Behar | Overview and Detail

Summarized by Rav Eliyahu Blumenzweig

"And God spoke to Moshe at Har Sinai saying..." (Vayikra 25:1)

"Just as both the general concepts and the finer details of the laws of shemitta were given at Sinai, so were both the general concepts and the finer details of all the other laws given there." (Rashi) 

     Sometimes a person grasps a general idea without understanding all the details which it involves.  And sometimes he understands a multitude of details but fails to make of them a complete system in his mind; despite his command of the details themselves, he has no concept of how the whole is made up. 

     In the case of Torah and mitzvot, such a situation is unacceptable.  The overall concepts and the details are interdependent and inseparable.  A defect in the smallest detail affects the entirety: a scribe who neglects to fulfil a seemingly minor halakha while writing the parshiyot for a pair of tefillin has in fact nullified the entire mitzva.

     This does not mean that there is no distinction between general concepts and details in the Torah.  It means rather that the all-encompassing light illuminates and influences even the smallest details.  The overarching inspiration penetrates and amplifies the whole system of tiny details such that every small detail contains some of the illumination of the totality.  On the other hand, when a detail is neglected, then damage is done to the totality.  Hence this concept works in both directions - every detail is nourished by the totality, and the totality is not complete without the entire system of details.

     In the Torah's description of the giving of the Torah at Har Sinai we are told, "And the whole nation saw the sounds...."  The faculty of seeing is associated with totality - with one single glance a person can grasp a great deal, an entire picture.  Hearing, on the other hand, is associated with detail - a person cannot pay attention to two voices at the same time and understand both simultaneously.  The "seeing of the sounds" at Har Sinai hints at the unity of general concepts and details in the Torah.  It was a comprehensive "seeing" that took in every detail, as well as perceiving their unity in a whole. 

     Both general concepts and details of the Torah were given at Har Sinai, the place where this complete unity between them was revealed.

     This idea finds expression specifically in the mitzvot of shemitta and yovel, which our text connects to Har Sinai.  Shemitta comes to bring everyone together, to break barriers, to cancel private ownership.  Yovel, in a certain sense, comes to preserve the uniqueness of each individual by returning his property to him.

     This unity applies not only to each separate mitzva and its details, but also to the Torah as a whole.  All 613 mitzvot together form a closely knit system and they cannot be separated.  This sheds light on the Maharal's teaching that every time Moshe wanted to teach Bnei Yisrael a new mitzva, he reviewed the whole Torah with them - because no single detail or law can be detached or separated from the entirety that is the Torah.

(Originally delivered on Leil Shabbat, Parashat Behar-Bechukotai 5732.

Translated by Kaeren Fish.)