Crises of Faith for Only the Farmer?

R. Yaakov Bieler

Parshat Behar, 5765

Individuals experiencing moments of doubt concerning their religious beliefs to the extent that they give voice to these fears and uncertainties populate a significant number of anecdotes found in the Bible.[1] Such ruminations, however, are virtually absent in the portions of the Tora devoted to Halacha. Consequently, it is quite remarkable to encounter the following articulated lack of faith in the middle of a discussion of the Mitzva of “Shmitta” (the Sabbatical year) in Parshat Behar:

Vayikra 25:20

And if you shall say:[2] What will we eat during the seventh year? Behold we cannot sow (new plants) nor harvest[3] (that which will grow by itself without cultivation)!

The individual quoted in this verse is wondering how the Commandment in VaYikra 25:4-6[4] can realistically be fulfilled. By his/her reckoning, the cultivated food produced during the sixth year of the Sabbatical year cycle, will hardly be sufficient to satisfy his/her needs and those of his/her family during the sixth, seventh and eighth years.[5] And as for the subsequent verses that appear to be designed to specifically allay such a fear,

          Ibid., 21-22

          And I will Command My Blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat of old food until the ninth year, until its (the eighth year’s) produce is ready you shall eat from the food from the previous harvest

the principle “Ein Somchin Al HaNes” (one should not depend upon the performance of a miracle) would seem to countermand absolute reliance on something that cannot be empirically verified, even after an explicit Divine Promise.

MaLBIM appears to intensify the challenge of understanding this verse when he draws a distinction between the adverb “Ki” (when) and the conjunction “Im” (if). Whereas according to this commentator, the latter word “Im” suggests merely a possible future scenario, the former “Ki” implies that what follows is inevitable.[6] And since VaYikra 25:20 begins, “VeCHI Tomru Mah Nochal BaShana HaShevi’it…”, MaLBIM contends that HaShem’s Certainty regarding this question being posed by Jews living in Israel in the future results from His being all too well Acquainted with human nature in general, and the propensities of the Jewish people in particular. It appears that the implication of MaLBIM’s assertion that not only isolated individuals possessing relatively weak faith in HaShem, but rather EVERYONE will be asking this question at one point or another. Is “Shmitta” then to be viewed as representative of an entire class of Mitzvot that in order to fulfill them require universal delayed gratification and sacrifice accompanied by great personal trepidation on the part of the entire Jewish people?[7] Are the Mitzvot of the Tora to be understood, at least in part, as constituting tests of human faith in HaShem’s Ability to Provide for his people and Compensate them for any hardship and personal deprivation that they may endure for the sake of their religion?

A Commandment that in many ways closely parallels the challenges to faith posed by the observance of “Shmitta”, and that has to be fulfilled several times each year, is the need to journey to Yerushalayim for Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot (Shemot 23:17; 34:23; Devarim 16:16)

e.g., 34:23

Three times per year all of your men should appear before the Face of the Master, HaShem, God of Israel.

Although in the instance of “Aliya LeRegel” (going up [to Yerushalayim] as a pilgrim), the individual who is commanded does not articulate his objection, it can be readily inferred from the subsequent verse:

          34:24

When I will Cause you to inherit nations from before you, and I   will Expand your borders, NO MAN WILL COVET YOUR LAND, when you go up to see the Face of HaShem your God three times each year.

Wouldn’t it be quite normal for an individual to fear that while away for a prolonged period,[8] others might be tempted to come and wreak havoc with his possessions? R. Eliemelch Bar Shaul[9] points out that the obligation to fulfill this particular Commandment applies exclusively to landholders, suggesting that while spending Yom Tov in the presence of the Temple along with all of its pomp and circumstance, was obviously a very spiritual experience, the actual fulfillment of the Commandment had to be fraught with considerable insecurity and concern—another test of faith. “Aliya LeRegel” is not so much about whether there will be ENOUGH food for the future, but rather whether there will be ANYTHING at all to eat, should thievery and/or vandalism occur while one’s home and farm remained unguarded.

On further reflection, one comes to realize that on an existential level not just the Mitzva of “Shmitta”, but the entire agricultural enterprise in the land of Israel is in effect a long series of tests of faith. The Tora draws a clear distinction between the lands of Egypt and Israel, not only in terms of the religious practices and morality of the respective cultures,[10] but also with respect to the manner in which crops are normally grown in the two locales.

Devarim 11:10-11

Because the land that you are coming there to inherit,

is not like the land of Egypt, from which you went out,

where you sow your seeds and water by foot (you carry the water from the Nile to the fields which you desire to irrigate), like a green garden.

The land that you are crossing (the Jordan river) there to inherit

is a land of mountains and valleys,

by means of the rain from the heavens it drinks water.

RaShI and RaShBaM emphasize positive and negative aspects of depending upon rain rather than upon the Nile as a source for irrigation.

          RaShI

…In Egypt, you had to be disturbed from your sleep in order to work;

only the lower areas would be naturally watered as opposed to the higher elevations, and you would therefore have to physically carry the water from the lower to the higher places;

But in this case (the land of Israel)… you can stay asleep in your bed,

and the Holy One, Blessed be He, Waters both the lower and higher places (by means of rain),

that which is exposed (and therefore accessible to man) and that which is not,

simultaneously.

