The Jewish Ethic of a Redeemed Economy in the Land of Israel, Part 2
Bein Adam
Le-chavero: Ethics of Interpersonal Conduct
By
Shiur #18: The Jewish Ethic of a Redeemed
Economy
in the Land of Israel, Part 2
Israel, Egypt, the Garden of Eden, and Sodom
We concluded our previous
shiur with Moshes contrasting the terrain of Egypt, whose economy
depended on the hard work of distributing the Niles water throughout the
country, and the Land of Israel, which is sustained by the rain of heaven (Devarim
11:11), requiring less physical work as long as its inhabitants merit rain.
Due to this difference,
the Egyptians were much less conscious of God than individuals living in the
Land of Israel can be. Like Egypt, Sodom of old was situated adjacent to a river
and developed a Godless economy and depraved social norms. These societies stand
in marked distinction to the economy of the Land of Israel, whose dependence
upon heavenly rain facilitates the development of an economy that is aware of
God, devotes itself to Him, and maintains its interpersonal focus.
As we mentioned
previously, the city of Sodom is compared not only to Egypt, but also to the
Garden of God (Bereishit 13:10), i.e. the Garden of Eden. In the Garden
of Eden, man picked fruit without need for work; only after man ate from the
Tree of Knowledge was he cursed to work the ground with difficulty (ibid.
3:1719). A number of commentators opine that when Adam was initially commanded
to tend to and protect the garden (Bereishit 2:15), the intent was only
that he occupy himself with spiritual pursuits, through which the garden would
grow. There was to be no need for physical work: the gardens plants would grow
as a response to spiritual efforts.
That was before the
curse. After the curse, man was required to work the field, and was liable to
think that the physical growth of the field was due to his valiant efforts.
Thus, after the Jews witnessed an extreme form of this outlook in Egypt, God
corrected their perspective by subjecting them to its opposite, feeding them
manna, so that their sustenance entailed no physical work.
The manna let the Jews
clearly recognize God as the provider of bread, and allowed them to occupy their
time with spiritual pursuits rather than physical needs. It is no surprise that
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai whom we quoted previously as advising the Jew to spend
all his time studying Torah, while relying on God for his physical needs had a
very positive view of the Jews time in the desert:
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai
says: Interpretation of the Torah was given only to those who eat manna. How so?
One sits and expounds [Torah] and does not know from where his food and drink
will come, or from where his clothing will come. This is [the meaning of the
statement that] interpretation of the Torah was given only those who eat manna,
and second to them are those who eat teruma. (Mekhilta, Vayissa
2)
Rabbi Shimon advises that man focus all his
energies on Torah and rely on God to provide for him in the same manner that He
provided manna. It seems from the excerpt above that this is how the kohanim
lived. They did not own land, but were designated as the teachers and spiritual
voice of the people, and were sustained by the teruma that was provided
to them by others.[1]
Notwithstanding the view
of Rabbi Shimon, the Gemara seems to rule otherwise, at least for most people.[2] It prefers the
opposing opinion of Rabbi Yishmael: in order to provide for himself in the Land
of Israel, man must engage in at least a minimum of agriculture.
Rain from Heaven
Rabbi Yishmael surely
was cognizant of the spiritual dangers of working the land, but he realized that
the time for manna from heaven ceased when the Jews entered the Land. An economy
based on bread from heaven (Shemot 16:4) is neither the reality nor the
ideal for the masses settled in the Land of Israel. The experience of the desert
allowed the Jewish people to forge their identity as a people, with all their
needs provided. In the Land of Israel, though, the people would live a natural
existence. Man would work the field. Instead of receiving bread from heaven, he
would recite a blessing over bread from the earth.
This begs the question,
though: How is man to till the ground, get mere sheaves of wheat for his hard
work, proceed to thresh and winnow and knead and bake before any bread appears,
and still remember God in the process?
Moshe provides the answer
in his description of the topography of the Land of Israel:
The land to which you are
passing over to inherit it is a land of mountains and valleys; it drinks water
from the rain of heaven. (Devarim 11:9)
Yes, in the Land of Israel you will work to
obtain bread from the earth, as in Egypt but not in the same way. The
Egyptians worked hard to amass manpower to support an economy that did not see
the divine hand in its activities, enslaving people to work the land as hard as
possible and to distribute water from the Nile River through canals and
irrigation systems. The Land of Israel is different, not because it is fed
heavenly bread, but because it is irrigated with heavenly rain. When there is
natural rainfall, it benefits without any need for excessive work. It drinks
water from the rain of heaven: rain will come from heaven if the people deserve
to receive bread from the ground.
