The weekly Torah portion Behar contains two central commandments: Shemittah (Sabbatical Year) and Yovel (Jubilee). The well-known question is: Why is Shemittah mentioned at Mount Sinai? However, the bulk of the parasha centers around the commandment of Yovel.
The Jubilee is not just a year in which, like in Shemittah, we do not work the land. It marks the completion of a cycle of years, a "reset" that significantly impacts the socio-economic market. The key verses summarizing the commandment and serving as a headline for all its socio-economic implications are:
"But the land must not be sold beyond reclaim, for the land is Mine; you are but strangers resident with Me. Throughout the land that you hold, you must provide for the redemption of the land." (Leviticus 25:23-24)
The redemption of the land is not aimed at the land itself but for those who dwell upon it, creating a certain experience of temporariness, an existential experience reminding us "for the land is Mine." Redemption shifts the emphasis from the land to its inhabitants.
And indeed, immediately following this, there is a list of economic commandments, all translating "you must provide for the redemption of the land" into directives in which the Yovel has an important regulatory role. Each of these mitzvot includes some form of the expression "if one of your kin is impoverished":
- Returning the land to its owner in the Yovel: "If one of your kin is impoverished and has to sell part of a holding [...] what was sold shall remain with the purchaser until the jubilee; in the jubilee year it shall be released, so that the person returns to that holding" (Leviticus 25:25,28).
- Loaning to the poor without interest: "If your kin, being impoverished, come under your authority, you shall strengthen them" (Leviticus 25:39).
- Releasing a slave in the Jubilee: "If your kin under you is impoverished and sold to you" (Leviticus 25:39). Also: "If a resident alien among you has prospered, and your kin, being impoverished, is sold to them" (Leviticus 25:47).
Assistance to the impoverished is what creates a life of redemption!
As in the words of the song:
Between borders, between mountains, pathless
On dark nights devoid of stars -
Endless caravans of brothers,
We accompany to the homeland.
For the infant and tender child -
Here we shall open the gates.
For the impoverished and the old -
Here we are, a shield-wall! […]
(Translated excerpt from "Between Borders" by Haim Hefer, 1945)
Examining the commandments of the redemption of the impoverished, both in redeeming the land and redeeming the person, shows that there are several circles of support: redemption of relatives and the community, self-redemption, and release in the Jubilee.
Firstly, the first circle is the place for civil mobilization, as we saw after the 7th of October, when so many stepped up to support the reserve soldiers and the families displaced from the southern and northern borders.
Then, in the second circle, the impoverished person may manage to scrape together some funds, in which case, of course, they have an opportunity to get out of this situation independently requiring the owner of the field or the slave to terminate their ownership.
However, even if the first two circles do not come to fruition, the third and central circle comes into play - the Yovel, which will return the land and release the slave.
Notice that the term used in the Yovel is not “geula” (redemption) but rather “yetzia” (exit/going out/release). The redemption of the Jubilee is the very existence of this year as a built-in regulatory part of the economic system. The Jubilee is what, from the outset, does not allow the sale of land for more than fifty years or long-term enslavement. The Yovel is the legal safety net. In effect the Yovel is - in a modern state – the legal system and infrastructure of the welfare state.
This Shabbat, we mark Social Justice Shabbat, and this year's theme is "Tzedek, not tzedakah - Justice, not Just Charity." Tzedaka can complement tzedek/justice, but it does not replace it.
A contemporary example: Tzedaka is collecting clothes for those displaced from the north or the south; tzedek is that after seven months, there should be arrangements for education, compensation for lost income, organized systems to provide timely and appropriate solutions for them.
Tzedaka expresses interpersonal solidarity, but it is short-term and specific. It is the state the must embody the principle of deep mutual responsibility and provide ongoing, well-founded solutions to challenges. The state can and must be responsible for the displaced - not civil society, admirable as it may be.
A Jewish welfare state is a state inspired by the Yovel, and not only in the redemption of those close to us. Active citizenship means to ensure that the state and its institutions take responsibility and act - all year round. Active Jewish citizenship means, all year round, to encourage and pressure policy makers to do their job, before weakened people become impoverished as well as afterward. It means doing everything we can "to open the gates and be the shield wall for the impoverished and the old."