RaShBaM

…You have to observe the Commandments of HaShem,

because this land is better (than Egypt) for those who are observant,

but worse than all of the lands for those who do not observe,

…the land of Egypt, all people, good and evil, as long as they are willing to take the trouble, will be able to water their fields and they will have food to eat,

but as for the land of Israel, only if you observe the Commandments will (v. 12) “the Lord your God seek its welfare constantly; the Eyes of the Lord your God will be upon it from the beginning of the year until the end of the year” to provide you with rain in times of need.[11]

Consequently, just as the Jewish people had to depend upon exceptional productivity of their fields during the sixth year to see them through the three years[12] that would follow,[13] each individual year of the Sabbatical year cycle in terms of itself also carried with it a considerable challenge and therefore cause for insecurity and angst. The farmer would have to ask him/herself annually: Would the Jewish people be Deemed by HaShem sufficiently deserving to earn the requisite amount of rain for their crops to get us through not only the extreme scenario of the sixth, seventh and eighth year combination, but also the first, second, third, fourth and fifth years, independent of one another?

The lesson of the profound tentativeness of one’s food supply and the extent to which it would be controlled by HaShem in accordance with whether the people were judged deserving, is initially impressed upon the Jewish people with regard to the Manna that they consumed in the desert soon after the Exodus from Egypt. Klee Yakar, in order to try to explain why the Jews appeared to be extremely concerned already in the sixth year of the Sabbatical year cycle, references the description of the people’s experience with the Manna, as summarized by Moshe in Sefer Devarim.

8:3

And He Humbled you, and Caused you to be hungry, and Fed you Manna, with which you were unfamiliar, neither had your fathers experienced it before, in order that He could Make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but rather by every Word that issues from the Mouth of the Lord does man live.

Klee Yakar wonders: if Manna fell every day, why did the Jews experience hunger?

He responds: Since they were constantly unsure about whether there would be additional Manna the next day, however much they ate today was undercut by their continual insecurity regarding their food supply. Consequently, they experienced psychological starvation, even if physiologically their needs were being more than met. That hunger was apparently designed to motivate the Jews, via either positive or negative reinforcement, to comply with the Commandments of the Tora. Shemot 16:4 states quite unambiguously: “…Behold I will Cause to rain down upon you bread from the heavens, and the people will go out daily to gather it so that I can Test them whether they will walk in accordance with My Tora or not.” RaShBaM, paralleling his comment on Devarim 11:10, understands the Divine Test inherent within the Manna experience as designed to train the people to adhere to not only the specific rules governing the Manna, e.g., don’t try to horde it from day to day,[14] don’t go out on Shabbat in order to try to find extra portions,[15] etc., but to instill a sense of the importance of complying with all Mitzvot called for in the Tora. Through the manner in which the Manna is delivered and distributed, the individual Jew is called upon to recognize that if s/he will depend to such an extreme degree upon HaShem for food, it would be extremely prudent to carry out God’s Will in all areas possible.

And as for the issue of “Ein Somchin Al HaNes”, perhaps a distinction must be drawn between an individual undertaking a course of action that is inherently more dangerous than ordinary day-to-day existence, e.g., volunteering to fight in an optional war, undergoing elective surgery, driving during an ice storm, etc., and the realities of the human condition. We tend to deny, perhaps in order to not become overly paralyzed with fear, that everyday life is fundamentally uncertain and that we are in far less control of our circumstances than we would like to think we are. Which brings us to Commandments like “Shmitta” and “Aliya LeRegel”: Because of our constant sense of physical and economic insecurity, as noted by Klee Yakar, some of us think that we never can devote significant time to devoting ourselves to the development of our souls. Could these types of Commandments, as well as the need for Shabbat observance and generously supporting various religious institutions be designed to remind us that our OWN PHYSICAL needs are not all to which we need to devote time and energy; our SPIRITUAL needs are also of great importance. To live a total Jewish life, success with regard to “PARNASA” (financial concerns), which we are taught to believe is so much in God’s Hands, becomes a function of not only how skilled and innovative we are and how hard and long we work, but also how spiritually engaged and deeply believing we manage to be.

Finally, should a contemporary Jew be tempted to dismiss the theme of direct extreme dependency upon God for physical sustenance as applicable to only the generation of the Exodus from Egypt and/or those working the land in Israel proper, s/he should keep in mind as much as possible the dictum of Pesachim 116b which is quoted in the Pesach Haggada: “A person is obligated to view him/herself as if s/he has left Egypt.” While a simple reading of this principle would suggest an extremely limited application to Pesach night when one consumes Matza, Maror, drinks four cups of wine and recounts the Exodus, thereby vicariously experiencing the transition from servitude to freedom, it is possible that it is religiously significant to maintain such a mindset throughout the year. A support for such an assertion could be supplied by the great number of references made to the Egyptian Exodus not only during Pesach, but daily, within contexts such as the Shema and the various Kiddush prayers for Shabbat and Yom Tov. In addition to remembering “Yetziat Mitzrayim” as indicative of HaShem’s Involvement in the affairs of man and His Omnipotence, the theological lessons associated with the Manna must clearly not be forgotten. Recalling the manner in which Jews were given food by HaShem during their forty years of desert wanderings should enable them to not only face with equanimity the seventh and eighth years of the Shmitta cycle even when the “Heter Mechira” (the legal loophole of “selling the land of Israel” and thereby circumventing the need to allow the land to lie fallow) is not in effect,[16] but also develop a general perspective on the interrelationship between the efforts that they expend in order to achieve personal success and advancement, and the degree to which they should recognize how HaShem has a Hand in just these matters.