Transcript
Good morning. This שבת shabbos we have the privilege yet again of reading a double parsha, בהר Bahar and בחקתי Bechukosai. We'll do as we always do, a brief overview of the two parshios and then delve into specific פסוקים psukim. Parshas בהר Bahar, Parshas בהר Bahar begins with a section dedicated to the concept of שמיטה shmita. Of course, the famous opening, בהר סיני לאמר Bahar Sinai leimor. I think I've repeated this this before. I heard from Rabbi J.J. Schacter who was once in Israel, said he was once watching on Israeli TV an episode of the old show Kojak, I think it was. And his sidekick, I don't know what his name was, said to Kojak, what does this have to do with the price of tea in China? And in the bottom of the screen in the Hebrew subtitles it said מה ענין שמיטה אצל הר סיני ma inyan shmita eitzel Har Sinai. That was the translation of what does this have to do with the price of tea in China. So of course, that's what the the parsha begins. What what in the world does one thing have to do with the other? שמיטה shmita, מה ענין שמיטה אצל הר סיני ma inyan shmita eitzel Har Sinai. Why is שמיטה shmita introduced with Hashem spoke to Moshe Har Sinai? All מצוות mitzvos were given at Har Sinai. Why שמיטה shmita specifically? Not our topic for today. So six years we have an agricultural cycle. In each of those years, there's different tithes and gifts and so on that are selected. The seventh year the land lays fallow. The farmer concentrates on renewing his sense of אמונה emuna. The ספר החינוך Sefer HaChinuch understands שמיטה shmita is an exercise in אמונה emuna. You can imagine if we were all forced to take a sabbatical every seven years. In the seventh year, you would have to have saved up enough money or you would have to have a certain sense of faith that the year would work out okay even though you weren't actively working and trying to seek that income. So the ability to, and there's a big discussion when it comes to שמיטה shmita among the ראשונים Rishonim. Is the emphasis of שמיטה shmita, is the sabbatical year, is the goal to allow the land to regenerate or is the goal to allow the owner to regenerate? And of course the answer is both, but different מפרשים meforshim, different commentators stress different components. Is it an environmental מצווה mitzva? Is it a function of Mother Earth? How we treat the land, respecting the land, which of course it is. Or is the main emphasis the farmer? That six years the farmer is consumed by his crop, by its produce, by nourishing and nurturing his field, her field. In the seventh year, they take a step back and realize it's more to life. Their identity is not being a farmer, their identity is being an עבד השם eved Hashem. So they dedicate a sabbatical year to learn, to grow, to reflect, to introspect and therefore the sabbatical is a regeneration, it's a notion of of rebirth and renewal for the farmer. So that's a big discussion here. Every seven years we then have the 50th year which is the יובל Yovel year, the jubilee year. We then have the פסוקים psukim telling us what happens if these laws are not observed, which are the verses that we're going to study together this morning. We have the laws of the redemption of the land, what happens if a person loses their own land, redeeming it back on their behalf. We have the idea of the poor person and and redeeming it, the closest relatives have to step in to make sure that they don't descend into absolute poverty, but but they're protected. We have the הלכות halachos of the cities of the לויים Leviim. Very interesting. This is the origin of the community כולל kolel. The לויים Leviim are to play the role, they are the tribe that when the Jewish people will conquer Israel, the opening of the book of יהושע Yehoshua, when the Jews come into ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael and they conquer and divide the land, as was prescribed in the תורה Torah, one שבט shevet does not get land, and that is the tribe of Levi. Instead, what do they get? Cities within everyone else's land. Why are they given cities within everyone else's land? Why are they integrated into the other tribes rather than being isolated and having their tribe of land of their own as the other tribes have? Because the לויים Leviim are to be the role models, they are to be the teachers. That's the role of priests. Priests are the teachers, the role models, the source of inspiration, the clergy for everyone else. By interspersing them and integrating them into the greater community, you set them up to be those teachers. So here's the question. When they gave you land, when they entered Israel, it wasn't a matter of how many acres do I get and does it get a golf course view because I want to build my home with seven garages. The land was your livelihood. The land was what sustained you. You had land which you then worked and that's how you lived. So if you weren't giving land, the לויים Leviim say, well, that's nice that we're given cities, that helps. But how are we supposed to sustain ourselves if we don't have land to work, to nurture and to harvest? And the answer is, that's where the tithes come in. The community is obligated to support the לויים Leviim. Since the לויים Leviim forfeit a meaningful salary to position themselves to be the teachers of the community, the community is responsible, bless you, to support them. And the רמב\"ם Rambam describes this explicitly as to the מפרשים meforshim in the פסוקים psukim. This is the role of the לויים Leviim. The לויים Leviim are the original community כולל kolel. The community supports a group who are designed to designated to teach and to inspire. Torah then goes on to talk about preventing poverty. When you see your brother beginning to sink, והחזקת בו v'hechezakta bo, hold him up, strengthen him. So you don't wait till he's poor and on תומכי שבת Tomchei Shabbos. You catch him before he falls. It's much harder to lift somebody up off the floor than it is to catch them when they're falling. So the same is true spiritually and the same is true financially. The prohibition of interest. Why are we not allowed to lend with interest? I'll tell you very quickly. Why are we not allowed to lend with interest? It's very confusing. I think we spoke about this last year in the parsha class. If lending with interest is categorically wrong, is morally or ethically wrong, then why are we allowed to lend with interest to a non-Jew? And if lending with interest is not immoral or unethical, why are we not allowed to lend with interest to a Jew? Why the distinction between the Jew and the non-Jew when it comes to lending with interest? So now clearly lending with interest is moral, there's nothing immoral about it. There is a time value to money. Money has a a value to it because of interest and cost of living and so on and so forth. Money has a time value to it. So that's why when you borrow money from a bank they charge you interest because it costs money for them to relinquish their equity, their their assets. Money has a time value, so it makes sense that if somebody has my money, therefore preventing my use of that money for a period of time and preventing my making money from that money, that when they give me back my money, they also pay me back a certain level of interest. It's absolutely moral and ethical. And if it's moral and ethical and permissible to a non-Jew, why then is it prohibited to a Jew? And the answer, ספר החינוך Sefer HaChinuch, others write, is as follows. Because if your neighbor comes and knocks on your door and says, can I borrow some money? Then if you're a gracious kind person, you'll say sure, but here's what I was making in the bank, so at least pay me that interest rate. But if your brother, which won't be a big stretch for them these days, if your brother knocks on your door and says, \"Hey bro, I'm short some money, some cash, could you help me?