Behar – Bechukotai: Parsha Jewish Wisdom - Torah And The Limits Of Human Endeavour

0:00 SPEAKER_00: Sahhaim's unemployed.

0:03 SPEAKER_00: He's tried everything.

0:04 SPEAKER_00: He can't get a job.

0:05 SPEAKER_00: He's knocking on doors.

0:07 SPEAKER_00: Eventually ends up at the local zoo.

0:10 SPEAKER_00: He speaks to the zookeeper.

0:12 SPEAKER_00: The zookeeper's a little embarrassed.

0:14 SPEAKER_00: He says, You know what?

0:15 SPEAKER_00: Yesterday our gorilla died and we haven't had a chance to replace him.

0:19 SPEAKER_00: He says, if you don't mind putting on a suit and going into the cage, that'd be very helpful.

0:25 SPEAKER_00: Caim thinks it's ridiculous, but he's got nothing else, so he agrees.

0:29 SPEAKER_00: He puts on the suit, he goes into the cage, and he's amazing.

0:33 SPEAKER_00: He's swinging around, he's eating bananas, the kids love him.

0:37 SPEAKER_00: After a few days he starts to get carried away and he's climbing higher and higher and swinging.

0:42 SPEAKER_00: Some point he loses his grip and he lands in the lion's enclosure next door.

0:47 SPEAKER_00: He can't believe it, he thinks this is the end.

0:49 SPEAKER_00: He's screaming, help, help, and the lion is running towards him.

0:52 SPEAKER_00: Help, help, he screams.

0:54 SPEAKER_00: Eventually the lion gets right up close and he whispers, Will you be quiet, man?

0:59 SPEAKER_00: You're gonna get us both fired.

1:03 SPEAKER_00: So we live in a world where people define themselves by work.

1:09 SPEAKER_00: They define themselves by what they do.

1:11 SPEAKER_00: When we meet someone new, we wouldn't ask them who they are.

1:15 SPEAKER_00: But one of the first questions we'll ever ask is, What do you do?

1:18 SPEAKER_00: And people will answer, I'm a lawyer, I'm a doctor, I'm an accountant.

1:22 SPEAKER_00: And we define ourselves often by what we do.

1:26 SPEAKER_00: Judaism in this context says the most revolutionary thing.

1:32 SPEAKER_00: It says, Stop.

1:34 SPEAKER_00: Judaism introduced the world to the idea of a regular day off, Shabbat every week.

1:42 SPEAKER_00: In this week's Pasha, the first of the Pasha Baha, we have this idea with Shmitta that we worked the land six years and on the seventh it's laid to rest.

1:54 SPEAKER_00: And it's introduced in a very unusual way.

1:57 SPEAKER_00: It says, Hashem spoke to Moshe on Hasinai, saying, and Rashi wants to bring down on that, says, why does it start in such an unusual way?

2:06 SPEAKER_00: Because it's teaching us that just as Shmitta, all the general principles and finer details were given at Hassinai, so all the mitzvot were given at Hassinai.

2:19 SPEAKER_00: And we have Shmitta again in the second of the two Pashyot this week, the Hukattai, where it tells us that the penalty for not keeping Shmittah is to be exiled from the land.

2:33 SPEAKER_00: So there's two questions.

2:36 SPEAKER_00: Question number one is this.

2:38 SPEAKER_00: I understand what Rashi says.

2:41 SPEAKER_00: It's introduced in this way, Shmitta.

2:44 SPEAKER_00: Hashem spoke to Moshem Hassinai, because we need to understand that all the mitzvot were given at Hassinai.

2:52 SPEAKER_00: But why Shmitta?

2:54 SPEAKER_00: Why not another mitzvah?

2:57 SPEAKER_00: Surely any of the other 603 mitzvot could have been used, not the ten of the Asserat adibrot, which we know were said on Hassinai, but any of the others.

3:06 SPEAKER_00: Why Schmitta specifically?

