Leviticus 25: Price of Tea in China

“Hashem spoke to Moses on Mt. Sinai saying: Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When you enter the land that I assign to you, the land shall observe a sabbath of God” (verses 1-2). וַיְדַבֵּר ה׳ אֶל־מֹשֶׁה בְּהַר סִינַי לֵאמֹר׃ דַּבֵּר אֶל־בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם כִּי תָבֹאוּ אֶל־הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי נֹתֵן לָכֶם וְשָׁבְתָה הָאָרֶץ שַׁבָּת לַה׳. Rashi famously asks- what is the connection between Smita and Har Sinai? This question has turned into the Jewish version of the maxim “what does this have to do with the price of tea in China?” Rashi answers that just as this chapter is full of the details of the laws of Shmita- the Sabbatical year- all the details of other laws were also given on Har Sinai even if they were not explicitly listed. Ibn Ezra offers a different answer. The Sabbatical year rule is only relevant when the people enter the land of Canaan. He explains that this section really should have appeared back in Exodus around the giving of the Torah. It was placed here because it is thematically linked to the previous discussions about not following the actions of the nations in Canaan and the upcoming blessings and curses. In Ibn Ezra’s reading, this section is the thematic bridge between Exodus and Numbers after the interlude of the first 24 chapters of Leviticus. The Abarbanel has a slightly different take. He explains that this chapter is not out of place, like Ibn Ezra believes, but is just a return to the general rules that Moshe received on Har Sinai. Following the sin of the Golden Calf, Moshe needed to focus on the building of the Mishkan. The Mishkan necessitated discussions over the korbanot, the concepts of purity and impurity, what animals could be eaten and sacrificed, prohibitions of forbidden relationships and everything else that was listed in Leviticus until this point. Once these “Mishkan” related laws were complete, Moshe returned to discuss the general laws he was given on Har Sinai starting with the Sabbatical year. The implication of Abarbanel’s opinion is that all of these laws in Leviticus are all a result of the Mishkan and the sin of the Golden Calf! Perhaps the Torah connected Shmitah to Har Sinai to link this law that is only relevant in the land and the time period of the giving of the Torah. Shmitah could not be observed in the wilderness. It is also a cyclical law that applies to the land. Every seven years the people are forced to remember that they are only visitors in the land. God gave them the land as a gift and every seventh year they must stop their daily toil and fully put their faith in God. The seventh year of the Shmita cycle is therefore a reenactment of the time of Har Sinai and the wilderness when the people fully relied on God. In the wilderness it was easy to take God’s help for granted, and in the land it will be easy to forget that God is helping. A farmer may worry more about how the price of tea in China would change the price of his crop than how God is the one behind the scenes helping his crop grow.