\" You'd be a real low life if you charge your own brother, your own son or daughter, your mother or father interest. If your immediate nuclear family needs money, and I'm not talking about it's an investment, I'm not talking about it's long term, I'm not talking about they need money. And you say, sure, you could borrow, you know, $200 to pay the electric bill, but I want you to pay me back $210 when you have the money. What kind of a father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter would you be? We we all can intuitively understand that you don't charge interest to family, even though it's completely ethical, and you would charge interest to a neighbor you don't know or to a stranger or maybe even to a distant cousin who's called on you. So the Torah in this prohibition of charging interest is trying to cultivate within us a sense that the Jewish people are our nuclear family. There's nothing unethical or moral with charging interest, just see every Jew as your brother or sister and don't do it, the same way you wouldn't do it to your immediate family. So the whole institution of a prohibition of charging interest is not an ethical law, because otherwise you wouldn't be able to charge interest to a non-Jew, it is designed to cultivate a sense of family among the Jewish people. Okay?Let's keep going quickly. No, hold on, hold hold the questions. Hold the questions till the end if you don't mind. I will leave time for questions. Write them down. Next we have the concept of the Jewish slave and going free. Fine. Then בחקתי Bechukosai, which is easy to summarize because it is the miracle of a blessing and a curse. We have the תוכחה tochacha, the great admonition and rebuke. The Torah's graphic description of what happens to those who are not adherent and obedient and observant of God's will. A horrific description. Is it meant to be taken literally? Is it meant to be taken figuratively? Did it occur? Has it yet to occur? The famous story of the Klauzenberger Rebbe, in whose, a survivor of the Holocaust who lost his wife and 11 children, in whose שטיבל shtiebel the תוכחה tochacha was being read as is our custom to read it quietly in an undertone because its message is so harsh and almost unbearable. And the Klauzenberger Rebbe kept yelling in Yiddish, \"Louder, louder!\" And the בעל קורא baal korei read a little louder and he said, \"No, louder,\" and louder. And after דאווענען davening they came up to him and said, what gives? I don't know how you say what gives in Yiddish, but they said what gives? The מנהג minhag is to read it in an undertone. Why did the Rebbe announce to the בעל קורא baal korei to read it? And the Klauzenberger Rebbe said, we have nothing to be ashamed of. It doesn't need to be whispered. We lived through it. We've experienced the תוכחה tochacha, let השם Hashem hear it out loud. So he commanded to be read out loud. Very, very harsh. That's parshas בחקתי Bechukosai. Of course, we also have the תוכחה tochacha where else? כי תבא Ki Savo in in ספר דברים Sefer Devarim. And of course it's an important exercise to compare and contrast the תוכחה tochacha the way it appears early, the תוכחה tochacha the way it is recounted in the book of דברים Devarim. Then we have the gifts to the בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash, the הלכות halachos of ערכן erchan, the ערכך נפשות להשם erkecha nefashos l'Hashem, sanctification, redemption of animals, houses and fields, the second tithe, all the different systems of the tithes. And that is an overview of the parshios. Okay, the פסוקים psukim I want to investigate a little bit together, פרק כ\"ה Perek Chaf Hey, chapter 25, verse 14, פסוק י\"ד pasuk yud daled, coinciding or corresponding with שני sheini in Parshas בהר Bahar. Page 698 in the stone חומש Chumash. 698 in the stone חומש Chumash. Okay, so again the context here is the Torah introduces us to the concept of שמיטה shmita every seven years, to the concept of the יובל Yovel, the Jubilee every 49 years, the 50th year is יובל Yovel, and in that context the Torah now tells us, וכי תמכרו ממכר לעמיתך v'chi timkeru mimkar l'amitecha, או קנה מיד עמיתך o kanoh miyad amitecha, אל תונו איש את אחיו al tonu ish es achiv. When you make a sale to your brother, you make a purchase from his hand, do not, אל תונו al tonu, this is the prohibition of אונאה o'na'ah. You're not allowed to violate the prohibition of אונאה o'na'ah. אל תונו al tonu. Artscroll translates the words תונו tonu as to aggrieve. Don't aggravate. But אל תונו al tonu doesn't just mean to aggravate meaning to handle, don't handle, don't aggravate, don't be a difficult, but it means something Halachic. Look at Rashi. אל תונו Al tonu means זו אונאת ממון zu o'na'as mamon. This is the prohibition of אונאת ממון o'na'as mamon. In Parshas קדושים Kedoshim we already had a reference to it earlier, that there is a prohibition of אונאה o'na'ah. אונאה O'na'ah means you're only allowed to charge a fair market value. The Torah has a prohibition against extortion, exorbitant sums, exorbitant fees. One is only allowed to charge a fair market value. In fact, you have a 40th or a 50th or a 60th, it depends how much over you are. If it's a certain amount over then it's negligible. If it's a certain amount over it's forgiven. If it's a certain amount over, I'm sorry a certain amount over then it has to be returned, and if it's a certain amount over, then the entire sale is null and void. So if I go and I buy a stereo system, they used to have things called stereo systems. If I go and I buy a car and I find out afterwards that I was just ripped off, I was charged a significant amount more than the actual fair market value. So if it was a 40th more, so then, I think my percentages are right. I haven't learned אונאה o'na'ah in a long time, the fifth perek of בבא מציעא Bava Metzia. But, the, if it's, if it's that amount more, so then it's negligible. It was the wrong thing to do, but it's, it's, included in the sale. If it's above that more, then the seller has to return that amount that they charged beyond the fair market value. And if it's the third category, the maximum amount, then the entire sale is null and void. So that even if the seller wants to come to me and say, look, I'll return to you the difference, but