,Parashat Behar
Rabbi Shelly Donnell & Esther Edelsburg
Parashat Behar concludes a section of the Book of Leviticus (chapters 17-26) that is quite different in character from the rest of the book. This section bears no connection to the service of the priesthood but, rather, focuses on demands made upon all of the Israelites, “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy because I, ADONAI your God, am holy” (Lev. 19:2). This holiness in essence includes ethical demands in human relations. The commandments regarding the Sabbatical and the Jubilee years are part of these demands and include the sabbatical respite allotted to the land and its owners, the relief of debts, and the support of the poor.
Last week in Parashat Emor we read about the counting of the Omer, the ritual in which the Israelites brought offerings to the sanctuary between Pesach and Shavuot, counting off seven weeks – for a total of fifty days. Parallel to this tradition in our portion, Behar, the Torah presents us with the details of the Sabbatical Year, “ADONAI said to Moses at Mount Sinai, Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to ADONAI. For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to ADONAI. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest. Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you—for yourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten” (Lev. 25:1-7). And, “Count off seven sabbath years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years. Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan” (Lev. 25:8-10).
Just as counting the Omer makes us aware of the importance of time (“to count our days…”), counting the years of the Sabbatical and Jubilee cycles as described in Parashat Behar makes us aware of social responsibilities, “Do not take advantage of each other, but revere your God. I am ADONAI your God. Follow My decrees and be careful to obey My laws, and you will live safely in the land. Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live there in safety” (Lev. 25:17-19).
Also in chapter 25, after the laws of the Sabbatical and the Jubilee years are explicated, the Torah deals with the support and rehabilitation of society’s needy, “If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you” (Lev. 25:35, see also vv. 25, 39, 47). And, in each and every instance the Torah states what must be done to rehabilitate one whose situation has deteriorated, according to Rashi, “…help them– do not allow him to fall and collapse altogether, in which case it would be difficult to pick him up again [from his dire poverty]. Rather, “help him” while his hand is still faltering [for then it is easier to help him out of his trouble]. To what can this be compared? To a load on a donkey-while it is still on the donkey, one person can grasp it and hold it in place. Once it falls to the ground, however, [even] five people cannot pick it up.”
