12 May Behar-Bechukotai; I will give your rains in their time (26.4)
Parshas Behar – Bechukotai
I will give your rains in their time (26.4)
Inspired by the teachings of Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh and Rabbi Moshe Genuth
According to the effort is the reward. (Perkei Avot 5:22)
We learn in Bereishit that the creation of the world was in a state of balance and harmony with the concealed potential for it to become imbalanced. It is our mission of Tikun Olam – Rectification of the World (it’s imbalance and blemishes) to restore that equilibrium and elevate ourselves and the universe through our efforts.
In Torah times when Jews were in the Land of Israel , it was an agricultural society. Rain was central to life and ’good rain’ represented a good judgment. The cycle of ‘rain in its time’ touches upon many life concepts of the interaction of the physical and spiritual realms.
The ‘good rains’ reflect the cycle of effort and reward as it reveals the interaction of the Jew and his service of mind and heart, and trust and faith in G-d, as the Jew is commanded to follow the laws of Shmitah.
Shmitah requires a Jew to abstain from planting and harvesting each 7th year. This means that he must rely on a bountiful harvest in the 6th yr that will sustain him through the 7th and 8th year. It is in the 8th year that he may sow his crop to be ready to harvest the 9th year.
This requires the Jew to have a great amount of trust and faith in G-d during the years leading up to the Shmit. , For his devotion to G-d he will receive the reward of an extra an abundant crop in the 6th year and the reward of ‘rain in its time’ . The observance of shmitah is a necessary observance to sanctifying the Land of Israel and bringing the potential of the Land and its people to being Holy. Although we may refer to Israel as the Holy Land, it currently exists in a state of holiness ‘in potential’.
The parsha speaks extensively of the consequence of not observing shmita. There are currently ‘shmita projects’ that compensate the farmers in Israel make it financially possible for a farmer to NOT cultivate crops during shmita in order to help bring about the full return of shmita observance. The observance of shmita is crucial to making the Land of Israel a Holy Land and the ushering in the Messianic Era.
Rain is a physical representation of our spiritual condition.
It is on the day of Shemini Atzeret (the 8th day of Sukkot) on which day we pray for ‘rain… in its’ time’… in the time and place and amount that Hashem decides we merit the rain-geshem however we read this verse now in Parshas Bechukotai. We should also take note that the related word for ‘physicality’ is gashmeos. Too little rain and we have a drought. Too much rain and we have the destruction of a flood. In an ‘agricultural Torah society’ the economy is dependent on rain .. the rain is dependent on our merit by G-ds judgment.
Hashem could make the rain (rain as water is likened to Torah) fall upon us all at once in one giant sheet, or with his loving-kindness He can make the rain fall in the size of nurturing droplets. All at once in sheets it is damaging, and when it falls in droplets it is a sign of His chesed…His loving -kindness.
Although the rain must be in the form of the droplets of loving-kindness (chesed) to be beneficial, a small amount of strength (gevurah) must be present in the rain for the water to be able to permeate the ground. We always need a ‘drop’ of gevurah-strength to accomplish things in this world, The rain, like our character (midos) requires a delicate balance. We must always ask ourselves if our attributes of loving kindness and strength are in balance.
Like the ‘rain in its time’, the ‘holiness’ of the Land of Israel is intimately connected to the spiritual condition of the Jewish people.
Leib Getzel (Lawrence) Lax
Addictions and Counseling
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