Chasidut su Levitico 25:78

Here is what Maimonides writes, in his Introduction to the [mishnaic] Order of Zeraim: “Know that each commandment which God gave to Moses was given to him with its explanation. He would articulate first the commandment itself followed by its explanations and commentary and all else. They would write down the commandments and study its explanations orally [literally, Kabbalah, that is, the received explanations]. So too did our rabbis teach: “And God spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, saying…so too the principles and details of all the commandments are from Sinai.” ²⁵⁶See the Midrash Sifra to Leviticus 25:1. For example, God told Moses “and you shall dwell in booths for seven days.”²⁵⁷Leviticus 23: 42-43. Afterwards He informed him that this obligation is incumbent upon males but not females, that the ill are exempt as are travelers, and that the roofing must be made from plants, and He informed him that eating and drinking and sleeping must be done within it, and that its height must be at least ten handbreadths from the ground, etc.. So too with regards to all six hundred and thirteen commandments, with the commandments themselves written and their explanations transmitted orally. Nonetheless, though these explanations are all received and there is no disagreement about them, we are able to use the wisdom of the Torah granted us to derive these explanations through reasoning and exegesis and proofs and hints contained in the Bible. When we see sages in the Talmud disagreeing in their analyses and bringing a proof for one of these explanations, such as when the verse refers to a ‘fruit of the beautiful tree,’²⁵⁸Ibid verse 40. that perhaps it refers to a pomegranate etc. Until they proffer the proof of “a tree whose wood and fruit taste the same,” and “a tree whose fruit remain on it from year to year”²⁵⁹See Talmud Sukkah 35a.—these proofs were not brought because they were actually confused, for we have seen without doubt from Joshua onwards that they always used the etrog in the lulav bundle. These sages were merely establishing a hint in the verse for the accepted explanation.”

Leviticus 25,2. “the land shall rest, a ‘Sabbath’ for the ‎Lord.” In order to understand the meaning of the line “the ‎land will rest for G’d,” we must refer to Exodus 31,13 ‎ואתה דבר אל ‏בני ישראל ....את שבתותי תשמורו‎ “as for you, tell the Children of ‎Israel to observe My Sabbath days, etc.‎‏"‏‎
According to the ‎writings of the Ari z’al, in the Tur, 242 on hilchot ‎Shabbat we find the following: [not in my edition, ‎Ed.] “while in Egypt, Moses argued with Pharaoh, ‎suggesting that if he wanted to increase the productivity of the ‎Jewish slaves he should allow them one day of rest each week, this ‎day to be the Sabbath.” [It is not clear if Pharaoh accepted ‎the suggestion. Ed.]‎
When the Torah commanded the Jewish people to rest on the ‎Sabbath, Moses felt happy for having been the one who had ‎already suggested this while he was in Egypt. He considered ‎himself as having had a share in this legislation. [Probably ‎this is meant when we say in our Sabbath prayers in the morning ‎ישמח משה במתנת חלקו‎, “Moses may rejoice having received his ‎share (of the Sabbath).”Ed.]‎
This is the reason why the Torah writes: ‎אתה דבר...את שבתתתי ‏תשמרו‎, “you tell the Children of Israel you are to observe My ‎Sabbath days.” The Jewish people were to appreciate that the ‎Sabbath rest, even though they may have enjoyed it in Egypt, ‎was not to be a physical rest from the labours of the week, but ‎was something decreed by G’d, to bring them closer to Him. ‎Seeing that it had been Moses who was responsible for their relief ‎on that day in Egypt, it had to be he who told them that the ‎Sabbath now assumed an entirely different dimension.‎
A similar, non-terrestrial dimension also underlies the ‎legislation of the sh’mittah year introduced in our chapter. ‎The land does not have to rest for reasons of being “tired.” The ‎land which had served man during the preceding six years, having ‎been at man’s disposal, will take out a year and revert to being at ‎G’d’s disposal, so to speak.‎

