Thursday. May 21,1987 — THE BULLETIN - 7
SIDRA BEHAR — BECHUKOTAI DON'T FILE YOUR DEBTS IN COURT!
The current year, 5747, is a Shemitta, or Sabbatical year. This lends added significance to this week's Sidra, Behar, which opens with the command of Shemitta:'*AndG-d spoke to Moses ifn Mount Sinai, saying: Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them, - when you come to the land that i give you, then the land shall rest a Sabbath to
Further in the Torah we find this command: 1 the end of every seven years you shall make a Shemitta. A nd this is the matter of the Shemitta; every creditor that lends to his fellow shall remit it; he shall not exact it (the debt) from his fellow man or from his brother, for the Shemitta has been proclaimed before G-d."
- Two of the basic laws of Shemitta are: (1) all outstanding personal debts are automatically cancelled by virtue of Shemitta which takes effect at the very end of this consecrated year; (2) • debts which have been filed with the Bais Din (Torah Court) are not affected by Shemitta and remain collectable. One who borrowed money before S/re-mitta is told that the most honorable thing to do would, be to repay the loan before the
\end of the year, at which time' the debt becomes uncollecta-ble. However, if the creditor had filed the debt with the court, it remained in force,.
and there was no way that the debtor could avoid payment.
The institution of Shemitta should be applied by us in our relationship with G-d. In our relationship to The A-mighty, we are the "debtors" and G-d is the "creditor." G-d's blessings are not given to us as a gift, rather we are under .obligation to "pay" for them. They are given to us on credit, for G-d wants us to earn His favors rather than obtain them as charity.
The Talmud expresses it this way, . . the ledger is open, the hand records, and whoever wants to borrow may come and borrow, ** again emphasizing the idea of "borrowing" and "lending" rather than "giving" or "receiving" a free gift.
Our repayment to Gfd is required. to match, in kind. His blessings. For the blessings of children, we repay G^ by bringing them up in a Torah tradition; for the blessing of life, by lekding a Torah-true life; for the blessing of livelihood and sustenance, by giving part of our earnings (ten to twenty percent at least) to rzecbito (charity).
However, we may be negligent in repaying our debts to The A-mightyi Aware of human weakness,' the merciful G-d instituted a Shemitta, which automatically wipes out all indebtedness — subject to the laws of 5i!remfYto mentioned above.
There is time to make
amends to '**^ay the loan" before the end of the year (when the debt-cancellation goes into effect) and this is the honorable thing to do. If, however, Jhis has not been done, and we feel that we still have outstanding debts to G-d, we should do all in-our power to prevent our debts -from being filed in the Heavenly Court —^ where everyone's record of good deeds and misdeeds is carefully scrutinized and judgment is passed strictly according to merit.
One should rather try to see that his debts be personally dealt with; by the A-mighiy Himself, for G-d is "not limited to the strict letter of the law, artd deals with His debtors with mercy and consideration.**
In order to merit having our debts to G-d "taken our of court" and placed in G-d's own graciou^^hiands, we, the debtorr^, must act in a similar fashion ourselves and go beyond the "letter of the law" in all aspects of thought, word, and deed in our daily life:
We must set aside all personal calculations and make a special effort to exceed all previous measured and limited efforts in the Jewish education of our children, our religious practices, and — last but not least — our contributions to Tzedaka (charity). Then we shall no longer be subject to the strict legal code of the Heavenly Court, but will be dealt with graciously by the A-mighty; our debts will be' wiped out, our "credit standing" re-established, and we will continue to receive G-d's blessings — on credit again — , for the next year.
From A Thought for the Week, a summary of the
works of Rabbi Menachem SchneersonShlita.
_  -       PORTION OF THE WEEK: BEHAR - BEHUKOTAI
. **And you shall not hurt the the servant to buy bad food. feeUngs of one another, but He. returned once again with you shall fear your L-rd, for I tongue. "What is going on?" GHi,aniyourL-rd.**(Vayikra asked the Rabbi. The servant 25:17) replied: "When a tongue is
This verse prohibits words good there is nothing better, that will cause anguish (Bava But when a tongue is bad there Metzia 58b) even if they will is nothing worse." (Vayikra not cause embarrassment Rabba 33:1) (Chefetz Chaim). The Torah The Torah does not obli-says "You shall fear your L- gate a person to be as unfeel-rd,** because s^etimes a per- ing as a stone. Therefore one son says something that appears to be an innocent remark while in reality he maliciously says it to cause someone anguish or pain and only G-d can read people's minds. (Rashi)
Any words that will distress someone or hurt their feelings are forbidden. Whatever you would not want someone to say to you do not say to someone else, (PeleYoatz)
Insulting someone is worse than cheating them financially; money can be returned but anguish cannot. (Shul-chan Aruch)
The Midrash brings down the following story:
: Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel told his servant to go to the market and buy some good' food. The servant went and returned with tongue. Afterwards the Rabbi sent
niay reply to an insult but only at that particular moment. (Chefetz Chaim). Someone once insulted a very pious man. The community wanted to put a ban on the offender, but the pious person would not hear of it.
"We must punish that man, not merely for your sake^" the pious person was iold, "but to prevent the insulting of others."
"On the contrary!" exclaimed the pious individual. "Let people learnfrom me not to let insults bother them." (Sefer Chasidim 183)
SHABBAT SHALOM!
Rabbi Bassous is spiritual leader of Vancovuer's Beth Hamidrash Congregation.
Jerusalem Day Greetings
The Honorable PAT CARNEY
Member of Parliament for
Vancouver Centre
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CHAG SAMAYACH!
Best Wishes and Sincere Greetings io the Entire Jewish Community on the State of Israel 39 th Birthday
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