Devar/5770/Behar-Bechukotai
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< Devar | 5770
עברית
English
And the LORD spoke unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying (Lev 25:1)
The portion opens with God telling Moses the following words, on Mount Sinai: Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD (ibid 2). This raises the question -- did the Torah wish to tell us that these specific words were spoken at Mount Sinai? Or perhaps it wishes to inform us as Rashi aid: "just as the sabbatical year laws were given, in general and in specific, at Sinai -- so too were all the laws given in general and in specific, at Sinai". Rashi took this quote from the Sifra, "Behar" portion 1.
So why should we not say, instead, that the Torah wishes to emphasize that these particular laws were indeed given at Sinai? After all, it would make sense to say that, since one might think that since the laws were related to "when ye come into the Land", perhaps they were only given in close proximity to when they entered the Land, and not at Sinai!
The Sifra explains that there is no difference of "pedigree" between the various commandments -- all of them came from the same source and from the same place, from "Sinai". Even those which were not stated in the physical location "Mount Sinai", nevertheless came from the command of the Rock of Israel, the Holy One blessed is He. The portion (and the entire book of Leviticus) ends with: These are the commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai (Lev 27:34). Even though the Israelites were then in the wilderness of Sinai and not at the mountain, all of the laws were from God, "at Mount Sinai".
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