Parashah Behar / “on the mount”
Vayikra 25:1 – 26:2 Leviticus 25:1 – 26:2
Parashah 1 – Vayikra 25:1 – 13
On the mount. It is an interesting title to this week’s
reading. Moses is up on the mountain of
the Lord as he seems to have been for quite a number of chapters prior to this
one, and it appears that he continues in this locale through the end of the
book.
In this short set of passages,
though it is the longest one of this week’s readings, information is passed
down to Moses regarding the year of shabbat as well as the year of
jubilee. What more can we say as we
seemingly have a pretty good understanding of the mechanics of these commands/
It is apparent in verse two that the
sabbatical year was not a requirement of the land until the Children of Israel
took possession – “…When you come into the land which I give you, then shall
the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord”.
We are all probably familiar with the concept – sow, prune, and harvest
for six years; but on the seventh year, the sabbatical year, the land is not to
be sown nor are the plantings to be pruned, and what does grow is not to be
harvested (vss. 4 – 7). However, as I
read verse two, it also seems to say that the first year the Israelites were in
the land was to be a sabbath, at least for the plantings, for the land. After all, weren’t the people going to eat
from vineyards they did not plant (Dt. 6:11 and Joshua 24:13)?
Likewise, the Year of Jubilee is to
be treated in the same manner (vs. 11).
The Year of Jubilee is the fiftieth year; it is also, a year that
immediately follows every seventh sabbatical year. WHAT!
TWO YEARS IN A ROW WITHOUT WORKING THE FIELDS! WHAT WILL WE EAT? HOW WILL WE SURVIVE?
Well, the answers to those supremely
relevant questions is not provided in this day’s reading, and as I am bound by
the parameters of this particular parashah, I will simply refer you to the
third reading of the week, verses 20 – 24.
There is another event, one that is
occurring currently to which I would like to allude. We are counting the omer, and assuming that
everyone is or will soon be in the Biblical day before shabbat, the omer count
is now 20. In the counting of the omer and in the
counting of the Year of Jubilee, is there a similarity? I guess since I asked the question the
readers are assuming the answer is “yes”.
Bully for you!
It took seven sabbatical years to
get to the year after the seventh sabbatical year, which was called the Year of
Jubilee. To complete the counting of the
omer, one must go through seven sabbaths and then add one more day to attain
the fifiteth day.
The Year of Jubilee is a year of the
return of the possessions of the land to the family’s of the Children of
Israel. Another word for this in my
vocabulary is “restoration”. As we look
at our prophet Moses receiving the ten words, the ten commandments, on the
mountain of the Lord, we must consider whether these commandments are binding
the people or are they setting them free?
Likewise, what about the events of Shavuot some fifteen hundred years
later? The Comforter descended (Acts 2),
and Yeshua HaMashiach was preached.
There were three thousand saved on that day, and what were they saved
from? They, as we, were saved from
having to make the payments necessary for our own sins, for the times we have
missed the mark. The three thousand of
that day, were they bound or set free?
BARUCH
ATAH ADONAI!
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