A Thought on Parshas Behar

"...Shabbos Shabason yi'yeh l'aretz Shabbos la'HaShem..." "...a complete rest for the land, a Shabbos for HaShem..." (25:4) In overly concise terms, Shmita and Yovel are about bitachon. They are about having faith and trusting that HaShem will care for us. He does. Shmita is Shabbos for HaShem. ibn Shu'aib analyzes the concept of bitachon. He sees four facets of the experience, and the commandment, for a Jew to have secure trust and faith in HaShem. 1. We align our desires with all that HaShem wills for us. We shun those things which He forbids us. This way, whether or not we are worthy of His merciful intervention, we will at least be deserving of grace and kindness. This is what Dovid tells us (Tehillim 32:10) v'ha'botea'ach ba'HaShem chesed yesovev'enhu - the one who places his trust in HaShem will be surrounded by kindness. 2. We do not depend on intervention as inevitable or as automatic. This means that when we do not get what we yearn for, we don't complain that life is unfair. We instead accept that HaShem provides what we need, even if that seems not to coincide with what we want at that moment in time. 3. We recall and review past interventions, including miraculous ones throughout Jewish history. This strengthens our faith by making our comprehension and sense of faith more real. It is easier to trust in something that you believe in. 4. We give praise (birchas ha'gomel; seu'das hoda'ah) following Divine interventions. This demonstrates that we acknowledge that it was HaShem who delivered us, and it was not happenstance, chance, luck or our entitlement. ibn Shu'aib teaches that the concept of observing the Shmita and the Yovel are to express our utter faith and trust in HaShem's caring and kindness. We neglect the land and we abandon its produce in order to assert that we trust and feel secure that HaShem will still provide for us and protect us. We align our will with His, and we reject what He abhors. We accept our lot and view it as Divinely dictated. We spend the seasons away from our farms immersed instead in serving HaShem through studying His Torah, reminding ourselves of His Presence throughout our history and our present lives. We continue to worship Him during those seasons. We devote our year to bitachon in HaShem in all four facets. Now, why not just abandon all connections with mundane life and place all of our fate in His hands at all times? ibn Shu'aib says something powerful about this: in Divrei HaYamim 2:16:12 we read that King Asa was criticized for not seeking out HaShem when he sought out doctors during his illness. ibn Shu'aib comments that based on the words of that verse, we can infer that had he sought out the doctors yet also placed his trust in HaShem along with his trust in the skills of the doctors, he would not have been chastised. Using this as his thesis, ibn Shu'aib says that our efforts are generally an important part of our reality. During Shmita and Yovel, we put all our efforts into maximized faith. The rest of the time, we put efforts into our efforts, yet we make sure to include effortful faith in the process. Lastly, ibn Shu'aib offers a novel perspective on the consequence of neglecting the mitzvos of Shmita and Yovel. We know that the loss of the land of Israel and the exile were a result of our people not observing those laws. The casual explanation or assumption is that we were punished for abusing the land, so it reclaimed its "rest" by our having to vacate it. ibn Shu'aib posits that the loss of the land was a consequence of our neglecting our internal mitzvah of developing and acting on our bitachon. Not having worked on our faith when effortful faith could have borne the fruits of peace, security and vivid protective intervention from Above led to our forfeiture of the possibility of having such constant revealed sense of His Presence. We instead had to subsist in exile, where we are constantly laboring to survive, and to arduously seek out His Presence. Good Shabbos. D Fox

