Two Explanations of the “Giborei Koach” Title Given to Shmita Observers
These divrei Torah were adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissocher Frand’s Commuter Chavrusah Tapes on the weekly portion: #1336 – The Tochacha of Parshas Bechukosai – Should It Be Avoided? Good Shabbos!
In Parshas Behar, the Torah says, regarding the Shmita year: “The land will give its fruit and you will eat to satisfaction; and you will dwell securely upon it. If you will say: What will we eat in the seventh year? — behold! We will not sow and we will not gather our crop! I will ordain My blessing for you in the sixth year and it will yield a crop sufficient for the three years. You will sow in the eighth year, but you will eat from the old crop; until the ninth year, until the arrival of its crop, you will eat the old.” (Vayikra 25:19-22).
There is a famous Medrash that we have spoken about numerous times over the years. The Medrash in Vayikra Rabba quotes the pasuk in Tehillim: “Giborei koach oseh devoro” (Tehillim 103:20) referring to people of mighty strength, people of character. Who are the people this pasuk is mentioning? The Medrash says that normally a mitzvah takes a single day or a single week or a single month to accomplish. However, people sitting and watching their fields lying fallow while still paying taxes, etc. is extraordinary because it continues for an entire year. The Medrash says there are no greater “giborei koach” than these people.
Yom Kippur is hard because we cannot eat for 25 hours. But it is just one day. Pesach is hard. We can’t have pizza for an entire week! But people facing great financial uncertainty for an entire year – those people are true “giborei koach!”
There is a famous question that many people ask on this Medrash: What is the big deal about this special attribute of “giborei koach” associated with Shmita observance? After all, the Torah assures us that in the year prior to Shmita (the sixth year of the seven-year Sabbatical cycle), the crop will produce triple what it produces in a normal year (years one through five of the Sabbatical cycle).
If a person earns $100,000 a year, and then one year, he earns $300,000, he can go back to Kollel for two years! He has the cash-flow to cover it. He sees the money in the bank. So, if the pasuk promises a bounty crop – a bonanza of three years-worth of produce – what is the special attribute of “giborei koach,” with which the pasuk praises Shmita observers?
There are many answers given to this question. I saw two answers that relate to human nature:
Yes, I received a bounty crop in the sixth year and I know that I am not going to starve. But in the meantime, as I watch my field, I see that (even though I did not plant during Shmita) things grow on their own. What happens to the produce that grows on its own? The poor are permitted to come in and take it. The owner sits back and watches his field, into which he has invested his blood, sweat, and tears all these years, sitting hefker (halachically ownerless), with strangers coming and taking all its produce! And guess what? They are not even saying “Thank you” because they don’t need to say “Thank you” because it’s hefker.
I may be a generous fellow and may even be a big ba’al tzedakah. I write out checks for charity and have the satisfaction of knowing that I am giving to worthy causes. I have that positive psychological feeling of knowing that I am doing the mitzvah of tzedakah and I receive the “thank you.” People realize that I am giving them money. But it is another thing entirely to sit back and watch my produce treated as a “hefker-velt,” with all kinds of people just trampling over my field taking whatever they want without even acknowledging me.
Even though one may have the $300,000 in the bank, it is very difficult for him to sit back and let all this happen. This is the attribute of giborei koach.
The other answer to this question is another great principle of human nature: how easily we forget. True, in the sixth year I earned triple what I earn in a normal year, but that was in the past. In the seventh year, I did not earn anything. People don’t remember that last year they took in triple their normal income. It is the old principle of “What have you done for me lately?” We forget the good.
There is an oft-quoted parable of the dentist and the root canal. Over Shabbos, a person has a horrible tooth ache. He is in excruciating pain. He literally cannot find a place to sit in peace. On Motzai Shabbos, he calls up his dentist and tells him that he is in terrible pain. The dentist says “Come right in.” “Now?” “Yes. Come in right now.”
The fellow goes into the dentist’s office on Motzai Shabbos. The dentist treats him and relieves the pain. The patient says to the dentist “How much do I owe you?” The dentist answers “You owe me half of what you wanted to give me before I fixed your tooth.” This means that when the patient was in pain, he was willing to give the dentist an arm and a leg. “Whatever it is, I can’t live like this.” But after the fact, we forget that. That’s the way we are.
So yes, I earned the money the previous year, but that was yesterday. That was last year. Therefore, it is still very difficult for me to sit back and take with equanimity the fact that my land is now hefker.
The Juxtaposition of Shmita With “And When Your Brother Becomes Poor”
Immediately following the parsha of Shmita, the Torah goes into a whole downward spiral of “When your brother becomes poor and needs to sell his inheritance…” (Vayikra 25:25-28). The Torah talks about a poor person who falls on hard times. The Gemara (Eruchin 30) comments on the juxtaposition of the mitzvah of Shmitah and this downward spiral of the poor person:
Come and see the severity of the prohibition of doing business with seventh-year produce: A person does business with fruits of the Shmita year and what happens to him? He falls on hard times. He needs to sell his movable objects (furniture, car, etc.) because he does not have enough money. This means that the Ribono shel Olam is sending him a message: You tried to make money by illegally selling Shmita fruit. Now look what’s happening to you. If he doesn’t get the message, he will not only need to sell his moveable objects, he will even need to sell his real estate. Ultimately, he will be so poor that he will even need to sell his daughter into slavery. If he still doesn’t “get it,” eventually he will even need to sell himself as a slave.