3:09 SPEAKER_00: What is the connection between Schmitter and Hassanai?

3:14 SPEAKER_00: Why that one?

3:16 SPEAKER_00: And then the second question is, why is the penalty for not keeping Schmitter so harsh, exiled from the land?

3:23 SPEAKER_00: It's an agricultural law.

3:26 SPEAKER_00: So of course we should keep all Hashem Smith's Fot, of course.

3:29 SPEAKER_00: But if we don't keep Schmitter, an agricultural law, we get thrown off the land, we get exiled?

3:36 SPEAKER_00: What's going on?

3:37 SPEAKER_00: Why is that?

3:39 SPEAKER_00: I think if we answer these two questions, we get a much deeper understanding of these parshiat, of Shmitta itself and of what it is to be a Jew in Judaism.

3:51 SPEAKER_00: So if you look at Parshat Yitro, Mishpatim, Kitisa, V Yakel, Emor, and the Ethanan, when it talks about Shabbat, it talks about six days of work and then seventh days a day of rest.

4:10 SPEAKER_00: And we have a similar idea in Pashra Mishpatim and in Pashrat Baha with Shmitta, that six years we work the land, we toil, and on the seventh year the land lies fallows, arrest.

4:24 SPEAKER_00: The question is this.

4:26 SPEAKER_00: Why are we introduced to these Shabbat and Shmitta as six days of work and a seventh of rest?

4:34 SPEAKER_00: Six years of work and a seventh the land rests.

4:37 SPEAKER_00: Why can't Hashem just say, on the seventh day you rest, on the seventh year you leave the land to rest?

4:43 SPEAKER_00: Why does it have to be six days and then a seventh?

4:46 SPEAKER_00: Six years and then a seventh.

4:49 SPEAKER_00: So one of the key foundational principles of Judaism is that we're all made but Selem elokim.

4:55 SPEAKER_00: We're made in the image of Hashem.

4:57 SPEAKER_00: We are creative beings.

5:00 SPEAKER_00: And Hashem created the world with Chesed, with loving kindness.

5:04 SPEAKER_00: The main middle of creation is Hesed, his loving kindness.

5:08 SPEAKER_00: And one of the acts of Chesed of Hashem is that he made a perfectly imperfect world.

5:17 SPEAKER_00: Perfect because Hashem doesn't make any mistakes, but perfectly imperfect because Hashem left the world for us to improve.

5:26 SPEAKER_00: And it was an act of Chesed.

5:28 SPEAKER_00: Because if Hashem had made the world perfect, we couldn't function.

5:33 SPEAKER_00: If the world is perfect, anything that we did would destroy the world.

5:36 SPEAKER_00: We moved afoot, we destroy it because it was already perfect.

5:40 SPEAKER_00: We couldn't live in a world like that.

5:42 SPEAKER_00: So Hashem makes a perfectly imperfect world so we can be on this planet and we can strive and we can do and we can improve things and therefore we can live.

5:53 SPEAKER_00: But with that act of chesed of Hashem comes responsibility.

5:59 SPEAKER_00: Because once we can improve the world, and the world needs improving, we have a responsibility to do it.

6:07 SPEAKER_00: And therefore, it's all part of the system.

6:10 SPEAKER_00: Six days we shall work, we shall strive, we shall create, we shall try and improve the world and make it a better place, but the seventh day we don't because it's a rest there.

6:21 SPEAKER_00: And six years we work the land, we toil, we struggle, we do what we can to improve the world.

6:28 SPEAKER_00: But in the seventh year we leave the land.

6:31 SPEAKER_00: It's all part of the same system, and that's why it's given together.

6:37 SPEAKER_00: Pashat Yitro, the Asserat Hadibra, when we're given Shabbat, it actually says a Shabbat La Hashem, a Shabbat for Hashem.

