Mitzvah to blow the Shofar on Yovel
On Yom Kippur, at the start of the Yovel year, we are commanded to publicly
blow the Shofar. This marks the culmination of the calendar cycle. When we
are on our own land, we are commanded to keep every seventh year as the
Shmittah year, and then at the completion of seven Shmittos, to add an
additional Shmittah year – the Yovel. Not only does the land lay fallow
during Yovel, homesteads return to their original owners, and all Jewish
slaves are freed.
Why we blow the Shofar on Yovel
The Sefer HaChinuch explains that the reason the Torah commands us to blow
the Shofar on Yovel is that freeing a slave is a very difficult mitzvah and
the slave owners need chizuk. It may well be that a master had a slave for
many years and became dependent upon him. He would find it hard to part with
his servant. By sounding the Shofar, we are publicly proclaiming that it is
Yovel, and all Jews will be freeing their slaves. The master will then
recognize that throughout the Land of Israel, everyone is freeing their
slaves, and so it will be easier for him to free his own slave.
Why is it easier because others are doing it?
This statement becomes difficult to understand when we take into account
that the slave owner is a businessman not a teenager. We are dealing with a
mature person, faced with a difficult test. What difference does it make to
him whether this is a popular mitzvah or not? If this mitzvah is difficult
to do, it is because he is being asked to give up something that he has
become attached to and is dependent upon. If that’s what makes the mitzvah
difficult, what difference does it make to him whether there are many other
people doing the same or if he is the only person on the planet doing it?
Understanding human nature
The answer to this question is based on understanding human nature.
Psychologists from Freud to Skinner to Maslow have been debating the inner
nature of the person for decades. With ever-changing views and
understandings, that which one generation accepts as gospel, the next
rejects as tomfoolery. Here we get insight into the nature of man from the
One Who truly knows – from his Maker.
That understanding is that we humans are highly social. We are affected by
our environment. The way that we view things, our perspectives, and our
value systems are affected by what those around us do. Peer pressure isn’t
something that impacts only in the world of the teenager. It affects
everyone. My crowd, my chevra, and my society affect the way I view things,
my value system. Ultimately, they affect what I do.
The Torah is teaching us that even a mature adult faced with a difficult
trial will be greatly influenced by what others are doing. If something is
done by everyone, it will be much easier for him. It won’t lessen his
financial loss, and it won’t ease the burden of replacing a loyal servant,
but it will help him gather the fortitude to make the proper decision.
Everyone is doing it.
Creating our own society
This concept has very real application in our lives. We live in times when
society at large has lost its moral compass. Particularly in the United
States, once a bastion of family values and morality, we now watch daily as
new innovations in decadence and promiscuity pour forth. We can’t open a
newspaper without being exposed to a new depth of moral decay. Ideas,
concepts, and images that wouldn’t have been accepted in the most base of
publications a generation ago are now common place in the most respected
ones.
We may be tempted to assume that this doesn’t affect us. After all, we are
different. We don’t buy into the culture of the times. And while we may feel
self-assured and secure in our position, the reality is that we are human,
so it can’t help but affect us. The question is: what can we do about it?
The whole world agrees
The Gemarah often uses an expression: “Kulei Alma Lo Pligi” – The whole
world agrees. To the Torah sages, that was the whole world. If you had an
opinion about an issue of Halacha, you were in the world. If not, you
weren’t. This is illustrative of a perspective. While they were certainly
aware of people outside of their sphere, they created their own world.
This may sound myopic and cloistered, but it is based on a fundamental
understanding of the human. To remain pure in an impure world, we need to
create our own world.
To some extent, we have done just that. We now have our own music, our own
novels, and our own magazines. We have, to a degree, created our own
culture. But this comes with a cost. There is no question that The New York
Times has better writers than do the Yated and the HaModia. The world of
Jewish music is quite limited in its scope and development. There is much
out there in the world at large that has great value, but it doesn’t come
without its baggage. In our times the baggage far outweighs the
advantantages.
To some, this may sound like “Ghetto Judaism” – limiting, closed off,
isolated from the world. And in truth, it is. But it’s not out of being
small-minded. It stems from recognizing the extent of the problem and the
nature of the human. The unfortunate reality is that we can’t just take the
good and ignore the bad. If we wish to live as a Holy Nation in these times,
we need create an oasis of purity. We need to create our own world.
For more on this topic please
listen to Shmuz #166 - Everybody is doing it
