Draft d'var Torah
Apr. 16th, 2007 04:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhuO Great LJ Brain Trust, Editing Division:
I have signed up to provide the d'var Torah for parshat Behar, both in written form for the JCDS parents' newsletter and verbally on Shabbat morning at my shul's hashkama minyan kiddush. (As long as I'm writing one, might as well get double play for it, right?)
Behind the cut is my latest draft; suggested emendations appreciated. Knowledge of Hebrew or Judaism not necessary, I hope -- all should be explained within the text.
One other pre-note: this is an expanded version of a quick posting I made a while back in this blog, when the relevant page of Talmud went by in the Daf Yomi cycle. So you've already heard this :-)
We are accustomed to a computed calendar, in which calculations tell us whether any given month has 29 or 30 days. But when the Beit Din determined the calendar by receiving witnesses and hearing their testimony, Rosh Chodesh was established not by the predictable astronomical event of the new moon, but rather by the human action of declaring מקודש “It is sanctified.” The Mishnah that leads off the third chapter of Rosh Hashannah (25b) clearly states: ראוהו בית דין וכל ישראל נחקרו העדים ולא הספיקו לומר מקודש עד שחשיכה הרי זה מעובר If the Beit Din and all Israel saw the new moon, and the witnesses had been examined, but darkness fell before the Beit Din could utter the word מקודש, then the outgoing month was extended another day.
Counting and calculating only provide the potential for sacred time, but it requires a human act, a Jewish act, to transform that potential into actuality.
With that in mind, let us examine a segment of the first aliyah in this week’s parasha, Behar, which describes the Yovel (Jubilee) year:
A first reading would suggest that verse 8 instructs us when the Yovel is to be celebrated (after counting 49 years, the Yovel is to be the fiftieth year) and verses 9 through 13 give us the laws that are to be observed in that year: blowing the shofar, manumitting indentured servants, restoring ancestral lands, and letting the land lie fallow as it does in shemittah years.
The Rabbis of the Talmud took a different view. Rosh Hashannah 9b treats verse 8 as informing us only that the fiftieth year has the potential to become a Yovel. Of the other four mitzvot, the Gemara asks which converts the fiftieth year into a Yovel, and which are only required once the trigger has occurred?
רבי יוסי אומר יובל היא אע"פ שלא שמטו אף על פי שלא שלחו יכול אע"פ שלא תקעו ת"ל היא Rabbi Yosi says [regarding the words] “It is Yovel”: Even if they did not repatriate fields, even if they did not manumit [servants]. One might mistakenly say even if they did not blow [shofar]; therefore the Torah says “it is [Yovel].” According to this position, only the blowing of shofar is essential to convert the fiftieth year into a Yovel. If the shofar is not blown on Yom Kippur, then the fiftieth year does not become a Yovel year, and the other Yovel laws--such as leaving the fields fallow--are not in effect.
The Talmud asks: Why only shofar? מפני מה אני אומר יובל היא אע"פ שלא שלחו ואין יובל אא"כ תקעו Why should I say “It is Yovel” even if they do not manumit, but it is not Yovel unless they blow? The Talmud continues by giving two answers, which illuminate two different perspectives on the relationship between the Law and the People.
The first answer is: לפי שאפשר לעולם בלא שילוח עבדים ואי אפשר לעולם בלא תקיעת שופר Sometimes there will be a Yovel year in which God has blessed us with fifty years of plenty, and no one has had to sell himself or his children into servitude, and no one has had to sell his ancestral fields. In such a year, if either of those mitzvot were essential, it would be impossible to celebrate Yovel at all. However, it can never be the case that the shofar could not be blown.
דבר אחר -- The Talmud offers another explanation. זו מסורה לב"ד וזו אינה מסורה לבית דין Blowing shofar is the responsibility only of the Beit Din. Sometimes there may be an individual who commits the sin of not manumitting his servant or of not returning someone else's ancestral field. And although such a person can be brought before the Beit Din and compelled to do these things, the fact that he did not do so on Erev Yom Kippur would void the Yovel if those mitzvot were essential. But the Beit Din itself is responsible for blowing shofar, and one can depend on them to do the right thing.
Why did the rabbis who wrote the Gemara feel the need to provide both answers? Perhaps it is to teach us to be on guard against two threats to our commitment to the mitzvot. In one case, when everything is going well, it is easy to become complacent. In the other case, when one’s neighbor is sinning, or when one is immersed in a culture that devalues religious commitment, it is human nature to bend to peer pressure. Either situation jeopardizes our relationship with the mitzvot and with God.
