Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston: Who is the Real Owner of the Land of Israel?

[Music] welcome home to torah yes you are in your we're streaming from yusha lion and we do warmly warmly welcome anyone um who wants to learn torah so here we go we're in chapter 25 of leviticus it's parashat bahar and there's two words in the first sentence that are very unusual you don't see these two words in any other verse like this the words baharsena yes is true it appears many times but not in the verse that says god spoke to moses at har sinai saying the udabir adonoi moshe bahar sinai laymore that's verse 1 of chapter 25 and there's a very famous rashi let's just read the rest of the the verse 2 as well saying speak to the children of israel and you shall say to them when you come to the land i am giving you the land shall rest a sabbath to the lord so we're going to have an issue with these words bihar sinai we need to explain them and what does it mean that the land itself is resting as a shabbat to the lord what does that mean so let's look at rashi he says right away right off the bat the question the famous question that's asked by everybody what special reverence does the subject of shmita which is the release the chamet is like to release to cease to stop okay so you're stopping the work during the seventh year and that's what the parsha begins with so what exactly is the special rebel rep revel revelants relevant sorry relevance what's the relevance to mount sinai were all the commandments coming from harsinai we were there for 40 years in the desert we were there for um let's say just short of a year at the at the mountain itself so the whole torah was given to us however you know it's coming to teach us that just as this parsha will detail so many details about the laws of shemitah and jubilee that just as its general principles for this particular mitzvah and all of the details of this particular mitzvah were given at mount sinai so too this is a lesson that all the torah the entire torah was given at mount sinai now that's all very nice but really how do you learn that in other words it's very nice those two words appear it's very nice that rashi says that but we have to have a better understanding of what it really means that the whole torah was given at mount sinai and what does it mean that it's a sabbath to the lord for the sake of the lord in other words it's for god's sake just as it's said about shabbos you can find that in exodus chapter 20 verse 10 meaning just as every sabbath day is a every seventh day is a holy sabbath a claiming that god himself rested on the seventh day and thus a claiming that god is the supreme creator of all existence likewise man must rest from working the land on the seventh year this is concerning shemitah for the sake of god in other words it's for the sake of god not for the sake of the land not for the sake of the land that it should gain fertility by laying fallout for a year in other words in the world if you ask farmers what do they do they rotate they do crop rotation they do certain things with their field to lay it life fallow so that it will either replenish or somehow the minerals won't be wasted away and it'll be able to to continue to produce okay so it's not for that what does it mean it's not for that what does it mean it's for god so it's very nice we just heard rashi but we will go and we will explore the depths of what this means according to the clear car so let's go let's start and by the way for those who are not familiar this is a very text oriented series we are basing the outline on the clear car so we're basically reading and translating i'm translating and um you know you can write comments in and ask questions of course these are basically the words of rashi what exactly is the concept of shmita what's the relevance to harsinai as some of us would say what does that have to do with the price of tea in china right for those who are familiar with those words so the clear card begins with his famous words that he usually begins with when it is simple he says karov lishmoa it's easy to understand come close and here it's close to here remember the word it means to hear what it means to understand it's close to be understood as the following when moses went up to the mountain after seven weeks because that's exactly what happened we left egypt on the 15th of nisan and we arrived the beginning of nist of sivan and we we received the torah on the 50th day after leaving egypt so it's uh after seven weeks shisapur israel that the jewish people that am israel counted they counted 49 days min pesach from passover until shavuot now this is the important words nitkadesh oz then the mountain became holy nitkadesh o that very mountain that god appeared now that was holy only when god wanted to be holy in other words we don't know where mount sinai is today god didn't want us to know there's no holiness to mount sinai but that very day when god appeared and that time when god had us standing at the mountain for for the several months almost year we were there so then it was holy but guess what on that particular day it was even more sanctified vanessa bisria the harish it was it became forbidden for us to sow or to harvest anything on that particular day which day shabo nitna torah the day that the torah was given [Music] hoshi lakota israel this was a special time this was a unique time that particular time draw drew forth what we're going to call yovel what does yovel mean it means produce it's true it also means plenty also true so there's this let's just say like this jubilee this unbelievable satiety liquor drawer to call out to proclaim draw the roar is freedom khafshi