The Unifying Field Theory of Torah
Chapter 23 of Chumash Vayikra, which appears in the parsha of this week, is devoted entirely to discussing the holy days of the Jewish year. Within this presentation, one verse seems to stand out as anomalous. After presenting the festival of Shavuos,[1] and before proceeding to present Rosh Hashanah,[2] the Torah states:[3]
ובקצרכם את קציר ארצכם לא תכלה פאת שדך בקצרך ולקט קצירך לא תלקט לעני ולגר תַעזב אתם אני ה' אלקיכם.
When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not completely remove the corners of your field as you reap and you shall not gather the gleanings of your harvest; for the poor and the convert you shall leave them, I am Hashem, your God.
What are we to make of this seeming “break in topic?” Why does the Torah interrupt its discussion of the festivals to inform us about the mitzvos of leaving the various portions of our harvest for the needy? The matter is all the more perplexing given the fact that these mitzvos have already been presented in the Torah,[4] which makes their appearance here not only anomalous — but also redundant!
What is the Torah teaching us by inserting these mitzvos at this juncture?
The Tablets of Stone: Two That Are One
On one occasion, the Torah writes the word “luchos,” referring to the two tablets of stone upon which the Ten Commandments were written, without a second vav — “לוחת.”[5] Written this way, the word could be read in the singular — “luchas.” Commenting on this “deficient” spelling, the midrash explains that it comes to teach us that the two tablets were “as one,” i.e., equal in size.[6] Although this may seem intuitively to be the case, it is actually not so obvious, for the five Dibros which make up the contents of the first tablet are much longer than those which were written on the second. Nevertheless, we are informed that the two tablets were of equal size. What is the meaning behind this?
Rav Yitzchak Hutner explains. As we know, mitzvos of the Torah are divided into two categories:
- Bein Adam LaMakom — between man and God
- Bein Adam Le’chaveiro — between man and man
There is a predilection among many people to ascribe greater religious weight and significance to the mitzvos that are between man and God; after all, they involve relating to God directly. Mitzvos that relate to our fellow man can sometimes take second place in the hierarchy of religious activities. It is this imbalance within the two categories of mitzvah that the Torah seeks to redress and categorically disqualify by equating the two Luchos in size. The mitzvos written on the first Tablet are in the area between man and God, while those on the second Tablet are between man and man. Thus, built in to the quintessential physical repository of the mitzvos — the two tablets of stone — is the equation of these two categories of mitzvos.[7]
Mehadrin Matzos
On one occasion, Rav Yisrael Salanter was unable to be involved personally in baking matzos for Pesach and a group of his students undertook to do so for him. Before setting out, they visited the rabbi and inquired if there were any specific stringencies he had with regard to the kashrus of his matzos.
Rav Yisrael replied, “Yes, in fact, I do have the following stringency: The woman who cleans the utensils in between each baking run is a widow. In their efforts to ensure that no traces of dough remain on the utensils and that the baking does not get held up, people are sometimes impatient with her and cause her to become upset. My stringency is to speak calmly and encouragingly to her and to let her clean at her own pace. Please take care to remember this stringency so that the matzos are baked l’mehadrin — with the highest standards of mitzvos.”
Returning to the sequence of pesukim in our parsha, perhaps based on the above idea, we may suggest that the Torah does not wish to move on from Shavuos, when we celebrate receiving the Torah, without reinforcing awareness of the equality of all mitzvos. Upon encountering this festival, lest we gravitate toward ascribing greater significance to mitzvos between man and God, the Torah “goes out of its way” to repudiate this notion by repeating mitzvos which are between man and man. The message the Torah wishes to impart is: “There is as much religious significance to the produce left in the corner of your field as the prayers uttered in your corner of shul and the Torah studied in your corner of the beis midrash.”
[1] V. 16–21.
[2] V. 23–25.
[3] V. 22.
[4] Vayikra 19:9.
[5] Shemos 31:18.
[6] Shemos Rabbah 41:8.
[7] Pachad Yitzchak, Shavuos, maamar 41.