What do I want to ask from this Gomorra? They ask a very simple question here. I mean Rav Eleazar if he wants to bring a proof, what is the significance, why does he bring a proof from carobs, from water? Why that? There is a whole Torah. He could make this move, or that move. What is the significance of carobs and water? Rav Eleazar, if a person wants to get an iota of why Rav Eleazar was so great. It was because that is all he lived on. Carobs and water or otherwise the carob tree wouldn't move for him! How does a person have control over something physical? What gave him the Siata Dishmaya? I want to see some one today, I don't care if he is in Brooklyn or any where else in the world, I want to see him move a carob tree! I want to see him make water go backwards. Uproot a tree, it doesn't have to be a carob tree. Let him do it to a cherry tree. It was because he had ownership over the Carob tree, because when a person doesn't take anything from this world except for what he needs, he takes ownership of it. He was the master over the Carobs and water because you need the barest necessities to live on. Water you need. Even though the Mishna in Pirkei Avos says that a person has to eat bread and salt but you also need to drink water in measurement. That was his life. That was his Olam Haze. If you want to picture Torah Giants, they didn't have too much in this world. Getting back to the Beis HaMedrash. How could he have the power to move the Beis HaMedrash. He makes the Beis move he makes it tilt. How can he do that? Because he spent his whole life in the Beis HaMedrash. Not only did he have ownership over the carobs and the water, OK not ownership because everything belongs to HaKodosh Boruchu. But Hashem gave him the ability to make it on an angle because he spent his whole life in the Beis HaMedrash. His whole life was Torah. If a person's whole life is Torah then of course he can get a Bas Kol. That is Rav Eleazar. That is what Torah is. That is one of things people have to learn up from Rav Shimon. So what did Rav Shimon take? HE took the barest necessities. He had to live on something. So Hashem gave him a miracle and gave him carobs and water. He had that for 13 years. That is what he lived on. What can we learn from this? Tosfos says that if a person wants that Torah should go into his system, he can't enjoy all the good things of this world. If a person really wants the Torah to go in, he has to pray that all the junk doesn't go in. And Junk, even though here we are only talking about food, but there are all other kinds of junk that can go in.

Being that we say it in Shema. it says, You should put these words on your heart. Asks the Kotzker a very simple question, You should put it in your heart. Where should you put something, on your heart or in your heart? Why on? The Kotzker answered with a Moreidiker vort. Before Torah can go into a person, he has to get rid of a little Shmutz first. Torah doesn't go in to a place of filth. Push out a little Shmutz and then Torah will go in. Because Torah and sin doesn't mix. Its not a Shidduch. If a person wants Torah in its purest form, either like Rav Shimon or Rav Eleazar or like Rav Chanina where the Gomorra says The whole world gets satiated, gets food because of Chanina. And what does Chanina eat? Again Carobs! Can't you give him cherries? Can't you give him strawberries, peaches, plums and pears? No! there is something about Carobs. They must be a spiritual food if you see in the Gomorra, Carobs here and carobs there. There must be some Ruchni power to it. And Rav Chanina from Erev Shabbos to Erev Shabbos that is all he ate. OK, on Shabbos he ate good but that is because all Jews eat good on Shabbos.

As long as we talked about Rav Shimon, there is a very interesting Medrash. Who was the Rebbe of Rav Shimon? Rav Shimon also had a Rebbe. The answer is Rav Akiva. That was his Rebbe. The Medrash states,"In the morning plant your seeds". So you should plant at the beginning of the season and at the end of the season because you really don't know which ones are going to come out good. The first crop or the second crop. Good the Medrash says, that if you marry a woman when you are young, and she dies then marry a woman when you are old. If you have children when you are young, have children when you are old. because you don't know which of your children are going to be successful. It then continues that if you learn Torah when you are young then learn Torah when you are old because you don't know which of your Torah is going to be better or they are both going to be good. and the same thing about teaching says the Gomorra( in Yevomos and the Medrash in Koheles)

Rav Akiva said that he had 12 000 disciples from place A to place B. All of these students died in my lifetime. They died between Pesach and Shavuos. And afterwards, I had 7 new talmidim, 7 new disciples. There is another Girsa though that he had 5. Who were they? One was Rav Yehuda, Rav Nechemia, Rav Meir, Rav Yosi, Rav ShimonBen Yochai, Rav Eleazar and Rav Yochana HaSandler. You hear the Rebbe of Rav Shimon was Rav Akiva. And then it says as long as we are reading the Medrash, we will read you a little more. Rav Akiva tells his new disciples, My first 12,000 disciples died because they couldn't stomach that someone would have more Torah than them. The Gomorra in Yevomas has a whole different version, it says they didn't honor one another. But we are reading the Medrash. The Medrash says that they had an "Ayin Ro" a bad eye. They couldn't stomach their friend knowing more Torah than them.