6:48 SPEAKER_00: And we have very similar language in this week's Pasha Baha, it says about Shmittah, it's a Shabbat La Hashem, a Shabbat for Hashem.

6:57 SPEAKER_00: And Rashi wants to bring down on that and say it's a Shabbat in honour of Hashem.

7:03 SPEAKER_00: And the Ravad who comes a little bit after Rashi, he's born about 20 years or so after Rashi.

7:09 SPEAKER_00: He says, because it shows Hashem is in charge and we're not.

7:15 SPEAKER_00: Seifah Hakinach in Mitzvah 328, which is Shmittah, says it shows that all property, everything is the property of Hashem.

7:25 SPEAKER_00: So we get those ideas.

7:28 SPEAKER_00: It's honour of Hashem.

7:30 SPEAKER_00: Hashem's in charge and we're not.

7:32 SPEAKER_00: Everything belongs to Hashem.

7:35 SPEAKER_00: What's interesting is if we ask the question, what if there was no Shabbat?

7:41 SPEAKER_00: What if there was no Shmitta?

7:43 SPEAKER_00: So we just work seven days a week all the time.

7:47 SPEAKER_00: And we just work the land every single year and never let it rest.

7:51 SPEAKER_00: Here's the problem.

7:53 SPEAKER_00: After a while we would probably think it was all up to us.

7:57 SPEAKER_00: It was all our own endeavor.

7:59 SPEAKER_00: And that would be a form of idolatry.

8:02 SPEAKER_00: We think everything's down to us, it's all down to our efforts, there's nothing else.

8:08 SPEAKER_00: But we don't.

8:09 SPEAKER_00: We create, we strive for six days a week.

8:13 SPEAKER_00: But on the seventh day of Shabbat, we acknowledge there's an ultimate creator.

8:20 SPEAKER_00: We work the land for six years to provide sustenance for ourselves.

8:24 SPEAKER_00: But in the seventh year, when we leave the land, we understand there's an ultimate provider.

8:31 SPEAKER_00: In other words, Shabbat and Shmitta come to teach us and remind us that there's a limit to human endeavor.

8:40 SPEAKER_00: And that brings us to this idea of inputs and outputs.

8:44 SPEAKER_00: We have to strive and do.

8:47 SPEAKER_00: That is our responsibility.

8:49 SPEAKER_00: Hashem made a perfectly imperfect world.

8:51 SPEAKER_00: We have a responsibility to improve it.

8:54 SPEAKER_00: And so we have to create and strive and build and do.

8:57 SPEAKER_00: Judaism doesn't tell us to abstain from the world.

9:00 SPEAKER_00: We have to engage with the world.

9:02 SPEAKER_00: That's what we have to do.

9:04 SPEAKER_00: They're the inputs.

9:06 SPEAKER_00: But the outputs, the outcomes, they're not down to us.

9:12 SPEAKER_00: The outputs are down to Hashem.

9:15 SPEAKER_00: And that's why we can keep Shabbat, because we won't lose out.

9:19 SPEAKER_00: We can take a day off because the outputs ultimately are up to Hashem.

9:24 SPEAKER_00: So I, for example, have turned down work many times because the conference was on Shabbat, or it would have involved some sort of transgression of Shabbat in order to be able to do the work.

9:34 SPEAKER_00: And sometimes you've turned down big fees, but I can't lose out because Hashem already knows what I'm supposed to get each year.

9:43 SPEAKER_00: We have an idea that at Rosh Hashanah Hashem calculates what we're going to get for the year.

9:48 SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't matter that I turn down something on Shabbat, I'll still get what I'm supposed to get because I have to put in the inputs.

9:56 SPEAKER_00: But the outputs are down to Hashem.

9:58 SPEAKER_00: And it's the same with Schmitter.

10:00 SPEAKER_00: How can you leave a field for an entire year?

10:04 SPEAKER_00: You have family to feed, income to make, wider society needs food.

10:09 SPEAKER_00: How can you just leave a field not being cultivated for a whole year?

