Hyper Awareness – Behar-Bechukotai
Parshat Behar deals predominantly with the subjects of Shmita and Yovel. The last passuk in the parsha –
אֶת שַׁבְּתֹתַי תִּשְׁמֹרוּ וּמִקְדָּשִׁי תִּירָאוּ אֲנִי ה' (ויקרא כו, ב)
seems a little out of place, as neither the subject matter immediately prior to it, nor following it in parshat Bechukotai, seems to have any connection with Shabbat nor the Mikdash. To compound this riddle, just 2 parshas ago, in Kedoshim, we have that exact same passuk (ויקרא יט, ל), so why repeat it again here?
The Or HaChaim picks up on this and offers two possible explanations. A. Shabbat counterbalances all the other mitzvot, so it is repeated often throughout the Torah to show that if someone observes Shabbat, it is like they are observing the entire Torah. B. The mention of Shabbat at the end of parshat Behar comes to wrap up the mention of “Shabbat” at the beginning of the parsha, in reference to Shmita.
This explains the issue of Shabbat. Parshat Vayakhel in sefer Shmot begins with the subject of Shabbat and goes on to discuss the Mishkan and Chazal say that this comes to teach us that the building of the Mishkan/Mikdash does not supersede Shabbat. So there we also have a link between the Mikdash and Shabbat.
What however does the Mikdash have to do with Shmita, that it is mentioned in the last passuk of Behar?
In this shiur I would like to explore a profound principle linking Shabbat, Shmita and the Lechem Hapanim of the Beit Hamikdash, which offers a deeper insight into what Shabbat, Shmita and the Mikdash really are.
We are commanded to keep Shabbat in the עשרת הדברות –
ז) זָכוֹר אֶת יוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת לְקַדְּשׁוֹ. ח) שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים תַּעֲבֹד וְעָשִׂיתָ כָּל מְלַאכְתֶּךָ. ט) וְיוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי שַׁבָּת לה' אֱ-לֹקֶיךָ לֹא תַעֲשֶׂה כָל מְלָאכָה אַתָּה וּבִנְךָ וּבִתֶּךָ עַבְדְּךָ וַאֲמָתְךָ וּבְהֶמְתֶּךָ וְגֵרְךָ אֲשֶׁר בִּשְׁעָרֶיךָ. י) כִּי שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים עָשָׂה ה' אֶת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֶת הָאָרֶץ אֶת הַיָּם וְאֶת כָּל־אֲשֶׁר בָּם וַיָּנַח בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי עַל כֵּן בֵּרַךְ ה' אֶת יוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת וַֽיְקַדְּשׁהוּ. (שמות כ, ז-י).
The reason given in the Ten Commandments to keep Shabbat is that, after six days of creating the world, HKB”H “וינח” on the seventh day - loosely and misleadingly translated in English as “rested” - in the sense of מנוחה, meaning rest.
In Breishit (2,1) the description is different – “וישבת” and gives us a better insight into the true meaning of וינח. וישבת means to cease. For six days HKB”H was busy in the work of creating the world and on the seventh day He ceased doing that work. A truer translation of “וינח” is in the sense of הנחה, setting something aside. During the six days of Creation, HKB”H, as it were, had in His hands the “tools” used in creating the world and on the seventh day He set them aside.
Did HKB”H “rest” on the seventh day? (rest - in the sense of taking a break, a vacation, relaxing). We know He did not. It says המחדש בטובו בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית, that HKB”H, every millisecond of every day (even Shabbat), is perpetually renewing what He created during Creation. HKB”H does not “rest/relax”, He continually injects energy into our universe (which incidentally is why the theory of entropy in the universe falls flat, because the universe is not a “closed system”, it is continually being renewed with “outside” energy by HKB”H). So in this sense, the essence of Shabbat is not a cessation of all activity, but rather the cessation of all activity that creates something new, something that previously did not exist.
To fully observe Shabbat, “rest’ is the last thing one is required to do. We are commanded to refrain from doing the ל"ט מלאכות, (the very same 39 types of work done to build the Mishkan). But it is not just the אב מלאכה, it is also the myriad תולדות of the מלאכות and so on - hundreds upon hundreds of details and nuances.
During the six days of the week, we essentially “mimic” HKB”H in trying to “create” “new” things using the labor of our hands and minds for the purpose of sustenance and improving the world (one would hope). Obviously, as Shlomo Hamelech said in קהלת, אין חדש תחת השמש – humans cannot “create” something “new” in the sense that G-d created the world – something out of nothing. It may appear so, but whatever we “create” has already been created by G-d.