we made a sale, the deal's a deal. I say, the deal's a deal, no way. The fact that you ripped me off at that percentage more than the fair market value, the Torah says the entire sale is null and void and is to be treated as such. So this is Rashi says a reference to that prohibition. The Torah here is referencing that when there is a sale, there's a prohibition to cheat anyone in business, cheating being described as charging more than the fair market value. Now this is a Halacha that only applies to movable objects to מטלטלין metaltelin, does not apply to קרקע karka. Real estate does not have a notion of a fair market value. Very interesting. Where do we learn that from? The Gemara derives that from psukim themselves. Our pasuk says, או קנה מיד עמיתך o kanoh miyad amitecha. Our pasuk, the Gemara learns, our pasuk says that if you buy something from the hand of your friend, from the hand of your friend, you don't buy real estate from a hand, you buy a movable object from a hand. What the Torah refers to as מטלטלין metaltelin, movable objects. קרקע Karka, real estate, immovable object, you can't transfer from the hand and it's not therefore susceptible to the laws of אונאה o'na'ah. Does that mean you could cheat, you could be unfair? No, it means that the Torah views, and this is fascinating, beyond the scope of our time, real estate has a whole other set of rules in the Torah. קרקע Karka and מטלטלין metaltelin. Because Torah law, Jewish law views real estate differently. Real estate's value is relative. Right? Movable objects value can be labeled with a certain absolute value. There's a going rate and the going rate. Now what if to me it means more, I want it so badly, I'm willing to pay more. That we don't mean. You know the fact that there's an outlier of a specific individual who so badly wants that gadget that they're willing to pay more, that's an outlier. But you can clearly define when it comes to a movable object the fair market value more or less. You Google it, you see the different websites that come up where they're selling it for. Even though Amazon will have a different price than Best Buy which has a different price than what you can get it for on eBay, but you get a relative average, median of what you could buy it for, that's the fair market value. But real estate, there's no fair market value. Real estate is so subjective that it depends on the prospective buyer. Do they love the location? Now understand, not only do they love the location because of a golf course view, but understand that if I have the adjacent piece of property, then this piece of property has a different value to me than it does to some guy who's moving in from another neighborhood. If you own the adjacent parcel of land, which, by the way, if you're a farmer it's even more so, has greater value because you reduce your cost, your level of efficiency is so great if your parcels of land are next to each other, you can harvest those two fields at a much lower cost than it would cost you to harvest two fields that have some field in between the two. Which is why by the way the Torah tells us that when you're selling the field, if the person who has the adjacent field is one of the prospective buyers, you should sell it to them. All else being equal, willing to pay the same price, all else being equal, you should sell it to them. In fact if you don't we call that כופן על מדת סדום kofin al midas Sdom. It's מדת סדום midas Sdom. You are displaying the same um you are displaying the same character trait as the people of סדום Sdom, the same unethical behavior to be unwilling to sell it if all else is equal to someone because it has more more value to them. You have similar laws when it comes to inheritance where one son already owns a parcel of land next to the father, and now they're going to divide up the father's property in three. So give the third that's adjacent to the son to the son who has the adjacent land, give him that third. Don't give him the third that there's going to be a break between the land. So you have these these notions. So here you have the prohibition of אונאה o'na'ah but you see the Torah and חז\"ל Chazal viewed real estate differently. Just hold the question. View real estate as having relative value, whereas movable objects have more of an absolute value that can be determined. Therefore they are susceptible to the laws of אונאה o'na'ah.Okay. There's a lot more to say about this, but it's not really our subject for today. So continuing. Pasuk tes vov. כי מספר שנים אחר היובל תקנה מאת עמיתך b'mispar shanim achar ha'yovel tikneh mei'eis amitecha. מספר שני תבואות ימכר לך b'mispar shnei svuos yimkar lach. לפי רב השנים תרבה מקנתו ולפי מעט השנים תמעיט מקנתו כי מספר תבואות הוא מכר לך l'fi rov hashanim tarbeh miknaso u'lfi m'at hashanim tam'it miknaso ki mispar tvuos hu mocher lach. According to the number of years of the of יובל Yovel, shall you buy from your fellow. Meaning according to the number of crop years shall he sell you. According to the greater number of years shall you increase the price, according to the lesser number of years shall you decrease its price, for he is selling you the number of crops. The Jewish view of real estate is also very different in the following sense. When you're buying land in Boca Raton, there's an actual transfer of deed. If I buy the land, I own the land outright. It's mine, it's irreversible, nobody can take it away from me without my selling it, gifting it, inheriting it, a change of of a transfer of deed, but it's mine. When you buy land in Israel, you by definition never own the land. It's very powerful. I'm not talking about modern Israel, I'm talking about Halacha, I'm talking about in biblical Israel. It is never owned by the person. What do you own? You own the rights to use the land and the produce produced by the land. So therefore, how do you determine the rate, says the Torah, במספר שנים אחר היובל b'mispar shanim achar ha'yovel. Well if there are, and how who really owns the land? First of all who really owns the land is Hashem. But who owns the title of the land is the family to whom it's been...So how could...It's been it's been it's been divided. When they came into Israel and divided according to the tribes and further the tribes divided according to families, they owned the deed. So when someone comes to whatever family and says, I'd like to buy the land. I come to the Pels family and I say, Danny, I'd like to negotiate, I want to buy your house. I'm not really buying your property, five acres, what I'm buying is the opportunity to use your property to produce until when? The Torah had said that with יובל Yovel all property reverses to the ancestral ownership. So therefore with יובל Yovel I leave Danny's land and Danny comes back to his land. So it's a pretty lousy deal on my side, unless I understand and realize that I was never really buying. Imagine if every 50 years everyone had to vacate their houses and it goes back to whoever the previous owner of the house was. So that would change the whole real estate market