Regarding the verse (Vayikra 25:55) “The Children of Israel are servants to Me; they are my servants…” My claim came before [any other claim]. This is still true today, for according to the level at which one accepts the yoke of Heaven, enslavement to governments is removed, as our sages have taught (Avot 3:5), “One who accepts the yoke of Torah, has the yoke of government removed.” There are also roles of servant and child… [The roles of servant and child] parallel the aspects of Torah and commandments, for one who engages in Torah [as a child of G-d] is free. (Avot 6:2) However, everyone must accept the yoke of Heaven and of commandments upon themselves [as a servant]. This is the meaning of the verse, “They are My servants”, as it is written “Israel, in whom I am glorified.” (Isaiah 49:3) It is glorious for G-d when Israel accepts servitude to Him, despite being His children. It is not only praise of Israel, but it is also true testimony to the Creator… There are always levels of servant and child, servant and child, in that the greater one’s grasp of the secrets of the King [as G-d’s child], the more one lowers one’s self to accept the yoke of Heaven as a servant. Consequently, one merits to see and grasp, as a child, and then one returns to being a servant… In Nisan, we become free and receive the yoke of Heaven. All the days of the Sefirah, we are like servants, doing His will, until we achieve seven complete weeks, which is the oath we swore and in which we have stood since Mount Sinai. We then merit on Shavuot to receive the Torah, like children who search through the vaults of the king. However, we then return to being servants, which is Sukkot, when we return and repent on Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, and accept the yoke of Heaven anew, which is the glory mentioned above, as the Holy One finds glory in them…Similarly, daily, one accepts the yoke of Heaven [as a servant] in the morning and thereby merits Torah [as a child] according to his level. And at night, one returns to accept the yoke of Heaven. And the level of the “second servant” is greater, as can be understood.

And you shall sanctify the fiftieth year, proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants, it shall be a Jubilee for you; each of you shall return to his ancestral lands and every man will return to his family (Lev. 25:10).

What is the meaning of the name Yovel? Rashi suggests that this name refers to the fact that the year’s special laws are set in motion through blowing the ram’s horn. Nachmanides however offers a different expla- nation, “In my opinion, Scripture does not call the year Yovel because of the blowing [of the horn], but with reference to ‘the liberty’ [that it brings the inhabitants of the land].” Nachmanides then quotes many sources for his contention that Yovel means “to bring.” He closes his argument by stating, “By the way of truth [we learn]... Yovel means that every being will return [be brought back] to the source [yoveil] where his roots lie.”³²¹Nachmanides, commentary on Lev. 25:10.

Spiritual concepts appear in the dimension of time, person, and place.³²⁴See further Lesson Two. In time, Yovel is the fiftieth year. The place of Yovel is Bethlehem. In Hebrew, this is Beis Lechem Yehudah, whose first three letters are the same as the word Yovel.³²⁵The roshei teivos of Beis Lechem Yehudah (י''בל) are the same as Yovel (יבל) spelled without the vav (ו). It is spelled without the vav in Lev. 25:54. Bethlehem is famous for its role in the book of Ruth.

Rashi explains that G’d took the Jewish people out of ‎Egypt in order for them to inherit it by arriving there. Their ‎arrival in the land constitutes their achieving their objective, ‎שלימות‎, much as the branches of the tree producing fruit achieve ‎their objective. In Leviticus 25,38 we read: ‎הוצאתי אתכם מארץ מצרים ‏לתת לכם את ארץ כנען להיות לכם לאלוקים‎, “I have taken you out of the ‎land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan to become your ‎G’d.” According to our author, Rashi explains the words ‎לתת לכם‎, as “in order for you to achieve your ‎שלימות‎, maturity ‎there by performing My commandments.” According to Baba ‎Batra 158 the very air of the Holy Land confers wisdom on its ‎people. The reason why even walking in the Holy Land [by ‎Israelites, of course, Ed.] adds to one’s wisdom is illustrated by an ‎example of Rabbi Zeyrah who left Babylon in order to settle in the ‎Holy Land again, changed his mind on a Halachic point ‎involving the laws of inheritance, accepting the view of a local ‎scholar, whereas a sage who moved from the land of Israel, ‎adopted the former view of Rabbi Zeyrah when he came to ‎Babylon.
Since the generation who left Egypt as adults did not ‎get to the land of Israel, only their sons, it follows that the ‎parents did not achieve their ‎שלימות‎, “maturity” until their sons ‎had made the Land of Israel their ancestral heritage. This is the ‎meaning of “the dead inherited the living.”
This statement in ‎the Talmud about the dead inheriting the living, also explains ‎another statement in the Talmud Sanhedrin 104, according ‎to which a son [while alive Ed.] can confer spiritual merits on his ‎‎[deceased] father, whereas his deceased father cannot confer ‎merits on his surviving son. The Talmud bases this on the ‎example of the second generation of the Israelites bestowing ‎merits on their fathers after they carried out the task set by G’d ‎for this people of settling in the Holy land and observing the ‎Torah there. Avraham after his death, or Yitzchok, after his ‎death, could not confer merits on their respective sons that these ‎had not acquired during their respective lifetimes.