The shofar both awakens the slumbering soul and alarms the willful transgressor. Perhaps that is why Rabbi Yosi regarded it as the essential mitzvah to inaugurate the Yovel, the ultimate opportunity for restoring us to the social position and geographical place where we belong.
I have signed up to provide the d'var Torah for parshat Behar, both in written form for the JCDS parents' newsletter and verbally on Shabbat morning at my shul's hashkama minyan kiddush. (As long as I'm writing one, might as well get double play for it, right?)
Behind the cut is my latest draft; suggested emendations appreciated. Knowledge of Hebrew or Judaism not necessary, I hope -- all should be explained within the text.
One other pre-note: this is an expanded version of a quick posting I made a while back in this blog, when the relevant page of Talmud went by in the Daf Yomi cycle. So you've already heard this :-)
We are accustomed to a computed calendar, in which calculations tell us whether any given month has 29 or 30 days. But when the Beit Din determined the calendar by receiving witnesses and hearing their testimony, Rosh Chodesh was established not by the predictable astronomical event of the new moon, but rather by the human action of declaring מקודש “It is sanctified.” The Mishnah that leads off the third chapter of Rosh Hashannah (25b) clearly states: ראוהו בית דין וכל ישראל נחקרו העדים ולא הספיקו לומר מקודש עד שחשיכה הרי זה מעובר If the Beit Din and all Israel saw the new moon, and the witnesses had been examined, but darkness fell before the Beit Din could utter the word מקודש, then the outgoing month was extended another day.
Counting and calculating only provide the potential for sacred time, but it requires a human act, a Jewish act, to transform that potential into actuality.
With that in mind, let us examine a segment of the first aliyah in this week’s parasha, Behar, which describes the Yovel (Jubilee) year:
ח וְסָֽפַרְתָּ֣ לְךָ֗ שֶׁ֚בַע שַׁבְּתֹ֣ת שָׁנִ֔ים שֶׁ֥בַע שָׁנִ֖ים שֶׁ֣בַע פְּעָמִ֑ים וְהָי֣וּ לְךָ֗ יְמֵי֙ שֶׁ֚בַע שַׁבְּתֹ֣ת הַשָּׁנִ֔ים תֵּ֥שַׁע וְאַרְבָּעִ֖ים שָׁנָֽה: ט וְהַֽעֲבַרְתָּ֞ שׁוֹפַ֤ר תְּרוּעָה֙ בַּחֹ֣דֶשׁ הַשְּׁבִעִ֔י בֶּֽעָשׂ֖וֹר לַחֹ֑דֶשׁ
בְּיוֹם֙ הַכִּפֻּרִ֔ים תַּֽעֲבִ֥ירוּ שׁוֹפָ֖ר בְּכָֽל־אַרְצְכֶֽם: י וְקִדַּשְׁתֶּ֗ם אֵ֣ת שְׁנַ֤ת הַֽחֲמִשִּׁים֙ שָׁנָ֔ה וּקְרָאתֶ֥ם דְּר֛וֹר בָּאָ֖רֶץ לְכָל־יֹֽשְׁבֶ֑יהָ יוֹבֵ֥ל הִוא֙ תִּהְיֶ֣ה לָכֶ֔ם וְשַׁבְתֶּ֗ם אִ֚ישׁ אֶל־אֲחֻזָּת֔וֹ וְאִ֥ישׁ אֶל־מִשְׁפַּחְתּ֖וֹ תָּשֻֽׁבוּ: יא יוֹבֵ֣ל הִ֗וא שְׁנַ֛ת הַֽחֲמִשִּׁ֥ים שָׁנָ֖ה תִּהְיֶ֣ה לָכֶ֑ם לֹ֣א תִזְרָ֔עוּ וְלֹ֤א תִקְצְרוּ֙ אֶת־סְפִיחֶ֔יהָ וְלֹ֥א תִבְצְר֖וּ אֶת־נְזִרֶֽיהָ: יב כִּ֚י יוֹבֵ֣ל הִ֔וא קֹ֖דֶשׁ תִּהְיֶ֣ה לָכֶ֑ם מִ֨ן־הַשָּׂדֶ֔ה תֹּֽאכְל֖וּ אֶת־תְּבֽוּאָתָֽהּ: יג בִּשְׁנַ֥ת הַיּוֹבֵ֖ל הַזֹּ֑את תָּשֻׁ֕בוּ אִ֖ישׁ אֶל־אֲחֻזָּתֽוֹ:
8. Now you are to number yourselves seven Sabbath-cycles of years --- seven years, seven times --- so the time of the seven Sabbath-cycles of years will be for you (a total of) nine and forty years. 9. Then you are to give-forth (on the) shofar a blast, in the seventh New-Moon, on the tenth after the New-Moon, on the Day of Atonement, you are to give(-blast on the) shofar throughout all your land. 10. You are to hallow the year, the fiftieth year, proclaiming freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants; it shall be Homebringing for you, you are to return, each-man to his holding, each-man to his clan you are to return. 11. It is Homebringing, the fiftieth year --- it shall be for you, you are not to sow, you are not to harvest its aftergrowth, you are not to gather its consecrated-grapes, 12. for it is Homebringing, holy shall it be for you, (only) from the field may you eat of its produce; 13. in this Year of Homebringing you are to return, each-man to his holding.
