Dvar Torah Parshayiot Behar and Bechukotai 5783

Vayikra 25:1- 26:2, Vayikra 26:3 – 27:34

The Long View

Another Week, another double parsha. This week we look at the Parsha Behar and Bechukotai. First, Behar, the only law code on the subject of land tenure in Ancient Israel preserved in the Torah. It includes the permanent rights of landowners and legalities regarding the sale and mortgaging of land. It also includes the laws about indebtedness and indenture, a system of paying through one’s labor, and a commandment regarding the jubilee year. Finally, a shabbat for the land, or shmita. At its heart is returning the land to the original owner at the end of a fifty-year cycle. Servants are freed and the system is designed to prevent polarization of a society into two classes, wealthy and servant.

There are within these laws, two religious assumptions according to Etz Chaim commentary: Since everything belongs to G_d, humans cannot possess either the land or the people in perpetuity. No human can be condemned to permanent servitude. The sabbatical year and jubilee enable an entire society to put aside economic competition and the practice of defining a person’s value in economic terms alone. It was given at Sinai before they entered the land, providing a vision of equality before entering. The parsha includes prohibitions against wronging another in transactions as well as adapting the cost of the land according to the number of years before the Shmita year when the land goes fallow. Talmud Bava Metzia 47B says overcharging is grounds for canceling an agreement. Midrash Leviticus Rabba 33 takes it a step further to mean even using harmful words. There are rules regarding redeeming land by a kinsman, what happens if indentured to another Israelite or a non-Israelite.

Parsha Bechukotai describes the blessings by obeying G_d’s ways followed by a list of curses if one fails to do so. Ibn Ezra insists that though the list of curses is longer, the blessings outweigh it in quality.

Two major principles of Biblical religion are found in 26:3 – 46: the concept of free will and the doctrine of reward and punishment. In our world today, what to make of these rewards and punishments? Perhaps a vision of what it would be like if our world truly followed the mitzvot? Or assurance that if we followed G_d’s law, as a community we would prosper? Or perhaps, a promise of what can be to a still not matured Hebrew people who could only grasp matters put in a simplified message of promises and threats. A special note to Vs 5: When will people begin to live securely? Only when there is food sufficient to where no one is hungry and driven to crime or violence.

In his Mishnah commentary, Intro to Sanhedrin 10, Maimonides recognizing that people who follow G_d’s ways are not always rewarded with peace and prosperity (vs 9) compares this passage to a teacher who bribes children to do their lessons with gifts of nuts and candy. He adds, “This is deplorable but unavoidable because of people’s limited insight. A good person should not ask ‘If I perform these commandments, what reward will I get?’”

Together vs 14-45 are Tokhecha or curses. Chapters 17-26 together constitute the Holiness Code, transmitted through Moshe at Mt. Sinai. Chapter 27 is all about funding the Sanctuary.

Our Parshayiot this week bring to mind one of my favorite aspects of being Jewish. We track time, both short and long term. Every week we work 6 days and relax on the seventh for Shabbat. Our year is marked with holy days as we annually make the journey out of Egypt to the promised land. We remember our history, marking the days throughout the year. Similarly, we mark our years. We work the land for six years, then celebrate a Shabbat for the land called the Shmita year. Our last Shmita year was last year, and though most of us no longer work the land, we still use that year to sit back and evaluate our lives, singularly and collectively before beginning a new year.

Each year on the second day of Passover, we begin counting the Omer, seven weeks or 49 days, and Shavuot begins on the fiftieth day, celebrating the giving of the Torah to our people. Similarly, we count seven Shmita or 49 years, and the fiftieth year is the Jubilee, or Yovel year. So it is, we pay attention to time, both short and long view. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks of blessed memory makes an interesting perspective. When counting the Omer, for one calendar year, the Hebrew is plural. That is “u-sefartim lakhem.” The counting of the years, on the other hand, is worded in the singular, “sesafarta lekha.” Why is that he asks? In the case of the Omer, the counting is to be done by every person. In the case of the Jubilee, or Yovel, the counting is done by the Beit Din, specifically the Supreme Court or Sanhedrin acting on behalf of the Jewish people. Implicit is that while the people count the days, the leaders must count the years. Wise leaders must think in terms of what effect their decisions would make years from now. A reality sadly that seems to be lacking in current Israeli leadership.

While too many leaders remain caught in the moment rather than taking the long view, there is so much to be said for it. It also should be noted that the philosophy of the shmita offers a clear and apparent opportunity to bring true equality back. What if we treated the land as if it were G_d’s and we were just residing on it? If we left gleanings for the poor, and let the land lie waste for a year, a good agricultural practice by the way. If we conquered poverty and saw our brothers and sisters as true equals, would it not be a better world? I’m not saying it would end all the world’s problems. That would be far too utopian for this old cynic. But it would be a much better world than the one we live in now.

So we count the days, the years, looking long and remembering long, each doing our own part to repair the world. The blessings and the curses are still there. My prayer is for each of us using our time, both for work and for rest, to bring about greater blessings. Baruch Hashem!