10:14 SPEAKER_00: Because ultimately we have to work the land for six years.

10:19 SPEAKER_00: We have a responsibility.

10:21 SPEAKER_00: Those are the inputs.

10:23 SPEAKER_00: But ultimately the outputs are down to Hashem.

10:27 SPEAKER_00: And we have that in this week's pasha.

10:30 SPEAKER_00: Because it actually says, doesn't say it about any other mitzvah, that we should keep Schmitz.

10:34 SPEAKER_00: And then what does it say?

10:35 SPEAKER_00: And what are we going to eat?

10:37 SPEAKER_00: We ask.

10:38 SPEAKER_00: How are we going to eat?

10:39 SPEAKER_00: What are we going to eat?

10:40 SPEAKER_00: And Hashem says there'll be a bracha in the sixth year.

10:45 SPEAKER_00: So you'll be provided for in the seventh year.

10:47 SPEAKER_00: And in the eighth year, and even into the ninth year, because of course, if you leave the field fallow in the seventh year and you only plant in the eighth, it's going to be the end of the eighth year.

10:56 SPEAKER_00: And into the ninth year, you're going to get the crops.

10:59 SPEAKER_00: You're going to get a bracha for three years, Hashem says.

11:02 SPEAKER_00: Because of course the outputs are down to him.

11:06 SPEAKER_00: And the Svat Emmet asked the most wonderful question on that idea.

11:11 SPEAKER_00: He says, What is the difference between a bracha and a miracle?

11:17 SPEAKER_00: And essentially there's no difference.

11:20 SPEAKER_00: The difference is that a bracha appears natural.

11:25 SPEAKER_00: We put in the work, we do the inputs.

11:27 SPEAKER_00: We have to create the channels to receive the bracha because we understand that Hashem doesn't work through miracles as an in normal course of events.

11:36 SPEAKER_00: He works so it looks natural.

11:38 SPEAKER_00: So we put in the inputs, we work the land, we go to work, we do the things that we need to do, and the outputs happen.

11:45 SPEAKER_00: That's a bracha.

11:46 SPEAKER_00: And it looks natural.

11:48 SPEAKER_00: And a miracle?

11:50 SPEAKER_00: Well, everything's a miracle.

11:52 SPEAKER_00: We call nature nature, but really it's a miracle.

11:57 SPEAKER_00: The fact that the sun comes up every day, yes, we see cause and effect, we understand.

12:01 SPEAKER_00: We call nature what is just what we're used to.

12:05 SPEAKER_00: But ultimately it's all miracles.

12:08 SPEAKER_00: The outputs are all miracles and they're all down to Hashem.

12:14 SPEAKER_00: There's the most stunning Gomorrah in Shabbat in 119 Ahmed Bet.

12:20 SPEAKER_00: The Gomorrah says the following Anybody that recites Viahulu on air of Shabbat on a Friday night, it's as if they're a partner in creation with Hashem.

12:34 SPEAKER_00: So what does that mean?

12:35 SPEAKER_00: So of course Viahulu is saying that Hashem created the world in six days and he rested on the seventh, and many people say it on Friday night in Shul.

12:46 SPEAKER_00: Some people don't, but it's also part of Kiddish on a Friday night.

12:50 SPEAKER_00: So we all recite Viakhulu on a Friday night, and it says that we're partners with Hashem in creation.

12:56 SPEAKER_00: But how can that be?

12:57 SPEAKER_00: We weren't even around when Hashem created the world.

13:00 SPEAKER_00: Adam and Khavar were created on the sixth day.

13:03 SPEAKER_00: How can it be that we're partners with Hashem in creation?

13:07 SPEAKER_00: Comes along the Orchim and he explains.

13:11 SPEAKER_00: When Hashem created the world, he created it so it could last six days.

13:17 SPEAKER_00: On the seventh day, Shabbat, that's its renewal, so then it can last for another six days.

