B’Har
Lev. 25:1- 26:2
Précis: B’Har begins with a description of the Sabbatical Year and the Jubilee (Yovel) Year. In the 50th (Jubilee) Year, we are to “proclaim liberty throughout the land” and property is restored to its ancestral owners. The parasha continues with the prohibition against unlimited slavery, as well as the rules for the treatment of those who are slaves.
Lev. 25:10 “And you shall hallow the fiftieth year. You shall proclaim liberty throughout the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: each of you shall return to your holding and each of you shall return to your family.
As discussed in the Rabbi Jonathon Sacks Legacy Trust (5/19/22), wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of the super-rich, to the extent that in global terms, the combined wealth of the richest 85 individuals is equal to the total of the poorest 3.5 billion – half the population of the world.
This has arisen through the political decisions of the leaders of leading nations, permitting and endorsing the capitalist vision of limited regulation and a belief in an unrestrained open market theory.
It is in this light that we can review the social legislation of this week’s Torah reading. The text is profoundly concerned not only with economics, but also with fundamental moral issues. As is inscribed on the Liberty Bell: “Proclaim liberty throughout the land.”
This parasha recognizes that economic inequalities increase over time, and that these inequalities lead to a loss of freedom. And how is this overcome? It is overcome through a periodic restoration of fundamental liberties.
Thus, we read this week about a sabbatical year, when debts were released and slaves freed. Three aspects of the Torah’s instruction are worthy of mention here. First, we are more concerned with human freedom than with economics, since losing one’s land or being in debt constrains freedom. Second, the economic system is not solely in the hands of rulers, but rather is constrained by the belief that the Land, ultimately, belongs to God (Lev. 25:23).
Third, the same applies to people: “Because the Israelites are My servants, whom I brought out of Egypt, they must not be sold as slaves (Lev. 25:42)." Personal and economic liberty are not open to political negotiation.
Thus, our reading this week tells us that economics must remain a discipline that rests on moral foundations. What matters to the Torah is not the accumulation of wealth, but the quality of human society: people’s liberty, independence and dignity.