dramatically. But in the Torah's view, I was never buying Danny's property. What I was buying was the right of the use of Danny's property until יובל Yovel. Which means what determines the price? How far off we are from יובל Yovel. So if last year was יובל Yovel, so I've got 49 years until the next יובל Yovel, I'm going to pay a premium. If יובל Yovel is three years from now, I'm going to get a bargain. And that's what the Torah is saying. במספר שנים B'mispar shanim according to the number of years of יובל Yovel, that's what determines the price. לפי רב השנים L'fi rov hashanim, if there are many years, תרבה מקנתו tarbeh miknaso, it's gonna increase it. לפי מעט השנים L'fi m'at hashanim if there's few years תמעיט מקנתו tam'it miknaso, it's gonna lessen the price. כי מספר תבואות הוא מכר לך Ki mispar tvuos hu mocher lach, because what are you selling? Not the land. You're selling the years of use, the years of how much produce you can get. And this is how Rashi explains. Look at Rashi, pasuk tes vov. וזהו פשוטו של מקרא ולא עולה. Zeh pshuto shel mikra l'o'na'ah. This is how you understand the mikra. על אונאה בא להזהיר al o'na'ah ba l'hazhir. And what's the connection now you'll say between the last pasuk we just read and this pasuk. In the last pasuk we talked about the prohibition of אונאה o'na'ah. You're not allowed to charge exorbitant sums or fees, you're not allowed to extort. You can't charge more than the going rate. And now we go right into this notion of a fluctuating rate based on the amount of years left because you're paying for usage, not for the actual land. So Rashi says, here's what it means. כשתמכר או תקנה קרקע k'shetimkor o tikneh karka, when you sell or buy land דע da, know כמה שנים יש עד היובל kama shanim yesh ad ha'yovel. You can't buy the land in a vacuum because you're not really buying the land. You have to know how many years are left. ולפי השנים ותבואות השדה שראוי לעשות ימכור המוכר u'lfi hashanim v'svuos hasadeh shera'uy la'asos yimkor ha'mocher. The set the price is set by how many years there are. ויקנה הלוקח v'yikneh ha'lokeiach. שהרי סופו להחזיר לו בשנת היובל sheharei sofo l'hazir lo b'shnas ha'yovel. The land is going back in the jubilee year. ואם יש שנים מועטות v'im yesh shanim mu'atos, if there are few years, והוא מוכרו בדמים יקרים v'hu mochro b'damim yekarim, and you're selling it for many dollars, so you're taking advantage of an unknowing person. So somebody comes to buy your land who Rabbi Brody brought in through his outreach program. They're not familiar with the concept called יובל Yovel. יובל Yovel is taking place in a year and a half, and you say, they say how much is the land? You say my land, this is prime property. I live right next door to the shul. Uh, 3 million. They say, this property is unbelievable. They don't realize they're only going to live there in a year and a half. And guess what, the Rabbi's going to give a sermon in a year and a half that says, you know musical chairs. Don't forget everyone. Put in the weekly activity sheet this week we all switch houses. They're going to go, what, what, switch house, what? I just paid 3 million dollars. הרי נתאנה לוקח Harei nis'aneh lokeiach. That's a form of אונאה o'na'ah. It's a form of extortion. ואם יש שנים מרובות V'im yesh shanim merubos, והוא אוכל ממנו תבואות הרבה v'hu ochel mimenu tvuos harbei, הרי נתאנה המוכר harei nis'aneh ha'mocher. And what happens the opposite happens. You take advantage in the opposite way. You go to somebody and you say, you know there's a concept called יובל Yovel, I'm going to have to give you the land back anyway. So you know what? I'm not willing to pay you what you want. I'll pay you 10% of what you want because you're going to get your land back, I don't really get to own it. But that person is unknowing. They don't realize that there's only, I'm sorry they don't realize that there's 45 years left till the next יובל Yovel. So you're going to get 45 years of crop and you're paying something small, that's the reverse אונאה o'na'ah. That's that now the לוקח lokeiach, the borrower taking advantage. לפיכך צריך לקנות ולמכור לפי הזמן l'ficha צריך liknos v'limkor l'fi hazman. And that's what Rashi is explaining the flow of the psukim. Why did the Torah say לא תונו lo sonu instructing us not to extort our fellow man in business practices. What in the world does that have to do with יובל Yovel? And the answer is a very conniving person could leverage יובל Yovel on an unsuspecting person by either paying by either paying very little but getting a lot of crop or paying or the seller receiving a lot for very little use and so on. וזהו שנאמר במספר שני תבואות ימכר לך v'zehu she'ne'emar b'mispar shnei svuos yimkar lach. לפי מנין שני התבואות שתעמוד ביד הלוקח תמכר לו l'fi minyan shnei ha'svuos sheta'amod b'yad ha'lokeiach timkar lo. But our rabbis learned from here, שכל המוכר שדהו אינו רשאי לגאול פחות משתי שנים shekol ha'mocher sdeihu eino rashai lig'ol pachos mishtei shanim, שיהיו דמי שתי תבואות ביד הלוקח מיום ליום sheyihyu dmei shtei svuos b'yad ha'lokeiach miyom l'yom. The rabbis learned from here that the minimum amount of time before you redeem a property, in other words kick someone off and take it back, is two years. To allow a person to buy the use of a property and have them be there less than two years would be so grossly unfair that the rabbis specifically set out that you can't redeem a property and kick someone off, you can't foreclose so to say and evict somebody without there having been there a minimum of two years. ואפילו היו להם שלש תבואות באותן שתי שנים v'afilu hayu lahem shalosh tvuos b'oson shtei shanim. Even if they were able to get three crops out of the two years, כגון שמכרו לו בקמותיה k'gon she'machro lo b'kamosheha, he sold it when the stalks were fully grown about to be harvested. וספרא שני איני יוצא מפשוטו v'sifrei shnei eini yotzei m'pshuto. כלומר מספר שנים לא של תבואות klomar mispar shanim lo shel tvuos, and so and so forth. In other words two years could get three crops depending on how you calculate the two years. So you'll say well they got the three crops, I'm going to evict them and under two years. Says Rashi no, חז\"ל Chazal said you can't evict without a person having a minimum of two years because that's part of the notion of honesty in business how it relates to יובל Yovel. Now the Torah strangely, here we go, says again, By the way, let's just point out the רשב\"ם Rashbam, Shmuel ben Meir, in tes zayin says, כי מספר תבואות ki mispar tvuos. The רשב\"ם Rashbam is focusing emphasizing the word מספר mispar, number. שעד היובל הוא מוכר לך ולא גוף הקרקע she'ad ha'yovel hu mocher lecha v'lo guf hakarka. The buyer needs to know that this is not a real estate transaction. When it comes to land in Israel, in a יובל Yovel system, we don't have יובל Yovel today, we still have שמיטה shmita but we don't really have יובל Yovel today. So today there is real deed transfer and property and so on, title taken to property. But in the יובל Yovel system, when there was יובל Yovel, so the buyer needs to know, it needs to be communicated, articulated explicitly, there's