and another type of freedom right liberty lakota israel we actually experience true freedom how through the torah it's the torah itself that grants us and gave us true freedom we were slaves to pharaoh now we are enslaving or is that a word we were subjugated to hashem and listen to these words now i believe i have here in exodus 32 in that verse it says now the tablets were god's work and the inscription was god's inscription the word means inscribed okay so through the inscription with god himself with his so-called whatever it means his finger engraved god himself engraved the tablets and the word haroot which means engraved has another meaning when it's in fact there was a political party in israel called the kherut party that's called the freedom party so it's through the engraving now think about it another way when you take ink and you write on a piece of paper or a parchment you're adding something to the paper okay and the same thing would be by a stone you're adding something to the stone when you engrave you're you're doing something different you're removing something it's true but you're creating borders all as well and it's through this engraving on the stone which god himself created and did and this is a very this is one of the miracles by the way that when you looked at the we'll call them the ten commandments for for the sake of this conversation we're talking about the ten statements okay there's 620 letters you were on one side you look straight through it wasn't like um it wasn't like you had an irregular simple engraving where you could put your fingers on it and feel it right reading braille well i think braille's raised but this was in you know inside but you could see all the way through it and wait when you were on the other side you could see also all the way through it but it was read correctly in other words if you read from right to left you would expect if you went to the other side it would be somehow backwards reading it from left to right but that wasn't the case this was one of the miracles when you saw these 10 commandments these two tablets you knew that this was miraculous look at this rashi the word engraved this is still 32 16 arashi so in kharoot the words kharot or kharot with the tough quartet doesn't matter are one in the same both are an impression of engraving okay so that's what harut means but means freedom so what we just read was that why is this special time of it's not just it was the very day that we received the torah and what else happened there was the cole shofar there was a blowing of the shofar ali they kosher far shall matantara at the time of the revelation so you had this tremendous holiness absolute freedom and the blowing of the chauffeur besides that we saw noise we heard light i mean this was beyond natural senses it's true at that time meaning at the time given the revelation when god spoke to moses and told him all about the torah he told them all the details of shemitah or the whole torah but for sure shemitah okay so that's what we got to so far lomar what is it what is this saying shiba misfar shiva uber taishavar that special number number seven and number forty nine ani no ten god is saying i'm giving kedusha zoo this special holiness le cole eretz israel to the entire land of israel now there are midrashim that explain that this mountain it's called what is it what is it called it's called khara but it has many other names one of the names one of the many names is called is mount moriah where's mount moriah it's right here it's around the corner from where we're at so mount moriah is the temple mount that on a spooky level on a metaphysical level we were transported or tr and there must be another word besides transported it sounds too much like star trek that we were somehow transformed is that a good word i don't know transported somehow another those two places met physically or metaphysically and there's a lot of kadusa and we're talking about as if we were in earth israel even though we were at mount sinai where we saw and experienced the revelation of god it was like we were in their sister at the same time harshinai so we're talking about eric israel at the time of the revelation we had the shofar we had the light and sound show we had this proclamation of freedom now you're getting a little taste of what it means to have every seventh year and every 50th year a special declaration of real true freedom and of course we go the shofar to introduce the year right there's a lot of what's the word um overlaps and similarities so we just got done saying that it mentions that eric israel has a special attribute about the air the atmosphere that it causes wisdom it brings just breathe in the air and you become wise okay this is what it's brought down so too that's what happened at mount sinai we were filled with the wisdom of god on the level that we only hope and pray that we get a taste of it and he brings down in in the medrush there's a concept that says aim torah torah eretz israel there's no comparison to the torah you learn in brooklyn right daniel doesn't or wherever you are um somewhere far rockaway where is it okay or mayor in washington right or tova well she you know she's the nurse israel okay so um there's you cannot compare the torah learned outside of the land maybe in beijing right we have zahava there's no comparison you got to get back to the land or har cena you can't compare the the the you cannot compare the the torah like like eric israel or har sinai they're unique in themselves al kane rui liten gamma ar tzahi kadus har sinai therefore it's actually fitting that hashem would place on the land of israel the exact holiness that was experienced in our