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Dvar Torah for Parshat BeharBased on Likutey MoHaran, II Lesson 10
The association really is puzzling. What does a small mountain in the desert, where the Torah was given, have to do with Shmittah, the sabbatical year observed only in the Land of Israel? Although Rashi presents the answer of the Midrash, the Ohr haChaim Hakodesh and the Kli Yakar each offer an additional answer. And with God's help so will we. Mount Sinai, for very good reasons, represents the giving and receiving of the Torah. Shmittah, the year we are forbidden to work the land, teaches us that we must trust in Hashem (verses 20-21). We place our confidence in Him that He will provide us with what we need. (Not to be confused with what we want.) When we do that, then we can "take a sabbatical" and stop running after things that are unnecessary. When we make this move to trust in Hashem we become, in a certain sense, invincible. Now, nothing that we own can be lost or stolen because even if, God forbid, something leaves our possession, we are confident that it is either no longer necessary for us to have or that Hashem will replace it. (However, Rebbe Nachman did warn us to took good care of our money. "A person gives up so much time from Torah study and prayer to support his family... and then he doesn't take care of [the money]?! Honest Jewish money must be guarded like the eyes in one's head" [Rabbi Nachman's Wisdom #281]!) With our trust we no longer devote our fleeting lives to acquiring things (including status) that never quite deliver the satisfaction they promise or, on those rare occasions that they do, replenishing them. Our confidence in Hashem's (God) care for us frees us to spend our new found time and energy on more spiritual pursuits. We can focus on perfecting out prayers, our character or whatever within us that needs attention. So, now we have another question: where, how do we get such trust? Ben Zoma answers this in the mishna: "Who is rich? One who is happy with his portion." You have to be happy. Not so bad, right? After all, you want to be happy, I want to be happy, everyone wants to be happy. Now, if we could just figure out how.... Let's try going back to the mountain. The verses connecting Sinai to Shmittah give us a clue. Shmittah has a lot to do with vegetation, with fields, trees, grasses, fruits and vegetables. We often forget what goes on in "the vegetable kingdom" so it's good to occasionally recall the following story. Once, on a walk with one of his chassidim, the Rebbe said, "If only you could hear how each bush sings to Hashem, without any ulterior motive, without anticipating reward... It's very good to serve God in their midst" (Rabbi Nachman's Wisdom #163). To emulate their prayer, to adopt their practice of praying without ulterior motive, will make us happy. Because the Rebbe teaches us that the ten types of song that constitute Tehilim (Psalms), which is the paradigm of selfless prayer, dispell our natural propensity to gloom, doom, worry and anxiety. Each song strikes a different inner-chord, vibrates and resonates, allowing us to see that much more clearly that which what we have to throw away from our lives and that which we have to hold on to. When we unload that which we come to perceive as detrimental, we are in effect freeing ourselves from depression, a particularly ugly form of slavery. Because the slavery of Egypt was not just the physical subjugation, but also the misery of being unable to break away from the twisted concepts and values that made people want to be Egyptian despite their awareness of a brighter, unenslaved future that awaited them. And only at Sinai, when we received the Torah, did we finally "leave" Egypt. Because only the Torah - thinking it, living it, embodying it - is freedom (Ethics of the Fathers 6:2). And only by "observing Shmittah," trusting in Hashem and being happy, can we truly receive the Torah.
agutn Shabbos!
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