• | Print |
•  Email

Parshat Vayelech
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Uniting With the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

מקץ שבע שנים במעד שנת השמיטה

“Master of the Universe! Have compassion on us and awaken our hearts and the hearts of our offspring and the hearts of all Israel that we have great yearning, longing, and exceeding will for the Land of Israel, and may we yearn and long always truly to come to the Land of Israel, till You merit us with Your compassion to come to the Land of Israel speedily...” (Likutei Tfilot I 20)

From the instance of 'Shmitas Kesafim' - the absolvement of debts, which applies even in the Diaspora at the end of Shmita year, we receive a small glimpse into the far-reaching spiritual power of the Land of Israel to even 'awaken' certain laws in the Diaspora. So our Sages taught us: 'when you are liable for Shemita in regard to the Land so too do you commit 'Shmitas Ksafim', but when you are not liable for Shmita of the Land so too are you not liable for Shmitas Ksafim.' Thus, as we have explained before, today when Shmita is Rabbinic, because the lack of the majority of world-wide Jewry in the Land and/or because the lack of tribal allocation in the Land, therefore Shmitas Ksafim is also Rabbinic, both in the Land of Israel and in the Diaspora.

This fact has important practical implications in regard to Shmitas Ksafim. The famous Prozbul agreement and document, which allows a Jew to hand over the loans owed to him to Bais Din in order to avoid the obligation to absolve debts at the end of Shmita year, only applies when Shmita is of Rabbinic level, but cannot be used to exempt one from absolvement of debts in a Biblically mandated Shmita even in the Diaspora. The reason for this is that when Shmita of the Land is Biblically mandated, so too is Shmitas Ksafim Biblically mandated even in the Diaspora.

If we contemplate the common factor of Shmita of the Land and Shmitas Ksafim and also Rosh HaShana we come to the conclusion that all put emphasis on God as overriding Master of the world instead of humans. The Torah explicitly tells us in the contexts of Shmita and Yovel, 'to Me the Land belongs', a matter that highlights how really God is Master over Earth and not humans, as it may seem from our usual subjugation of the Land for all our purposes. In the Land of Godly Mastery we are called on Shmita year to express God's Mastery in reality and stop behaving as if we are masters of the land in agricultural work. In regard to debts too the book of Mishlei teaches us that 'a debtor is a servant to the lender' (22, 7). Thus, in this sense the lender is considered to be a 'master' over the debtor. Therefore, when the Torah absolves this debt at the end of Shmita year, this means that the Torah once again reminds us that we are to turn over our human mastery to God and remember that really God is Master of the Universe.

Hebron highlights the principle of absolvement of debt as Maarat HaMachpela was bought for full price, despite many offers to give it for free. Thus this episode allowed our People ownership of Maaras HaMachpela without causing our People to feel indebted to the Hittites for their generosity. Thus, we remember that we  are servants of God and not servants of servants.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Real Stories from the Holy Land #137

"One day I went to my relative and was alarmed how her house was in ruins. It turned out that the ceiling had collapsed, and she didn't have enough money for repairs. I then put my hand into my pocket and found 800 NIS, which I gave her for repairs. Two days later I went shopping with this relative, and we piled up groceries worth at least 1600 NIS. When we reached the counter, the owner of the supermarket suddenly told us to just pay 800 NIS and go. My relative tried to argue, saying that there's much more groceries and that she should pay more, but the owner insisted, saying, 'that's my offer - you can take it or leave it'. After taking the offer, I realized how I had just witnessed how 'one does not become poor from charity'." H.Tz

Sources: Rambam Shmita ch. 9

Comments, questions, and/or stories,email  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.