In the middle of the festival cycle, which makes up half of our Parshah, we have the command concerning leaving the gleanings of the field and its corners, to the poor. This command, coming after the description of the counting of the Omer and Shavuot, presents an interesting juxtaposition. The simple interpretation of its position in the Parshah, is that these weeks leading up to Shavuot are ones of intense agricultural activity; so the Torah reminds us of these mitzvot to do with the harvest. The rabbis, however, famously saw a deeper meaning. Why they asked are these commandments placed between Pesach and Shavuot on the one hand, and Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Succot, on the other. To teach us that anyone who fulfils these mitzvot, it is like he rebuilt the Temple and offered all the prescribed festival sacrifices. This statement of our sages contains several layers of meaning. On a basic level it stresses the importance in Judaism of the connection between social and ritual commandments. In the spirit of the prophets, they proclaim that care for the poor is of equal importance with sacrifice and other ritual practices. Yet they make a deeper point. They connect social justice not only with the observance of the festivals, but more specifically with the rebuilding of the Temple. Care for the less fortunate is not only the equal of ritual observance, but the secret of redemption. Without a Jewish people that cares for all its members, national renaissance is an impossibility. These two layers of meaning of the words of the Rabbis have resonance and importance for us today. Too often traditional Judaism is connected only to ritual areas of life. Shabbat, Kashrut and Shatnez, are important parts of the Torah but so are care for the poor, the rights of workers and protection of the defenceless. The Torah makes no distinction between them and neither should we. How many rabbis, however, talk on the former as on the latter. Furthermore, this issue is of primary importance in Israel. The Rabbis, not to mention the prophets, warn us that Jewish national renaissance can only be built on the basis of social justice. Yet in Israel today, the gap between the rich and poor grows wider every year. It is ‘religious’ parties that as the self-appointed guardians of the Torah, have a special responsibility to fight this inequality. A true Jewish society, the Torah tells us, is only one based on both Shabbat observance and social justice.

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