senate every 49 years barshiva so too every seven years now when he says oh oh could mean or or in addition to de la south zika harsinai in order to remember the that unbelievable experience of the receiving of the torah of standing by harsinai and there was a proclamation of freedom create drawer it says i'm from philadelphia so i have a little bit of a right there's a there's a liberty bell and yes it was cracked on the first try around and uh there's a pursuit there's a verse in leviticus this is it right here in our chapter 25 where the chauffeur should be blown and liberty should be proclaimed throughout the land to all its inhabitants and here we're saying that this idea is in order to remember as a remembrance to standing harsinai that every 50th year right there's going to be this proclamation and the avara chauffeur and the blowing of the shofar this is in addition to many other reasons for this mitzvah and that's why it says bill harcina because that was the first question we asked what exactly is unique why does this verse usually the verse is viewed moshe lay more god spoke to moses saying over tell tell the jewish people but here you got these two words so we already mentioned this is going to let us know that all the torah every mitzvah with its generalities and its details were told over at mount sinai now i just wanted to mention because i mentioned to the to the people on skype that when we finish this class it's going to be about 40 40 minutes maybe a half hour altogether i have something very interesting about sphera in a book called the olos of frying which is by the clia car but it goes much more in depth so whoever wants to i'm talking to people on the camera look for i don't know the title yet we'll probably call it the slirot omer according to the olos of ryan whatever so look for that okay because it's going to go much much much more in depth so we will continue with the second verse the sahara it's shabbos so we mentioned that this is going to be a land the land is going to rest as a something dedicated to god right a sabbath to the lord so what does that mean so we read the rashi that it's not for the sake of the land okay so let's read the cleocarb zoo yes according to the reason here there are many different opinions kirabi there are many that say shitamu the reason is the real reason is shaktisphota are its kadesha tosif tate coca-lizorea as we mentioned in the introduction that if you lay the land fallow that will add or increase the ability for the minerals to produce really healthy fruit ledea zoo natto haramura the rambam in the martin of ukraine the guide to the reflects leans in that direction the rabbi khalid many disagree with him and they ask some really good questions because if it was about the land lying falu if the torah itself meaning if hashem was at all concerned about the land lying fallow in order for it to be replenished or re you know have more energy that the the land shouldn't become infertile why would the punishment or the the consequence of not keeping shmita properly obligate the jewish people to be exiled from their land in other words what would happen usually we say measure for measure okay so if the jews are not keeping shmita meaning they're working the land and it's drawn draining the energy so then measure for measure right you don't need a miracle let the juice suffer with very low output of produce or inferior produce that would be measure for measure that's one way another way we're going to look at it is if their eggs exiled from their land and non-jews then come because they're kicked out and this other other nations come so then they're going to work the land perpetually right without non-stop because they don't have an obligation to rest on the seventh and then the 50th 49th and 50th year okay so let's read what the cleochrist is saying exactly as we said let it be that the punishment should just be that there's no additional there's no um revitalization of the ground right let the land drain itself furthermore he says sha ain's this shabbos hashem if the whole idea is to replenish the minerals allow the minerals to replenish themselves there's nothing to do with god it's not a sabbath to the lord it's a sabbath to the land because you're allowing the land and the matara the goal is to replenish the land it sounds like if you if it's for the sake of revitalizing the land it's for the land's sake so what does it mean if you look in chapter 26 verse 34 it actually says then the land will be appeased regarding its sabbaticals this is talking about when the jews are no longer on their land as a result being in exile during all the days that remains in that it remains desolate while you're in the land of your enemies the land will rest and thus appease its sabbaticals so someone asked me when i was learning it this week the land will not be worked no the land will be worked but for some reason it's not going to produce or it's not going to reduce for whom for the gentiles who come to our land they can they never made it into a capital they never made it into a productive area in which to settle they came expecting to settle expecting that this fertile crescent would be very well uh suited for them and they weren't able to stay so the land itself did not supply even though it was worked it didn't supply what it needed to supply and yet it's still called that the land will rest look at this into the hebrew az the land is actually going to be a piece for the sabbaticals exam what does that mean this appeasing of the land itself so the clear car explains what do you gain what what is what profit is there she gallo member israel that the jewish people would end up being exiled from their land