Six days in the week, 313 days out of the year, through our repetitious behavior, our bodies become conditioned and programmed to behave in a certain way. We get up in the morning and switch off the alarm clock. We go down to the kitchen and boil water for our daily cup of coffee. We travel to work by car. We call our mother on the cellphone, etc. Our lives become routine – we in fact rely on routine to give some sense of stability to our lives.
On Shabbat however, Hashem says – cease and desist! Make a switch in your mind and “deprogram” yourself. Concentrate intensely on every motion, thought, action and before you undertake it, examine it through the prism of the halacha (We in fact are required to do this every day of our lives, but on Shabbat it is amplified a hundredfold). Before we take a step, touch something, think a thought, scratch our nose, even the most “mundane” and seemingly insignificant thing – we must first think twice. Is this מחלל שבת or not, is it an אב מלאכה or one of the תולדות, is it pikuach nefesh or not, etc.
So quite the opposite, instead of relaxing and resting, to fully observe Shabbat, we need to constantly be on our guard (שמור). We need to function with an elevated sense of hyper awareness of everything we do, so that on Shabbat, we do not engage in the same activities of the six days of the week. Not every activity (we still eat, sleep, speak etc.), but specifically those activities that are defined as מלאכה, something we do to “create” (or “improve”) something.
During the six days of the week we belabor under the misconception that our own labor dictates our success or failure. We are like a chicken without a head, furiously running here, running there, trying this, trying that. Then comes Shabbat and Hashem says – cease! עונג שבת comes from the word עוגן meaning anchor. HKB”H commands us –“Stop furiously running around, lay anchor. Set aside your misconceptions about the limitlessness of your own power. Detach yourself from the illusions of this world and focus on the true realities of the world and Who determines them. Today you are on My time, in My dimension. Today you do not take care of yourselves, I take care of you”.
Yes, we physically rest on Shabbat, but that is not the ikar. We eat more and better than the other days of the week, but that is not the ikar – it is allלכבוד שבת, to respect and glorify the holiness of the day. The essence is relocating ourselves to a higher plane of hyper awareness of G-d.
In this plane, we do not need to work hard for our sustenance. Hashem provides it for us, like Mann from Heaven in the desert. All we have to do is pick it up before Shabbat and bring it inside, like a milk bottle on our doorstep (or more accurately, a pot of ready-made cholent on our doorstep). That is what lechem mishne is – our minimum hishtadlut of taking double Mann on Friday (nothing is totally free, we need to have minimum hishtadlut).
Shmita is a very similar concept.
For six years we sweat tilling our fields, sowing and reaping our crops, planting, pruning and harvesting the fruit from our trees. Before I became a baker I dreamt of being a farmer, so I invested a lot of time checking out what farming entails. If you think that being a baker is hard work, farming is that on a much higher level of intensity. To be a farmer, you need a degree of physical endurance and mental resilience, that most of us in our sedentary lives cannot really fathom. From dawn to dusk, day in day out, without rest – fields to be ploughed, cows to be milked, fences to be mended, etc.- backbreaking physical work.
Then comes the seventh year, Shmita and HKB”H says to us – “Cease! In the seventh year you are in a different plane, in My plane. Set aside your illusions about the limitlessness of your own power. This year you do not take care of yourselves, I take care of you”.
Yes, you have to do the minimum hishtadlut and in return I will help you וצויתי את ברכתי לכם בשנה השישית. Just like I gave you a double portion of Mann on the 6th day for Shabbat in the desert, in the sixth year, I will give you a triple dose of produce (for the 6th, 7th and 8th years) so you will not go hungry.
During Shmita year, as on Shabbat, you will have a hyper awareness of HKB”H and the realities of the world and all your illusions as to who is Master of the Universe will be dispelled.
If you think about Shmita, especially today in modern society, it requires a huge degree of faith to place yourselves, not for one day in the week, but for an entire year in the hands of G-d. Imagine if shoe store owners also had Shmita! One year in seven they would have to open their stores and allow anyone to come in, try on a pair of shoes and leave with the shoes without paying for them. Hefker! Not only that, but the store owner would have to tell them how nice the shoes looked on them and send them on their way with his blessing that they should be worn in good health. To be a farmer and observe Shmita requires incredible bitachon and emunah. It is not easy to have that degree of faith, so to strengthen our faith, HKB”H tell us what will happen to us if we don’t observe shmita (all the 49 klalot in Bechukotai)
In fact when Am Yisrael inherited Eretz Yisrael in biblical times, this is how it was. There was no היתר מכירה, no יבול נכרי, or אוצר בית דין, none of the shenanigans we have today, just total emunah in HKB”H. We have all these “shtickim” today – because we lack emunah! And because we lack faith, it doesn’t happen - there is no וצויתי את ברכתי.
