Shmitta and Har Sinai
The Zohar teaches us that at the beginning of creation - Hashem -
הסתכל באורייתא וברא עלמא.
The blueprint for this world is essentially the Torah. G-d read the words of the Torah and that formed the entire creation. Therefore this world, if one knows how to look at it, is just a reflection or is patterned after something going on in the Holy Realms. For example: a relationship - husband and wife - the main purpose writes Rav Dessler - is that without it we would never understand the concept of דביקות בה'. This is perhaps what the Tomer Devorah is getting at when he says that "one who was never married lives without the שכינה ."
The Maharal also connects this to the Hebrew word for nature. Nature = טבע. The root of מטבע (coin) is also טבע. Why? Because nature is like an embossed coin, it lets you know that there's a template above.
With this approach we can answer the world famous question of Rashi at the beginning of out parsha.
- מה ענין שמיטה אצל הר סיני.
- To this we can answer that according to R. Tzaddok, Sinai was a tikkun for the sin of Adam, therefore it brought us back to גן עדן, which is א"י, which we can better appreciate when we sit back in the 7th year - שמיטה. So Shemittah and Har Sinai are directly connected.
Let us try an alternative answer to the question raised by Rashi.
In Pirkei Avos we begin by saying - משה קבל תורה מסיני.
What is the aim of this lashon? Why not say that Moshe received it from Hashem? According to the Gemara in Megilah (29a) G-d went everywhere and each mountain boasted that they should be the one that G-d chooses to give the Torah from. But Har Sinai was an עניו. A simple lowly mountain.
In his commentary to Pirkei Avos, R. Ovadya Yosef adds that - How was Moshe זוכה to receive the Torah מסיני, from the very same character trait as הר סיני. Humility!
According to Menachos 29b we find that Moshe believed that R. Akiva should be the one to bring the Torah to the Jewish people, and not himself. G-d responds by saying "שתוק", keep quiet, that's the way I want it to be. The point of this exchange is that while Moshe did think that R. Akiva should be the one, G-d was telling him - "quiet, stop there, that's precisely why you got the job - Humility. Moshe, you are the foundation, and once you have that then the Oral Law will flow on its own."
That's another peshat perhaps in מה ענין שמיטה אצל הר סיני. They're very related - the humility embodied at Har Sinai allows the Torah Shebaal Peh to emerge and where do we fully recognize the Torah Shebaal Peh in א"י- Shemittah.
The omer period is also indicative of this idea. R. Chaim Vital suggests that the period between Pesach and Shavous, the Omer, is a time of תיקון המדות, so that we can make ourselves a vessel to receive the Torah.- This makes perfect sense for as R. Tzaddok said, on Har Sinai we received the Torah and at that point fully corrected the sin of Adam. Therefore this entire period is a teshuva process to return to that initial state. And once we get the Torah at Har Sinai - we're ready to enter Eretz Yisrael - Gan Eden.
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Shlomo Einhorn
Rabbi Einhorn, an alumnus of OJ is a Rebbe in MTA and the Rav of the West Side Institutional Synagogue in Manhattan.