13:24 SPEAKER_00: And Shabbat is only Shabbat if we keep Shabbat.

13:29 SPEAKER_00: So therefore, if we don't keep Shabbat, the world will cease to exist.

13:34 SPEAKER_00: And that explains a famous midrash.

13:37 SPEAKER_00: It says Sunday's partner is Monday, and Tuesday's partner is Wednesday, and Thursday's partner is Friday.

13:44 SPEAKER_00: And Shabbat says, Well, who's my partner?

13:46 SPEAKER_00: And Hashem says, the Jewish people.

13:49 SPEAKER_00: Because we partner with Shabbat, we recognize Shabbat, we save Yahulu.

13:53 SPEAKER_00: And in doing so, the world then can carry on for another six days.

14:01 SPEAKER_00: The Svatemet wants to say the same about Shmitta.

14:05 SPEAKER_00: That Hashem creates a world where the field can provide for six years.

14:10 SPEAKER_00: And on the seventh we leave them to lie fallow, that's their renewal, and then they're ready to provide again for another six years.

14:18 SPEAKER_00: And the Svatemet brings a Pasuk from Toldot.

14:22 SPEAKER_00: When Yitzchak blesses Yaakov when he takes the blessing from Aesaph.

14:26 SPEAKER_00: And Yitzchak says that Hashem should give him the dew of the heavens and the fat of the earth and abundant grain and wine.

14:35 SPEAKER_00: And when it says Hashem should give you, it says, the ten to give in the future.

14:40 SPEAKER_00: And Svatemet says, because Hashem gives and he gives and he gives on and on and on, this renewal, and then he gives again.

14:51 SPEAKER_00: This is a most amazing thing.

14:53 SPEAKER_00: Because what it means is Shabbat is a return to the point of origin.

14:58 SPEAKER_00: The world goes for six days, and then it goes back to the creator, Hashem, and it's renewed for another six days after the seventh day of Shabbat.

15:10 SPEAKER_00: And we cultivate the land for six years and then it returns.

15:14 SPEAKER_00: The land returns to Hashem in the seventh year and it's renewed.

15:18 SPEAKER_00: It's the point of origin.

15:20 SPEAKER_00: And then it goes again for another six years.

15:24 SPEAKER_00: And now we can answer our question.

15:26 SPEAKER_00: Why is it Shmitta that's used?

15:30 SPEAKER_00: Because Hasini is also the point of origin.

15:34 SPEAKER_00: At Hasinai, we were married to Hashem.

15:38 SPEAKER_00: That was the Nisuin.

15:40 SPEAKER_00: It was the wedding between the Jewish people and Hashem.

15:43 SPEAKER_00: And we were given the Torah.

15:44 SPEAKER_00: The national mission was launched properly with the giving of the Torah, which we had to keep.

15:50 SPEAKER_00: And the whole of Khalisrael heard the first of the two of the Iserat ad-Dibrot.

15:56 SPEAKER_00: The first two of the Iserat ad-Dibrat.

15:57 SPEAKER_00: I am Hashem your God, who has taken you out of the land of Egypt, the house of slavery.

16:03 SPEAKER_00: And that is why we keep Torah.

16:08 SPEAKER_00: Because we don't believe there's a God.

16:10 SPEAKER_00: We know there's a God.

16:11 SPEAKER_00: It was lived experience.

16:12 SPEAKER_00: We came out of Egypt.

16:14 SPEAKER_00: But it's because of that that we also know Hashem created the world.

16:19 SPEAKER_00: Because when we were in Egypt, we saw Hashem manipulate creation with the plagues and undo creation.

16:26 SPEAKER_00: We saw it at Creat Yam Suf.

16:29 SPEAKER_00: And so we know.

16:31 SPEAKER_00: And that's why, if you go to the Asserat Ad-Dibrat in Pasha Yitra, why do we keep Shabbat?

