LEVITICUS XXV:1-XXVI:2

THE SANCTIFICATION OF GOD AND PEOPLE

According to Harav Yosef Dov HaLevi Soloveitchik, the Torahwas given at Har Sinai with Kolot uverakim, “thunder and lightning,” so that humanity would learn that the Jewish people deserved Divine attention and, in this way, Kavod, honor, was restored to the people who were gradually losing the appreciation of humanity. While Avraham (Abraham) gained the respect of many, this feeling diminished in the case of Yitschak (Isaac) and even more so with Yaakov (Jacob) and his sons, who ended up under the yoke of Egyptian slavery. 

The Divine revelation at Sinai was intended to restore to the Hebrews the esteem of the nations. It was heard in the world at that time that God had chosen the Jewish people. A kind of Kiddush Ha’Am, “the sanctification of the nation.” In previous chapters we had read about Kiddush HaShem, the obligation to sanctify the Name of God, and the prohibition Velo techalelu et Shem Kodshi, “and do not go and profane My Sacred Name”, a fact that obliges us to offer our lives in certain fundamental cases, such as incest, murder and idolatry. That is, the Jew must choose death and not transgress any of the three imperatives mentioned.

However, the Talmud (compendium of the Jewish Oral Law) questions that if a person flouts the imperative Yehareg ve’alya’avor, “choose death and don’t break the Law,” in the case of idolatry for fear of being sentenced to death, can he be considered to have violated the prohibition against serving an idol? The answer should be obvious: in the case of idolatry, a person must choose death. The fact that the Talmud raises the question suggests, according to Soloveitchik, shows that the problem lies not so much in the idolatrous act in public, as its transcendent effect of the action.

In the course of history, when Jews were forced to publicly renounce their faith, even when it was not a matter of violating one of the three above statements, the obligation was not to succumb, even to offer one’s life, if necessary. According to Maimonides, Hananya, Misha’el, and Azarya chose to throw themselves into the flames of a furnace rather than bow down before Nevuchadnetsar. With this act of courage, which consisted of refusing to bow down to the wicked king, they were proclaiming Kiddush HaShem, the sanctification of God’s Name.

During the tragic period of the Holocaust there were many instances of Kiddush HaShem that did not correspond to incest, idolatry, or murder. There is the case of a group of young women who chose suicide so as not to be turned into a kind of harem for the carnal pleasure of Nazi officers. Those same executioners who mocked their victims by questioning where their God was to defend them, had to face the courage and ardor of those who preferred death to indignity and immorality.

Although there are precise rules with reference to Kiddush HaShem, this imperative also depends on the specific situation, for example, when a public renunciation of the faith is demanded, as happened during the auto-da-fe practiced in the various religious persecutions, especially during the period of the Inquisition. 

For centuries there was the Hilul Ha’Am, contempt for the people and irreverence for their nature. The maximum expression of this nihilism occurred during the Nazi period, when an attempt was made to dehumanize the Jew, tattooing him with a number to identify him, ignoring his right to a name that qualified him as a human person.

The establishment of Medinat Yisrael can be framed under the concept of Kiddush Ha’Am, the return of honor, the sanctification of the Name of the people of Israel. For this and many other reasons, the State of Israel is, at the same time, an ideal and a reality that belongs to the entire Jewish people, even to those who do not reside within its geographical boundaries.

MITZVAH: ORDINANCE OF THE TORAH IN THIS PARSHA

CONTAINS 7  POSITIVE MITSVOT AND 17 PROHIBITIONS

326. Leviticus 25:4 Do not work the land during the Sabbatical Year.

327. Leviticus 25:4 Do no tree work in the Sabbatical Year.

328. Leviticus 25:5 Do not reap what grows spontaneously in the Sabbatical Year.

329. Leviticus 25:5 Do not gather the fruit of the tree in the Sabbath year as it is harvested each year.

330. Leviticus 25:8 Counting 7 cycles of 7 years.

331. Leviticus 25:9, 10 Blowing the Shofar on Yom Kippur in the Jubilee Year (on Rosh Hashanah the obligation is to ‘hear’ the sound of the Shofar).

332. Leviticus 25:9, 10 Sanctifying the Jubilee Year.

333. Leviticus 25:11 Do not work the land in the Jubilee year.

334. Leviticus 25:5 Do not reap what grows spontaneously in the Jubilee Year.

335. Leviticus 25:11 Do not gather the fruit from the trees in the Jubilee Year as it is harvested each year.

336. Leviticus 25:14 Doing justice between seller and buyer.

337. Leviticus 25:14 Do not deceive in buying and selling.

338. Leviticus 25:17 Do not verbally oppress a Jew.

339. Leviticus 25:23 Do not sell land in the Land of Israel permanently.

340. Leviticus 25:24 Returning the land in the Land of Israel to its original owners in the Jubilee Year.

341. Leviticus 25:29 Redeeming an inherited property in a city in the year (of its sale).

342. Leviticus 25:34 Do not disturb the empty land around the cities or fields of the Levites.

343. Leviticus 25:37 Do not charge interest when lending to a Jew.

344. Leviticus 25:39 Do not compel a Hebrew slave to do degrading work like a Canaanite slave.

345. Leviticus 25:42 Do not sell a Hebrew slave at auction.

346. Leviticus 25:43 Do not force a Hebrew slave to do forced labor.

347. Leviticus 25:43 Permanently Keeping a Canaanite slave.

348. Leviticus 25:53 Do not allow a Hebrew slave to be forced to work in extreme ways by his non-Jewish owner.

349. Leviticus 26:1 Do not prostrate yourself on an engraved or graven stone, even in the veneration of God.