(Translation from The Schocken Bible; Everett Fox, translator.)
A first reading would suggest that verse 8 instructs us when the Yovel is to be celebrated (after counting 49 years, the Yovel is to be the fiftieth year) and verses 9 through 13 give us the laws that are to be observed in that year: blowing the shofar, manumitting indentured servants, restoring ancestral lands, and letting the land lie fallow as it does in shemittah years.
The Rabbis of the Talmud took a different view. Rosh Hashannah 9b treats verse 8 as informing us only that the fiftieth year has the potential to become a Yovel. Of the other four mitzvot, the Gemara asks which converts the fiftieth year into a Yovel, and which are only required once the trigger has occurred?
רבי יוסי אומר יובל היא אע"פ שלא שמטו אף על פי שלא שלחו יכול אע"פ שלא תקעו ת"ל היא Rabbi Yosi says [regarding the words] “It is Yovel”: Even if they did not repatriate fields, even if they did not manumit [servants]. One might mistakenly say even if they did not blow [shofar]; therefore the Torah says “it is [Yovel].” According to this position, only the blowing of shofar is essential to convert the fiftieth year into a Yovel. If the shofar is not blown on Yom Kippur, then the fiftieth year does not become a Yovel year, and the other Yovel laws--such as leaving the fields fallow--are not in effect.
The Talmud asks: Why only shofar? מפני מה אני אומר יובל היא אע"פ שלא שלחו ואין יובל אא"כ תקעו Why should I say “It is Yovel” even if they do not manumit, but it is not Yovel unless they blow? The Talmud continues by giving two answers, which illuminate two different perspectives on the relationship between the Law and the People.
The first answer is: לפי שאפשר לעולם בלא שילוח עבדים ואי אפשר לעולם בלא תקיעת שופר Sometimes there will be a Yovel year in which God has blessed us with fifty years of plenty, and no one has had to sell himself or his children into servitude, and no one has had to sell his ancestral fields. In such a year, if either of those mitzvot were essential, it would be impossible to celebrate Yovel at all. However, it can never be the case that the shofar could not be blown.
דבר אחר -- The Talmud offers another explanation. זו מסורה לב"ד וזו אינה מסורה לבית דין Blowing shofar is the responsibility only of the Beit Din. Sometimes there may be an individual who commits the sin of not manumitting his servant or of not returning someone else's ancestral field. And although such a person can be brought before the Beit Din and compelled to do these things, the fact that he did not do so on Erev Yom Kippur would void the Yovel if those mitzvot were essential. But the Beit Din itself is responsible for blowing shofar, and one can depend on them to do the right thing.
Why did the rabbis who wrote the Gemara feel the need to provide both answers? Perhaps it is to teach us to be on guard against two threats to our commitment to the mitzvot. In one case, when everything is going well, it is easy to become complacent. In the other case, when one’s neighbor is sinning, or when one is immersed in a culture that devalues religious commitment, it is human nature to bend to peer pressure. Either situation jeopardizes our relationship with the mitzvot and with God.
The shofar both awakens the slumbering soul and alarms the willful transgressor. Perhaps that is why Rabbi Yosi regarded it as the essential mitzvah to inaugurate the Yovel, the ultimate opportunity for restoring us to the social position and geographical place where we belong.