[Mazal Tov to Gavriel and Ketriellah (and Adin!) on the birth of a daughter (and sister)] today!]
This week's parasha, "Behar", seems to emphasize the importance of family. We find that, in the 50th or Jubilee year, all of Israel is commanded to leave the place where they have come to dwell in the last fifty years, and to return to their familial plot (seeing as each tribe and each family was given a specific piece of land when Israel was broken up and distributed by Joshua). There is an implicit connection between the Jubilee, the freeing of slaves, the relieving of debts, and the return to family. Within the ins-and-outs of a person's life, a person acquires all sorts of superfluous identity - either by where he lives, who he works with, to whom he is indebted (financially and otherwise) etc. All of these are real, but they are mere expressions of a personality that is engrossed in the world of the day to day. It is therefore important for a person to touch base with that which is essential - that which is not mere expression. Therefore a person returns to his family - not to say that everything is hunky-dory with the family - usually it is not. But in one's family one finds the most basic issues that one has been dealing with since birth, one hears the voices that have been resonating in one's mind for as long as memory exists. And, more often than not, in your family, you can find a good home-cooked meal, and someone who loves you unconditionally. Thus, the mandatory family reunion.
Additionally, we find that, if a person becomes poor or indebted (or bored) in such a way that he sees fit or necessary to sell his piece of familial land, there is an obligation for his family to redeem that land; meaning, to buy it back from the person who bought it. Again, family as an obligation, not as an option.
It's curious that this week's parasha begins with "G-d spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying…" Rashi asks a good question: weren't all the commandments given on Mount Sinai? And he answers: "Just as the laws of the year of fallow (and Jubilee, etc.) were given over as general rules and in their specifics at Sinai, so, too, all of the laws were given over as general rules, and in their specifics, at Sinai" (even though it does not say so specifically).
The Sinai experience was both a general, and a specific experience. The way we were there to receive Torah had a sense of general and specific. All of Israel was present as one entity, as the verse says "And (literally) 'he' camped by the mountain" (referring to all Israel). And Rashi says there, "One nation with one heart." We received the Torah in general, together, as a nation. And we also received it specifically, each person, as the Talmud says, "Two angels came down to each person, each angel to place a crown on each of Israel's heads - one for 'we shall do' and one for 'we shall say.'" (Shabbat 89a)
But there is a special, braided, quality to the way Israel received the Torah separately and together. The Gemara in Sotah 37b as well as Kedushin 70a comments on the expression "kol Yisrael arevin zeh b'zeh"(all of Israel are responsible for one another), that at the moment that each person received the commandments at Sinai, he committed to 603,550 different covenants. That is to say, each person made a covenant with each other person to keep those commandments. The sense of responsibility to family that we are to return to in the Jubilee year is the sense of family that was born at Sinai.
As Shavuot approaches, we find all of these phenomena coming together - the 50th year which is called Jubilee, which is a return to family, is reflected in the 50th day of the omer, which is Shavuot, which is also a return to family - the family of Israel, despite their differences, including all of their squabbles, acting as a family - receiving the Torah together, committing together, taking responsibility for each other. Agreeing to help each other serve G-d.
Though it is essential to do this merely because it is our responsibility, there is an added benefit (which in turn espouses more responsibility). Rebbe Nachman writes in Torah 29 (which was taught on Shavuot) that, through covenant, one is able to raise one's da'at (awareness.) That is to say, with healthy and holy relationships in place, one has the vessels to receive higher levels of Torah. Therefore the degree to which one may receive the Torah anew on Shavuot is directly proportional to how much one is committed to those relationships and the responsibilities they entail. Moses, who was connected deeply to each Jew, was therefore able to reach the highest levels of Torah.
This Shavuot, we will receive the Torah again. And it is deep and powerful, and we will each have the experience that we have. But let us remember that we did, and we can again, receive the Torah together, as a family, supportive of each other with our time and energy and resources to help each other keep one foot at Sinai.
Rav Gavriel Goldfeder
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Rav Gavriel Goldfeder is one of the first semicha recipients of the yeshiva. A graduate of Drew University in Religious Studies, he came to Bat Ayin after stints in other yeshivot and found a spiritual and intellectual home. Here he met his wife, Ketriellah, who was a student in our short-lived Women's Yeshiva. Upon graduation, Gavriel took the position of rabbi of the Aish Kodesh Congregation in Boulder, Colorado and together with Ketriellah and their growing family, they are busy creating (in Gavriel's words), "a community infused with Torah values, passion for learning and prayer, consideration of one another, and action, as well as deep celebration of the joys of life." |