no such thing in Israel in a יובל Yovel system of actual real estate transaction. You're never selling property, you're selling usage, you're selling the right. And that's what the רשב\"ם Rashbam says, כי מספר ki mispar means שעד היובל הוא מוכר לך she'ad ha'yovel hu mocher lecha, you're selling usage, ולא גוף הקרקע v'lo guf ha'karka, and not the real estate itself. Okay. Yeah, you could buy the next 49 years of usage. You'll have to renegotiate. Now you're going to pay a premium. Right. Now that's the exact point. You're not paying a flat fee for a real estate transaction. You're paying a usage fee for a distinct period of time which will conclude with יובל Yovel. The beginning time is fluctuates depending when you negotiate, but the end time is set in stone. It's essentially a land lease. Right, there's actual no real estate transaction, it's essentially a land lease. Well the prohibition is on the buyer also because the buyer could be taking advantage of a seller by paying very little when the truth is there's many years left. So there could be 49 years left and he's going to say, this is this is not even a sale, this is a lease. For a lease I'll only pay you this small amount. And the unknowing seller doesn't realize that he's given away 49 crops, 49 years of crop for that small amount. Now, no no, the 50th year. It's the jubilee year because it reset everything. Why? The Torah felt strongly, this is another subject not ours for today, but the Torah felt strongly in the concept of not not segregation in the negative term that we use, but the notion that Danny Gordis has a fantastic talk on this and he's written extensively on it. Right, what's happening, I don't want to deviate too far. The the new European model which we're actually watching disintegrate before our eyes, particularly beginning with Greece, but the European model of blending, losing individual identity, universal identity. We'll have one currency and one language and one train system and one everything. The Torah was very against that. The Torah understood that distinct peoples need to have distinct identities with distinct cultures and allow them to flourish and thrive and that's what builds the beauty of the spectrum, the colors of the rainbow, the the magnificent all the different metaphors you could give. Right, like I say, Danny Gordis has a beautiful discussion about this. He he tries to describe that that's part of the Europe's hatred of Israel, is that Israel refuses to lose its identity and blend into the Europeans. They want to have a distinct identity, a particularistic a particularistic identity, a Jewish identity. And and that's probably part of why Europe so much of it hates Israel. Like I say it's a brilliant analysis on his part. So I don't remember him referencing this, but the Torah clearly understands the notion of individualized identity. You see it throughout תנ\"ך Tanach because tribes have their own sections of the land. And every יובל Yovel would reset, what happens when people marry, what happens when ancestral lands gets sold, leased, are set and so on. So every 50th year there's a reset button to get everything back to the working order of divided lands. Does that mean that we believe in segregation in the sense that tribes shouldn't be marrying one another and integrating with one another and so on? Of course not. There were times in Jewish history, there were times in Jewish history where we had this challenge. There were times where there were civil war between tribes. There were times where it was declared that nobody would marry someone, פילגש בגבעה Pilegesh B'Givah, after the episode of פילגש בגבעה Pilegesh B'Givah for example. So there were episodes in our history, but for the most part, the Torah understood in a it was a particular, I don't know if that's a word, particularistic, individualistic, but rather than the universal. So that's what's going on over here. Okay, continuing. The אור החיים הקדוש Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh brings up something interesting in the pasuk nobody asked. I don't want to get into his long answer that's technical, but he points out if you look in pasuk tes vov, verse 15, במספר שנים אחר היובל תקנה מאת עמיתך b'mispar shanim achar ha'yovel tikneh mei'eis amisecha. According to the number of years. after יובל Yovel you should buy. He asks it should say before, לפני lifnei before יובל Yovel. Why does it say right אחרי יובל acharei Yovel? It should say you calculate the lease determined by how many years are left until יובל Yovel. Now, it works to say after יובל Yovel also because after יובל Yovel also tells you how many years are left until the next יובל Yovel. But it's uncomfortable. The more appropriate, it seems, way of saying should have been until. למה אמר אחר יובל ולא אמר עד יובל Lama amar achar Yovel v'lo amar ad Yovel? כי שנים הנקנים הם מזמן הקניה עד היובל Ki shanim haniknim hem mizman hakniya ad hayovel, לא מה שעברו משנת היובל עד זמן הקניה lo ma she'avru mishnas hayovel ad zman hakniya. That's question number one says the אור החיים Or HaChaim. Question number two, למה שינה הכתוב לשונו כשהזכיר מספר שנים אמר תקנה ותלה הדבר בלוקח. וכשהזכיר מספר תבואות אמר ימכר לך ויחס הדבר למוכר Lama shina hakatuv leshono k'shehizkir mispar shanim amar tikneh v'salah hadavar b'lokeach. U'chshehizkir mispar tevuos amar yimkor lach yichas hadavar l'mocher. When it talks about the land, it talks about the buyer. And when it talks about the produce, the תבואה tevua, it puts it in the language of the seller. Right? במספר שנים אחר היובל B'mispar shanim achar hayovel, so question number one is why does it say אחר achar and not עד ad? תקנה מאת עמיתך Tikneh me'eis amisecha. It says תקנה tikneh. מאת Me'eis means you are the buyer. And then at the end of the פסוק pasuk במספר שני תבואות b'mispar shnei tevuos, according to the number of, now crops, תבואות tevuos, not the land, the crops, ימכר לך yimkor l'cha, he should sell to you. Now it's putting it in the perspective of the מוכר mocher, of the seller. So why'd the פסוק pasuk all of a sudden in the middle switch from the perspective of the buyer to the perspective of the seller? Those are the אור החיים's Or HaChaim's two questions. I share them with you only to create a sensitivity to the פסוק pasuk, to ask these questions. His answer is very technical. You can look at it on your own. Continuing.Next פסוק pasuk, י\"ז yud-zayin. These words of the beginning of פסוק י\"ז pasuk yud-zayin should be very familiar to you because we actually just read it. ולא תונו איש את עמיתו ויראת מאלקיך כי אני ה' אלקיכם V'lo sonu ish es amiso v'yareisa me'Elokecha ki ani Hashem Elokeichem. And don't aggrieve, what's the word he uses? Don't aggravate, don't aggrieve your fellow man. ויראת מאלקיך V'yareisa me'Elokecha, have awe of God. כי אני ה' אלקיכם Ki ani Hashem Elokeichem, because I am the Lord your God. ועשיתם את חקתי ואת משפטי תשמרו V'asisem es chukosai v'es mishpatai tishmoru, observe all of my laws or ordinances, ועשיתם אתם v'asisem osam and do them, וישבתם על הארץ לבטח v'ishavtem al ha'aretz lavetach, and if