With that, we can then understand a very interesting RaMBaN. The RaMBaN, in Parsha Kedushem, it speaks about the Mitzva of "VeAhavta L'Reyrcha Kamocha". So it says here, How do you have to love your friend? Everyone talks about it, its the Omer. Rav Shimon learnt the lesson after Rav Akiva lost all his disciples, Rav Shimon didn't make that mistake. But anyway it says over here in the RaMBaN that you have to love your friend-that if your friend has more wealth than you, has more possessions, more honor, more wisdom, you don't care that he has more and the RaMBaN goes on to say that you hope that you friend has more than you in everything possible and that you shouldn't have any jealousy, you should love that your friend has a Porsche or whatever else he has. If someone has something, he will take more and more and more. And then the RaMBan says something else very interesting. Everyone knows the story of Amnon and Tamar. They came from different mothers. Amnon makes believes he is sick and he gets his sister to alone and whatever happens, happens, but the bottom line is, after Amnon had what he wanted, it says that the hatred he had for his sister was greater than any love he ever had because any love which is dependent on something, as soon as you get it, the love evaporates. There is no more love and that is what he says about Yonoson and Dovid. The love that they had. How could Yonoson love Dovid? He should have been the king. Yonoson was Saul's son. and who is Yonoson's best friend in the Universe? Dovid Hamelech. Because it was a soul love. If it is souls that love each other, if the person isn't looking at what he can get out of the next person, there is no jealousy. Yonoson didn't feel the slightest drop of envy that he wouldn't be the next king and Yonoson tells him that you are going to be the next king of the Jewish people.

This is what a person has to learn up from " VeAhavta Reyrcha Kamocha.That is the lesson that Rav Shimon learnt. He know what "Bein Odom L'Chavero" was.

For 33 days know, people don't get married, people don't shave, people don't take haircuts. We should feel a little bit about what happened in these 33 days. What happened? What did they do wrong? The Talmidim of Rav Akiva, as great as Rav Akiva was and the tradition comes from Rav Akiva. Rav Akiva didn't give up. We learn an amazing thing from Rav Akiva. You would think that if a person would have 12,000 Talmidim as the Medrash says or 24,000 like the Gomorra says, he wouild say: Nu, I am finished, let me retire, I will take a Sabbatical. Why does Rav Akiva have to start again? And imagine he had 12/24 000 Talmidim and now he has 7. Because if you love Torah, you can teach 7 people. You don't need numbers. What difference does it make how many people come? Torah is Torah. So Rav Akiva starts again with 7 Talmidim. And one of the best cause its hard to say who the best was but we celebrate Rav Shimon. It's his Yarzeit on Lag B'omer. Rav Shimon learnt the lesson. Rav Shimon is fire, that's why we burn fire. We don't burn fires on Lag B'omer to roast marshmallows or potatoes for that matter. That you do at camp. or a sing-along. A person should realize that when those flames go all the way up, this is Torah. That is the ability that every single individual has in him.

Yes, it's dormant, Nu Nu, a person has to bring it out. A person has to realize that he can bring it out. As we said over many times, in spirituality, there is no such thing as can't! Whatever a person wants to do in Ruchnius he can do. There is no reason to get broken. There shouldn't have been a more broken person in the world than Rav Akiva. He lost 24 000 Talmidim and he turns around and says, OK boys were starting again. You know what that is? He probably had the biggest Yeshiva in the world. I don't know if there are 24 000 Yeshiva Bochrim learning Torah today. I don't know if there are or aren't it doesn't make a difference but the point is Rav Akiva starts again, because in life you can't quit! And Rav Akiva knew what Torah was. How could he stop is the question. If I failed, so I have to start again. I learnt the lesson and now, I have to send him into that cave. Walking the streets of Manhattan is not going to teach him Torah. It's brought down from the Vilna Gaon, he wasasked from his disciples why he didn't want Angels to teach him. The Beis Yosef, the Author of the Shulchan Oruch who is buried in Sfas, did have angelic teachers. So the Vilna Gaon said, because the Beis Yosef lived in Israel and he lived in Vilna. and Vilna is not as clean 200 years later, after the Beis Yosef lived. So he was worried that he wouldn't get pure Torah. That is what a person has to learn. If a person wants to acquire Torah, he has to work on what is necessary. Give up a little "Olam Hazeh" for Torah and in the merit of Rav Shimon and his Rebbi Rav Akiva and in the merit of all the Tzaddikim and all the Torah teaches should be worthy for the Geula Shleyma and to see "Moshiach Tzidkenu Bimhera V'Yameynu Omen".

