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This week’s parasha, Behar, closes with a reminder about idolatry. “You shall not make idols for yourselves, or set up for yourselves carved images or pillars, or place figured stones in your land to worship upon, for I the Lord am your God. You shall keep My Sabbaths and venerate My sanctuary, Mine, the Lord’s.”

Behar is about the years of Shmittah and Yovel, years in which it is forbidden to plant or sow one’s fields in the land of Israel. We can sow fields and prune vineyards for six years, but in the seventh year, the land is to be given a complete rest, a Sabbath. What grows on its own can be eaten, but not stored for future use. Each person gives up ownership of the land.

Why does the parasha then close with idolatry?

Idolatry is an infringement on the relationship between man and God. It is an affront to God, a sign of disrespect, a lack of humility. Idolatry shakes the foundations of Judaism.

Observance of the year of Shmittah is a confirmation of the relationship between man and God. Its observance demonstrates faith and trust in God to provide for the time without crops. If we do not observe shmittah, we are committing idolatry. We worship the land and what it gives us instead of worshipping God and having faith that He will provide for us.

Some people consider the year of Shmittah to be about socialism, to improve the relationship between men. Hillel and Shammai argue over whether it is permissible to pick from someone else’s land without asking during the year of Shmittah.

Beit Shammai says no, one can take from the field without asking, because asking would be acknowledging someone other than God’s ownership over the land. Beit Hillel says yes, one must ask before taking.

There is a story that illustrates the debate, a story that I discussed last year in the 8.45 study group.

R' Tarfon once entered his orchards, disguised as a man off the streets, to eat figs in the Shmitta year. He did not greet the guards there. [One may take fruit from any field in the Shmitta year, but not pay for it in any way. To wish the guard a good day, would have been a form of payment.] The guards then saw him eating figs, and began beating him. R' Tarfon saw he was in danger

"I beg you," he said to them, "go to the house of Tarfon and tell them to prepare shrouds for R' Tarfon. You are hitting him so hard, he is sure to die.

When the guards heard that this was R' Tarfon himself, they fell on the faces before him.

"Rabbi, forgive us," said the guards, "we didn't know that you were R' Tarfon."

"I assure you," said R' Tarfon, "as you struck me, I forgave you -- for every single blow."

"All his life," said Rabbi Avahu in the name of R' Chanina ben Gamliel, "R' Tarfon fasted over this matter -- "Woe to me," he would say, "that that I gained honor from the crown of the Torah.""

In this story, R’ Tarfon disguises himself in order to follow Shammai. If he had gone to the field himself, it would seem that only he or his guests could eat without asking permission. R’Tarfon is particularly upset over this incident not only because he used his status as a scholar and a wealthy man to save him but because he accepted Hillel’s views. By pointing out that he was the owner, he accepted that the owner controls the field.

Hillel, according to Pinchas Kahati, has “made a breach for tikkun olam.” He did not want everyone running all over everyone else’s fields to get food. He restricted the halachah from the Torah to situations where permission was given.

But Hillel also realized the differences between agricultural law and all the other laws that still apply during Shmittah.

Land has many uses, not only agricultural. Property rights involve more than just planting and harvesting. The year of Shmittah is for agricultural uses. It does not involve the possibility of living on the land. Its observance does not require us to dig up existing vineyards, to tear down houses and fences. We acknowledge that the land is not ours but we are not dispossessed of it. Our property rights return after the year of Shmittah.

R’ Tarfon and Shammai, it could be said, missed the idea of the connection between man and God in the Shmittah year. In their quest to observe Shmittah, they condoned trespassing, a law pertaining to the relationship between men. Shmittah lost its focus on the relationship between man and God.

The destruction of the Temple and Bnei Israel’s exile to Babylonia have been explained in several ways. One suggestion is that Bnei Israel had little if any relationship with God and had turned to Baal and other idols.

Another explanation comes from Rashi on this week’s parsha: “The seventy years of Babylonian exile correspond to the seventy years of desecrated Shmittah and Yovel which occurred during the 436 years that Israel infuriated God from its entry into the land until the destruction of the temple in 586 BCE.”

So another idol that Bnei Israel worshipped was the land itself. The observance of Shmittah is a constant reminder that the land of Israel cannot be fully possessed by individuals. We are living in a world created by God. We are but temporary visitors and cannot try to take permanent possession of the land. Lev 25:23 “the land is Mine; you are but strangers resident with Me.”

Shmittah can only be observed in Israel. Fittingly, the punishment for the failure to observe Shmittah is exile—a punishment that can only be given in Israel.

If we want to live in the land we have to recognize every seven years that we don’t own it.  If we think we own it and behave as if we own it, God will remind us that we don't, and will send us into exile.

Behar closes with idolatry to warn us that the breach of the Shmittah year is idolatrous and that the observance of the Shmittah year strengthens the relationship between man and God.

Let me come back to the story about Rabbi Tarfon. Hillel focuses on obligations to God but does not perceive the observance of Shmittah as an injunction to disrupt personal relations. Shammai would have us purposefully disrupt our relations with others in order to have a closer relationship with God.

Bnei Israel’s exile is also said to be because of sinat chinam, needless hatred.

Rabbi Tarfon, in his attempts to follow Shammai, needlessly antagonizes his neighbors. Following Shammai could create a situation in which we don’t care about our fellow men.

We should remember the importance of improving our relationship with God while being conscious of our duties towards other humans.