The Money Test (25:9)

Every fifty years the people of Israel celebrated Yovel. The laws of the Jubilee year promoted the concept that personal freedom for individuals and legal rights to property belong to G-d to decide, not man. With that in mind we can appreciate why the Torah prohibited selling in perpetuity land in Eretz Yisroel. And so every Jubilee the farms and estates were returned to the original owners as originally dictated by a Divinely mandated lottery in the days of Joshua, successor to Moses.

The Yovel was marked by another important rule. Every Hebrew slave was granted unconditional freedom. These transfers of property and persons began on Rosh Hashana of the fiftieth year. From then until Yom Kippur was a period of transition. The indentured servant did not return home, nor was his master permitted to employ him. Instead, he dined at his master’s table; eating, drinking, and readjusting to his state of freedom. Finally on Yom Kippur the shofar was blown and the slave went back home to his family.

The Chinuch points out that the matter of sending away one’s servants must have been very difficult for the owner, who was compelled to sustain a substantial financial loss. After all, owning slaves was an economic bonanza. Imagine running a business and not having to pay workers; no salary, no social security taxes, no pension, no Blue Cross, nothing.

Therefore, in order to give owners the strength to fulfill this difficult command, the Torah required the Shofar be blown throughout Israel, giving everyone the sense that we are not alone in making this sacrifice. According to the Chinuch nothing bolsters our spirit like universal public action. The fact that “everybody is doing it” is the greatest source of encouragement. 

This is a tremendous psychological insight, one that can be confirmed from listening to the news. The whole country is bombarded with the slogan, “Just Say No to Drugs.” There is not a kid in all of America that does not know that drugs destroy, are easy to be hooked on, and difficult to leave. So why do they all start? Are they all idiots? The answer is, “Everybody is doing it.” Peer pressure, social pressure is such that it can make a person do something that he does not want to do. That is human nature.

The lesson is obvious. Choose your community and friends carefully.  We all feel obliged, on some level, to conform…for good or bad. A person will act better or worse than he would usually because of community standards, or to put it simply, “This is what everyone else is doing.”

em>

The Beis Av picks up at this point on the words of the Chinuch.  The Talmud relates (Rosh HaShana 34b) that the shofar blowing consisted of the exact same sequence of sounds and prayers as performed ten days earlier on Rosh Hashana.

But, asks the Beis Av, if the whole purpose of blowing on Yovel was to remind each slave owner that, “everyone was doing it,” there would be no need for the specific blowing of Tekiah, Teruah, Tekiah with its attendant prayers.

One of the main reasons for Shofar on Rosh Hashana is that we should remember the self-sacrifice of Isaac who willingly bared his neck on the altar. We then say to ourselves, if Isaac accepted martyrdom, we are ready to do no less. The only question is what type of sacrifice?
On Rosh Hashona our sacrifice consists of giving Him, “All your heart and all your soul.” But that is not enough. Ten days later, on the Yom Kippur of Yovel we have to consider our willingness to sacrifice, “All your wealth.”

Let’s not kid ourselves, we love our money. We are attached to it. Hence it is difficult to give away. When the Torah tells us to free our slaves, it is telling us that we have to display mesiras nefesh (self-sacrifice) in regards to our money. For many this is as challenging as giving away one’s life. Therefore it becomes necessary to once again conjure up in our minds the image of Isaac, of serving G-d with what is most dear to us, be it our lives or our money.

Do such people, whose love of money is more precious than life, really exist?  Absolutely yes. This is why some (who don’t even have to) work 16 and18 hours a day. And this is why during the Los Angeles race riots, certain individuals risked (and actually lost) their lives trying to protect the merchandise in their stores. We say, “Gee, he must be crazy!” But in truth he is just a little crazier than many of us. We also give our sweat, our tears, our energy, our weekends, and the best years of our life for mere financial gain.