you do that, you'll be able to dwell with בטח betach. What's בטחון bitachon? Faith. Or in Israel, what's בטחון bitachon? Security. You'll dwell securely on the land. Why are we repeating ולא תונו איש את עמיתו v'lo sonu ish es amito? Didn't we just say that a moment ago? The laws of אונאה ona'ah, you can't extort, you can't charge too much. How does that relate to land? We said אונאה ona'ah doesn't apply to קרקע karka. רש\"י Rashi says it does, not to real estate purchases, but within a lease, don't take advantage by paying little and getting a lot of crop or by charging a lot and there's only a few years left to יובל Yovel. So why is the פסוק pasuk repeating it? ולא תונו איש V'lo sonu ish. We just said it a moment ago. Says רש\"י Rashi, it's introducing something new. כאן הזהיר על אונאת דברים Kan hizhir al ona'as devarim. This אונאה ona'ah is not the financial. Now we're introducing not being honest in business dealings. Now we're introducing אונאה ona'ah when it comes to our language, when it comes to our words. שלא יקניט את חברו Shelo yaknit es chaveiro. You're not allowed to aggravate, literally. Not aggravate financially, but aggravate literally. What does it mean to aggravate your fellow man? It means to mock. It means to imitate in an obnoxious way. It means to remind him or her, 'Hey, remember when you tripped and fell on your face and everybody was watching? Hey, remember before you were a בעל תשובה baal teshuva and you used to eat pork? Hey, remember that trouble you ran into with the law? Hey, remember?' That's אונאה ona'ah. It's called אונאת דברים ona'as devarim. There's אונאת ממון ona'as mamon which is to extort with money, to charge above the going rate, and there's אונאת דברים ona'as devarim which is to aggravate with words. שלא ישנה עצה שאינה הוגנת לו Shelo yashna eitzah she'eina hogenes lo. You shouldn't be giving advice that's not appropriate. That's אונאת דברים ona'as devarim. לפי דרכו והנאתו של היועץ L'fi darcho v'hana'aso shel hayo'etz. ואם תאמר V'im tomar. What are other examples, by the way? Look at the רשב\"ם Rashbam. The רשב\"ם Rashbam says, ולא תונו v'lo sonu י\"ז yud-zayin, בן מאיר ben Meir, רש\"י's Rashi's grandson, אפילו בדברים afilu b'dvarim means don't aggravate with words. For example, גניבת דעת geneivas daas. I'll give you an example of אונאת דברים ona'as devarim. I run into this ethical dilemma almost every time I'm in the hospital. You go to the hospital to visit A. While you're getting into the elevator, you see the wife of or the son of or the nephew of B. And they say, \"Oh, you came to visit my father? That is so nice.\" And what do you say? See, if you say, \"Actually I had no idea they were in the hospital or I would never bother to come visit your father. I'm here to bother to visit, I'm here to visit so-and-so but I guess I ran into you, now I have to go to your father also.\" That's not going to be very kind. On the other hand, if you say, \"Yeah, absolutely, I did come to visit. Oh yeah, what what room is that again?\" So then, that's גניבת דעת geneivas daas. You're stealing somebody's, you're stealing somebody's knowledge. So you're deceiving somebody. So that's an ethical dilemma by the way. It's not so clear. גניבת דעת Geneivas daas is not an ethical dilemma. You're not allowed to steal somebody's assumption. That's not an ethical dilemma. גניבת דעת Geneivas daas is prohibited. But this is an ethical dilemma, because now you have a value conflict. גניבת דעת Geneivas daas on the one hand, being dishonest with the person, deceiving them, but on the other hand, hurting their feelings. So are you allowed to be so ethical about גניבת דעת geneivas daas at the hurt, at the cost of the other person's feelings, bless you, that the person is going to feel poorly that the rabbi or this friend, they didn't come visit me. The only reason they're in my room right now is because they happen to run into my son. So how honest should you be? By the way, you have this similar ethical dilemma, which was a מחלוקת machlokes between the חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim and רבי ישראל סלנטר Rabbi Yisrael Salanter when it comes to לשון הרע lashon hara. If you spoke לשון הרע lashon hara about someone, we know the law is that if you hurt somebody, you don't get atonement until you go and ask for forgiveness. יום כיפור Yom Kippur is not מכפר mechaper. יום כיפור Yom Kippur can't atone for that mistake until you get forgiveness from the person. God says, \"What are you coming to me? You haven't said you're sorry yet to you know, my two kids kill each other and then one comes to me and says, 'I'm really sorry how I behaved.'\" I say, \"Well, that's nice, but you hit your sister over the head with the baseball bat. So until you work it out with her, I can't grant you forgiveness.\" That's exactly what Hashem says. Until you talk to your brother, your sister, I can't grant you forgiveness. So good. So I have to go if I've hurt them. What if I spoke לשון הרע lashon hara about them and they didn't know? So now when I go and I say, \"Well, יום כיפור's Yom Kippur's coming, I want to clear my slate.\" So I'm going to go up and say, \"Look, you don't know anything about this, but I told everybody about that thing that, you know, about you.\" And I just want to let you know, \"I'm really sorry. I hope you forgive me.\" Ignorance is bliss. A moment ago they didn't know about it. Now to clear my conscience, I'm going to put a dagger, I'm going to put a dagger through their heart. Is that allowed? So the חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim has in his ספר sefer, when he put out his ספר sefer he says, \"You have to go achieve atonement from the person.\" רבי ישראל סלנטר Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, when he saw the ספר sefer said, couldn't give a הסכמה haskama because he disagrees with that particular הלכה halacha. Says, \"You're not entitled to give, you're not entitled to clear your conscience on the other person's account.\" They shouldn't have to go through pain so that you could say, \"I cleared my conscience.\" Too bad. You're going to have to swallow that one. Too bad. So that's a similar thing over here in the hospital. אונאת דברים Ona'as devarim. I'm not allowed to violate אונאת דברים ona'as devarim, גניבת דעת geneivas daas. On the other hand, I'm going to hurt the person if I say, \"Actually, I had no intention of visiting you, but what can I do?