Parashat Behar 5782

by Rabbi Margie Cella

Parashat Behar describes the shmita, sabbatical year, occurring every seven years as a sabbath for the land, when nothing is to be harvested. After seven cycles of seven years – the fiftieth year is declared a jubilee. In this year, all who had become slaves or indentured servants were set free and returned to their families; possessions which had been sold reverted to their original owners. God promises that the sixth year will produce enough food to last for three years, until the new crop of the first year of the next cycle could be harvested in the second year.

We are enjoined to help those who fall into poverty. If someone is forced to sell part of his land to support his family, another relative must redeem it (buy it back); if none is able to do so, it remains with the purchaser until the jubilee year, when all lands revert to their original owners.

Similarly, one who becomes destitute may enter your house as a hired servant to support his family. He may be redeemed by a relative; if not, he works until the jubilee year, when he goes free. God reminds us that we are all servants of God; therefore, we are reminded not to make idols or graven images; rather, we must keep the sabbaths and revere the sanctuary.

The events of the haftarah, which take place in 587 BCE, include a clear example of the land redemption described in the parashah. God instructs Jeremiah to purchase (redeem) land from his cousin Hanamel. He does so and then directs his scribe to seal and store the documents as a future witness of the purchase. This land purchase was symbolic, intended to inspire hope in the future restoration of the land that God is promising. Jeremiah, however, finds it incomprehensible, considering the impending Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, which is coming because of their disobedience. Nevertheless, he proclaims that houses, fields, and vineyards will again be purchased in the land.

Jeremiah praises God’s past deeds, from redeeming Israel from Egypt to settling them in the land but expresses surprise at God’s message of hope. The haftarah ends with God mimicking Jeremiah’s words, asking, “is anything too wondrous for Me?” 

Like Jeremiah, we, too, are commanded to trust in the redemptive power of God, even as we live through times and experiences that would challenge that belief.