An American Jubilee
This week’s double parashah, B’har-Bechukotai, feels particularly resonant at this given point in time. In just under two months, our country will celebrate its 250th anniversary, a remarkable milestone in our history. As we return to this parashah, with specific focus on the very beginning of Parashat B’har, the call to awaken our senses to the needs of our country and those who inhabit it is a reminder on this momentous occasion.
The portion begins with the law of the sh’mittah year, the periodic year of rest for the land:
“Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When you enter the land that I assign to you, the land shall observe a sabbath of the Eternal. Six years you may sow your field, and six years you may prune your vineyard and gather in the yield. But, the seventh year, the land shall have a sabbath of complete rest, a sabbath of the Eternal: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.” (Lev. 25:2-4)
Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson notes the poignance of this continued focus for the Israelites noting that for a people who were often nomadic and landless, we have never turned our heads away from being mindful of the care and concern for the welfare of the land. The portion continues to count the sh’mittah years until arriving at the yoveil or jubilee year:
“You shall hallow the fiftieth year. You shall proclaim release throughout the land
for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you: each of you shall return to your holding and each of you shall return each to your family.” (Lev. 25:10)
The jubilee year was historically and notably a time of redistribution of wealth, and one that was commanded and not one of political debate. Imagine, if today in our own city, the ongoing and often heated discussions about the wide inequity and lack of affordable housing could be alternately viewed as a necessary provision for society. We must provide for all of our neighbors, and yet we know that modern economics often get in the way when we need to determine how we can do this and be economically sustainable. What if we began by saying, just as the Torah commands – we are going to do this, and then we found the way? The Torah repeatedly reminds us to not turn away from the widow, orphan, poor, or stranger. The Torah repeats itself, lest we forget or, worse over, choose to ignore its lesson.
The Liberty Bell, located on the other side of our commonwealth, uses a section of the same quote from Leviticus 25:10 with a slightly varied translation from the King James Bible changing the word “release” to “liberty” and is thus inscribed as:
“Proclaim Liberty Throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof.”
This portion is a call to action, where just one verse earlier it notes the call of the shofar, a sound always associated with an act of awakening to the moment.
And, so here we are in this American “jubilee” year. Could we see this as a call for all of us to think more deeply as to how we can respect and honor the sacred words that established our own country? The words of the Declaration of Independence will only ring true on this 250th birthday if and when we can stand behind the fact that “all men” … and I’m going to interject – humans “are created equal, endowed with the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
I feel enlightened myself by the text of Parashat B’har and motivated to seek the wisdom of leaders who have inspired me throughout our history. I hear the words spoken by President John F. Kennedy nearly 65 years ago, and today they continue to echo prophetically: “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” Ken Y’hi Ratzon. May this be God’s will for us all.
Cantor David Reinwald is the cantor at Beit Kulanu (the unification of Temple Sinai and Rodef Shalom Congregation). This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Jewish Clergy Association.
Find the published version of this D’var Torah at The Jewish Chronicle here