The Torah starts off this week's parsha that G-d spoke to Moshes on Mt. Siani. And then the Torah proceeds to tell us about the mitzvah of the seventh year. Rashi asks, what's the connection between the 7th year and Mt. Siani? All mitvos were given on Siani.

So Rashi answers, from the most important rules to the most miniscule (seemingly) details of halacha, all of Torah was given on Har Sinai. This begs the question, if everything was given at Sinai, why does the Torah tell us the laws of the 7th year, specifically, come from Sinai? Why not Shabbos, tefillin, kosher, etc.?

To answer this we must first ask, how long did the revelation at Sinai last? If one listens to the Baal Korae, it took about five minutes. How long did the miracle of the 7th year last (that a person has food without planting for a year)? The "revelation" of the 7th year, the miracle of bounty without sowing, lasted an entire YEAR. The truth is, when there was also a Jubilee year (the 50th year), the miracle of bounty lasted three years; one planted in year 48, and feasted in the 49th and 50th year as well. The Jubilee "revelation" of G-d's active administration lasted THREE YEARS!!

So that's why the 7th Year and the Jubillee (50th) are proceded by mention of Mt. Sinai. To show us that HaShem is constantly revealing himself to the Jewish people!!

Furthermore, just like HaShem says work six years and let the land lay fallow, and you will still be provided for, so too can a person work for six years, take off the seventh, and be provided for by the bounty of HaShem. The same G-d that makes the fields flourish gives a person wealth/income.

Regarding the verse in Psalms 103:20 which states, "Bless HaShem, O his angels, the strong warriors who do his bidding, to obey the voice of His word," the Midrash says that the "warriors" are the farmers who faithfully uphold the agricultural resrtrictions of the Sabbatical year. Because the devout man accepts this restraint with serene faith, he is called a strong warrior.

The Midrash emphasizes that upholding the sanctity of the seventh year is a feat taht demostrates remarkable stamina and endurance. Ordinarily, a person is willing to sacrifice a generous sum for charity once a week or once a month, but in the seventh year, the farmer's sacrifice must be constant. For one whole year, every minute of the day, he must stand by and watch his field go to waste. Such constant devotion resembles the service of angels who serve G-d without pause. For this we learn that man should serve G-d steadily, not mearly in sporadic bursts of inspiration that die out.

The Gemars says in Sota 48b, "Rabbi Eliezar says whoever has bread in the basket today and says, 'What am I going to eat tomorrow?,' is a small believer." Why is he a small believer? Says the Rabbaineu Bachya, he is a small believer because he only believes what he sees, and if he doesn't see, he doesn't believe. The 7th year must teach a person to believe in what they DON'T see, and to rely COMPLETELY on G-d's promises in the Torah. A person must have COMPLETE RELIANCE on G-d and his Torah.

The verse says in this weeks parsha (25:20), if one will ask "What will I eat during the 7th year? I don't plant, etc.," it says in verse 21 that I will command my blessing in year six that you will have for three years. The commentaries explain that had a person NOT questioned at all, he could just eat a small amount and be satiated. But now that man questions, he has to harvest three times as much and has to pay extra storage and worker fees, because of his LACK of trust in HaShem. The miracle of bounty comes because of little faith!!

The Alter of Novadik says, when will a person ask, "What will I eat during the 7th year?" The Alter says, he asks this question in year one. Man, more than anything else, wants security. The greatest security is putting your trust in HaShem, which is what the 7th year and the Jubillee are supposed to teach a Jew.

Torah Blessings,
Y. Bertram

bertram@ohr.israel.net