We need to do our minimum hishtadlut. All of Am Yisrael in Israel and abroad needs to mafrish some of their ma’aser money to set up funds for farmers in Eretz Yisrael during Shmita, to support them during the year and a half of Shmita and after, until they start getting income again – just in case some disaster happens. But if we have emunah and all of Eretz Yisrael observes Shmita, we will get the bracha. The farmers will get enough income in the 6th year to tide them over and the money in these redundant funds will just be frozen for the next Shmita, or used for Tzedaka. Either way the farmers are covered and we have the incredible opportunity of facilitating a Kiddush Hashem. With all of Am Yisrael backing them, the farmers will not hesitate, or even better, it could be legislated by law.
We have prayed in galut for thousands of years that HKB”H return us to ציון, but now that He has and we are here, we need to step up and be worthy of that, and (specifically regarding Shmita) we currently are not. Right now we are all about כוחי ועוצם ידי, touting our agricultural technology and innovations (which are remarkable btw) to the world, which is OK, but it should be coupled with a humility and recognition of Who the true Supplier of crops is - and it is not our drip irrigation pipes. It should be combining showing the world the “Yiddishe kop” together with a total observance of Shimta as it should be. Imagine what a enormous Kiddush Hashem that would be when everyone in the world sees that. We would truly be fulfilling our role as אור לגויים.
In parshat Vayakhel it starts with Hashem commanding us to observe Shabbat. The mefarshim say that this precedes the detailing of the Mishkan to teach us that Shabbat takes precedence over building the Mishkan/Mikdash. You are not allowed to be מחלל שבת to build the Mikdash.
Ironically though, once the Mikdash is up and running, you are allowed to do things in the Mikdash, that under any other circumstances would be חילול שבת – bringing Korbanot, managing the fires, doing shechita, etc.
There is one Korban though that you are not allowed to be מחלל שבת for – the Lechem Hapanim. The 12 loaves of Lechem Hapanim have to be baked on Friday before Shabbat, the pipes under the breads must be removed before Shabbat and are only replaced under the new breads after Shabbat.
The only thing that happens on Shabbat with the Lechem Hapanim is that the breads are switched on the Shulchan, and the previous week’s breads are eaten by the Kohanim on Shabbat (and until midnight Motzei Shabbat). Yes, the levonah is burnt on the mizbeach, but anything regarding the actual breads precludes חילול שבת.
The Lechem Hapanim is a unique Korban in the Mikdash. It is the only food related Korban that is in the reverse direction. Instead of offering the Korban up to HKB”H, it is HKB”H sending something from up there, down to us!
The Lechem Hapanim is switched davka on Shabbat because Shabbat is the source of blessing for the entire week. The two stacks of Lechem Hapanim are like lechem mishne on the Shulchan. They are like two stacks of “Duracell batteries” that are on the Shulchan being “recharged”. They are then removed and are eaten by the Kohanim, thus supplying שפע and פרנסה to all the Twelve Tribes, the entire Am Yisrael and through them to the entire world.
The twelve loaves of Lechem Hapanim on the Shulchan are in a higher plane. They are in HKB”H’s plane, in a different time frame, so they do not go moldy or lose their freshness, quite the opposite.
The last passuk in the parsha –
אֶת שַׁבְּתֹתַי תִּשְׁמֹרוּ וּמִקְדָּשִׁי תִּירָאוּ אֲנִי ה' (ויקרא כו, ב)
is the common thread that weaves together the concepts of Shabbat, Shmita and the Lechem Hapanim.
All three of these concept have the commonality that they are parnasa related. Why should I not work on Shabbat, I could make more money? Why should I not farm during Shmita, I could make more money? The Lechem Hapanim is a bracha for parnasa!
By wrapping up Behar with the passuk HKB”H is telling us – “This is my domain, parnasa is My domain! Yes, you have to do your hishtadlut, but ultimately, I determine whether you get parnasa or not. If you have emunah and bitachon in Me, keep My Shabbat, keep My Shmita, you are covered”.
If you believe that parnasa is not in HKB”H’s hands, that is a kind of avodah zarah, which is why the passuk immediately prior to the above passuk, warns against avodah zarah The above passuk is a dividing line to the next parsha Bechukotai – to warn us that if we don’t have this emunah, we will be punished by the klalot that follow!
Shabbat, Shmita and the Lechem Hapanim at their bare essentials, are the same. They represent a higher plane, a plane of hyper awareness of HKB”H, the kind of plane that existed before חטא אדם הראשון and that will once again be when Mashiach comes, יום שכולו שבת לחיי העולמים . All we need to do is step up!