A Thought on Parshas Emor

"...emor el HaKohanim..." "...tell the Kohanim..." (21:1) Our parsha details the variables which distinguish the three major "classes" of Jewish people, namely, the Kohanim, the Leviim, and the Yisraelim. Different laws regulate and govern their responsibilities, their privileges, and even criteria regarding their appearance and their attire. They have specific standards for personal sanctity, purity and ritual service. This week, ibn Shu'aib explores some deeper dimensions in understanding the Torah. He begins with the familiar verses in Tehillim, "Bais Yisroel barchu es HaShem! Bais Aharon barchu es HaShem! Bais HaLevi barchu es HaShem! Yerai HaShem barchu es HaShem!" - Oh House of Israel, praise G-d; House of Aharon, House of Levi, G-d Fearing Ones, praise G-d!" (135:19-20).That psalm divides the Jewish people into four, not three, segments. Strangely, elsewhere in Tehillim Dovid HaMelech uses three divisions. In Psalm 115:9-11, he proclaims, "Yisroel b'tach b'HaShem, Bais Aharon bitchu b'HaShem, Yerai HaShem bitchu b'HaShem" - Israel, House of Aharon, G-d Fearing Ones, trust in HaShem. In 115:12-13, he sings, Yivarech es Bais Yisroel, yivarech es Bais Aharon, yivarech yerai HaShem - He will bless the House of Israel, the House of Aharon, the ones who fear Him. In 118:2-4, Dovid exults, yomar na Yisroel, yomru na Bais Aharon, yomru na yerai HaShem - Let Israel say, let the House of Aharon say, let the ones who fear G-d say... Who are the three? Who are the four? Why are there three, or four? What do they allude to? ibn Shu'aib peers into Kabbalistic revelations now. He introduces the principle that "the Patriarchs themselves, they are the Chariot" (HaAvos hen hen haMerkava). The Kabbalistic concept here is that there is a spiritual entity known as the Chariot of HaShem. A chariot carries and contains an eminent passenger. At a mystical level, HaShem "rides" the heavens in a "chariot." As manifest on earth, His Presence is also "carried" by His chariot. In this mundane existence on earth, the chariot is actually the great ones, our lofty forefathers, who carry His Presence through their deeds, teachings and accomplishments. Which of those forefathers became the primal chariot, the bearers of the Divine one earth? Our tradition has is that the right side of the Chariot was the mission of Avraham, who embodied G-d's kindness as a mortal life principle. Opposite this was Yitzchak, who embodied justice, which also heralded the presence of exiles and adversity for our people. At the binding of Yitzchak, the Akeida, the Divine justice became tempered so that on earth, our adversaries and captors would also be bound and limited by a just Divine decree, so that we could withstand persecution. This was a "spinning" of justice, so that justice ultimately prevailed on our people's behalf, rather than serving only as a punitive potential in binding us in front of our oppressors. Yakov, whose vision of a sulam showed the constant connectedness between this world and the higher realm, connects the powers of justice and kindness, to facilitate that merging or blending of chesed and din in our service of HaShem. A three sided vehicle can certainly exist, and can function. Think of a tricycle or those motor vehicles once used by traffic officers. However, there is a reality about Yakov: he was born a twin. He also demonstrated throughout his life that he had the capacity to dwell in two tents, namely, he could function as a pure and holy person, yet as a robust and powerful person very much capable of thriving in the mundane. It is because of this duality of Yakov that the Chariot was really imbued with a fourth, if latent, facet. This is hinted at in the fact that Yakov's name is generally written with no vowel, only consonants, yet there is a hidden vowel (vav) when we pronounce those other letters, and in fact, there are five places where his name is written with that vav. The additional feature, the "twinning" of Yakov, adds a fourth side or facet to the Chariot. This fourth facet is the role and mission eventually filled by Dovid HaMelech. Dovid HaMelech emerged as the completion of the Chariot, embodying some of Yakov's twin-ness (for example, like Esav, he was also ruddy, and at ease in the wilderness), and his role is to give voice to man's ascent, the potential to occupy and climb the spiritual ladder which is the domain of the malachim. Yakov modeled how man can bring Heaven closer to earth. Dovid models how man can bring himself closer to Heaven. As a parallel to this revelation, ibn Shu'aib observes how the four-letter name of HaShem is made up of three letters. There is a yud and a vov, but there are two haes. The first hae depicts the infinite Higher Wisdom of the Divine. The last hae alludes to the manifestation of that Wisdom in the world below. So, HaShem's name is depicted as four-within-three letters. The Chariot is three-manifest-as-four powers. Throughout Tehillim, Dovid depicts the role-missions of Jewish people as three discrete entities - Yisroel, Levi, Kohen. However, he also at times binds them in their ideal permutation, Yerai HaShem, which is a fourth entity. ibn Shu'aib insists that whereas the three primary roles are fixed: one cannot opt in or opt out of being a Kohen, or a Levi, or a Yisroel; anyone of us can opt in to enter the fourth role, the Dovidesque role, of Yarei HaShem. When we take on that role, embodying and enacting the holy and the sacred in our mortal life, we complete the mission of the Merkava. And, that's all, folks. That is everything. Good Shabbos. D Fox

