B’Har and B’ Chukotay – Setting Limits in Time and Space
A reminder of our regular Friday night services tonight, May 3rd at our regular time of 7:00 pm. We look forward to seeing you all.
Rabbi Peter Tarlow’s Weekly Parasha:
We bring the yearly reading of the Book of Leviticus and the academic year to both their conclusions with a double parashah (Weekly Bible section) of B’Har and B’Chukotay. We find these two parashiyot (plural of parashah) in Leviticus 25;1-26:2 and 26:3-27:34. These sections deal with a number of issues, and perhaps one their themes, found at the beginning of the second of these two parashiyot acts as a unifying verse.
In Leviticus 26:3 we read “Im b’chukotai telchu v’im mitzvotai tishmru va’asitem otam/If you walk in (follow) My laws and keep (watch over) My commandments and you do them…”. The basic theme is what is Biblical scholars call: “the historical perspective on history”. This theory argues that G’d intervenes in history according to our actions; that history contains both personal and national “tits-for-tats”. If we follow G’d laws then we live lives filled with blessings and if we choose to ignore these laws then we suffer the consequences of our decisions.
This verse, however, is more complicated than it might appear to be at first. Grammatically, it presents us with several conceptual problems. If we read the verse carefully in the original Hebrew text, we note that the verse’s first two verbs have a subjunctive sense (expressing doubt). Thus, it is unclear if we shall or shall not follow G’d’s laws, but the third verb (to do), however, has a declarative sense “You will do them” no questions asked!
How come? Is the Torah portion teaching us an important lesson in life? Is it hinting at the idea that to be an adult means to do the right thing even if you do not want to do it? Is the text teaching us that to be an adult means getting beyond one’s own feelings? The theme that to be an adult is to learn to live in a world where we do not always get our way, is a major theme of the entire text.
Leviticus, and this section in particular, seem to be telling us that to be holy is to know limits. The text offers us the hypothesis that when humans enter a world of “if it feels good, then do it” they enter a state of social anarchy leading to “tohu va-vohu” or the state of chaos prior to creation. Leviticus, like so much of the Hebrew Bible, reminds us that we are merely guests on G’d’s land/earth; mere sojourners in G’d’s space and time. Leviticus reminds us that to exist civilization needs limits in time and in space, and without these limits we lack the freedom to create.
Many of the Biblical personalities, such as Noah and Abraham, demonstrated greatness when they walked with with G’d even when it was inconvenient. Greatness, then is not measured by what we say or feel, but rather in the end by what we do within the boundaries of time and space set for us by G’d. Do we need limits in order to be free? What do you think?
Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Message:
This week we read a double parshah, the last two of the Book of Leviticus, B’har and B’hukkotai. B’har begins with a description of the sabbatical year, which was the seventh year in which fields were to remain fallow and debts were to be forgiven, and then goes on to a description of the Yovel, the Jubilee, which was every fiftieth year. On the Yovel, which took place after the seventh sabbatical year in a cycle of 49 years, Israelite indentured servants were freed, and property that was part of tribal inheritance (to the exclusion of houses in cities) reverted to its original owners. By this law, the Torah sought to limit hereditary wealth and to prevent hereditary poverty. Once the tribal structure disappeared, after the Assyrian and Babylonian conquests, the institution of the Yovel went into abeyance. However, the concept continued on, whether in the term ‘jubilee’, meaning a fiftieth anniversary, or in the use of the term ‘Day of Jubilee’ (or ‘Jubilo’) by slaves in the American South to refer to the hoped-for day of Emancipation. Of course, the commandment to proclaim the Yovel is found on one of the most famous symbols of the United States-‘Proclaim liberty throughout the land, and to the inhabitants thereof’, found on the Liberty Bell. It is indeed a wonderful thought that though the institution of the Yovel disappeared more than two millenia ago, it endures as a symbol of freedom and hope even into our days.
This week we read a double parshah, the last two of the Book of Leviticus, B’har and B’hukkotai. B’har begins with a description of the sabbatical year, which was the seventh year in which fields were to remain fallow and debts were to be forgiven, and then goes on to a description of the Yovel, the Jubilee, which was every fiftieth year. On the Yovel, which took place after the seventh sabbatical year in a cycle of 49 years, Israelite indentured servants were freed, and property that was part of tribal inheritance (to the exclusion of houses in cities) reverted to its original owners. By this law, the Torah sought to limit hereditary wealth and to prevent hereditary poverty. Once the tribal structure disappeared, after the Assyrian and Babylonian conquests, the institution of the Yovel went into abeyance. However, the concept continued on, whether in the term ‘jubilee’, meaning a fiftieth anniversary, or in the use of the term ‘Day of Jubilee’ (or ‘Jubilo’) by slaves in the American South to refer to the hoped-for day of Emancipation. Of course, the commandment to proclaim the Yovel is found on one of the most famous symbols of the United States-‘Proclaim liberty throughout the land, and to the inhabitants thereof’, found on the Liberty Bell. It is indeed a wonderful thought that though the institution of the Yovel disappeared more than two millenia ago, it endures as a symbol of freedom and hope even into our days.