Unlike the manna, which
was rained down (mamtir) from heaven, in the Land of Israel, the bread of
the earth is nourished by rain (matar) from heaven. Man does work
the field, which is a spiritual act in its own right,[3] but he is to
recognize that nothing grows without heavenly intervention. In the Land of
Israel it is clear that even earthly bread comes from God.
Rabbi Yishmael may even
have reasoned that this recognition, far more than the manna, provides for a
deep appreciation of Gods hand in our physical sustenance, positing as it does
a partnership between man and God.
God and Man: Agricultural Partners
Mans responsibility for
bringing rain from heaven was an essential element of Creation. Before any plant
grew in the Garden of Eden,
no shrub of the field was
yet on the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had
not brought rain upon the earth and there was no man to work the ground. (Bereishit
2:5)
Rashi (s.v. ki) comments:
For the Lord God had not
brought rain, and what is the reason he had not brought rain? Because there
was no man to work the ground: there was no one to recognize the goodness of
rainfall. When Adam came and realized that rain is essential for the world, he
prayed for rain, it came down, and the trees and vegetation of the world
sprouted.
The first rain in history resulted from mans
prayers. With this initial experience, man learned that physical growth on Earth
is a product of heavenly grace, to be deserved through spiritual pursuits.
Life in the Land of
Israel is a return to the Garden of Eden. Just as Gods presence was apparent in
the Garden of Eden, it is apparent in the Land a land for which the Lord,
your God, cares: the eyes of the Lord, your God, are always upon it, from the
beginning of the year to the end of the year (Devarim 11:12).
As part of the peoples
natural existence in the Land of Israel, its climate reacts to their spiritual
condition.[4] In the words of
Rashbam (Devarim 11:10): This land is better than all other lands for
those who observe His commandments, and worse than all other lands for those who
do not observe them.
The Mishna (Taanit)
prescribes fast days when rain is lacking in the Land of Israel, because
physical drought is but an expression of Gods hiding His face from His people.
The local weather thus serves as a kind of religious feedback mechanism. With
drought or famine, God can indicate that people must change their ways to avert
a more drastic punishment. Natural existence, fed by heavenly rain, is actually
a prerequisite for healthy spiritual existence in the physical Land.
Faith in Hidden Miracles
In light of this
connection between spiritual and physical existence in the Land, we can
understand why the Gemara (Shabbat 31a) views the agricultural section of
the Mishna (Seder Zeraim) as epitomized by faith:
Reish Lakish said: What
is the meaning
of
that which is written, The faith [emunat]
of your times shall be a strength of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;
fear of the Lord is His
treasure (Yeshayahu 33:6)? Faith this
is the section of Zeraim
[5]
The farmer knows that all of mans efforts in
the field are mere attempts at sustenance, in the hope that weather conditions
will not destroy the crop. Only the One who gives life can determine whether
physical crops will grow. Nevertheless, explain the Tosafot (s.v. emunat),
the farmer puts his faith in the One who gives life to the world, and plants.
The superiority of faith
in Gods hidden agricultural miracles over a manna-based existence is further
evident from a key essay of Ramban in his commentary to Shemot (13:16).
Noting that God performed many manifest miracles when bringing the Jews out of
Egypt and through the desert, he explains that such miracles served as proof of
the Creators existence and the truth of the Torah. Nevertheless, God does not
want to prove His existence anew in every generation, and therefore issued
numerous mitzvot requiring man to remember the Exodus and transmit its
memory to his children:
All these [commandments]
are intended to bear witness to the wonders throughout the generations, so that
they will not be forgotten, and so that the heretic will not have any
justification for rejecting the belief in God
Yet manifest miracles are not the ideal, as
they demonstrate Gods existence only at the moment they happen. The overarching
goal is that man forge a relationship with God and constantly recognize Him:
As a result of the great
manifest miracles, one grants the truth of the hidden miracles, which constitute
the foundation of the entire Torah, for no one can have a part in the Torah of
Moshe Rabbeinu without believing that all things and events that befall us are
entirely miraculous, not in any way natural or inevitable, whether public
affairs or individual affairs. (Ramban, ibid.)
