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BEGIN WITH A GRIN

Superfluous questions waiters ask at restaurants:

“Just the two of you?” – No, we’re thirty. There are twenty-eight invisible diners behind us.

“Would you like to sit?” – No thank you. We sat at home. We’ll eat standing in the yard.

“Would you like to order?” – No. We’ll sit here for two hours, watch people eat, and then go home.

WHERE’S THE FOOD?

The Jewish obsession with food is familiar to all of us. Israelis are very connected to food, and so are our brothers living in the diaspora. Shabbos, holidays, and special occasions are always connected, in one way or another, to a hearty meal. In fact, even the days on which we fast begin and end with… food, food, food!

This week we read parshas Behar which begins with the laws of Shemita and the prohibition against working the land during that year. The Torah then teaches us about the Yovel. Once every fifty years, following a cycle of seven Shemita years, comes a year in which (in addition to the prohibition on working the land, as in Shemita) all financial debts between people are canceled, sold lands return to their original owners, and even slaves are freed.

The Yovel year, which comes immediately after the seventh Shemita year in the cycle, creates a situation in which we are forbidden from working the land for two consecutive years. It is forbidden to plow, sow, hoe, or till any part of Eretz Yisrael. And if we don’t work, don’t sow, and don’t harvest… then there is nothing to eat!

How are we supposed to survive for a year (or two years!) without food? What does the Torah expect of a Jew who is hungry for bread?!

Most surprisingly, the Torah itself asks this question: “And if you shall say: What shall we eat in the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our produce” (Vayikra 25:20). The answer is not long in coming…

“Then I will command My blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth produce for three years” (ibid., 21). Don’t worry, the Torah promises – by virtue of observing the mitzvos of Shemita and Yovel, by virtue of the pure faith of each and every one of us in that which is “above nature,” in the infinite power of the Creator to sustain and provide for us even without sowing and harvesting – G-d will bless the produce of the land in the sixth year, so that everyone will have enough food for three years, until the time of the harvest following Yovel year!

The simple question that arises from reading these verses is: why did the Torah wait until now? The question “What shall we eat in the seventh year?” seemingly arises immediately after we learn about the laws of Shemita – so why does the Torah wait with this good news about G-d’s blessing until after the commandment regarding the Yovel year?

Some commentators (the Ibn Ezra, the Ramban, and others) explain simply that only after Yovel, which causes a two-year stretch in which it is impossible to work the land, does the question arise in its full force – and therefore only then does the Torah need to tell us about G-d’s blessing. A convincing answer – but according to Rashi, this answer is not acceptable. Rashi explains that this verse (“Then I will command My blessing upon you”) was said regarding all Shemita years, not only in connection with the year following the Yovel. So the question returns: according to Rashi, why did the Torah wait with the good news until now?

WHY ARE WE TALKING ABOUT FOOD?

In a wonderful sicha (Likutei Sichos vol. 27 Behar, sicha 2), the Rebbe offers a new depth in the Torah’s hints. There are two types of people, and they ask two types of questions. There is the “wicked son” (remember him from the Seder?) who needs to be convinced to observe the commandments, because he is genuinely not interested. One must prove to him that the Torah is true and that G-d watches over each of His creatures with Divine providence, because otherwise he simply does not believe. In contrast, there is a different type of son – the “wise son” – who is ready and willing at every moment to do G-d’s will, but by virtue of being a “wise son,” he seeks and wants to understand exactly what he is doing and why.

The question “What shall we eat” is not a heretical question, nor does it indicate rebellion against G-d. It is a deep question about the nature of the reward for observing the Shemita.

If the Torah had written this question immediately after the commandment of Shemita, we would have thought it came from someone looking to avoid fulfilling the mitzva – a rebellious question, casting doubt and fear on our ability to fulfill the commandment. It would be the question of the “wicked son,” seeking to find fault with the Torah and its commandments. In order to dispel that assumption, and to teach us that this question is positive and appropriate – that it comes from a believing person, the “wise son,” who is ready to serve G-d wholeheartedly – the Torah chooses to delay the question, hinting that it comes from someone who is already fulfilling the Shemita and simply seeks to understand a thing or two.

That is why the Torah waited with this question until now, until after the commandment of Yovel, until after G-d’s blessings and promises: “And the land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill” – in order to clarify that this is not a question born of lack of faith or unwillingness to observe the commandments, but quite the opposite: it is the question of a wise person who wants to understand how and in what way the blessing will come.

