Hello friends and neighbors,

This week, we read the second to last parsha (Torah portion) in the book of Vayikra (Leviticus).  This parsha is called B’har which means, “On the mountain.”  It is referring to Mount Sinai, which we see from the first verse that reads:  And haShem (god) spoke to Moshe (Mses) on mount Sinai saying…”

So, what does god tell Moshe to say?  He told him to tell the children of Yisrael how to treat the land that god is giving them.  Specifically we read about resting the land every seven years, as a Shabbat to god.  What this means, in part, is that nobody can work the land and anybody/any animal is allowed to eat from the land.

Then the year after the seventh cycle of seven years, the 50th year, is also a special year called Yovel (Jubilee).  On this year the land is also allowed to lie fallow, the land is returned to its original owners (ie. the family that god gave the land to when the sons of Yisrael acquired the land).  What this means is that the land is never sold, but is merely rented for up to 50 years at a time.  I wonder how different the world would be today if everybody had to give up their property every 50 years?

The parsha talks about how to determine the price of the land and not to cheat your friend and that you should be in fear/awe of your god (powers) because, “I am haShem your god (powers).”  It is interesting to note that the first time the Torah says, “Your god/powers,” it uses the singular, ie. it is talking to each and every person individually that you should be in fear/awe of your god/powers.  Why?

Because, “I am haShem, all-of-you-your god/powers,” meaning that each individual should be in awe/fear because their god/power is the god/power for everyone.  We don’t have individual god/powers, we are unified by our god/powers.

And god then tells us a simple rule for living securely on the land:  to do and observe all of god’s rules.  Simple. 😉

We are now told that we cannot sell the land permanently because the land really belongs to god, and that we merely live and settle the land with god.  After this brief interlude, we talk about redeeming rented land before the Yoval year.

After this, we talk about people.  Our Torah says that if somebody becomes poor, we must strengthen him, whether he is a visitor or a resident.  This means giving this poor person food and money interest free.  Why?  Because your god took you out of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your god.

If your brother becomes so poor that you have to buy him, you cannot make him work like a slave.  Rather, he is a hired hand and will work for you until the Yoval year.  Why?  Because they are god’s servants that she took out of Egypt.  So, do not abuse him and be in fear/awe of your god.

Why does it say these two things together?  Perhaps to emphasize that even though they sold themselves, they are really like the land, owned by god and being lent out for a period of time.  This idea that people and the land really belong to haShem is very important in our tradition.

We end by being told not to make idols or worship stones erected or put into the land, and to observe god’s Shabbats.

An interesting parsha to say the least.  2 years ago I talked a lot about the parsha being the environmental and human-rights parsha.  I still very much believe this, however I don’t want to repeat myself, so I have something else I want to share with you.  Besides, something else struck me as I was reading the parsha this week. 🙂

One thing I find interesting with this parsha is that last year it was read as a double-parsha with next week’s parsha.  This year, being a leap year, it is its own parsha.  Yet, as I was thinking about the parsha, I found myself connecting it to the parshas from last week and two weeks ago.

In those parshas, I found myself talking about what it means to be kodesh, which means, “Holy or separate.”  What I talked about was that to make something holy, one needs to separate it from the general.  This restriction creates the holy and the mundane.  If you don’t have it, then you have no way to distinguish between the two.

What I realized this week is that I never talked about what we are separating from.  I alluded to it, but never really got into it.  So, that is what I want to do now.

Now, the easiest place to start is from the previous parsha.  In it, we are told to make certain times kodesh.  These times are Shabbat (every seventh day), Pesach/Passover (I am including the whole week), Shavuot, and Rosh haShannah/Yom Kippur, and Succot/Atzeret.  What do all of these things have in common?  They are all moments of time, and only moments of time.  A day only exists within time.  It has no physical dimension.  It transcends space if you will.  So, if we are to make it kodesh, we must separate it, and the only thing to separate it from is time.

In other words, we take Shabbat, and these other holidays, out of time.  However, the physical world, the world our family tradition calls Assiyah or the world of action, is a time-space continuum.  Therefore if we take Shabbat, or Pesach or the others and make them kodesh, you are really taking them out of this world.  What does this mean?  It means two things.  One thing is that we cannot do any work during the moedim (festivals).  Why?  Because we are no longer in the world of action.  So, to try and act outside the world of action (Assiyah) creates a contradiction.  The way out of this contradiction is to remove the person from kodesh, which is what we see in the Torah.  The person is either killed or their soul is cut off from the kodesh national soul.

If we are not in this world, where are we?  This is the second thing.  A very simple way to answer this is that we are in sacred space.  What do I mean by that?  Well, in our family tradition, we say the lowest world, the world furthest away from the divine creator, is the world of action (Assiyah).  So, if we separate from this world, we have nowhere else to go, but closer to the divine.  And the closer to the divine we go, the more sacred is the place where we are.  This is what I call sacred space.

Now, what does all this have to do with this week’s parsha?  All of it could have been said using the previous two parshas.

However, this week we talk about the land having a Shabbat every seven years.  What this does is support that we live in a time (Shabbat) and space (land) continuum.  What it means is that every seven years, the land leaves the world of Assiyah (action).  This is why we cannot work the land:  because the land is not in the world of action.  It is in sacred space.

I want to make a tiny digression here and talk about the number 7.  Seven represents the center point or source.  What I mean be that is that we have 6 directions, north, east, south, west, up, and down.  The 7th direction is the center or source that all the other directions are relative to.  So, the seventh Shabbat for the land is the Shabbat that returns it to its source, which is god, the creator.  It is for this reason the we have to return the land the following year, the 50th year, because on the 49th year, it is out of this world and with haShem.  All previous “ownership” is removed.  The land has been completely renewed.  And so it goes back to the people that god originally gave it to, providing we, the people, follow in haShem’s ways, and remain kodesh.

Now, why does the parsha also say that if we acquire our brother, he goes free on the Yoval year?  I mentioned this above, but I want to repeat it here.  The parsha makes a connection between the land and us:  we are both owned by god.  And the parsha also talks about the seventh year being a Shabbat for god.  So, what I said above about what happens to the land on the seventh Shabbat, happens to all that belongs to the divine, because we are talking about the divine’s Shabbats.  So, if the land reverts to the original owners, so to does anyone who has been bought.

I bless everybody to really feel the difference between the holy and the mundane, and to experience being in the world of action and out of it every Shabbat and every moed (festival).

PS.  As I was rereading this, I had one more thought:  Why does the parsha end by saying:  Don’t worship idols, and to keep shabbat?  What is the parsha trying to remind us of?

We end with the reference to Shabbat to remind ourselves that the parsha is about Shabbat and how to be in sacred space – something you cannot do worshipping things that are within space-time like idols and pillars and stones.  I might be a little early, but, shabbat shalom everybody!

If you care to read what I wrote about this parsha last year, click here.

About the Author

Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.