Parashat Behar-Shemita y Emuna

(1) יהוה spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai: (2) Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When you enter the land that I assign to you, the land shall observe a sabbath of יהוה.

בהר סיני [AND THE LORD SPOKE UNTO MOSES] ON THE MOUNT SINAI — What has the matter of the Sabbatical year to do with Mount Sinai that Scripture felt compelled to expressly state where it was commanded? Were not all commandments given on Sinai? But this statement is intended to suggest the following comparison: How is it in the case of the law of Shemittah? Its general rules, [its specific prescriptions] and minute details were ordained on Mount Sinai! So, also, were all commandments with their general rules and their minute details ordained on Mount Sinai. Thus is taught in Torath Cohanim (Sifra, Behar, Section 1 1). It seems to me that the following is the explanation of this: Since we do not find in Deuteronomy that the law concerning “the rest of the soil in the Sabbatical year” was repeated in “the fields of Moab” (cf. Deuteronomy 34:1; the place where Moses repeated many of the commandments contained in the other books of the Pentateuch), we may infer that all its general rules and specific prescriptions must have been promulgated on Sinai. The express mention of בהר סיני here appears therefore to be unnecessary but Scripture by mentioning it intends to teach regarding every Divine command (lit., Divine utterance) that was spoken to Moses that in every case they, their general rules and minute details originated at Sinai and that they were only repeated again in “the fields of Moab”.

I will grant your rains in their season, so that the earth shall yield its produce and the trees of the field their fruit.

בעתם [THEN I WILL GIVE YOU RAIN] IN ITS SEASON — i. e. at times when the rain is “seasonable”, at such moments when people do not usually go out on journeys, as, for instance, in the nights preceding the Sabbaths (Friday nights) (Sifra, Bechukotai, Chapter 1 1; cf. Taanit 23a).

And should you ask, “What are we to eat in the seventh year, if we may neither sow nor gather in our crops?”

I will ordain My blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it shall yield a crop sufficient for three years.

לשלש השנים [IT SHALL BRING FORTH INCREASE] FOR THE THREE YEARS — i. e. for a part of the sixth year — from Nisan till the New Year of the seventh — for the whole seventh year and for part of the eighth year, for in the eighth year they will sow in Marcheshvan but will harvest only in Nisan (so that they will have to depend on the harvest of the sixth year in the eighth too).

Each woman shall borrow from her neighbor and the lodger in her house objects of silver and gold, and clothing, and you shall put these on your sons and daughters, thus stripping the Egyptians.”

I give thanks to You living and everlasting King for You have restored my soul with mercy. Great is Your faithfulness.

Also, while lying in bed you should realize before Whom you lay and as soon as you awaken you should remember the kindnesses of Hashem, Blessed be His Name, that were granted to you; that He returned your soul to you. You committed it to Him faint and weary and it was returned to you new and refreshed, enabling you to worship Hashem, Blessed be His Name, with all of your capacity and serve Him the entire day; because this is the essence of Man, as it is said in Scripture: "They are new every morning how great is Your faithfulness." This verse teaches that every morning a person becomes a new creation, and he should give thanks with all his heart to Hashem, Blessed be His Name, for this (good fortune). While still in bed you should recite: I give thanks to You, living and everlasting King for You have restored my soul with mercy. Great is Your faithfulness. (Even though your hands are not yet clean, you may say this, since the name of Hashem is not mentioned.) You should pause slightly between the word chemlah "with mercy," and the word, rabbah "great."