Today’s class is dedicated Le’ilui Nishmat Eliyahu Ben Esther, Mr. Leo J. Setton a’h, by his children.
Today we will discuss a Bitachon related thought in Parashat Behar, which is quite an easy thing to do, as the parasha opens up with the laws of Shemittah.
There’s an important point in Sefer HaChinuch, which discusses the shoresh/root of the Mitzvah of Shemittah. He says that Shemittah is there to make steadfast in our hearts, and create a picture in our minds, that G-d created the world, what we call Hiddush HaOlam, something from nothing. Just like we have Shabbat where we work 6 days and rest on the seventh, so too, we need that lesson in our agricultural life as well. We work for six years and rest in the seventh year, shutting everything down, and thus uprooting from our minds and our hearts the concept of Kadmut - the ancient heretic belief that the world always existed.
This ancient heresy was called Olam Kadmon; they thought the world was always here. They believed in G-d, and that G-d was the master that forms and fashions everything, but just like G-d was already here, they thought the material was already here. They didn’t think that G-d created the material. To us, that may not sound like a major infraction. We might think that if we believe in G-d, does it really make a difference if He created the material or not? What is the fight about? Why are we calling them heretics? The answer is, there is a fundamental difference, as we have mentioned previously, between something that we call “yesh m’yesh- something from something,” and “yesh m’ayin- something from nothing.”
If I make a table, which is something from something, I, the creator, can leave, and the table will continue to exist. But if you make something from nothing, since the something came from nothing, Whomever made that something has to continue to keep it existing, because it doesn’t have its own inherent existence. That makes all the difference in the world. We believe that G-d made the material, and therefore, G-d is responsible for everything. He must constantly pump energy into everything, so He watches over and supervises everything. If He leaves, there’s nothing left. That’s the fundamental, and that’s what we mean when we say that G-d is a Creator.
That’s Fundamental Number One that we learn from Shemittah, which like Shabbat, we to apply to our lives, (in the fields).
Furthermore, besides the fact that we aren’t working the fields, Hashem said that we should make our fields ownerless, to remind us that G-d made the land. We also make everything ownerless, in order to remember that the reason the land gives off fruit is not because it’s land, but because יש אדון עליה
there is master on top of it.
And the land and its master are owned by a bigger Master- the real boss, which is G-d, who says, “Sorry guys, I’m the boss and I say shut down.” This could be another lesson for our current challenging times: That G-d is the boss, and He’s the one that shut everything down.
G-d said, “ I can shut the whole world down with a microscopic virus.” That’s another lesson that we can take away from Shemittah- G-d is the Boss of bosses, and when he says shut, we shut.
Another benefit of Shemittah is that we learn the benefit of Vatranut-generosity. There is no greater generosity than someone who gives without hope of repayment. We leave the field hefker (ownerless), and anyone can take anything. That we are able to be generous is a by-product of Bitachon. Someone without Bitachon can’t be generous. Baruch HaShem, Ashrehem Yisrael, our people are generous. Even in these trying times, people are still generous and continue to give. G-d looks down and is proud of His people, that we have the ability to give and be generous, even in these times, because of our Bitachon. And he states clearly that besides strengthening our Emunah in the fact that G-d made the world and that He’s the Boss, we are also exercising the middah of Vatranut/ giving in and being generous.
The final benefit of Shemittah is that it increases Bitachon. If you can take a year off and not have any source of income, you are training yourself, and your family, in Bitachon-and that is a great thing.
And the lesson for us is that although it’s not a shemittah year, we have the shemittah feeling. Hashem is training us in Bitachon. We are feeling what the farmers felt: Where is my parnassa going to come from? What is my source of income?
Today someone told me a story of a young man who had recently moved into a house. He had been financially strained to even raise the down payment for the house, and got help from here and there. He finally moved in, and then the temperature hit 80 degrees one day, and he realized they had no air conditioning. He called someone who offered to install a unit for $5,000. He said he couldn’t afford that. The man asked for a down payment at least, but he couldn’t even commit to that, and had to turn down the offer. Then, a very short time later, he received a check in the mail from the US government, for $4,400, as part of the stimulus package. He called the air conditioning man back and asked for a better a deal. The air conditioning man offered to do the job for $4,400- the exact amount he got from the United States government! These kinds of things happen all the time. G-d is training us in Bitachon. By the end of this ordeal, I’m sure we will all be able to write a book on Bitachon. Things will be better and Be’Ezrat Hashem, we will all look back and see the benefits we gained from this situation that Hashem put us in.