We spend our lives chasing security: money in the bank, success, stability, feeling “set.” But Parshas Behar-Bechukosai teaches that real brachah is not independence from Hashem, but abundance together with dependence on Him. Sometimes, specifically the moments when a person feels he has no “goel,” no one else to rely on, become the moments that bring him closest to the ultimate Goel.
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Dedicated by Yoni Spivak & Family (Jackson, NJ) in honor of Lechteich and the harbatzas Torah that they do
Parshas Behar-Bechukosai 5786
Cash in the bank. Security. Gold bars stacked away.
Want it? No one can blame you. But have you ever stopped to ask yourself what exactly is so enticing about it? What makes it feel so desirable? Is it only the comfort? The freedom? Or is it something deeper, the feeling that you have finally transcended the state of needing? The state of depending?
And if so, have you ever thought about who you no longer need? What happens to shemoneh esrei when a person feels fully secure? What happens to barech aleinu when parnasah no longer feels urgent? Do the words flatten? Do they lose their desperation, their dependency, their life?
What happens to the yamim noraim when a person slowly begins feeling self-sufficient? When security replaces vulnerability? When Hashem moves from the front lines of daily life into the background?
The beginning of Parshas Behar focuses on the mitzvos of shemittah and yovel, including the laws of ancestral land ownership in Eretz Yisrael and the eventual return of land to its original family.
The Torah established this system because the land ultimately belongs to Hashem, and each family’s portion was meant to remain permanently tied to its ancestral inheritance, preventing permanent loss due to temporary hardship and preserving the original tribal structure of klal Yisrael.
The Torah states:
כי־ימוך אחיך ומכר מאחזתו ובא גאלו הקרב אליו וגאל את ממכר אחיו ואיש כי לא יהיה־לו גאל והשיגה ידו ומצא כדי גאלתו וחשב את־שני ממכרו והשיב את־העדף לאיש אשר מכר־לו ושב לאחזתו ואם לא־מצאה ידו די השיב לו והיה ממכרו ביד הקנה אתו עד שנת היובל ויצא ביבל ושב לאחזתו.
Essentially, the Torah is teaching that if a person became impoverished and was forced to sell his ancestral land, a close relative, known as a גואל, could redeem it on his behalf. If no relative redeemed it, but the seller later acquired the means himself, he could calculate the remaining value until yovel and buy back the field. If he still could not afford to redeem it, the land would remain with the buyer only until the yovel year, when it would automatically return to its original family inheritance.
WHEN THERE IS "NO REDEEMER"
The Netziv asks that when the Torah outlines the protocol of a man redeeming the land himself, we encounter a redundancy. The Torah describes him as: “ואיש כי לא יהיה לו גאל והשיגה ידו – If a person has no redeemer, but he attains enough means…”
Seemingly, the first half of the pasuk is unnecessary. What difference does it make whether he has a redeemer or not? The central point is simply that he eventually acquired the means to redeem the field. It would suffice for the Torah to say והשיגה ידו – he has the means, Why then does the Torah first emphasize that ואיש כי לא יהיה לו גאל – he had “no redeemer”?
The Netziv explains that the Torah is teaching a deep yesod in bitachon. The “לא יהיה לו גאל” is not a side detail. It is specifically the reason he is “והשיגה ידו.” The person who feels he has no one else to rely on, no fallback, no human redeemer, is the one who ultimately turns fully toward Hashem, the ultimate Goel. And davka through that dependence, through that trust and reliance on Hashem alone, “והשיגה ידו,” he is given the ability and the means to redeem what was lost. But the one who places his trust entirely in people and in his own support system ultimately removes Hashem from the picture. The Torah is revealing that sometimes the greatest source of salvation is precisely when a person realizes that his only true redeemer is Hashem Himself.
The message of the beginning of Behar ties in perfectly with the beginning of Bechukosai:
The Divrei Yisrael of Modzhitz in his sefer Divrei Yisrael reveals a yesod that touches one of the deepest struggles people carry. Parnasah is one of the areas where a person most easily begins believing כוחי ועוצם ידי. My connections. My talent. My intelligence. My hustle. My effort. And the more successful a person becomes, the easier it is to subtly move Hashem further out of the picture.
But the Modzhitzer says the exact opposite is true.
When a person recognizes that his parnasah is not ultimately produced by his own hands, but is a decree from Heaven, the gates of shefa open wider.
This is what the Torah means when it says: אם בחקתי תלכו.
The word בחקתי literally means “My decrees,” but the Gemara in Beitzah 16a teaches that the word חק also refers to parnasah, a person’s allotted sustenance. Accordingly, the pasuk of אם בחקתי תלכו is teaching that when a person lives with the awareness that his livelihood is decreed by Hashem, then “ונתתי גשמיכם בעתם ונתנה הארץ יבולה ועץ השדה יתן פריו – I will provide your rains in their proper time, the land will give its produce, and the trees of the field will give their fruit.”
The abundance flows specifically through that recognition. But when a person believes that everything comes solely through the work of his own hands, he confines himself to the limits of his own ability instead of attaching himself to the limitless source of brachah itself.
THE TORAH'S DEFINITION OF BRACHAH
In the same vein, Rav Shimshon Pincus adds something remarkable. The Torah promises prosperity and abundance specifically through crops, rain, and cattle. But why not simply promise gold and silver?
He answers: because money can make a person feel self-sufficient. Crops force dependency. Rain forces tefillah. Livestock forces awareness. A farmer constantly lifts his eyes upward. Will there be rain? Will the field grow? Will the animals survive? Even after success comes, he still needs siyatta d’Shmaya for people to buy. His life remains connected to Hashem.
Gold and silver can create the illusion of security. Money in the bank. Assets stacked away. The feeling of “I’m set.” But that feeling itself can become the danger. A person can slowly begin living as though he no longer needs Hashem in the picture.
Hashem therefore defines brachah differently than we do.
Brachah is not when a person becomes so financially secure that he stops depending on Hashem. It is the exact opposite. True brachah is abundance together with dependence. Success together with tefillah. Wealth together with awareness. To live with plenty, yet still have your eyes turned upward.
Because when Hashem is removed from the picture, a person can possess all the silver and gold in the world and still be empty. But when a person lives with kirvas Elokim, even the struggle itself becomes connected to brachah.
TRUE SECURITY
The lesson we learn is that a Yid is never alone. We all experience moments of “לא יהיה לו גאל,” moments where we feel stranded, uncertain, with no idea where to turn or what to do. But the Netziv reveals that hidden inside those very moments is one of the greatest messages of chizzuk in the entire parshah.
When a person does not run from those feelings, but instead allows them to draw him closer to the Ribbono Shel Olam, something remarkable happens. The vulnerability itself becomes the opening for redemption. Then we become “והשיגה ידו.” Hashem assists us. Not only does it elevate a person spiritually, it ultimately brings brachah into his physical life as well.
And while people may look at cash in the bank, gold bars, and endless reserves as the definition of security, the Torah teaches otherwise. That is not real security. Real security is living with a relationship with Hashem so real that a person still turns to Him, still speaks to Him, still begs the King.
That is why the Torah describes brachah through rain, crops, and cattle, not silver and gold. Because true brachah is not a life that removes dependence on Hashem. True brachah is a life where even abundance keeps a person connected to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. •
Sources: R’ Meilech Biderman, Lechteich 2024