A Thought on Parshas Kedoshim

"...lo sisna es achi'cha bil'vav'echa, ho'chai'ach tochiach..." "...do not hate your fellow in your heart; reprove him..." (19:17) Last week we learned ibn Shu'aib's thesis that the "klal gadol" of "love your neighbor" is its unifying status in linking many related mitzvos. ibn Shu'aib shows how many mitzvos which govern interpersonal conduct are "pratim", facets, of the broader principle of caring about others and their possessions. This week, he examines the related mitzva cited above, which he views as a "prat" of the "klal gadol." He sees the initial clause, not hating, as an admonition that Jews must not generate sinas chinam - baseless hatred. This is the meaning of "do not hate your fellow." He then draws attention to the entire verse, which focuses on "not hating in the heart." What is added by commanding us not only to avoid hate, but to avoid hate in the heart? What is added when the verse next directs us to "reprove the one whom we hate", then ends by instructing us "not to bear a sin" because of someone? These appear to be three distinct pratim, and the entire gestalt of this verse needs clarification. ibn Shu'aib offers this approach to the verse's three facets: If you are told something negative about another person, do not keep your reactive hatred within yourself. Do not conceal it. We cannot hide intense feelings, such as hatred, within our hearts because, he writes, as the saying goes "hearts are like mirrors." Shlomo HaMelech writes in Mishlei (27:19) "as water reflects a face back to a face, so does the heart reflect back to the heart." If you hate someone deeply within, the object of your hatred, the person whom you detest, will pick up a reflection of your feelings for him. So, you simply are not able keep it in. The Torah says, "don't even try to keep your hatred concealed." You will fail. He cites a midrash (Sifrei Devarim 1:27) which declares, "whatever is in your heart for another is what he will form in his heart about you." So what must we do when we hate? As ibn Shu'aib taught us last week, it is not natural to tell people that they cannot hate. It happens. Sometimes we do feel hatred for someone, such as when we have learned about their wrongdoings. This is why the next clause says, "reprove him." ibn Shu'aib explains that if something bothers you about someone, tell him. If he has done something very wrong, confront him. Clear the air. Tell him what you feel about him and then try to work it out. This is what it means to "reprove him." The final clause, "do not bear a sin" refers to the problem of keeping the hatred in: if you fail to talk it through with the other person, you are transgressing the sin of holding hatred within your heart. So, the verse means: "Do not keep your hatred in your heart. Confront the person. Otherwise, you are holding on to the hatred within and bearing a sin of your own." Good Shabbos. D Fox

A Thought on Parshas Acharei

"...v'ahavta l'rei'acha kamocha..." "...and love your fellow like yourself..." (19:11) ibn Shu'aib addresses the two parshios of Acharei-Kedoshim as a pair, with common themes. The verse I will focus on this week, although technically from Kedoshim, which we read next week, in that this year the parshios are separated, is very much an important one. The world's 'Golden Rule', which is Rabbi Akiva's "klal gadol", is "love your fellow as yourself." ibn Shu'aib's position on that literal translation is "This is impossible. Its unnatural." Firstly, he argues, each of us values our own life above others' lives, as a general premise. Worded differently, although there are those who would risk life and limb to protect those whom they love, most of us are not able to dismiss our own needs for the sake of "our fellow." It goes against our nature to demand that we must love all others just as we love ourselves. In the Book of Iyov (Job) we read (2:4) "Skin for the sake of skin! Whatever a man has he would give up for his life!" ibn Shu'aib interprets that verse, as do Rashi and ibn Ezra, that some people would even give up their own children to save their own lives r'l. We clearly cannot interpret our "golden rule" as demanding that we love others the way we love ourselves. Its not natural. Secondly, ibn Shu'aib observes, Rabbi Akiva himself does not endorse such extreme self-deprioritization. In fact, he rules against one making such sacrifices on Halachic grounds: Rabbi Akiva is of the opinion that if two people are dying of thirst and only one of them has water, the one with the water must drink it. "Chayecha kodmin" - your life comes first (Bava Metzia 62a). So ibn Shu'aib contends that we must translate the verse differently. The words "le'reiacha kamocha" include the letter lamed, rather than the prefix word es.This would mean "love that which is your fellow's." Treat him and his possessions with the same level of care which you would provide yourself. This is why Hillel (Shabbos 31a) explained that the Torah hinges on the principle of "what you object to you must refrain from doing to others." Its not really about love as a feeling, but love as a behavioral orientation and attitude. ibn Shu'aib adds that even if someone else harms you or your property, the Torah demands that we not take revenge. Why is this? We would not tolerate someone harming us in the spirit of revenge, so "loving that which is your fellow's" precludes us taking revenge on them. The sin of nekama is a prat - an exponent - of the klal gadol of v'ahavta l'rei'acha. ibn Shu'aib closes with an analogy given by the Talmud Yerushalmi (Nedarim 9:4): If a person hurts himself with his own hand, he would never cut off his hand. If a person pokes himself in the eye with his finger, he would not punish his finger. Therefore, when a Jew hurts another, we do not hit back. Whatever we wish for ourselves, we aim for in our dealings with others. Good Shabbos. D Fox