "That's absurd! We obviously can't guarantee that the sixth year will miraculously yield a triple crop. We have no control over nature. If we include this insane guarantee, our religion is doomed. We're trying to pass this book off as if it's written by God. If we promise something we can't deliver, we'll be exposed as frauds!"
"If we include this triple crop idea," another committee member says, "how long do you think this religion will last? Exactly six years! As soon as the triple crop doesn't come, we're out of business. Everyone will see that the religion is a sham."
There is no doubt that our imaginary Torah-writing committee would shoot down the ridiculous triple-crop idea and select one of the more sensible solutions. It would be completely counterproductive to include a miraculous blessing that you know you cannot deliver and that would undermine the entire enterprise of perpetrating the hoax that this Torah was written by God.
Yet this promise is exactly what the Torah guarantees:
But the seventh year will be a complete rest for the land… your field you shall not sow, your vineyard you shall not prune. The aftergrowth of your harvest you shall not reap and the grapes you had set aside for yourself you shall not pick; it shall be a year of rest for the land...
If you will say: What will we eat in the seventh year? – behold! We will not sow and not gather in our crops! I will ordain My blessing for you in the sixth year and it will yield a crop sufficient for the three-year period. (Vayikra 25:4, 5, 20-21)
The Torah's solution to procuring food for the Shemittah year is not dividing up the land or storing grain. The Torah makes the incredible promise that the sixth year will produce enough crops for three years.
The Torah could have hedged this promise with a built-in excuse. It could have said: "Keep the Sabbath laws in the seventh year. It's going to be a difficult year; everyone will be hungry. But as a great reward, you will get a triple crop in the eighth year." That would have been smart, because then, when the promised bumper crop does not happen, the excuse could always be, "Well, some people were cheating in the seventh year. So God punished us and didn't give us the triple crop."
But our author promises a triple crop in the sixth year, before we even observe the laws of Shemittah. Should there fail to be a bumper crop, there is no possible excuse.
Who could have written this and made such a promise? There is only one Author Who can indeed guarantee a miraculous triple crop and include this promise in His Torah with complete confidence – and that Author is the Almighty, Who controls all of nature.
