פרשה: בהר · עלייה: חמישי (הוד)

ואיש כי ימכר בית מושב, "And if a man sells a house which is (his) residence, etc." After the Torah has described how G'd "sold" the Temple, the Torah now explains how it could happen that G'd would "sell" His heritage, the Holy Temple. This is why the paragraph starts with the word ואיש, so that we understand that the word refers to G'd, just as it had in the previous paragraph. The extraneous word מושב refers to the house in which G'd has His residence, the Holy Temple; the expression עיר חומה refers to Jerusalem, the "walled city" which is described by David in Psalms 125 ,2 as "the city ringed by mountains, (i.e. like wall)." The Torah continues by explaining that these very "walls" are why the city may be be redeemed after as little as a year already. The reason is similar to what has been revealed to us by Midrash Tehillim on Psalms 79,1. We were told there that when G'd vented His anger on the stones and timber of the city allowing it to be destroyed, this was in lieu of venting all His anger on the people inside the city. Had G'd not vented His anger on stone and wood, not a single Jew would have survived that experience. If Israel had been wiped out, there would never again have been either a Holy Temple or a city of Jerusalem.

וכי ימוך אחיך ומטה ידו, "If your brother becomes poor and his means fail while he is with you, etc." This paragraph tries to awaken us to the reason why the spirit of G'd "our Brother" who used to dwell in our midst has become so infirm. When the Torah describes "our Brother becoming poor," it refers to the "spirit of life within us; the reason it seems to weaken is that it observed that we failed to study Torah and practice the commandments. There is no greater kind of poverty than the dearth of merits due to Torah study and the performance of kind deeds towards one's fellow man. As a result, the individual Israelite's light fails. The word עמך emphasises that the failure is due to its having concentrated on you. Had it not been for G'd channelling His light through you (the Jewish people), His light would have permeated the whole universe from one end to the other. Under the changed conditions, G'd wants to return the רוח light, to His celestial domains as described in Kohelet 12,7: "and the spirit returns to the Lord who had provided it." Shabbat 152 comments on this that G'd demands that the spirit be returned to Him in mint condition, i.e. שנתנה לך "in the condition He gave it to you." The Torah goes on והחזקת בו "you are to uphold him;" this means that you are to assist such a Jew who has strayed from the true path to do תשובה to help him rehabilitate himself. There is no other means which can ensure that the vital רוח be sustained within us which is comparable to the power of repentance.

גר ותושב וחי עמך, "a stranger or a resident he shall live with you." According to a mystical text קב הישר chapter 32 there are souls G'd places in a body (person) in accordance with the principle we call סוד העבור, so that they can participate in the performance of a specific commandment and that person will acquire the merit which results from performance of that commandment. Other souls are provided for man for no specific task but as an opportunity afforded to the body (person) within whom the soul dwells to rehabilitate that personality. The words גר ותושב refer to these two kinds of souls. The former is called גר, the latter is called תושב. The Torah says: וחי עמך "it shall live within you" concerning either kind of soul, seeing a person does not know which kind of soul he has been endowed with he is well advised to assume that it is his task to rehabilitate himself by doing תשובה so that he would not lose the light G'd has granted him and as a result of which He resides within him. אל תקח מאתו נשך ותרבית, "Do not take an advance from him or accrued Interest;" I will explain presently what is meant by these words. When the verse goes on ויראת מאלוקך, "you shall fear your G'd," this refers to the light which G'd has endowed you with by granting you a pure soul which you are under an obligation to return in mint condition. The Torah demands further וחי אחיך עמך, that when the time comes to return your soul to G'd it should return equipped with additional vitality acquired through the fact that you lived a life dedicated to the service of G'd. While it is true that Kohelet only spoke about returning the רוח in the condition that you received it, this was a minimal demand. Alternatively, you may refer to what I explained in my book חפץ השם on Shabbat 152, that the words "as He has has given to you," mean that the soul by definition is a spiritual force which is apt to add vitality and spiritual light to the body it inhabits.

את כספך לא תתן לו בנשך, "You shall not give him your money upon interest;" Here the Torah explains what the words נשך ומרבית are all about; they darken the divine light G'd provides. The word את כספך refers to the material things man yearns for in this world believing them to be of real value though their value is totally illusory. לא תתן לו בנשך When man fulfils his animalistic instincts and thereby tries to gratify his spiritual needs his spirit is actually "bitten," נשוך and the poison of sin is absorbed by that person's רוח. The Torah continues: ובמרבית לא תתן אכלך, "and you must not give him your food in return for increase." The Torah means that even your food, i.e. something that it is certainly permissible for you to eat you must not consume to excess, i.e. מרבית. When a person follows the needs of his palate he gradually increases his appetite for more food than is needed to sustain him. This is turn also leads to the divine light G'd has granted us by means of our pure soul being gradually more and more "blacked out." The stronger the physical in man the weaker his spiritual capacity. Encouraging the body to grow stronger through gratifying its appetites therefore is sinful. This is why Proverbs 13,25 teaches us that "the righteous eats onIy to satisfy the needs of his life-force, נפש." Solomon says this to remind us that it is not our palate which should dictate the quantity or quality of our food-intake. When the Torah continues אני השם (verse 38), this means that although G'd has taken us out of Egypt in order to give us the land of Canaan, the purpose was not in order for the Jewish people to stuff themselves on the good fruit of the land but in order for Him to be our G'd, something that requires the land of Israel. Our sages in Torat Kohanim say that anyone who merely lives in the land of Israel is as if he had accepted for himself G'd's sovereignty.