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כי ימוך אחיך ומכר מאחזתו... ואיש כי לא יהיה לא גאל והשיגה ידו ומצא כדי גאלתו

If your brother becomes impoverished and sells part of his ancestral inheritance… if a man will have no redeemer, but his means suffice and he acquires enough for his redemption. (25:25,26)

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An ancestral field should not be sold. It is supposed to remain within the family. If it must be sold in order to generate badly needed funds, it may be sold only for the number of crops it will yield until Yovel, the upcoming Jubilee year, when it reverts back to its original owner. If the owner does not have the necessary funds to redeem his field before the Jubilee year, the responsibility falls on his relatives to help him out. If he has no “redeemer,” relative, to assist in extricating him from his bind, the field remains with the purchaser until Yovel. In his commentary to the pasuk, Rashi asks the obvious question: “Is there a Jew who has no relatives at all? This refers to relatives who are themselves also in a poor financial state, and, thus, unable to help out. So, the seller has to do it himself.

The Piltzer Rebbe, zl, the Sifsei Tzaddik, wonders why the Torah writes, “If a man will have no redeemers,” and follows up with, “And he acquires enough for his redemption.” This is similar to saying, “If he cannot do it on his own, so, he will have to come up with a way to do it on his own.” Why did the Torah not simply say: “If he will have sufficient funds to redeem his friend?” Why must we be informed that he was short on funding, and then he came up with the money? Just say that he was able to somehow provide the funds. Apparently, the Torah wants us to know that this man who today has the money to redeem his field, was the other day up against the proverbial wall, with no funds and no hope of obtaining support. Then, apparently something happened. That “something” was Hashem.

He quotes his grandfather, the saintly Chidushei HaRim, zl, who teaches that, “In every darkness, there exists a light that is ready and waiting to be revealed.” Hashem will never give a person a test/darkness from which he cannot prevail. If Hashem determines that this person cannot triumph over the challenge, then he will not be challenged. We find that Chananyah, Mishael and Azaryah walked into a fiery cauldron rather than bow down to an idolatrous image. Chazal teach (Kesubos 33b) that had these three been forced to endure corporeal punishment, they would have been unable to withstand the pain and persecution, so that they would have capitulated to Nevuchadnetzar’s demands. This shows that Hashem only subjects a person to what he can physically (and emotionally) endure.

Every hester panim, concealment of the Divine Countenance, exists for man to seek and discover the hidden light within the darkness. The well-known cliché, “Behind every dark cloud there is an ever-shining sun,” aptly applies here. It appears bleak – he has no money – how will he make it? Trust in Hashem, and you will find the means. To write simply that he had the means diminishes the message. He did not have the means, but he persevered and prevailed, because Hashem always provides the solution/light before He envelops us in darkness.

The Chasam Sofer writes: “When a person senses that he is up against an overwhelming, impenetrable, hopeless situation, and he despairs of all human assistance – (he realizes that his salvation is not humanly achievable) then – he will merit Heavenly salvation. The salvation was always available. His problem was that he looked and relied on the wrong source. Hashem is our only Source of salvation.

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