Seven Times Seven? Yericho, Yovel & the Omer Count

A new shiur on the meaning of Sefiras HaOmer and the unique Kedusha of Shavuos. Click here to listen to the recording. 

A big thank you to Mrs. Shoshana Rivka Bloom of Link's TLC program for inviting me to speak.

A Piece of Good Advice: Shemittah!

New audio shiur on Parshas Behar, delivered this past Friday: Shemittah. Or, if you're a conservationist: Shmita.

Free at Fifty

The study of p’shat, the straightforward meaning of the Torah text, is a pursuit which can supply a lifetime of study, wisdom and inspiration. However, Torah study is not limited to this approach. P’shat is only one of the Torah’s multiple universes. Sometimes, the façade of p’shat cracks and the Torah’s deeper dimensions come to the fore.

This week’s parsha begins with the mitzvah of Shmitah, the Sabbatical year.

When you come to the land that I am giving you, the land must be given a rest period, a Shabbat to God. For six years you may plant your fields, prune your vineyards and harvest your crops, but the seventh year is a sabbatical Shabbat for the land.

Vayikra 25:2-3

The Torah continues with Yovel, the Jubilee year.

You shall count seven sabbatical years, that is, seven times seven years. The period of the seven sabbatical cycles shall thus be forty-nine years. You shall make a proclamation with the ram’s horn... You shall sanctify the fiftieth year declaring emancipation of [Hebrew] slaves for the land and all who live in it. This is your jubilee year, when each man shall return to his hereditary property and to his family.

Ibid 25:8-9,10

After counting seven Shmitah periods, we arrive at Yovel, the fiftieth and final year of the cycle. Jews who sold themselves into slavery to escape poverty or were sold as slaves to pay off debts incurred by stealing are released and return home. Similarly, hereditary fields that had been sold during the course of the past fifty years return to their original owners on Yovel. Everything returns to its default position. It’s as if someone hit the reset button.

It is virtually impossible to study these mitzvot without bringing to mind a mitzvah from last week’s parsha.

You shall count seven complete weeks after the day following the [Passover] holiday… until the day after the seventh week, when there will be [a total of] fifty days… This very day shall be celebrated as a sacred holiday…

Ibid 23:15-16,21

This is the mitzvah of Sefirat HaOmer, a mitzvah to count the days from the Exodus on Passover to the revelation at Sinai on Shavuot fifty days later. (This Shabbat is the twenty-seventh day of the Omer.)

The Omer count follows the exact same pattern as the Yovel cycle! In both we are instructed to count sets of seven days/years seven times. And then, the following day/year, the fiftieth, is sanctified. Moreover, just as a ram’s horn was blown on Yovel, the fiftieth year, a ram’s horn was also blown at Sinai on Shavuot, the fiftieth day. “There was the sound of a ram’s horn, increasing in volume to a great degree…” (Shemot 19:19). What are we to make of all this? Do these cycles share a deeper commonality?

This isn’t going to be easy.

In the Yovel cycle, Jewish slaves are freed on the fifty year. We count the years leading up to their freedom. This is quite the opposite from the Omer cycle where the counting begins after the Jews gain their freedom from enslavement in Egypt. It would seem that the two sanctified fifties, Yovel and Shavuot, have nothing in common.

P’shat isn’t providing answers, so we turn to the Mishnah for assistance.

The only person who is free is the one who toils in the study of Torah.

Ethics of the Fathers 6:2

The Torah sets us free. This explains everything! Shavuot is the day we got the Torah at Sinai and we became free, just like Yovel!

Great. But free from what? Didn’t we leave Egypt fifty days earlier?

The Torah is throwing a wrench into our understanding of Jewish history. Maybe we didn’t gain total freedom at the Exodus. Maybe we were still enslaved to something for forty-nine more days until we were truly emancipated on Shavuot. But what could that something be?

The answer is right before our eyes, but we would prefer not to face it. With the receiving of the Torah on Shavuot we were freed from self-enslavement. For as long as Torah is lacking, as long as objective truth and mitzvot are missing from the world, man is destined to be the slave of his own negative drives. Without the system of Judaism to elevate us, in the absence of the service the God, we are left with nothing more than the service of the self.

It turns out that the two fifties, Yovel and Shavuot, are identical. What happens on Yovel? The Jewish slave, a man who is the sole cause of his own slavery, is set free. A hereditary field, which was sold by the owner himself, returns to where it belongs. This is the very same power of Shavuot. The Torah frees man from his self-imposed slavery and returns him to his true self.

On Pesach we gained physical freedom, but we were still slaves. By counting the days of the Omer we recognize that we need more than an Exodus, we need a deeper kind of freedom. A freedom that can only be found fifty days later on a hill called Sinai.

