III-9 Behar Support Your Local Neighbor

Torah: Lv 25-26:2 JPS
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Haftorah: Jer 32:6-27 JPS
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Aliyot:
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1. Lv 25:1-13
2. Lv 25:14-18
3. Lv 25:19-24
4. Lv 25:25-28
5. Lv 25:29-38
6. Lv 25:39-46
7. Lv 25:47-26:2

OVERVIEW:
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Behar institutes the Sabbatical and Jubilee Years, respectively the seventh and fiftieth years. Six years the Israelites may tend their fields and vineyards, but the seventh the land lays fallow. The harvest is left to the poor and needy, but not gathered for commerical means. The Jubilee year falls on the seventh interval of Sabbatical Years (7 x 7 + 1) on the eighth year. Eight is the number of redemption, dedication and renewal. Brit milah/circumscision is made on the Eighth Day. The Metzora is purified on the Eighth Day just as the dedication of the temple and consecration of Aaron's sons happened on the Eighth day. During the Eighth, properties are returned to original owners and debts absolved. Indentured servants are freed.

IN FOCUS:
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"Six years you may sow your field and six years you may prune your vineyard and gather the yield. But in the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath of complete rest..." Lv 25:3-4 JPS

"If your kinsman is in straits and as to sell part of his holding, his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his kinsman has sold." Lv 25:25

"If your kinsman, being in straits, comes under your authority, and you hold him as a resident alien, let him live by your side." Lv 25:35

"If your kinsman under you continues in straits and must give himself over to you, do not subject him to the treatment of a slave." Lv 25:39

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL NEIGHBOR
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Under the mountain, the Israelites became a nation, freed from slavery. Mishpatim opens with the protection of the lowest of the working classes, establishing restrictions concerning slaves. Strange, is it not? A time of celebrating newly found freedom, social laws are instituted regarding slavery, providing protections for human rights. Subservience should be spurned, for no man truly owns another. All men are fashioned in the image of God. Should a person become so impoverished that he sell himself, he can serve only for six years-- on the seventh, he must be freed.

If the person desired to remain with his master, his ear was bored to the door. Commentary explains that the ear suffers punishment for ignoring the message at Sinai, reflecting the blood smeaed on the doorposts on the night of the Passover. Behar intoduces the Jubilee Year, bringing freedom and financial release for those sliding into the pit of poverty and despair. Intervention is needed to protect a person from destitution or demoralization before he falls into dire circumstances.

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