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D'var: Parashat Behar-Bechuqotai 5785 Commentary by Robby Hurt Friday, May 23, 2025 |
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Behar Leviticus 25:1 — 26:2
Bechukotai Leviticus 26:3 — 27:34 |
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From myjewishlearning.com
God describes the laws surrounding resting the land and crops every seven years, as well as theJubilee year every 50 years. God permits the use of slaves but provides stipulations including the obligation to eventually free your slaves. In Bechukotai, God tells the people of Israel that if they follow God’s commandments, they will be provided with rain to feed their crops. God then describes the long list of punishments that will be inflicted on the Israelites if they do not follow God’s laws. Chapter 25 Land use regulations for agricultural purposes. Sabbath Rest of the land. Land valuation formulas regulated by the Year of Jubilee. A house within a walled city had specific and different regulations not affected by the Year of Jubilee. Levite’s houses were regulated by the Year of Jubilee but their fields in the suburbs could not be sold. No loaning money or barter with interest. Distinctions in the regulations of servants/slaves/or workers that were Jews. They were regulated by the Year of Jubilee and other much less rigorous constraints. Heathen and “stranger/foreigner/alien” bondmen and bond maids were not regulated by the Year of Jubilee. Strangers and Foreigners dwelling in Israel were subject to the Year of Jubilee. Chapter 26 Blessings For Obedience of Statutes and Commandments Timely Rains Bountiful Harvests Dwell Safely Enemies Will Fall G-d Will Be Our G-d and Dwell Among Us Punishments For Disobedience Terror, consumption, fever, sorrow of heart, anguish of soul G-d would set His face against you/us Plagues Wild beasts Heaven Iron and Earth Brass (unanswered prayers?) Desolations Cannibalism Sword Pestilence
Leviticus 26:34-35 (JPS 1917)
34 Then shall the land be paid her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye are in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and repay her sabbaths. 35 As long as it lieth desolate it shall have rest; even the rest which it had not in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it. I get out of vs. 34 and 35 that there is something therapeutic or regenerative in letting the land rest. In other words it’s more than an obedience test.
Haftarah
Jeremiah 16:19 — 17:1 (JPS 1917) 19 O LORD, my strength, and my stronghold, And my refuge, in the day of affliction, Unto Thee shall the nations come From the ends of the earth, and shall say: ‘Our fathers have inherited nought but lies, Vanity and things wherein there is no profit.’ 20 Shall a man make unto himself gods, And they are no gods? 21 Therefore, behold, I will cause them to know, This once will I cause them to know My hand and My might; And they shall know that My name is the LORD. 1 The sin of Judah is written With a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond; It is graven upon the tablet of their heart, And upon the horns of your altars. I can certainly identify with and have personally experienced those verses. In closing I like the way myjewishlearning.com expresses it: After seven cycles of seven years, the fiftieth year is a jubilee year in which servants are freed and foreclosed properties are returned to their original owners. It’s like pushing a reset button on society. In biblical times, the sabbatical year and the jubilee ideally provided a time of renewal and recalibration for both the environment and human society. Robby Hurt |
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