Who's Boss?

This week’s parsha begins with the mitzvah of Shemittah, the obligation to let the land lay fallow on the seventh year of the Israeli agricultural cycle. There is an obvious parallel here to the weekly Shabbat and the Torah isn’t very subtle about it. Take a look at this:

When you come to the land that I am giving you, the land must be given a rest period, a Shabbat for G-d. For six years you may plant your fields, prune your vineyards and harvest your crops, but the seventh year is a Shabbat of Shabbats for the land. It is G-d’s Shabbat. Do not plant your fields, nor prune your vineyards… It will be a Sabbatical year for the land. You may eat [the produce] of the Shabbat of the land…

Vayikra 25:2-5

The Torah is trying to make a point here. Shemittah is Shabbat wrought large. Beyond the idea of taking some time off every seven days or seven years, there are some other, less obvious parallels. Taken together, these commonalities will guide us to a sharper understanding of both Shabbat and the Shemittah year.

Shemittah is introduced as a “Shabbat for G-d.” In the Ten Commandments, the Torah uses the exact same language to describe the weekly Shabbat:

Remember the Shabbat to keep it holy. You can work during the six weekdays and do all your tasks, but the seventh day is Shabbat for G-d your Lord.

Shemot 20:10

What does it mean when we say a “Shabbat for G-d”? Certainly, G-d does not need to take time off to rest, nor does G-d have a need for us to rest. G-d needs nothing. Humans require rest, but that would not explain why Shabbat and Shemittah are called Shabbatot “for G-d.”

Another parallel. In this week’s parsha, the Torah explicitly addresses the very question about Shemittah that you were afraid to ask:

You might ask, “What will we eat in the seventh year? We have not planted nor have we harvested crops!” I will direct my blessing to you in the sixth year and the land will produce enough crops for three years.

Vayikra 25:20-21

G-d promises a miracle. In the year before Shemittah, the produce will be so plentiful it will last for three years!

After the Exodus, when the Jews trekked across the Sinai Peninsula to Israel, they survived by eating the miraculous Manna. Every day Manna would fall from the sky and the Jews would go out into desert to collect it. But on Shabbat, the Jews were not permitted to work and the Manna did not fall. What did they eat?

When Friday came, what they gathered [turned out to be] a double portion of food… [Moshe] said to them, “This is what G-d has said, ‘Tomorrow is a day of rest, G-d’s holy Shabbat. Bake what you want to bake and cook what you want to cook [today]. Whatever you have left over, put aside carefully until morning.’”

Shemot 16:22-23

On the sixth year of the Shimittah cycle G-d provided extra food for the seventh year and on the sixth day of the weekly cycle G-d provided extra food for the Shabbat day. G-d does everything on His end, even performing miracles, in order to make it possible for us to rest when Shabbat arrives. Why is resting on Shabbat so important? Why is G-d bending over backwards just so we can take some time off?

The last point the Torah makes about Shemittah is this:

You may eat [the produce] of the Shabbat of the land; it is for you, your male and female slaves, your employees and the residents who live with you. Your domestic and wild animals that are in the land shall [also] have all the crops for consumption.

Vayikra 25:6-7

Rashi paraphrases G-d’s intent:

Even though I have not allowed you [to work the land], it is not consumption or pleasure that I am proscribing. Rather, [it is just this:] Do not act like an owner. Everyone should have equal rights [in the land], you, your employee and your resident.

“Do not act like an owner.” This is the core idea of Shemittah. It may not surprise you to learn that Shabbat is no different. Here are the immortal words of R. Yisroel Meir Kagen (the “Chofetz Chaim,” 1838-1933):

The Torah states: “Remember the Shabbat to keep it holy. You can work during the six weekdays and do all your tasks, but the seventh day is Shabbat for G-d your Lord… This is because it was during the six weekdays that G-d made the heaven, the sea and all that is in them…” (Shemot 20:8-11).
The Torah is telling us here that Shabbat provides the basis for faith in Creationism. Since G-d created everything, He is the Master of all and we are His servants. We are therefore obligated to do His will and to serve Him with all our bodies, souls and wealth – for all is His.

Introduction to Mishnah Berurah, vol. IV

On Shabbat we recognize that we exist and we survive in this world by the grace of G-d the Creator. If we can get that down once every seven days, it will elevate everything we do, say and think all week long. This is why G-d is willing to make miracles to enable the observance of Shabbat and Shimittah.

Now we can understand what the Torah meant when it called both the seventh day and the seventh year a “Shabbat for G-d.” Those are the only times the Jew doesn’t act like an owner!