\" So that's another example the רשב\"ם Rashbam says of אונאת דברים ona'as devarim. By the way, which is worse, אונאת דברים ona'as devarim or אונאת ממון ona'as mamon? דברים Devarim. דברים Devarim probably. Extorting a person financially or verbally? חז\"ל Chazal teach us verbally is worse. Why? Because money can always be restored. Money can always be restored, but a person's pain, a person's self-confidence, a person's reputation, and so on, is something which it's difficult to restore later. So the רשב\"ם Rashbam says ולא תונו v'lo sonu, the second one is to teach, אפילו בדברים וגניבת דעת ועצות רעות afilu b'dvarim u'geneivas daas v'eitzos ra'os, giving bad advice, deceiving them, and so on and so forth.So back in רש\"י Rashi, רש\"י Rashi says, ואם תאמר V'im tomar, so if you'll say, מי יודע אם נתכוונתי לרעה mi yodea im niskavanti l'ra'ah, who knows, when I gave this bad advice, who knows that I gave it on purpose, I had ill intent? גניבת דעת Geneivas daas, when I deceived somebody, maybe I didn't mean to deceive them. לכך נאמר L'chach ne'emar, says רש\"י Rashi, that's why the פסוק pasuk ends, ויראת מאלקיך v'yareisa me'Elokecha. היודע מחשבות הוא יודע Hayodea machshavos hu yodea. כל דבר המסור ללב שאין מכיר אלא מי שהמחשבה בלבו נאמר בו ויראת מאלקיך Kol davar hamasur lalev she'ein makir ela mi shehamachshava b'libo ne'emar bo v'yareisa me'Elokecha. The end of the פסוק pasuk, anytime the Torah is dealing with a prohibition where nobody ever could know but you. No one could know. How could someone know your true intent? We could always conjecture, but only you could know what's really happening in your heart. So when you have something where it depends on what's really happening in your heart, your motivation, the Torah ends it, ויראת מאלקיך v'yareisa me'Elokecha. Don't forget, God is watching. Just when you think no one can know what's in my heart, I could get away with this. No one will know that I really planned to hurt the person with bad advice. I'll just say, \"Oh, I thought it was good advice, I'm sorry.\" ויראת מאלקיך V'yareisa me'Elokecha, know that there's always someone who hears. דע מה למעלה ממך Da ma l'ma'ala mimcha, know that there's always someone above you, עין רואה ayin ro'ah, and so on and so forth. And why כי אני ה' אלקיכם ki ani Hashem elokeichem? I am the Lord your God. So אלקיכם elokeichem, why is it in the plural? We just said ויראת מאלקיך v'yareisa me'Elokecha, fear your God. Why is it now in the plural, אלקיכם elokeichem? Look at the ספורנו Sforno. Says רב עובדיה ספורנו Rav Ovadia Sforno, אלקי הקונה ואלקי המוכר elokei hakoneh v'elokei hamocher. ומקפיד אני על אונאת כל אחד מהם U'makpid ani al ona'as kol echad mehem. You think you guys are in a transaction, the buyer and the seller? But guess who you both answer to? Me. אני ה' אלקיכם Ani Hashem elokeichem. I am the Lord your God, in plural, of both the buyer and the seller. So both of you guys behave. And both of you guys be ethical. And both of you guys be fair. And both of you guys be just. Because in the end of the day, I am the God not just of the buyer, not just of the seller, I am the God of both, says the ספורנו Sforno.Okay. Yes. Just another question. It's probably not terribly important, but why is ולא תונו lo sonu plural? Why is ולא תונו lo sonu plural? איש את עמיתו Ish es amito and then it's ויראת v'yareisa which is goes... Yeah, that's a good question. We do this all the time. Good question. Good question. I don't know. I don't know. The אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra by the way writes while you have אל תונו al tonu twice, אזהרה למוכר azharah l'mocher, כי הראשון לקונה ki harishon l'koneh. The first time it said לא תונו lo sonu was a warning to the buyer. This time it's a warning to the seller. So you have the מפרשים meforshim all discussing, why do you have אל תונו al tonu twice? So רש\"י Rashi says why is it twice? The first is אונאת ממון ona'as mamon, financial prohibition, the second is אונאת דברים ona'as devarim, verbal. The אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra explains, no, the reason it's twice is once is to warn the seller, and the second is to warn the buyer. The רמב\"ן Ramban also has a discussion here, by the way, but we're not going to get into it. We don't have time. We don't have time. Okay. Let's keep going. So the Torah promises if you observe all this and keep it, then what happens? וישבתם על הארץ לבטח V'ishavtem al ha'aretz lavetach. If you are honest in your business dealings, and you're honest in your, in your relationship to the land, to real estate, to set up leases rather than transfers, do all of that, וישבתם על הארץ לבטח v'ishavtem al ha'aretz lavetach. You will dwell on the land with security. Says רש\"י Rashi, פסוק י\"ח pasuk yud-ches, לבטח lavetach means שבעוון שמיטה ישראל גולים sheb'avon shmitah Yisrael golim. What does it mean with security? It means everything will go well. When Jews properly observe the land, the sabbatical year, then we get to merit keeping the land. And when we neglect the observance of the sabbatical year, the land vomits us out. שנאמר אז תרצה הארץ את שבתותיה Shenemar az tirtzeh ha'aretz es shabsoseha, ורצתה שבתותיה v'ratzta shabsoseha. שבעים שנה שגלו בבל כנגד שבעים שמיטות שבטלו היו Shivim shana she'galu Bavel k'neged shivim shmitos she'batlu hayu. רש\"י Rashi is quoting the גמרא Gemara in שבת Shabbos. The 70 years we spent in גלות בבל galus Bavel, in Babylonia between the first and the second temples was corresponding with the 70 years that they had not observed, that they had neglected שמיטה shmita. שמיטה Shmita is punishable with exile. If you don't honor the land, then you don't merit to retain the land. Respect the land, honor the land, recognize the sanctity of the land, says the Torah, you'll have security. If you don't, you're going to run into all problems of having to give back, abandon, and so on and so forth, the land.Okay, says the ספורנו Sforno, what does it mean? וישבתם לבטח V'ishavtem lavetach. I'm sorry, that's the next פסוק pasuk. That's פסוק י\"ט pasuk yud-tes because we'll see that again in a moment. Okay. פסוק י\"ט Pasuk yud-tes, let's go. Continuing now. ונתנה הארץ פריה ואכלתם לשבע V'nasnah ha'aretz pirya v'achaltem lasova. If you properly observe the שמיטה shmita, then the land will give forth fruit, and it will be plenty. וישבתם לבטח עליה V'ishavtem lavetach aleha, and you'll dwell securely on it. What's the obvious question? The redundancy. Why is it repeating? We just told me a moment ago, you just told me that if I keep all the laws and ordinances and do everything properly, then I will dwell with security on the land. So why do you have to repeat, \"And the land will give its fruit and you will be satisfied, and you'll dwell securely\"? You just told me that. You just told me that. So, look at רש\"י Rashi, ונתנה הארץ v'nasnah ha'aretz, the land will give, וישבתם לבטח עליה שלא תדאגו משנת בצורת v'ishavtem lavetach aleha shelo sidagu mishnas bitzores. You don't have to worry about the land, the years of few. Don't worry about when you're that it's not going to produce. So the first time meant you'll dwell securely, meant you're going to be able to stay on the land. The second meant that not only will you stay on the land, but the land will provide for you what you need. You don't have to worry. ואכלתם לשבע V'achaltem lasova, you're going to eat to the point that you'll be satisfied. Says רש\"י Rashi, אף בסוך מעיים תהא בו ברכה Af b'soch mei'ayim ti'he bo bracha. Even within your קישקעס kishkas it's going to be a ברכה bracha. Even if you're Ashkenazi and you have an Ashkenazi small intestine, still, it'll be לשבע lasova. A lot of Ashkenazi stomachs, the food tastes good going down and then you suffer and pay for it later. Crohn's and colitis and