YOU THINK WE’RE FAT...?
What a peculiar tale. Such fascination with fat Sages? But maybe their waistline is not the point here, and the Talmud is hinting at something very deep…
What a peculiar tale. Such fascination with fat Sages? But maybe their waistline is not the point here, and the Talmud is hinting at something very deep…
Two families went out on a hiking trip in the Alps – one Jewish and one (l’havdil) Gentile. The Jewish family came fully equipped… Four different kinds of sandwiches for each family member, bags of Bamba, Bissli, and popcorn for the kids, chocolates and nuts for the adults, cartons of vacuum-packed milk, and a wide variety of breakfast cereals, and more and more…
This Shabbos we will be reading the Torah portion of Behar. The word “Behar – on the mountain” refers to the giving of the Torah on Har Sinai. The first topic in the Parsha is the laws of Shmita. On the very first Pasuk (25:1), Rashi comments: “What [special relevance] does the subject of Shmita [the “release” of fields in the seventh year] have to Mount Sinai? Were not all the commandments stated at Sinai? However, [this teaches us that] just as the mitzva of Shmita and its general principles and its finer details were all stated at Sinai, likewise, all of them were stated – their general principles [together with] their finer details – at Sinai
Among the myriads of Bitachon messages that the Torah gives us is a profound message which comes from the mitzvah of Shmita
The Torah generally does not raise questions about its own dictates. The Torah gives voice to G-d’s will. Our responses are not what the Torah is about. Yes, in several of the narratives, the Torah will describe the actions of the Jewish people; how they accepted, followed and submitted to the Divine will or, when they rejected it. But, the Torah never introduces a hypothetical challenge to G-d’s will.
This parsha opens with the laws concerning the Sabbatical year known as Shmita.