The Torah portion of Behar deals exclusively with the Sabbatical year and the Jubilee year. According to the Jewish calendar every seventh year is a Sabbatical year, in which we give the land its due rest. The concept and application of the laws of the seventh year were considered so important that it is the sole subject of one complete weekly Torah portion making it unique among all the commandments. Since the destruction of the Temple and the subsequent 2,000 year exile, the concept of the seventh year had become quite distant in theory as well as practice. Only in the last century of renewed Jewish settlement in the land of Israel has the need arisen to again observe and contemplate the immediate practical and deeper levels of purpose of the seventh year.
The most important idea to understand concerning the Sabbatical year is that its meaning and purpose is the center piece of the functioning of a Torah society, which is ultimately meant to be a manifestation and fulfillment of spiritual values. The Torah recognizes no distinction between religious practice and belief and the social relationships of day to day living. To love and honor God goes hand in hand with loving one's fellow man and in fact each depends on the other.
In addition to allowing the land to rest for an entire year, loans were cancelled and produce from the fields became ownerless, allowing virtually free access to everyone. At the end of seven Sabbatical years (7 times 7 years) the Jubilee (50th year) was declared, when indentured servants were set free and property, fields, and houses would revert back to their original owners.
The essence of the seventh year teaches that all human striving and achievement must be in tune and in accordance with a Divine cycle and plan for mankind. Just as we are commanded to work six days and rest on the seventh day, so too, we are taught that when we come into the land we should work the land for six years and on the seventh allow the land its due rest. During times of work we need to know that God desires us to be a partner in creation. Each individual, and humanity as a whole, needs to work and strive toward being "in the image of God," which can only be achieved through constant effort on the physical, as well as the spiritual plane. The natural tendency of man is to think "My power and the might of my hand has gotten me all this wealth" (Deuteronomy 8:17), therefore, through resting on the Shabbat and the Sabbatical year, we come to learn that it is really God who is directing and perpetuating the world and only through His grace do we have the strength to accomplish anything.
The purpose of a Torah society is to allow individuals the freedom to develop themselves to their fullest capability, while guarding against excesses in which all power, wealth and land would be accumulated in the hands of a few, to the detriment of the many. "And the Sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you, and your servant, and your maid and your hired servant and for the stranger that sojourns with you…" (Leviticus 25:6). This injunction comes in the context of the constant laws of tithes given the priests and levites, the gleanings and corners of the fields left for the poor, the widow and orphan, and the general commandment to be concerned with the fate of one's neighbor: "And if your brother grows poor, and his means fail with you, then you shall relieve him, though he be a stranger or sojourner with you" (Leviticus 25:35).
The actions of freeing one's indentured servant, canceling loans, returning property to their original owners and sharing the produce of the fields were all meant to insure a certain equality and unity of purpose as a nation. A very beautiful allusion to this is found in the name of the Torah portion, Behar "in the Mountain [Mt. Sinai]," where the laws of the Sabbatical year are taught. On the verse describing how Israel came and camped by Mt. Sinai after coming out of Egypt, Rashi comments that the Hebrew the word for "camped" is written in the singular (Exodus 19:2). He explains that there was such unity between the people that they were "like one person with one heart." This in truth is the goal of the seventh year and the significance of the laws of the Sabbatical year appearing in the Torah portion named after Mt. Sinai.
Of course, for a whole nation to sustain this sort of cohesiveness is no easy task. It is one thing to refrain from work one day a week and quite another to refrain from works relating to agriculture for a whole year, especially in an agricultural society as Israel was in ancient times. Despite God's promise to the people that if they would keep and sanctify the Sabbatical year, He would insure their safe keeping and provide sufficient produce in the sixth year to last three years, still, as a whole nation Israel never fully kept the Sabbatical laws. For this they paid the price of exile, as it says "And I will scatter you among the nations…Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths, as long as it is desolate and you are in your enemies land, then shall the land rest and enjoy her Sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate it shall rest, because it did not rest in your Sabbaths when you dwelt upon it" (Leviticus 26:33-34). This prophecy came true at the time of the destruction of the First Temple and the Babylonian exile, where according to Jeremiah's prophecy they spent seventy years in exile for the seventy Sabbatical years not fully kept. Only after the land received its rest did the Jews come back to rebuild the Second Temple.
The connection between exile and redemption being dependent on observing the Sabbatical year leads us to yet another dimension of understanding the seventh year in relationship to the importance that cycles play in an individual's life, in nature, in the course of Israel's history and the Divine plan for humanity.
From the creation of the world in six days (or time periods) and the culminating Shabbat when "God rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done," (Genesis 2:2) the number seven has symbolized the cycle of time and the orderly purpose of creation. If time had no orderly cycles, we would be at a loss to structure our endeavors or have any point of reference in which to give our lives a meaningful perspective. Just as nature follows set patterns and laws based on cyclic rhythms, so too man needs to be connected to the spiritual source of these cycles. Therefore, Shabbat gives us not only a period of rest, but the proper perspective between the physical and spiritual.
The number seven repeats itself constantly when defining personal, natural or historical cycles. When we left Egypt we needed seven complete weeks to prepare to receive the Torah given on the fiftieth day. This period of time connecting the days between Pesach and Shavuot, is repeated again in the concept of seven Sabbatical years, culmination in the fiftieth Jubilee year. Pesach itself is celebrated for seven days, as is Succot, and on Simchat Torah we dance in circles with the Torah seven times. Every Shabbat the portion of the Torah is divided into seven readings and the silent prayer on Shabbat consists of seven blessings.