Hashem’s blessing can come in a number of ways. He can arrange for a small amount of food to satisfy us for a long time; He can “send” us produce from distant lands; or He can even give us manna – bread from heaven, as He did in the desert. So how will the blessing come? How will G-d help us this time? Where will it come from? When and how?

This is the wise son’s question! He has no doubt that “G-d helps and will help” – he only wants to know how.

And to this the Torah responds: in the sixth year, the earth will produce an abundant yield sufficient for three years.

This explanation also reflects a deep message in our divine service, a message very relevant to the Geula. The Shemita reflects the spiritual work of bittul ha’yesh – self-nullification. The servant nullifies his own ego and accepts the yoke of Heaven with love. So why does he ask questions?

The reason is simple: the blessing G-d promises us is not merely above nature – it is not merely beyond logic, but actually the opposite of logic entirely! Logically, the soil weakens every single year, and after six consecutive years of work, it needs to rest (like all of us…). This is the simple reason for the commandment of Shemita, as the Rambam explains (Guide for the Perplexed 3:39): “So that the land will increase its produce and be strengthened by lying fallow.” And specifically now, after six years – when the soil is so depleted – it yields a harvest for three years?!

This is not merely beyond logic – it is the opposite of logic, a miracle with no foothold in nature! And therefore “here the son asks,” because even after all the explanations, all the justifications, and all the interpretations, the matter still cannot be grasped by the human mind – because it is a true miracle!

FILL UP ON SOUL FOOD

Our Sages taught us that the Shemita year symbolizes the coming of the Geula and the Messianic era. Just as the Torah commands us to work for six years, after which the Shemita year arrives, so too the entire world is expected to function in its current form for no more than six thousand years, after which the seventh millennium will come, which is eternal redemption.

According to this, it turns out that today, in the sixth millennium of creation, we are in the “sixth year,” the very year in which the Jewish people asks “What shall we eat?” What is the meaning of this question in relation to the coming of Moshiach and the Geula? What “troubles” us so much about the “Shemita year,” the arrival of the Geula, that requires us to turn to G-d in wonder?

Many of us have a genuine difficulty with the intense focus on topics of Moshiach and Geula. We struggle to internalize and accept the fact that our generation – this very generation – is the generation of the Geula. “How is it possible that specifically our generation, with all its shortcomings, will bring the Geula?” we hear ourselves asking.

If the Geula depends on the work of the Jewish people during exile, isn’t it more logical that it would come in a different, more elevated generation?!

Don’t worry, you are not the only ones asking this question…

This is precisely the question hinted at in the language of the verse: “What shall we eat in the seventh year?” – from where do we have the strength (= food) to bring the Geula (= the seventh year)?!

But the Rebbe promised, and G-d will fulfill it! “Then I will command My blessing upon you in the sixth year.” If a Jew dedicates himself wholeheartedly to the work assigned to him “in the sixth year,” in the time of exile, with self-sacrifice and total nullification beyond reason and understanding, with faith, with complete trust in the Rebbe’s words, G-d will give him the strength “for three years” – to bring, draw down, and reveal in the world the true and complete Geula, which is composed of three stages: (a) the Messianic era, (b) the Resurrection of the Dead, and (c) the Seventh Millennium!

All we need is emuna, and then, like the Shemita year, the Geula will come!

TO CONCLUDE WITH A STORY

We’ll end with a story that echoes this theme. Once, the Baal Shem Tov was traveling with one of his disciples until they reached a desert, a place with no water. The disciple, exhausted from the journey, was very thirsty. He turned to the Baal Shem Tov and said: “Rebbe, I am thirsty.”

The Baal Shem Tov replied: “Do you believe that at the very moment G-d created the world, He saw your predicament and prepared water for you to drink?”

The disciple did not rush to answer. After a moment of thought, he replied: “Yes, I believe with complete faith.”

The Baal Shem Tov said: “Wait a moment.”

Shortly afterward, the Rebbe and his disciple encountered a non-Jewish man carrying two full pails of water on his shoulders. They paid him a small coin in exchange for two cups of water and quenched their thirst.

The Baal Shem Tov asked the man: “What brought you to carry water here in the desert?”

The man replied: “My master has gone mad! He sent me to bring him water from a spring very far away, thirteen kilometers! Madness!”

The Baal Shem Tov turned to his disciple and said: “Do you see, my dear son, what is the way of Divine Providence? God created a mad nobleman for you, in order to give you water and all of this He foresaw at the moment He created the world.”

You don’t need to go mad, but a little emuna and bitachon can’t hurt!

Good Shabbos!

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