By Rabbi Dr. Daniel Friedman
For many centuries, the Land of Israel lay barren. While Jews and non-Jews continued to inhabit the country in small pockets of the country, life was tough. The lack of resources meant that the small Jewish community relied on donations from abroad to survive.
In the 19th century, Mark Twain visited Israel and famously described it as “a desolate country … given over wholly to weeds … a silent mournful expanse … we never saw a human being on the whole route … hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country.”
Admiring the Jewish state today, it’s hard to believe those words were ever written about the country. What’s the secret of modern Israel’s miraculous transformation from a barren wasteland to the most beautiful place on the planet?
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Today’s daf discusses the importance of having children and the obligation to emancipate a semi-freeman so that he may fulfill this responsibility.
מִי שֶׁחֶצְיוֹ עֶבֶד וְחֶצְיוֹ בֶּן חוֹרִין עוֹבֵד אֶת רַבּוֹ יוֹם אֶחָד וְאֶת עַצְמוֹ יוֹם אֶחָד דִּבְרֵי בֵּית הִלֵּל בֵּית שַׁמַּאי אוֹמְרִים תִּקַּנְתֶּם אֶת רַבּוֹ וְאֶת עַצְמוֹ לֹא תִּקַּנְתֶּם לִישָּׂא שִׁפְחָה אִי אֶפְשָׁר שֶׁכְּבָר חֶצְיוֹ בֶּן חוֹרִין
בַּת חוֹרִין אִי אֶפְשָׁר שֶׁכְּבָר חֶצְיוֹ עֶבֶד יִבָּטֵל וַהֲלֹא לֹא נִבְרָא הָעוֹלָם אֶלָּא לִפְרִיָּה וּרְבִיָּה שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר לֹא תוֹהוּ בְרָאָהּ לָשֶׁבֶת יְצָרָהּ אֶלָּא מִפְּנֵי תִּיקּוּן הָעוֹלָם כּוֹפִין אֶת רַבּוֹ וְעוֹשֶׂה אוֹתוֹ בֶּן חוֹרִין וְכוֹתֵב שְׁטָר עַל חֲצִי דָמָיו וְחָזְרוּ בֵּית הִלֵּל לְהוֹרוֹת כְּדִבְרֵי בֵּית שַׁמַּאי
One who is part servant and partly emancipated works for his master one day and works for himself the next day, according to Beis Hillel. Beis Shamai says: You have remedied the needs of his master, but not his own needs. He may not marry a maidservant since he is partly emancipated. He may not marry a freewoman since he is part servant. Should he not get married? But was the world not created so that we should be fruitful and multiply? As the verse states, “It was not created to be desolate; it was made to be inhabited!” And so, for the sake of tikkun olam, we force the master to emancipate him. He should write a bill of emancipation to release his other half. Beis Hillel conceded to the opinion of Beis Shamai.
The past two centuries have seen the world’s population explode from one billion to eight billion people. While scaremongers have warned of overpopulation for hundreds of years, the theory started to gain traction at the end of the 1960s with the publication of “The Population Bomb.” Having many children was touted as a selfish drain on Earth’s limited resources. Birth rates dropped dramatically, with most western countries today no longer reaching replacement levels. In other words, nowadays most families have less than two kids.
What a sad and skeptical perspective! As the prophet Isaiah declares, “It was not created to be desolate; it was made to be inhabited!” Do you know what causes a depletion of resources? A depletion of people! When human beings disappear, the Earth dries up.
That’s what transpired in the Land of Israel as it lay barren for over a dozen centuries. It dried up and could barely support its few remaining inhabitants. But as more Jews returned to the Holy Land, the more resources the land was able to produce. Despite the earlier bleak outlooks offered by the likes of Mark Twain and others, each ensuing wave of aliyah saw the desert begin to bloom. Israel is a modern-day miracle—a country transformed from an uninhabitable wasteland to the most beautiful country in the world. You see, resources are not depleted due to human inhabitation. On the contrary, resources wither and disappear with the absence of human inhabitation!
We used to joke that God promised us the only piece of land in the region lacking significant natural resources. Every other country has billions of barrels of oil just waiting to be extracted. Poor Israel—we had to rely on our human capital and innovation. Until one day, we discovered massive natural gas reserves off the coast of Haifa! Not to mention the incredible technological advances Israel is making in solar energy and water desalination that attach a huge question mark to the presumptive term “scarce resources.”
We have no idea about the potential this Earth has to offer. Our world isn’t disappearing anytime soon. There is more than enough to go around for millions and billions of years to come. We haven’t begun to scratch the surface of understanding our world. How many kilometers into the Earth’s core have we dug? What do we know about the great seabeds of the world? That doesn’t mean we should squander and abuse our resources, God forbid. We certainly must conserve the bounty Hashem has provided. At the same time, we should not doubt the Almighty’s ability to sustain planet Earth’s inhabitants.
My survivor grandparents lost almost everyone in the Holocaust. They arrived in Australia with precious little, save the shirts on their backs, and my grandfather first found work washing dishes in a hotel kitchen. Nevertheless, despite their lack of money, they resolved that Hitler, yimach shemo, would not be victorious in annihilating the Jewish people. The rebuilding of their family would begin with them. They went on to have 10 children. And with the arrival of each child, Heaven provided greater financial opportunities. By the end of his life, my grandfather had donated two sifrei Torah in addition to various other worthy causes my grandparents had merited contributing towards.
Whenever we discuss this topic, it’s important we remember that children are a huge blessing that we must never take for granted. For reasons known only to Heaven, not everyone is fortunate to bear children. And we must be so sensitive. So, with great trepidation and abundant love, I want to take a moment to reflect on other ways that one may participate in the mitzvah of populating the world. Our Sages teach that “whoever raises an orphan in his home is considered by Scripture to have given birth to him.” The mitzvah of adoption does not apply only to those who are literal orphans, but also to children who have been “orphaned” by their parents’ inability to care for them. In addition, let us recall Rashi’s explication that, “And you shall teach them to your children” refers to disciples. Teaching Torah creates a spiritual relationship that transcends physical and biological limits.
The very first mitzvah given to humankind was, “Be fruitful and multiply.” When we do our part to introduce and nurture neshamos in this world, Hashem will do His part to provide for our families and the entire planet. May you merit an overpopulation of blessing in your life!
Rabbi Dr. Daniel Friedman is the founder of the Center for Torah Values and the author of The Transformative Daf series. Volume 13 out now: www.transformativedaf.com!