So it was that the entire period the people
sojourned in the desert and were fed manna, bread from heaven, the goal was that
they one day arrive in the Land of Israel, where they would eat natural bread,
yet recite the blessing recognizing God as Him who brings forth bread from the
earth through the hidden miracle of rain from heaven. The Land of Israel
blooms (see
Shiur 15) in response to the actions of
the people; it is the perfect setting for an economy permeated with the
recognition of Gods hidden hand in every facet of human existence.
This is the backdrop a
Jewish interpersonal paradise that stands in stark contrast to the Sodomite
ethic. Unlike that Godless society, Jewish society must be premised on the
unification of the people as a single nation, expressed through the mutual
responsibility[6]
that the Jews accepted upon entering the Land, in the covenant at Mount Gerizim
and Mount Eival.
Because of the intimate
connection between Jewish peoplehood and Jewish agriculture, a number of
agricultural mitzvot are applicable only when the majority of the Jewish
people reside in the Land of Israel. As long as the link between nationhood and
agriculture is a healthy one, the field owner provides for those who lack, and
the pursuit of wealth can never descend to survival of the fittest.
Holiness: Sanctifying the Physical World
On the Shabbat before a
new month, we pray for a physically and spiritually successful life: life in
which there are love of Torah
fear of Heaven
fear of sin. This is the life
of the Land of Israel: a life of holiness,[7] which entails not
escape from the physical world, but sanctification of it, living in and
beautifying the physical world while remaining committed and connected to the
ideals of the Jewish people. It is a life of working in the field while ones
assets and attitude remain oriented toward heaven: a life full of mitzvot.
The agricultural
mitzvot of the Land of Israel allows us to maintain this perspective. A
farmer who sacrifices bikkurim, first fruits (Devarim 26), is
required to recite a declaration tracing the historical background of his crops.
He recalls Gods promise to the Patriarchs that their descendants would inherit
the Land of Israel, remembers the exodus from Egypt, and recognizes God as the
One who has given the Jews their land and their crops.
Providing terumot
and maasrot from ones produce to feed the kohen, the Levi,
and the poor allows one always to provide for others with his financial
gains.
The charitable gifts of
leket and peah are not handouts to the poor (see
shiur 12), but the reservation of a part
of ones field for the poor, as if they are its true owners.
Yet the ultimate act of
charity and ultimate recognition of the limits on ones ownership come with the
sabbatical (shemitta) year. Every seventh year, man must waive ownership
of his fields, declaring all that grows to be ownerless and allowing all to
partake of his now-ownerless fruit.
An Israeli farmer who had
spent years cultivating expensive, exotic fruit trees once described to me the
amount of inner strength necessary to watch teenagers come during the sabbatical
year and take fruits from his trees without even realizing what had gone into
planting them. Those who observe the mitzva of the sabbatical year are with good
reason described by our Sages with the verse, You mighty in strength who
fulfill His word, hearkening to the voice of His word (Tehillim 103:20).
This strength of
character brings with it an appreciation of Gods involvement with the land, and
of who is the true owner of the field. Providing for others from ones own field
helps one develop a giving personality. The feeling of lacking true ownership is
then taken to yet another level when all land returns to its initial owner in
the jubilee year (yovel).
The sabbatical year,
significantly, is a time when an agriculturist can dedicate himself to the study
of Torah. If, as Rav Soloveitchik noted, Shabbat is an essential part of the
Jewish economic ethic (see
previous
shiur), then so is the sabbatical year. During this year, man almost
reaches the point of being sustained by manna:
Then I will command My blessing
upon you in the sixth year, and [the land] shall bring forth produce for the
three years (Vayikra 25:21).
Rav Yaakov Moshe Charlop
goes one step further, describing the growth of crops during the sabbatical year
as equivalent to plants growth in the Garden of Eden. Both, he notes, come
forth without need to work the land.