Translation: Rabbi Ma'ayan Turner
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Rabbi Kobi Weiss is part of RHR's staff in the social justice and education departments, and leads the weekly beit midrash (study hall).
The Jubilee is not just a year in which, like in Shemittah, we do not work the land. It marks the completion of a cycle of years, a "reset" that significantly impacts the socio-economic market. The key verses summarizing the commandment and serving as a headline for all its socio-economic implications are:
"But the land must not be sold beyond reclaim, for the land is Mine; you are but strangers resident with Me. Throughout the land that you hold, you must provide for the redemption of the land." (Leviticus 25:23-24)
The redemption of the land is not aimed at the land itself but for those who dwell upon it, creating a certain experience of temporariness, an existential experience reminding us "for the land is Mine." Redemption shifts the emphasis from the land to its inhabitants.
And indeed, immediately following this, there is a list of economic commandments, all translating "you must provide for the redemption of the land" into directives in which the Yovel has an important regulatory role. Each of these mitzvot includes some form of the expression "if one of your kin is impoverished":
- Returning the land to its owner in the Yovel: "If one of your kin is impoverished and has to sell part of a holding [...] what was sold shall remain with the purchaser until the jubilee; in the jubilee year it shall be released, so that the person returns to that holding" (Leviticus 25:25,28).
- Loaning to the poor without interest: "If your kin, being impoverished, come under your authority, you shall strengthen them" (Leviticus 25:39).
- Releasing a slave in the Jubilee: "If your kin under you is impoverished and sold to you" (Leviticus 25:39). Also: "If a resident alien among you has prospered, and your kin, being impoverished, is sold to them" (Leviticus 25:47).
Assistance to the impoverished is what creates a life of redemption!
As in the words of the song:
Between borders, between mountains, pathless
On dark nights devoid of stars -
Endless caravans of brothers,
We accompany to the homeland.
For the infant and tender child -
Here we shall open the gates.
For the impoverished and the old -
Here we are, a shield-wall! […]
(Translated excerpt from "Between Borders" by Haim Hefer, 1945)
Examining the commandments of the redemption of the impoverished, both in redeeming the land and redeeming the person, shows that there are several circles of support: redemption of relatives and the community, self-redemption, and release in the Jubilee.
Firstly, the first circle is the place for civil mobilization, as we saw after the 7th of October, when so many stepped up to support the reserve soldiers and the families displaced from the southern and northern borders.
Then, in the second circle, the impoverished person may manage to scrape together some funds, in which case, of course, they have an opportunity to get out of this situation independently requiring the owner of the field or the slave to terminate their ownership.
However, even if the first two circles do not come to fruition, the third and central circle comes into play - the Yovel, which will return the land and release the slave.
Notice that the term used in the Yovel is not “geula” (redemption) but rather “yetzia” (exit/going out/release). The redemption of the Jubilee is the very existence of this year as a built-in regulatory part of the economic system. The Jubilee is what, from the outset, does not allow the sale of land for more than fifty years or long-term enslavement. The Yovel is the legal safety net. In effect the Yovel is - in a modern state – the legal system and infrastructure of the welfare state.
This Shabbat, we mark Social Justice Shabbat, and this year's theme is "Tzedek, not tzedakah - Justice, not Just Charity." Tzedaka can complement tzedek/justice, but it does not replace it.
A contemporary example: Tzedaka is collecting clothes for those displaced from the north or the south; tzedek is that after seven months, there should be arrangements for education, compensation for lost income, organized systems to provide timely and appropriate solutions for them.
Tzedaka expresses interpersonal solidarity, but it is short-term and specific. It is the state the must embody the principle of deep mutual responsibility and provide ongoing, well-founded solutions to challenges. The state can and must be responsible for the displaced - not civil society, admirable as it may be.
A Jewish welfare state is a state inspired by the Yovel, and not only in the redemption of those close to us. Active citizenship means to ensure that the state and its institutions take responsibility and act - all year round. Active Jewish citizenship means, all year round, to encourage and pressure policy makers to do their job, before weakened people become impoverished as well as afterward. It means doing everything we can "to open the gates and be the shield wall for the impoverished and the old."
Translation: Rabbi Ma'ayan Turner
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rabbi Kobi Weiss is part of RHR's staff in the social justice and education departments, and leads the weekly beit midrash (study hall).