The Weekly Shtikle - Behar

    At the very beginning of the parsha we have the very famous Rashi: "Ma inyan shemittah eitzel Har Sinai?" Why is Har Sinai mentioned in connection to the mitzvah of shemittah more so than any other mitzvah? This phrase is so well-known that it has become a Hebrew colloquialism equivalent to, "What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?" Rashi's answer is that just as the entire mitzvah of shemittah and all its minutia were all spelled out at Har Sinai, so to all the mitzvos were taught in their entirety at Har Sinai.

 

    But it seems the question still remains. Why is shemittah chosen as the mitzvah with which to teach us this? I believe a possible answer relates to the immediacy of the application of the mitzvos. Of the 613 mitzvos, there were many that were applicable immediately. Some mitzvos became applicable later. Some that were connected to Eretz Yisroel only became applicable after they crossed over into the land, some later still. The mitzvah of shemittah was not observed until much later. The midrash states that the mitzvah didn't even apply until after the land was conquered and divided and thus, it wasn't until the 21st year that it was observed. There was certainly no rush to deliver the complex details of this special mitzvah. And yet, we are told that it was taught at Har Sinai. Surely, all other mitzvos were as well.

 

    (What about Yoveil? Yoveil contains an explicit mitzvah for Beis Din to count the years leading up to it and therefore, it became applicable immediately, or at least at year 15.)

 

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    The laws of shemittah come bundled with one of the very special supernatural promises found in the Torah, that shemittah observance will be rewarded with a special blessing in the crops so that the farmers are able to survive without planting new crops. There have been a number of clear examples this year of this holy miracle in our holy land. Click to read:

http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/article.php?p=13933

http://palmtreeofdeborah.blogspot.com/2008/02/first-bananas-now-its-potatoes.html

Have a good Shabbos.
 
Eliezer Bulka
EzBulka@hotmail.com
http://weeklyshtikle.blogspot.com
http://dikdukian.blogspot.com