The dedication of the
sabbatical year to the agriculturists spiritual rejuvenation and refocusing is
apparent on Sukkot of the following year, on which the mitzva of hakhel
is performed. During this ceremony, the people gather at the Beit Ha-mikdash
and listen as the king reads the book of Devarim in an event that
partially recreates the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.[8]
Due to the difficulty of
maintaining a healthy perspective, spiritual renewal cannot be limited to every
seventh year. Therefore, explains the Sefer Ha-chinukh (mitzva 360), the
yearly tithe of kosher domestic animals is brought to Jerusalem, where it is
eaten by the owner after the blood and fat have been offered on the altar:
This precept is causally
rooted in that God, blessed is He, chose the people of Israel and desired, for
the sake of making them righteous, that they be those who occupy themselves with
His Torah and know His name. So in His wisdom He brought them close with this
mitzva, that they might learn and accept moral teaching. For God knows that most
people are drawn after the inferior, lowly physical element, being also flesh
(Bereishit 6:3), and do not devote their spirit to toiling in the Torah
and being constantly occupied with it. Therefore, with His understanding, He
arranged matters so as to give them a location where all would know the words of
His Torah under all circumstances
every man would take up
the tithe of all his flocks to
Jerusalem, where the Sanhedrin [supreme
scholarly court] was
and would likewise take up the tithe of our crops in four
years of the seven-year cycle[9]
and eat his
fruit there: either the owner of the stock would go there himself to study
Torah, or he would send one of his sons there, so that he would study there and
be sustained by that produce.
As a result, in every
single Israelites house there would be a wise man versed in the Torah, who with
his wisdom would teach his entire family, and thus the land shall be full of
knowledge of the Lord (Yeshayahu 11:9)
and with a knowledgeable
individual in every household
always educating [the entire family]
they
would merit to attain what is written, Then I shall set my Tabernacle among you
and I shall be your God, and you shall be My people. (Vayikra 26:1112)
As the Sefer Ha-chinukh shows,
benefitting from the physical bounty of the Land of Israel is associated with
the Torah and spirituality, which spread from Jerusalem into every home in the
Land. The more successful ones business endeavors, the more one will have to
bring to Jerusalem to reconnect with the spiritual core of the nation.
Outside the Land
In the Land of Israel,
everything from the terrain to the agricultural mitzvot is designed so as
to assist a person who wants to build a redeemed economy. Although many
agricultural mitzvot do not apply outside the Land, the same economic
principles must apply even to those involved in business and acquisition outside
the Land: the economic model of the Land of Israel serves as the ethical ideal
even for those whose bread is not brought forth by rain from heaven. Even where
agricultural mitzvot do not apply, their message should be expressed in
business endeavors in every way possible.
In order to maintain a
redeemed economy, we must ensure that we remain conscious of God, and develop a
society that cares for the weak and needy. We must ensure that our Shabbat is a
time of spiritual renewal, and focus on the fact that it is God who delivers His
bounty to those engaged in physical work. Reciting blessings that recognize God
as the source of our food, subordinating our wealth to a higher purpose, and
finding opportunities for spiritual renewal help us to maintain the Jewish
economic ethic, wherever we reside.
The sabbatical year
symbolizes this concept. Although the agricultural aspects of the year apply
only in the Land of Israel, release of loans (shemittat kesafim) applies
throughout the world. At the conclusion of the year, all unpaid loans are
released, and while it is proper that one who owes money repay it, he cannot be
required to do so. In essence, this mitzva creates a bankruptcy option for those
who are insolvent. The Torah nevertheless goes so far as to require that one
continue to lend money to the needy even as the sabbatical year approaches, and
not fear that loans will not be returned.
Because the Jewish ethic
of a redeemed economy applies everywhere, the entire world needs a sabbatical
year. Release of loans not only is a mitzva, but teaches us the proper attitude
towards lending, charity, and interaction with employees and clients.
In the next lesson we
will discuss the Jewish concept of tzedaka, which is above and beyond
mere charity. Afterward, we will return to Chapter 19 of Vayikra to
discuss the various economic mitzvot discussed there as a means of
sanctifying our lives, wherever we live.
[1] See also Rambam, Hilkhot Shemitta Ve-yovel, Chapter 13.
[2] See Beiur Halakha 156, s.v. sofa.
[3] See the comments by Chatam Sofer cited in last weeks shiur regarding
the place of agriculture within the mitzva of settling the Land.
[4] See Ramban on Vayikra 18.
[5] The Gemara proceeds to associate each of the remaining orders of the Mishna
with a different element of the verse, but these are beyond the scope this
discussion.
[6]
On mutual responsibility (areivut), see year 2, Shiur 20.
[8] See Devarim 31:10ff. and Rambam, Hilkhot Chagiga, Chapter 2.
[9] I.e. years 1, 2, 4, and 5. In years
3 and 6, a tithe is given to the poor.
In the sabbatical year there are no tithes.
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