In the cycle of an individual we see the number seven appearing constantly. Science has revealed that most cells in the body completely rejuvenate themselves every seven years. A baby boy is circumcised on the eighth day, in order that he will have passed through at least one Shabbat. At a wedding the bride circles the groom seven times under the chuppah, the canopy, where the seven blessings are recited and for seven subsequent days the bride and groom are given these same seven blessings. For seven immediate family members there is an initial mourning period of seven days. The menorah in the Holy Temple consisted of seven branches, divided into three on each side, with the middle one representing Shabbat.
The number seventy (10 times 7) also plays a significant part in the Jewish tradition. Jacob went down to Egypt with seventy souls, corresponding to the seventy archetypal nations and languages. During Succot seventy oxen were sacrificed in the Temple in Jerusalem for these seventy nations as a symbol of our desire to live in peace with the entire world. In the desert Moses appointed seventy elders to assist him in judging and advising the people. The same number also served on the Sanhedrin, the "supreme court" of law.
There is another significant seven, revealing an even deeper understanding of what the Sabbatical year is meant to accomplish. According to tradition the world is founded on a cycle of six thousand years, to be followed by the seventh millennium, referred to as the great and continual Shabbat. It is no coincidence that as we approach the year 6,000, the Jewish people are returning to Israel. All the prophets prophesied that after a long and horrible exile, the ingathering of the Jewish people would occur at the "end of days." The land of Israel would be replanted and flourish, Jerusalem would be rebuilt, the final wars guaranteeing Jewish sovereignty would be fought, culminating in the coming of the Messiah, the rebuilding of the Temple, the "resurrection of the dead" and the establishment of world peace and harmony. This utopian vision is the hope Judaism holds out to the world and is in a sense the Shabbat of world history. Just as there exists a rhythm of the week and of years based on six days and years of work, followed by rest and the spiritual bliss of Shabbat, so too all of history is moving according to the same cycle, ultimately leading to a Sabbatical millennium for humanity, a "returning to the garden of Eden." The idea of "paradise lost" and the quest to return to a former exalted station that man once held is essentially connected to understanding the meaning of the first sin and the purpose the Sabbatical year plays in trying to rectify the consequences of that action.
When Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge they thought they would attain what the snake had assured them: "that on the day you eat of it you will be like God to know good and evil" (Genesis 3:4). What they did not realize was that their action would set in motion consequences for all future human development - that realizing the same lofty spiritual plane as experienced in the Garden of Eden could now only be achieved through long, hard struggle and toil. They achieved one sort of knowledge, but sacrificed a purer unconscious intuition of being in harmony with God and nature. Similar to a parent who must allow a young child the opportunity to learn to walk, even though it means a few hard spills, so too God wants us to be "in the image of God" through our own personal attainment.
Leaving the Garden of Eden set the pattern of all future exiles on a both national and personal level. More so, Adam's curse had ramifications for all humanity: "cursed is the ground for your sake; in sorrow you shall eat of it all the days of your life… in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground: for dust you are and to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:17-18). Instead of living in harmony with nature Adam now found that he would have to be both a slave to his toiling and a tyrant to get the now "accursed" earth to provide for him.
The episode of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden represents the archetypal predicament of all mankind. The passions, emotions, and intentions of each of the protagonists, as well as the forces of cause and effect as portrayed in the story is an allegory which plays itself out in all of our lives. The Sabbatical year is meant to be a healing for both man and earth for the first sin and is a vital road sign to humanity as to how to "return to the Garden." Just as in the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve lived off the abundance of the land, so too in the seventh year, through giving the land its rest and refraining from agricultural work, we too return to a situation of living off the land. Instead of working by the "sweat of our brow," we become more in tune with the great bounty there is to be had naturally. Of course, one needs to prepare during the whole sixth year to be in a situation of having enough to sustain oneself and this level of faith is in itself an essential aspect of living in unison with nature and God.
Since the land rests during the Sabbatical year, the "soul" of the land is partially healed from the "curse" it received for Adam's sin. Relating to the land of Israel as a holy entity returns us to a proper relationship to the land, in which we are neither slave to it, nor master over it, but instead temporary dwellers aware of the privilege to live in the Holy Land. Therefore, the Torah proclaims: "the land shall not be sold forever; for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me (Leviticus 25:23).
In the Garden of Eden there was no concept of ownership or possession. During the Sabbatical year all the produce of the trees and fields became ownerless so that everyone could experience the earth as belonging to all. For someone who works six years to build up his land or estate, it is no easy task to admit that one does not ultimately really own his land at all, but it is on loan from the true Owner. Finally, there is the awareness of the connection between eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the exile from the Garden, and the expulsion of the Jews for not observing the Sabbatical year. This association itself alludes to the essence of the Holy Land resembling the primordial Garden of Eden.
The vision of the prophets were that one day all mankind would rise above jealousy, greed and hatred and join hands to make a paradise of this world. Within the cycle of seven, six represents the work we must do to accomplish this, while the seventh level symbolizes God's constant providence to actualize this lofty goal. Without His constant help, that which He promised through the prophets would certainly be beyond our grasp.
More than any other mitzvah the Sabbatical year serves as a bridge between the more personal weekly Shabbat and the macro cycle of human development, as a represented by the seven thousand year cycle. The Sabbatical year teaches us the fine balance between free choice and individual initiative on one side and God's providence and determinism on the other side. Perhaps no mitzvah needs such total faith and for this reason Israel as a nation has yet to truly observe the seventh year as it should be. Despite this, even learning about the seventh year is valuable as a tool and model for a just and caring society.
The shofar of freedom blown in the Jubilee year is a sound all mankind needs to hear and experience. For Israel to be true to its calling we must hold on to the vision of a righteous and enlightened future. It is perhaps the greatest contribution we have made to humanity. May learning about the Sabbatical year and its profound lessons, along with the revival of observing its laws in our homeland create a bridge between Israel and the Holy Land, between Israel and the nations, and ultimately between all mankind and God.
