אור החיים — כי ימוך אחיך ומכר מאחזתו

Q — What deeper message does Or HaChaim find in the law of one who, fallen on hard times, must sell part of his ancestral land?

A — In his characteristic remez approach to legal passages, Or HaChaim reads 'אחיך' — 'your brother' who becomes impoverished (ימוך) — as a daring allusion to God Himself. Drawing on the Gemara (Megillah 11a) that interprets 'בעצלתים ימך המקרה' as referring to God ('the One who roofs His chambers in water'), he teaches that when the lower beings (the people) stray from the good, the divine flow is withdrawn and 'the pillar of holiness is impoverished' — because everything depends on those below. The 'sale of his property' alludes to the diminishing of divine presence in the world caused by Israel's deeds, and the parsha becomes 'a great matter and an alert to the inhabitants of the world.'