16:37 SPEAKER_00: It tells us because Hashem created the world in six days, and on the seventh day he rested.

16:43 SPEAKER_00: But then we go to the second time the Asserat Adibrah comes up in Pasha Vi'etchhanan.

16:50 SPEAKER_00: And what does it say?

16:51 SPEAKER_00: The reason for keeping Shabbat doesn't mention creation.

16:55 SPEAKER_00: Says because Hashem took us out of Egypt.

16:58 SPEAKER_00: Why is that important?

17:00 SPEAKER_00: Because that's how we know there's Hashem, and because that's how we know Hashem created the world.

17:06 SPEAKER_00: Hashem doesn't want blind faith.

17:08 SPEAKER_00: We have knowledge of Hashem.

17:10 SPEAKER_00: We have knowledge of Hashem because he took us out of Egypt, and that's how we know he created the world.

17:16 SPEAKER_00: And that's why, by the way, you can't fulfill the mitzvah of Zachor of remembering Shabbat on a Friday night in Shul.

17:25 SPEAKER_00: Because the Friday night Amidah in Shul doesn't mention Yetziat's mitzraim, it just mentions creation.

17:32 SPEAKER_00: It's when we get home and recite Kiddish, which says Veyekulu, it talks about Hashem creating the world, but it also mentions Yetziah's mitzvahim.

17:43 SPEAKER_00: Then we fulfilled the mitzvah of Zach, Shabbat.

17:48 SPEAKER_00: So Hasini we acknowledge that everything comes from Hashem.

17:53 SPEAKER_00: On Shabbat, we acknowledge that existence comes from Hashem.

17:58 SPEAKER_00: On Shmitta, we acknowledge that sustenance comes from Hashem.

18:04 SPEAKER_00: Hasanai was the return to the point of origin, the beginning of our national mission.

18:10 SPEAKER_00: Shabbat is a return to the point of origin.

18:13 SPEAKER_00: Existence goes back to Hashem and then the world's renewed for another six days.

18:18 SPEAKER_00: Shmitta is a return to the point of origin where the lamb returns to Hashem and then we go for another six years.

18:26 SPEAKER_00: And so why was Shmitta used?

18:29 SPEAKER_00: Because as Hasina is a point of origin, Shmitta is a point of origin.

18:34 SPEAKER_00: And of course, Shabbat wasn't used because there's an idea that we kept Shabbat in Egypt.

18:39 SPEAKER_00: And certainly, if you look at Pasha Pashalach, we kept Shabbat when we were given the man.

18:45 SPEAKER_00: And of course, Shabbat was given as the one of the Asserat al-Dibra, and we know that's at Hassinai.

18:52 SPEAKER_00: But Shmitta, Shmitta, a point of origin, as Hassina is a point of origin, can be used to show that all the mitzvot, all the details, all the general principles were given at Hassinai.

19:06 SPEAKER_00: That's the link.

19:08 SPEAKER_00: But there's another link.

19:11 SPEAKER_00: In the Gomorrah in Shabbat in 88 Ahmed Alif, it says that when we said Naaseven Ishmah at Hasinai, when we said, first we will do and then we will understand, a divine voice came out and said, Who told my children the secret of the ministering angels?

19:31 SPEAKER_00: And the Gomorrah goes on to say, it's the way of angels, that the angels first they do the will of Hashem, and then they seek to understand.

19:40 SPEAKER_00: At Hasini, we reach the level of angels.

19:44 SPEAKER_00: And there's an idea in the Gomorrah in Yamah in 75 Ahmed Bet that the man itself is the food of angels.

19:51 SPEAKER_00: Of course, there's a machlokus, do angels eat, but the idea is that Hashem sustains the angels, and there's no bodily waste.

20:00 SPEAKER_00: And the man produced no bodily waste.

20:02 SPEAKER_00: We didn't need to use the bathroom.

20:04 SPEAKER_00: There was no bodily waste at all from the man.