irritable bowel and all the Ashkenazi diseases. So here's the ברכה bracha the Torah gives, maybe this is the Sefardim. Here's the ברכה bracha the Torah gives is that the food won't only be good going tasting it, going down, the food will also be good while you're digesting it. אף בתוך מעיים Af b'toch mei'ayim. שפתי חכמים Sifsei Chachamim of course asks where in the world did רש\"י Rashi get this from? It's a good וורט vort. רש\"י Rashi was Ashkenaz, right? He lived in France, that is literally part of Ashkenaz. So maybe he had an Ashkenazi stomach so he saw the biggest ברכה bracha being that not only it tastes good but it's you digest it well. Where did רש\"י Rashi get this from? Now. Look at the שפתי חכמים Sifsei Chachamim. רצה לומר ולא בהדיא כתיב ונתנה הארץ את פריה Rotzeh lomar v'lo b'hedya ksiv v'nasnah ha'aretz es pirya. וממילא שמעינן דאכלו לשבע U'mimeila shmeinan d'ochlu l'sova. The verse itself said that the land's going to give forth its fruit. Why do I have to be told that it's going to be satisfying? If it's giving forth fruit in plenty, then I know I'll have enough to be satisfied. Why did the פסוק pasuk have to say לשבע lasova? ולמה כתיב ואכלתם לשבע V'lama ksiv v'achaltem lasova? לכך פירש רש\"י לשבע L'chach peirush Rashi lasova refers to not eating it, לשבע lasova refers to digesting it. So that's how שפתי חכמים Sifsei Chachamim explains how רש\"י Rashi came onto that. A very important ברכה bracha indeed. Look at the ספורנו Sforno. וישבתם לבטח V'ishavtem lavetach. Why did the Torah repeat וישבתם לבטח v'ishavtem lavetach, you'll dwell securely? What does it mean here? So the ספורנו Sforno says, the first לבטח lavetach is you're not going to be exiled from the land. The second לבטח lavetach is ולא תישאו חרפת רעב בגוים שלא תצטרכו ללכת בארצות העמים לקנות התבואה v'lo sisu cherpas ra'av bagoyim shelo titztarchu laleches b'artzos ha'amim liknos hatevuah. Don't worry that you're going to encounter a famine that by taking a year off of working the land, you'll have nothing to eat and what will you be forced to do? To turn to the neighbors, the non-Jews, the the other nations of the world to buy, like the story of יוסף Yosef and his brothers in Egypt. And that's going to compromise. Once you have to rely on others, once you're getting, once you're relying on aid from foreign countries, now you have to sell your soul to their will and whim. So says the Torah, לבטח lavetach, the best security is not relying on anyone else. Produce your own energy, produce your own military needs, don't rely on anyone else's funding or aid, and then you don't have to worry about their feelings and opinions on things. So the ultimate לבטח lavetach is not to worry. הארץ תתן פריה ואכלתם לשבע Ha'aretz titen piryah v'achaltem lasova. The land will still produce what you need. You won't have to rely on foreign aid, says the ספורנו Sforno. And that's the ultimate בטח betach. That's the ultimate בטחון bitachon. The best security is getting off of foreign aid. The more you would need foreign aid, the less security you have. Says the אור החיים הקדוש Or HaChaim Hakadosh, וישבתם לבטח v'ishavtem lavetach. So aggravating. וישבתם לבטח V'ishavtem lavetach, says the אור החיים Or HaChaim, ואף גם שכבר אמר בפסוק שלפני זה וישבתם על הארץ לבטח v'af gam shekvar amar b'pasuk shelefnei ze v'ishavtem al ha'aretz lavetach. חזר לומר כן להבטיח שלא יסבב הפלגת שבח הפירות לבא עליהם שודדים ולזה דקדק לומר פסוק ראשון וישבתם על הארץ Chazar lomar kein l'havtiach shelo yisovev haflagas shevach hapeiros lavo aleihem shodedim u'lze dikdeik lomar pasuk rishon v'ishavtem al ha'aretz, לומר שהתוכך זו אחיזת הארץ והבטחה שניה אחיזת פירותיה ובזה נהיו בטוחים על הארץ ועל פירותיה lomar shehatochach zu achizas ha'aretz v'havtacha shnia achizas peiroseha u'v'zeh nihyu betuchim al ha'aretz v'al peiroseha. You see there's two aspects of the land that other people are going to desire. One is the land, and the other is what the land produces. The two לבטח lavetach says the אור החיים Or HaChaim are promises. One is you'll be safe and secure when it comes to the land, and the other is you'll be safe and secure when it comes to the what's it called? What the land can produce. The not the produce. What each each land has its natural resources. That's the word I was looking for. The your country's natural resources. In other words, sometimes a foreign country could want your land, and sometimes they could want your natural resources. So the two לבטח lavetach are the אור החיים Or HaChaim are, the Torah is protecting once your land, and once your natural resources. I didn't get to anything I wanted to get to. We didn't get to. The רב Rav, רבי סולובייצ'יק Rabbi Soloveitchik said the following, very interesting. רבי סולובייצ'יק Rabbi Soloveitchik relates, it's really, it's further on what I wanted to talk about, but the Torah has a prohibition regarding the גברא gavra and the חפצא cheftza. A very brisker way of looking. The Jewish relationship to the land is a law in the land and it's a law in the Jew. There's two laws. There's a גברא gavra law and there's a חפצא cheftza law. There's a prohibition of תשובו איש אל אחוזתו tashuvu ish el achuzaso, each person returns to their ancestral heritage. That's a law regarding the person, and there's the law of והארץ לא תמכר לצמיתות v'ha'aretz lo simaker l'tzmisus, which we didn't get to, which is the prohibition of selling land in perpetuity, so that you realize that the land ultimately only belongs to God. That's a דין din in the land. Maybe we'll do this next year. There's a דין din in the חפצא cheftza, דין din in the גברא gavra. There's a law in the person regarding the land and there's a law in the land itself proper. But I didn't get to, but I'll leave you to think about for next year, please God, is what happens to the person who says, \"What are we going to eat in the seventh year?\" וכי תאמרו מה נאכל בשנה השביעית V'chi somru ma nochal bashana hashvi'is. It's not like today where you say, well you have savings, I have a 401k, I have uh, Roth IRA, I got a big freezer, I've got whatever, I got my in-laws. It's today you can't say, today whatever the plan is that people have. In those days you didn't have that planned. You literally you ate what you killed, you ate what you grew, you harvested. So the Torah says an entire year you're taking off, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? So it's very interesting to see the different מפרשים meforshim, כי תאמרו ki somru. Who, who's asking this question? Is it a legitimate question to ask? Is it only a person who lacks faith who asks? There's a beautiful נצי\"ב Netziv on this. Who's asking this question וכי תאמרו v'chi somru? When you will ask, what are we going to eat in the seventh year? And then the Torah makes a promise, don't worry. In the sixth year you'll grow enough for the sixth year, the seventh year and the eighth year. But before you get to the Torah's promise, who's asking the question? Is it a legitimate question, a fair question to ask? Or only a person who lacks faith who asks it? It's a very interesting question. We'll get to that please God next year.