This, the Gemara explains, is the juxtaposition of the parsha of Shmita and the person who falls on hard times. Rabbeinu Yakov Yosef, the one and only “Chief Rabbi of New York City” (brought over from Vilna at the end of the 1800s to serve in that position) offered another insight into this juxtaposition:
If a poor person comes to you and says “Listen, I am poor. I can’t make my mortgage payment. You need to help me out.” Our reaction might be “Don’t worry. Have bitachon (trust in G-d). The Ribono shel Olam will take care of you.” However, that is not a proper reaction.
Rav Yisrael Salanter once formulated a very crucial ethical rule: Regarding another person’s needs, we all need to be atheists. When someone needs help, we should not assume “the Ribono shel Olam will help.” No. You need to be the one who helps. Regarding your friend’s gashmiyus (material needs), the attitude must be “Maybe the Ribono shel Olam is not going to help. I need to help.”
Rav Yisrael used to say that people make a mistake. Everyone worries about his own gashmiyus, but has bitachon about his own ruchniyus (confidence that everything will be okay with his spirituality). It should be the other way around. When it comes to your ruchniyus, you need to worry, and let Hakadosh Baruch Hu take care of your gashmiyus. However, regarding someone else’s gashmiyus, you need to be a kofer (denier), or at least an agnostic and say “No. I need to take care of this fellow.”
The Ribono shel Olam placed this needy person in your lap. Don’t tell him to have faith in the Ribono shel Olam and that everything will be alright. Bitachon is for you. For the other person’s problems, you need to take out your checkbook and be practical.
Maybe, says Rav Yakov Yosef, that explains the juxtaposition at the beginning of Parshas Behar. A person finished the year of Shmitah. “I didn’t work a drop. I had bitachon and I made it through the year. I know what it means to live a life of bitachon. I put my money where my mouth is.” Then a poor person comes to me and complains about his financial needs. I should not lecture him about my bitachon and how I spent an entire year not earning a dime. A person has a tendency, after he has gone through a nisayon and passed the test, to go to the next person and say “You must have bitachon as well.”
No. That is all well and good for yourself. But when someone is in need, don’t be frum on his cheshbon! Don’t play the “bitachon card” on him. For him, you need to take out your checkbook.
Transcribed by David Twersky; Jerusalem [email protected]
Technical Assistance by Dovid Hoffman; Baltimore, MD [email protected]
This week’s write-up is adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissochar Frand’s Commuter Chavrusah Series on the weekly Torah portion. A listing of the halachic portions for Parshas Behar/Bechukotai is provided below:
- # 011 – Rationing Medical Care
- # 012 – Can Teachers Strike?
- # 054 – Life Insurance: The Torah Policy
- # 055 – Candle Lighting & Havdalah: How Early & How Late?
- # 097 – “Ribis” Problems of Interest for the Jew in a Mercantile Society
- # 098 – “Cheremei Tzibur”: A Ban on Living in Germany?
- # 145 – Kidney Donations: Endangering Oneself to Save Another
- # 192 – Making Shabbos Early
- # 282 – The Physician’s Obligation to Heal
- # 328 – Sh’mita and the Heter Mechira
- # 372 – Using Shuls As A Shortcut
- # 416 – Supporting Jewish Merchants
- # 460 – The Obligation of Checking One’s Teffilin
- # 504 – Lag B’Omer
- # 548 – Marrying for Money
- # 592 – Ribis and the Non-Jew
- # 636 – The Kedusha of the Ezras Noshim
- # 680 – Is Ribis Ever Permitted?
- # 724 – The Chazzan Who Changes His Mind
- # 768 – Dos and Don’ts of Treating a Lender
- # 812 – How Much Is That Tiffany Necklace?
- # 856 – Distractions When Performing A Mitzvah
- # 900 – Oy! My Tefillin Are Pasul
- # 945 – Overcharging: How Much Is Too Much?
- # 987 – Limud HaTorah – Must You Understand What You Are Learning?
- # 988 – Bentching – Making Sure You Eat and Enjoy
- #1031 – Sh’mitta – How Did the Farmers Survive?
- #1032 – The Child Molester – What Must We Do?
- #1076 – Cheating in Business It May Be More Asur Than You Think
- #1118 – What Are You/Aren’t You Allowed To Talk About on Shabbos?
- #1119 – Davening in a Rented Movie Theater–Is There A Problem?
- #1160 – The Mahram of Padua, The Ramo, and l’Havdil the Pope
- #1204 – The Friend Who Reneged on their Power Ball Agreement
- #1205 – The Case of the Women of Vienna and the Incredible Response of the Rabonim
- #1249 – Heter Meah Rabbonim: The Rarely Used Sanction of Polygamy
- #1292 – The Price of Fish for Shabbos Went Sky High – What Can the Community Do?
- #1293 – A Tragic Holocaust Shailah
- #1336 – The Tochacha of Parshas Bechukosai – Should It Be Avoided?
- #1380 – Can One Be Obligated to Bentch Even If He Didn’t Eat?
- #1424 – “Thank You Very Much for the Loan.” – Is That Ribis?
- #1425 – Going to Doctors – Not As Simple Hashkafically As You May Think
- #1468 – Going to the Mikveh During the Corona Pandemic or Other Difficult Times
- #1511 – Onaas Devorim: Saying Hurtful Words to Open Up Someone’s Eyes?
- #1554 – I am 55 Years Old and Now I Find Out That My Tefilin Were Never Kosher
- #1555 – Menus on Shabbos and Yom Tov – Is There a Problem? Thoughts on 40 Years of the Thursday Night Shiur
- #1596 – Kidney Donations Revisited
A complete catalogue can be ordered from the Yad Yechiel Institute, PO Box 511, Owings Mills MD 21117-0511. Call (410) 358-0416 or e-mail [email protected] or visit http://www.yadyechiel.org/ for further information.
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Date: May 22, 2025