the yeshua yadav what benefit will there be for the jews in being exiled and will settle this land who's going to live here non-jews and they're going to work the land insistently and incessantly the aim tishb the land will not have a rest in the in in its desolation of not having the jews there so none of that makes any sense so the okay then i put a small little biography this is our of isaac ben moshe arama he he died just shortly after 1492 and he was part of the exile of spain and he settled in naples when he left okay and he wrote a book called the ikedata and it's a fantastic safer and i'm not going to give any more i don't want to read it anymore but it's an amazing saver so he quotes it in the arcade nothing there's a different reason and it says like this meets the zoo that the purpose of this mitzvah the goal of this mitzvah is what does that mean that we should remember that there is a god who created the world and he created it from nothing ex nihilo we say yes miyan now i want to tell you yes behind usually means something from nothing but that that's not what happened there was something it was pure spirit it was not nothing to do with matter or anything physical and god created the physicality physicality out of the whatever energy he chose to but he's the creator and he created it in six days and we remember this this is going to be the purpose of this ever the seventh year and of the shemitah of the of the yoga year list in order to remember all of history and this is the way of the world that it will eventually disintegrate so too the barbanel similar time period also wrote the same same concepts but he even added things that are a little bit um contradictory here but he but the clear car says like this gam zero kilotai this is so far from reason everything we just said according to the keda and according to the barbie now why the word kalo thai is my kidneys this is so distant from my kidneys because the kidneys is the place where reason takes place and he says like this he gives a slang expression qdominal yehuda the old macro which basically means you no further proof you don't have to bring such a far away proof as what as shmita and yovel because if you wanted to remember that there's the olam that there's a creator of the world who created the right and use of constant reminder you have every seven days of reminder it's called shabbos kiyom hashaba you have something not in the distant future of every seven years or even the far distant future of every 50 years you have something every single day you can remember shabbos because you're you're obviously every seven days so you need to prepare so something is consistent and as often as shabbos if shabbos doesn't help you remember that this is about remembering that there's a creator my yoshi nuze [Music] what salvation would there be for us if this is coming every 7 or 49 50 years so he basically tears apart the idea that the balakeda and the abbar now brought and so the clear car continues he would like to resolve several of the finer points of the language within the parsha omer ani he says i say the real reason the one of the main reasons and this is why he disagreed with the barbanel and the um and nikeda regarding this listen it could be tied in it's really not very far but he's giving a different reason and that is to in bed to really making rooted within the jewish people this trait of faith and trust now knowing that hashem i believe that hashem created the world in six days that's very nice but what happens on a daily basis where is my faith and my trust right how far am i going to go to really know that hashem is the provider okay it's a little bit different i don't really think it's that much different because we talk about that god renews the world every second it's not that he's just the creator of the world because in greek philosophy or certain philosophies they believe in a creator that he created the world that he left he doesn't deal with petty stuff here we're saying not only is so involved in every one of our lives but that every moment he actually recreates the world because he wants to he's so involved so that's a lot of faith as well but it's let's just say it's from a different angle okay it's in in bitter hashem was she was concerned that once we came to the land of israel of course that we would become involved in the physical work of the land in a very natural way that we would behave like every other farmer every other country we would work the land and you know farm it and believe like everyone else that what we do is causing the results okay when you do things naturally you expect that natural results i plant x amount of seed in x amount of acres i expect i expect x amount of yield right unless there is what do you call like you know act of god you know tornadoes or floods or or a dry spell the car share hick yodan and then through the success they find through their own hands hashem god forbid they would forget hashem viasiru and their faith would leave them right because they they're no longer god-centered they're self-centered the yakshevu kokham yodam and this is a big problem this is what we all experience that we think that it's our might and our power of that created the consequences the output the results of whatever happened we chalk it up we put notches in our guns we put you know four things in a cross whatever on you we start counting as we are the the the the reason for the victory the oil can menhago no haig and then we would just behave in the world as if everything is just happening through nature and like we said you would forget about god or work against your your your your faith in a muna the yakshevu this is going to be the