A very, very famous Rashi, maybe the most famous quote of Rashi in the whole book of Vayikra. Rashi says, “What do Shemitah (sabbatical year) and the laws of Shemitah have to do with Har Sinai? They want nothing to do with each other.” And Rashi says, “What’s the point? Shemitah, everything was said at Har Sinai. All the Mitzvot (commandments) at Har Sinai. Why are you telling me?” So this is Rashi’s answer, and I’m perplexed by it. Rashi says, “It’s coming to teach us that just as with Shemitah, all of the details were said at Har Sinai, so too every other law in the Torah: all of the details were said at Har Sinai.” What does that mean? I feel like I know that too. And why only Shemitah are you telling me that all the details were said at Har Sinai?
This is what I think Rashi means. Rashi means this: Shemitah is the number one law in the entire 613 that requires absolute trust in Har Sinai. Shabbat makes a little bit of practical sense. Shemitah makes none. You’re now working, you’re earning an income. You get an income from plowing the field, harvesting the wheat, growing the corn, and selling the carrots, potatoes, and tomatoes. And now, all of a sudden, for a full year, you’re going to stop working? You go tell any person in any normal business who earns a simple income, “You’re going to take off for a full year.” You tell them, “Take off for a Saturday.” That’s hard for some people. “But okay, I’ll get back to work on Sunday or Monday.” Take off for a full year. Stop working now, and you’ll work again in May of 2027. What? It’s impossible. The only way this mitzvah (commandment) works is if you completely and entirely give it up to Hashem. And you say, “Hashem, I’m putting down my plow. I’m putting down my shovel. I’m putting away my horses. And I am just completely in your hands.”
Says Rashi, the same way Shemitah is a mitzvah that requires us to be completely in His hands, all 613 mitzvot require the same. Shabbat requires us to be able to give up and put it in Hashem’s hands. Kashrut (dietary laws) requires us to give up and put it in Hashem’s hands. That mitzvah, when it’s difficult, requires us to give up and put it in Hashem’s hands. Being honest when you don’t have the money means you’re giving it up and putting it in Hashem’s hands. And I can go to every single mitzvah. All 613 mitzvot have the same message embedded in them as Shemitah does. And that message is: stop trying and just give it up to Hashem.