Torah Posting: בהר
“And God spoke to Mosheh on Mount Sinai:”
Huh? What has happened to the chronology here? The commentators sort of scramble about this, looking for reasons this is specified here if — as tradition has it — all the laws were given to Mosheh on Mount Sinai, or whether this is here in order to demonstrate that, or what. Ibn Ezra deals with this matter-of-factly: “There is no chronological order in the Torah,” he comments on this verse.
We can speculate about editorial reasons this is the case, as keeps coming up, but the reason that suggests itself to me most readily for why the coming section might be placed here in the text out of chronological order is to keep it ordered by topic. The previous parashah lays out some ritual agricultural practices that only apply once the people reach the Holy Land, and another big one of those is about to be introduced.
It’s a concept that seems too important here to be deserving of so relatively little attention in contemporary Jewish practice compared to other Torah mitzvot. It’s not that these practices don’t have any memetic purchase — people have heard of “jubilee” (though it’s one of the worst Germanic butcherings of a Hebrew word out there) — but no one does anything about it. It’s like it’s too long-term and too humanitarian for the fallen state human society is in.
God says to Mosheh (or said, back on Mount Sinai, or something) that once the people enter the Holy Land, the land itself shall also observe a Shabbat. The people may work their farms and vineyards for six years, and in the seventh year, the land shall be given a rest. The people (and their human and animal property) may eat the yield of the land, but they may not cultivate it.
Moreover, the people must count seven “weeks of years,” 49 years, and then, on Yom Kippur of the 50th year, the shofar shall sound throughout the land, and דרור — “release” — shall be declared. This is the primary connection with the previous parashah: The mystical significance of cycles of seven days, first given at the very creation of the universe, was expanded last parashah to “weeks of weeks” — the 49 days between Passover and Shavu’ot — and now here to “weeks of years.”
The 50th year will be called yovel (not “jUbiLEe”), for the ram’s horn that heralds it. Everyone will return to their land and their family. There’s no planting, reaping, or harvesting; the people may only eat directly from the field. God says that this arrangement will bring with it a blessing such that the produce of the sixth year will be enough to feed everyone for three years, until the new crops after the yovel come in.
This arrangement has economic ramifications. When buying and selling productive land to one another, the people may only price in the number of harvests before the next yovel. The economic value of land is divinely reset in the 50th year. In Vayikra 25:23, God makes an interesting declaration: The reason the people may not profit off their land holdings beyond the yovel is “כִּֽי־גֵרִ֧ים וְתוֹשָׁבִ֛ים אַתֶּ֖ם עִמָּדִֽי׃” — “because foreigners and residents you are with Me.” God is saying, “It’s not your land; it’s My land.”
In fact, the people must set aside to redeem their land in the yovel year, so that they can return to their ancestral holdings. If someone lacks the means to redeem their land, the purchaser can only keep it until the yovel, and then it must be released to the family to whom it was given. Dwellings within a walled city only retain this grace period for one year from the sale; after that, they permanently change hands and are not released in the yovel. Holdings in villages without encircling walls are released like farmland. The tribe of Levi, who are the custodians of the Temple, are an exception. It retains the right of redemption forever for its dwellings in its cities, and the land around its cities are its holdings forever and may not be sold.
Following this is another set of economic rules that are among the Torah’s more famous. Children of Yisra’el are not to charge one another interest on loans, whether of money or food. If their straits are dire enough that they must give themselves over into servitude, they and their families are to be released in the yovel year. Their debts are erased, and they may return to their holdings.
לֹא־תִרְדֶּ֥ה ב֖וֹ בְּפָ֑רֶךְ וְיָרֵ֖אתָ מֵאֱלֹהֶֽיךָ׃
“You shall not rule over them ruthlessly; you shall fear your God.”
This section goes on to allow Israelites to acquire and own slaves, but not from amongst their people. Not great, I know. But translating for cultural particulars, the emphasis here is that Israelites are not allowed to practice slavery amongst themselves.
The next law is (a little bit) more diversity-oriented, in that it allows for the possibility that resident foreigners may gain economic power over Israelites in the land. However, the provision is that even if an Israelite is owned by a resident foreigner, they still have the right to redeem their holdings in a yovel year. A close (male) relative shall be the one to do the redeeming, and the years of hired labor shall be factored in. And even if the redemption payment cannot be made, that person and their family shall be released in the yovel year. Similarly to above, where God explains that it’s God’s land, not the people’s land, God explains this principle by saying people are ultimately servants to God, not to other people.
In an interesting move, this parashah includes the first two lines of the next chapter to end. They add to this chapter about land and holdings that the children of Yisra’el are not to make any idols, pillars, or carvings to worship while in the land in question. They are to keep Shabbat and worship at their God’s sanctuary. This parashah is a classic in its way — a succinct description of exactly how to understand the cosmic hierarchy of the Israelites. On Earth, they are to treat each other with dignity and not lord over each other. There is only one Lord over them.
🗓️
