Why Israel Was Sold to the Nations for Profaning the Sabbatical Year

Rabbi Eleazar haQappar said: It is written, "His legs are pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold" (Song of Songs 5:15). This pillar, if it has no capital above and no base below, does not appear beautiful. Rabbi Samuel ben Gedaliah said: You have no section in the Torah that does not have a capital above and a base below. What is written above the matter? "And the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying: Speak to the children of Israel [and say to them...] and the land shall keep a Sabbath" (Leviticus 25:1-2). And after that, the section of the Jubilee: "And you shall count for yourself seven sabbaths of years" (Leviticus 25:8). If one did not keep the Sabbatical Year and the Jubilees, in the end he will sell his movable goods, as it is said, "And if you sell something..." (Leviticus 25:14). If he repents, well and good; but if not, in the end he will sell his field, as it is said, "If your brother becomes poor and sells some of his possession" (Leviticus 25:25). If he repents, well and good; but if not, in the end he will sell his house, as it is said, "And if a man sells a dwelling house" (Leviticus 25:29). If he repents, well and good; but if not, in the end he will go around begging at the doors, as it is said, "And if your brother becomes poor..." (Leviticus 25:35). If he repents, well and good; but if not, in the end he is sold to you, as it is said, "[And if your brother becomes poor] beside you, and is sold to you" (Leviticus 25:39). If he repents, well and good; but if not, in the end he is sold to the nations, as it is said, "And if the hand of a stranger and sojourner beside you attains wealth" (Leviticus 25:47). And not he alone for himself, but he and all Israel. For so you find in the days of Jeremiah: because they profaned the Seventh Year, they were sold to the nations, as it is said, "And he brought up against them [the] king of the Chaldeans [...] and all the vessels of the house of God [...,] and the treasures of the house of the Lord [...]" (II Chronicles 36:17-18). This is the matter of Israel. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Moses, see how they will be sold to the nations because they profaned the Seventh Year. He said before Him: Master of the World, did You not say thus, "If your brother becomes poor, [and his hand falters beside you]"? Fulfill what You said. [Israel is Your brother, as it is said, "For the sake of] my brothers and my companions" (Psalms 122:8). "If your brother becomes poor and his hand falters beside you" — when their hand falters before Nebuchadnezzar, as it were, He will cause the Divine Presence to dwell with them, as it is said, "For your sake I have sent to Babylon" (Isaiah 43:14). "And you shall uphold him" — grasp them by the hand, that they not be lost in his hand; rather, "as a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you" — even though they become strangers and sojourners in Babylon, still, "and he shall live with you." The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: For their iniquities I am selling My house to the Chaldeans, as it is said, "And if a man sells a dwelling house" (Leviticus 25:29) — this is the house of the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is said, "For the Lord has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His dwelling" (Psalms 132:13). And what happened to it? "And he burned the house of the Lord" (II Kings 25:9). "A walled city" (Leviticus 25:29) — [this is the city of the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is said,] "And they broke down the walls of Jerusalem" (II Chronicles 36:19). This is what the Holy One, blessed be He, says: "And if the hand of a stranger and sojourner attains wealth" (Leviticus 25:47) — the hand of the stranger, this is Nebuchadnezzar; and the sojourner, this is the kingdom of Media. "And is sold to the stranger sojourner beside you" — this is the kingdom of Greece. "Or to the offshoot of a stranger's family" — this is the fourth kingdom. Moses said before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the World, why were they handed over to these kingdoms? He said to him: Because they profane the Seventh Year, as it is said, "And he exiled the remnant from the sword to Babylon, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had paid out its sabbaths; all the days of its desolation it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years" (II Chronicles 36:20-21). Therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: Is it your wish that they not be exiled? Warn them concerning the Sabbatical Years and the Jubilees. This is what He said at the end of all the sections: "You shall keep My sabbaths and revere My sanctuary, I am the Lord" (Leviticus 26:2). I am the One who is destined to give you a good reward if you keep them; but if not, I am destined to exact punishment from them through the hand of the kingdoms. Therefore He warned them concerning the Seventh Year, as it is said, "And the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord" (Leviticus 25:2), so that those sections written after them not befall them.