B'Har
Leviticus 25:1 - 26:2
Précis: The parasha 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 the original owners. The parasha continues with the prohibition against unlimited slavery, as well as the rules for the treatment of those who are slaves.
Leviticus 25:10 “And you will hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land, to all the inhabitants thereof; it will be a jubilee to you, and you will return every man to his possession, and you will return every man to his family.”
The word “liberty” (in Hebrew “d’ror”) may more properly be understood as “release.” According to Baruch A. Levine, in Leviticus JPS Torah Commentary (Jewish Publication Society, 1989, p. 171) the term literally means ‘to move about freely,’ and in application refers to the freedom granted to those bound by servitude. This makes sense in the context of the Jubilee, where all are “released” from the burdens of crushing, unpayable debt.
It is interesting that the Biblical system of Jubilee and release is being read now, when debate is omnipresent in the United States about what to do with our nation’s debt. Our text is an important instruction: liberty and freedom require that a society lives in economic balance. The jubilee system is designed to keep Jews from being permanent debt slaves. So every 50 years, the land (the principle wealth of Israelite society) reverts to its original owners, and those who have been dispossessed are entitled to return their ancestral land.
But the jubilee system was also designed to keep individuals from accumulating too much wealth! This was a system in which there was a balance maintained between the extremes of poverty and wealth.
Today, of course, we don’t officially have “debt slaves.” But we do have enormous and growing disparities between the “haves” and the “have nots” with a steady erosion of the middle class. While many modern commentators doubt whether or not a Jubilee Year was ever actually observed, few can doubt that the moral lesson of this concept is critically important today. As a society, we must live within our means, and simultaneously recognize that extreme disparities between the “haves” and the "have nots” is inimical to a just and prosperous society.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Building Walls
Emor
Leviticus 21:1 - 24:23
Précis: This parasha is divided into four sections. First, it reviews procedures for the Priests to use to remain ritually pure. Second, it outlines the festival and holiday calendar. Third, it explains the use of the olive oil and bread on display on the altar. Finally, there is a brief narrative about a blasphemer who is condemned to death.
This week’s parasha opens with detailed guidelines regarding the holiness of priests and sacrifices. We read specific ways to avoid desecrating the holy space of the Temple - essentially by making sure that all who enter its confines, especially the Priests and Levites, are ritually pure. Subsequent verses (e.g., see Lev. 23:4) change the perspective from sacred space to sacred time by designating festivals for their “appointed times.”
It is this shift from sacred space to sacred time that enabled the Jewish People to survive wherever they were dispersed across the world for more than two millennia. One can create a sacred space by simply building walls, as has also happened with frequency during our history. We can also metaphorically try to “wall ourselves off” from the influences of the outside world as some Jews have always done (and some do to this day).
On the other hand, we all have the opportunity to “wall off” a period of time and make it sacred. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s work, The Shabbat: Its Meaning for Modern Man, focuses on the importance of sanctifying time. Judaism, he teaches, sanctifies the concept of time, setting times apart from the routine, when we are free – in the truest sense – to contemplate the Ineffable and thank God for creation.
In a busy day or a busy week, particularly as we approach Shabbat, we can remember this week’s parasha and strive to create a distinct time for contemplation and renewal. It is a great challenge to “wall off time” and make it sacred. This is God’s gift to us, and the Jewish People’s gift to the rest of humanity.
Leviticus 21:1 - 24:23
Précis: This parasha is divided into four sections. First, it reviews procedures for the Priests to use to remain ritually pure. Second, it outlines the festival and holiday calendar. Third, it explains the use of the olive oil and bread on display on the altar. Finally, there is a brief narrative about a blasphemer who is condemned to death.
This week’s parasha opens with detailed guidelines regarding the holiness of priests and sacrifices. We read specific ways to avoid desecrating the holy space of the Temple - essentially by making sure that all who enter its confines, especially the Priests and Levites, are ritually pure. Subsequent verses (e.g., see Lev. 23:4) change the perspective from sacred space to sacred time by designating festivals for their “appointed times.”
It is this shift from sacred space to sacred time that enabled the Jewish People to survive wherever they were dispersed across the world for more than two millennia. One can create a sacred space by simply building walls, as has also happened with frequency during our history. We can also metaphorically try to “wall ourselves off” from the influences of the outside world as some Jews have always done (and some do to this day).
On the other hand, we all have the opportunity to “wall off” a period of time and make it sacred. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s work, The Shabbat: Its Meaning for Modern Man, focuses on the importance of sanctifying time. Judaism, he teaches, sanctifies the concept of time, setting times apart from the routine, when we are free – in the truest sense – to contemplate the Ineffable and thank God for creation.
In a busy day or a busy week, particularly as we approach Shabbat, we can remember this week’s parasha and strive to create a distinct time for contemplation and renewal. It is a great challenge to “wall off time” and make it sacred. This is God’s gift to us, and the Jewish People’s gift to the rest of humanity.
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