big problem that you will then think that the land belongs to you okay the land belongs to god he gave it to us but it he can throw us off too it's it's belongs to him and they would think hema baalim that they are the masters the aims and no one else al kane hodziam hashem minha minhaka tadi lagamre and believe it or not i know it looks like we're living in a natural world but trust me here in israel it's totally supernatural okay there's nothing natural about life here in israel therefore god removed them from the nature the the normal natural way entirely and now he's going to explain why and how he became shunning because you know how it works in the natural world every 6 years so basically i don't know why i said six years but let's say every three years they have that's a pie and it's split into three and they rotate and i want to tell you something about um kidney oats it's not it's not it's not a joke you know how they say oh the ashkenazi it's it's like outdated you know what even till today in europe not maybe not in uh arabic countries but in europe they they know it's historically proven to be true they did exactly this and this rabbi lived 400 years ago in europe so he says this is how they did it they took their land they divided into three and ever they left one-third fallow every year and then they discovered that if they plant beans it actually enriches it in other words leaving it fallow it may help someone but if you plant beans so if you had grains all year round meaning twice that's your basically you're always planting grains and you're leaving one third fallow plant beans during that one one year in the fallow year and it actually re it replenishes rejuvenates it and of course this is going to be the problem when you bag it later on because you you cannot clear a field entirely right if it was used for grains and you harvested the grains even if you plant beans you will get what we call the residue the leftover seeds that eventually grow into we would call weeds they're not weeds they're they would be forbidden to cook with your beans on pesach so that's what he's explaining happened that two years they would see and one of the three years they would leave alone they would be fallow kids so it didn't diminish and weaken its power but you know what god says he actually tells us jew i want you to plant for six years straight don't do what these non-jews do of those of little faith you're living here in israel you must plan for six years it says shay shaleem tazri it's like a command six years you shall you shall sow your field me day shana bashana consistently year after year i that i will not i'm going to add i'm not going to diminish you will have a rejuvenated field every rate it's only going to increase it's not going to diminish so he says this is a miracle within a miracle so in other words the first miracle is that it actually increases during six years right every three years you would have expected that it would go down but no he says i'm to make it go up so that's one miracle and there's another miracle after you went ahead and seated for six years not hashished all the while that the sixth year will not diminish listen what if i said to you it's not gonna increase your sixth year will be exactly like all the other years but guess what what does hashem say nope adaraba i'm actually going to cause that sixth year not to be like all the other years that sixth year will produce three years worth of produce in that sixth year that you would have expected to be diminished not only is it going to be not diminished the sixth year produce will be the same you mean you'll get a sixth year you're going to get a seventh year and you're going to get part of the eighth year as well because the the the reasoning is why is it three years because you cannot plant in the seventh year for the eighth year so when the eight year begins you would not have anything until it it grew but hashem would make sure that even in the beginning of the eighth year you already have something before you even plant okay so he says in the sixth year i'm going to add so much power so much and produce is going to come and now we understand when it says in leviticus it's the same chapter 25 it actually says god says i will ordain a blessing for you in the sixth year and it will yield a sufficient crop for three years and through all these i call them signs and miracles that i place in your hand god is telling us teda you should know kili kalaaritz the land belongs to me remember the original idea is that people think that it's their power and then they become the owners and it's all about them and it's their land no we are guests through this our eyes will be lifted and we'll be thinking about god all the time right our eyes will be a heavenly word commotion with cena just as the man came down every single day we had to look up towards the heavens for our food kadesha you ain't named in order that our eyes will be lifted up to hashem constantly and that we would have constant faith and trust in god according to the clear card this is what the shemitah is all about shiloh do not work the land at all in the seventh year he aimed zero then kasir you don't sew you don't harvest actually yes you are going to rely on this miracle that hashem will produce in the sixth year enough for three years haresh name as we said this is really two miracles already one of the two miracles number one it didn't diminish but rather it increases vishliche there's even a greater miracle upon this wait till you hear this said the actual produce that came out of the ground in the sixth year even if right we're talking about the sixth year the food that actually came out during that