20:08 SPEAKER_00: Of course, we fell from that high level.

20:11 SPEAKER_00: The sin of Aegil Hasa's, the golden calf.

20:16 SPEAKER_00: But there are times when we have the opportunity to reach that level of holiness.

20:23 SPEAKER_00: One is Shabbat.

20:25 SPEAKER_00: Because on Shabbat we negate ourselves, just as we negated ourselves at Hasini when we said, Na seven Ishma, first we'll do, then we'll understand.

20:34 SPEAKER_00: In the way that the angels negate themselves to Hashem's will and just do and then seek to understand.

20:39 SPEAKER_00: On Shabbat, we stop creating and acknowledge there's an ultimate creator.

20:43 SPEAKER_00: And we negate ourselves and we can reach that level of holiness.

20:47 SPEAKER_00: That's why there's an idea that food on Shabbat, why is food so important?

20:52 SPEAKER_00: Because it's almost back to the man.

20:54 SPEAKER_00: We can celebrate at that level of holiness with the food.

20:58 SPEAKER_00: And that's why it says in Beitza, in the Gomorrah, 16 Ahmed Alif, that the food that we have on Shabbos, the treats that we have on Shabbas, are not part of what we're going to get for the year.

21:09 SPEAKER_00: So in Rosh Hashanah, we get what we're going to get, but what we spend on Shabbaz is separate.

21:14 SPEAKER_00: That comes separately from Shemaiim, because that's the special blessing of Shabbat.

21:18 SPEAKER_00: When we can reach that level of holiness of the angels once again, we have that potential.

21:25 SPEAKER_00: There's one other time, says the midrash in Vayikarabba, that we can reach that level of holiness, and that's Shmitta.

21:33 SPEAKER_00: Because on Shmittah we negate ourselves.

21:36 SPEAKER_00: We stop working the land.

21:38 SPEAKER_00: And it says in the midrash, we don't stop for a day.

21:42 SPEAKER_00: We don't stop for a week.

21:44 SPEAKER_00: We don't stop for a month.

21:46 SPEAKER_00: We stop for an entire year.

21:48 SPEAKER_00: For an entire year, farmers just watch people go onto their land and take whatever they want because it's all hefka, it's all free.

21:55 SPEAKER_00: When they've got to provide for their families and everything else.

21:58 SPEAKER_00: It's an amazing thing.

22:00 SPEAKER_00: Self-nullification of negation.

22:03 SPEAKER_00: And so Shmitta is the time we can reach that level of holiness as we can on Shabbat, as we were at Hasinai when we reached the level of angels when we said Na a seven is Shma.

22:14 SPEAKER_00: And so the other link between Shmittah and Hasinai, which is why it's Shmittah that is used to explain to us that all the general principles and final details of not just Shmittah but all the mitzvah were given at Hassanai, is that it's a time when we reach a level of holiness of Hassinai.

22:32 SPEAKER_00: At Shmittah, we can reach that level.

22:35 SPEAKER_00: And therefore it's that mitzvah that is used.

22:41 SPEAKER_00: So we understand why Shmittah is the mitzvah.

22:45 SPEAKER_00: Because like Hassinait, it's a point of origin.

22:48 SPEAKER_00: And like at Hassina, when we reach this incredible level of holiness, we can do that in Shmittah year, as we can on Shabbat.

22:56 SPEAKER_00: But why exile?

22:58 SPEAKER_00: Why are we exiled if we don't keep Shmitta?

23:02 SPEAKER_00: What's that all about?

23:04 SPEAKER_00: How do we understand that?

23:06 SPEAKER_00: It says a Gomorrah in Shabbat in 33 Ahmed Alif says there are three sins that we get exiled from the land for.

23:13 SPEAKER_00: They're the three cardinal sins: murder, idolatry, forbidden relations.

23:18 SPEAKER_00: And it says and Shmitta.

