OU Torah Insights Project

A well known rav in the old country once visited a town in the winter time, staying as a guest in one of the Jewish homes, which were located on a hilltop. At the bottom of the hill was the town’s shul. When the rav walked there for Shacharis the next morning, he slipped a few times on the ice-covered ground and came to shul with snow and mud covering his coat.

But to his suprise, the towns-people’s coats were dry and clean. When he asked how, they told him that before the winter they tie a rope from the top of the hill to the shul and use it as a railing so that no one falls down. "Now I understand," said the rav. "If one is tied to the top, he won’t slip on his way down."

This story comes to mind because of the unique name of this sedra, Behar, On the Mountain. Not just any mountain, but Mount Sinai, where G-d gave the Torah to the Jewish nation.

Jews have a special, his-torical relationship with two mountains: Sinai and Mount Moriah, the site of Akeidas Yitzchak.

These two mountains are really one, says the Midrash. Moriah was transplanted to the Sinai desert so that the Torah could be given on this precious place, the site of the Akeida.

Two mountains, Moriah, which represents the Jew’s readiness to die for the sake of Heaven, and Sinai, which teaches that even martyrdom must come from within the confines of Torah law. Man’s personal judg-ments, however well-intentioned, can never replace the Torah’s statutes. G-d forbid that man should decide when it is proper to give up his life, as recently happened in one group’s attempt to reach "Heaven’s Gate" through mass suicide.

Only G-d can decide what is and what is not true martyrdom. Torah and Akeida go hand in hand, Moriah and Sinai are one and the same.

G-d blessed Avraham "because you... did not keep your only son from Me." But Avraham was halted by G-d’s messenger. He did not go through with the Akeida. What, then, was Avraham’s great act?

Avraham’s greatness stem-med from his subordinating his understanding to G-d’s command. Following human logic, his sacrifice of Yitzchak would have left Avraham with no heirs. No one would remain in the world to carry on his battle battle against idolatry and to spread the belief in One G-d.

But Avraham did not follow this logic, even though such a conclusion would have been for the sake of Heaven, because he understood that G-d also knew what he knew and had His own reasons for His instruction. Surely, G-d would not allow idolatry to triumph.

Avraham knew he must not try to be more religious than G-d. That is why he was blessed with the promise that his descendants would conquer their enemies.

Let us do all we can to preserve the Torah, not according to our under-standing, but according to the will of G-d as revealed in His Torah.

The world offers us a choice. We can choose to be behar Sinai, choose to be tied to the top. Otherwise, the midbar Sinai, the wilderness of anarchy, will take over. may we choose to be behar Sinai.

Rabbi Dovid Dov Hollander is the Rabbi of the Hebrew Alliance of Brighton, Brooklyn, NY.

AMIT	Orthodox Union	National Council of Young Israel
Bnei Akiva	Poalei Agudath Yisroel	Religious Zionists of America
Emunah	Rabbinical Council of America	Touro College Alumni

RIETS Alumni, Stern College Alumnae, Sy Syms School of Business Alumni, & Yeshiva College Alumni (YU)

Torah Insights for Shabbat Parashat Behar

May 24, 1997