year it was enough for that one year the sixth year the coma come nevertheless that hashem will send a blessing as it's plenty now the plenty does not necessarily mean in quantity listen to what he says that you just need to know you just need a normal amount and guess what happens you don't even have to you're probably halfway through and your your stomach is just so full the food is so sufficient satiating sufficient yeah you only ate a small amount and you're already and of course that would allow you to even save more for the other years so he says like this you only need a little bit with my mouth but you're within your stomach you're blessed until the produce is actually enough for three whole years and how do we know it actually says and we just read the verse right in um and it's also leviticus 25 21 s right it will yield its crop the hey the hay is it's an infinitive hey which means that it will be the same quantity of of produce that you're used to each and every year kentucky you're also going to get the same amount in the sixth year the yosef hashem and yet hashem gives more power to the land to do what us and yet the the ground itself will continue to bruise produce for for three whole years ta speak enough you'll have enough for three years and that is even a greater miracle than all the rest okay so you're not even working the land and it's producing that's like absolutely amazing okay so now we're going to go for the home stretch this last paragraph let's do the time okay this reason that i just gave is clear but not just clear barrio tear this is more clear than any other commentator has ever given letha it's very nice he's very humble i do believe and according to this dinhu this is logic dictates meta this is exactly why we should be exiled on a result of not observing shmita properly why should it be measure for measure why should it be the correct result as a result of lack of faith kill me we didn't have proper faith in hashem we didn't trust in his salvation shiyasa lemonades that he would produce for us a miracle like this but that he would create for us enough produce for those three years like it says this is a the prophet jeremiah who's being critical that you don't have people who had enough faith and of course this is with the result 70-year exile we had so it says in jeremiah chapter 5 verse 1 walk about in the streets of yusuf lion and see now and know and seek in its plaza it's a question a rhetorical question if you will find a man a summit of authority if there's one who dispenses justice and seeks faith then i will forgive her and of course we were exiled gamart listen to this the land is alive the land of eretz israel is full of energy when you walk through the streets of your line you can feel it you can breathe the air the land itself is the land itself you know it spit us out but listen the land wants to do god's will kiritsona the the the land itself wants to be able to produce the fruit it wants the jews to live here it wants to be able in the sixth year to produce the six years the the three years of fruit can you imagine if only the jews had the ammuna the land is ready and and willing to do so furthermore you deserve anon rock arising the karka that if we had the proper ammuna we would realize we were just leasing the land we were just sharecroppers on the land and the karishma he's the baal he is really the owner of the field and in truth this is what the land itself desires [Music] the land wants god to be its can you imagine the land wants it and yet we fail unbelieve it's like it's like a little bit of a shame here kill us bro because the land really belongs to god and then god forbid when we negate and don't fulfill shmita properly kabbalah bharats it only strengthens our own idea that we're the masters of the land roy you should talk me to arthur's for sure the land will react negatively towards this and that's what it means remember we said it was a shabbos to hashem it's somehow sanctified and a cessation for god and yet there's another verse that says right with uh leviticus 26 34 i think it was that no it's going to appease the land it's the land is appeased how is the land of peace when when the jew is punished um but when the gentiles are living here it doesn't care it's not at all concerned it has a special relationship with those people who belong here um if the gentiles are living here and they're acting in the natural way it doesn't react because it's not at all concerned about the way they're behaving because they're just acting naturally and has nothing to do with faith and trust in hashem now the clear card ends this paragraph by telling us after i made this thesis this proposal i'm now going to go through all the verses and you'll see everything i said has been justified and is authentic you'll see everything lines up conclusions are proper okay and he says there is no doubt about this so at some point maybe next year we'll move on in partials bahar i just want you to know that we're going to take a break at this point i just want to thank you for listening for coming those people on skype we're going to now deal with swirat omer it's going to be a separate video it's going to be deep but it's going to be extremely texturally oriented i think i have like 60 mar mccombo 60 um swordsmiths and we're going to read i think that's 12 pages of a book called olos ephraim a safer that the cleo car himself wrote and it's absolutely uh mind blowing so anyway i wish everyone a great preparation for shavuot right we just celebrated like omer and i wish you uh first of all shabbat shalom and always welcome home to torah a warm welcome home to torah and with that call to have a great life [Music] is