23:20 SPEAKER_00: And that's mirrored in Pirke Avot in chapter 5, where it says there are three sins which were exiled from the land, cardinal sins, and murder, idolatry, forbidden relations.

23:30 SPEAKER_00: Oh, it says and Shmittah.

23:32 SPEAKER_00: So why?

23:34 SPEAKER_00: Because Erit Ishrael was given to us so we can keep the Torah in the land, build a society based on Torah, so we can fulfill the Jewish mission of being witnesses to Hashem, being a light unto the nations, to show the world that Hashem exists within this world.

23:55 SPEAKER_00: That's our mission as Jewish people.

23:58 SPEAKER_00: When we don't keep Shmittah, we actually undermine the very mission of the Jewish people.

24:05 SPEAKER_00: Shmitta is not merely an agricultural rule.

24:09 SPEAKER_00: It's when the land goes back to Hashem, where we acknowledge that however much we plant and we grow and we build, the ultimate sustainer is Hashem, the ultimate provider is Hashem.

24:22 SPEAKER_00: To not keep Shmitta is to negate that very idea, which is the whole reason that we were given Eritz Ishrael, to demonstrate that to the entire world.

24:34 SPEAKER_00: And so not keeping Shmitta is an undermining of the entire Jewish mission and the entire reason and purpose for Eritz Ishrael.

24:43 SPEAKER_00: And therefore, when we don't keep Shmitta, actual fact, we undermine that mission, and therefore we don't deserve the land, and we're exiled from the land.

24:55 SPEAKER_00: And so we see Shabbat and Shmitta are not just time off, they're returned to the points of origin.

25:03 SPEAKER_00: On Shabbat, existence returns to Hashem and is renewed for another six days.

25:09 SPEAKER_00: On Shmitta, the land, provisions, sustenance returns to Hashem and then goes for another six years.

25:18 SPEAKER_00: Shabbat reminds us, however hard we work, ultimately the world belongs to Hashem.

25:25 SPEAKER_00: Shemitah reminds us, however much we plant and grow, ultimately the land and sustenance belongs to Hashem.

25:34 SPEAKER_00: Hasina itself reminds us that everything belongs to Hashem.

25:43 SPEAKER_00: We work six days and rest on the seventh.

25:46 SPEAKER_00: We work six years and stop on the seventh.

25:50 SPEAKER_00: But that has to remind us that however much we do, ultimately everything is from Hashem.

25:58 SPEAKER_00: When we stop, work doesn't lose its meaning.

26:05 SPEAKER_00: Because it reminds us there's something bigger than us in the world, something greater than us than humanity.

26:13 SPEAKER_00: And of course that's Hashem.

26:15 SPEAKER_00: And Shabbat and Shmitta teach us a very hard lesson.

26:20 SPEAKER_00: We're required to work and contribute and do.

26:23 SPEAKER_00: That was the make a perfectly imperfect world.

26:28 SPEAKER_00: So we can improve it and we have a responsibility to do so.

26:32 SPEAKER_00: And we have to create the conditions for bracha because the difference between bracha and miracle is a bracha appears natural.

26:38 SPEAKER_00: And that's how Hashem runs the world.

26:40 SPEAKER_00: And so we have to put in the inputs to create the channels to receive the bracha.

26:46 SPEAKER_00: But ultimately, however much effort we put in, the outputs ultimately are up to Hashem.

26:53 SPEAKER_00: Everything is dependent on Hashem.

26:57 SPEAKER_00: Failure to keep Shabbat, failure to keep Shmitta is not merely disobedience, it's a collapse of the entire Jewish mission.

27:08 SPEAKER_00: Because we have to acknowledge that the world is not ours.

27:14 SPEAKER_00: We are living in the palace of the king.

27:18 SPEAKER_00: Judaism does not tell us not to build, not to create, not to strive.

27:26 SPEAKER_00: But it also reminds us that the ultimate builder, the ultimate creator, the ultimate provider is Hashem himself.