05 May PARSHAS BEHAR-BECHUKOSAI: THE REDUNDANT SECURITY GUARANTEE

Following the laws of
the Sabbatical and
Jubilee years, the
Torah writes: “You
shall perform My
decrees and observe
My ordinances and perform them; and
you shall dwell securely on the land. The
land will give its fruit and you will eat to
satisfaction; and you will dwell securely
on it.” [Vayikra 25:18-19]
There is a redundancy in these two
pasukim. Both pasukim 18 and 19 end
with the exact same idea: “You will
dwell securely on the land.” Rashi takes
note of this. Rashi interprets that the first
pasuk states “you shall dwell securely on
the land” to teach us that exile is a
punishment for the sin of not observing
the Shmitah [Sabbatical] year. The
second pasuk teaches “you shall dwell
securely upon it” to promise us that we
will not need to worry about a year of
drought. In other words, the first pasuk
refers to military / national security
while the second pasuk refers to

economic / agricultural security.
The Chasam Sofer offers a different
interpretation to explain this redundancy:
It is hard for us to imagine, but when one
lives in an agrarian economy, without
the worldwide economy of import and
export that exists today, if people do not
plant, they will not eat. One hundred
years ago, when the first Jews returned
to Eretz Yisrael from Europe and the
question was raised of what to do during
Shmitah -? there was literally a threat
that the entire community would starve
and be wiped out if they did not find a
permitted way to farm on the Shmitah
year!
The Chasam Sofer interprets that the
promise “you will dwell securely on the
land” in pasuk 18 addresses just this fear.
The Torah promises us in pasuk 18 that if
we observe the laws of Shmitah, we will
nevertheless miraculously have
economic security, as the pasuk then
explains: “I will ordain My blessing for
you in the sixth year and it will yield a

crop sufficient for the
three years.” [25:21].
According to the
Chasam Sofer, Pasuk
19 is offering another
guarantee.
One of the great
“tests” of money is
that it goes to our
heads. We begin to
think: “My might and
the power of my hand
made me this great
wealth.” [Devorim
8:17] The great
challenge of affluence is that we must
never forget the source of the income.
When people begin to earn a lot of
money, it often happens that they begin
to think: “It is because I’m smarter, I’m
better, I know how to invest, I know how
to run a business.” The challenge of
affluence?- what it does to one’s ego and
what it does to one’s life style — is not
an easy one to face.
In pasuk 19, the Torah is teaching as
follows: If you realize that this fruit
comes miraculously; if you realize
that the produce did not come by
virtue of your work, but by virtue of
your keeping the commandments of
the Almighty, then you will dwell in
security upon your land. You will then
have the blessing that your wealth will
never get to your head.
As long as we recognize that
everything comes from the Hand of
G-d, then we will never be overcome
by the corrupting challenges of wealth.
This is the second promise of security
in the parsha? “You will be secure that
your wealth won’t negatively affect
you. Why? Because you will realize
that it came from the Almighty.”
The Person Who Does Not Have A
Redeemer
Later on in Parshas Behar, the Torah
says that if a person becomes poor to
the extent that he has to sell off his
inheritance in Eretz Yisrael, his
relative should step in to redeem the
field so that he might retrieve his
family inheritance. However, if the
person has no such relative who is
prepared to bail him out, but he later
obtains a windfall that allows him to
repurchase his land, then he is entitled
to make that redemption himself.

[Vayikra 25:25-26]
One might ask on this sequence of events
presented by the Torah: Why does the
Torah need to tell us that a person who
was out of luck and had to sell his land
and had no relative to bail him out, may
indeed buy back this land if he obtains
the money? Would we not have assumed
this to be the case on our own? If my
brother or my uncle can redeem the land
for me, certainly ? if I obtain the money,
I should be able to redeem my own land
for myself!
The Chasam Sofer explains that the
Torah is telling us as follows: “You were
down on your luck. You had no money.
You sold your property. There was no
one to help you out. You were helpless.
How, were you suddenly able to obtain
money? The answer is that when a
person realizes that there is no one to
turn to except the Ribbono Shel Olam,
then the Ribbono Shel Olam comes to
the rescue.”
There are some situations in life when a
person says, “I’m hopeless. I tried this
and I tried that, I went here and I went
there. Nothing helps!” When a person
gets to that situation and he turns to G-d
and says “Ribbono Shel Olam, I am
stuck, I have no one else to turn to but
You…” then “He will find enough for his
redemption.” Suddenly, something will
happen.
This is the interpretation of pasuk 26. “If
a man has no redeemer” (there is no
brother or father or uncle to turn to), then
suddenly “he acquires enough” because
he finally put his faith in the ‘person’
who he should have put his faith with in
the first place ? the Ribbono Shel Olam,
and “he will find enough for its
redemption.”