Torah Table Talk – A New PaRDeS

It’s Not Yours! Wealth, Justice and Property in the Bible

Parshat Bahar, Leviticus 25:1 – 26:2
This Torah Table Talk is dedicated by Leonard H. Mark
In honor of Judy and Leon Thurm
Among the most inspiring passages in the Hebrew Bible is the one which appears on the liberty bell in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: “Proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof.” This verse
became the motto of the American Revolution as well as the hallmark of the abolition movement during the Civil
War. And yet there are three problems with this well known verse. First, the meaning of the word deror is not
clear. Second, the verse is usually taken out of context so that how we hear it, may not be what it originally meant.
And finally, while most people know the first half of the verse, “proclaim liberty throughout the land,” few people
are familiar with the second half of the verse, “each of you shall return to his holdings and each of you shall return
to his family.”
The Jubilee year is actually a fascinating and visionary piece of biblical legislation which involved a radical
reapportionment of property every fifty years. The Bible suggests that on Yom Kippur in the fiftieth year, the
shofar would be sounded. All Israelite slaves would be set free, land returned to its original owner, and the land
would lie fallow as it had the previous year during the sabbatical year. As far as we know, the Jubilee year was
never put into full practice. This troubled the sages. As a vision of social and material equality however, the Jubilee
continues to inspire and challenge us today.
Leviticus 25: 8 -11 You shall count off seven weeks of years - seven times seven years - so that
the seven weeks of years gives you a total of forty nine years. Then you shall sound the horn loud; in
the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month - the Day of Atonement - you shall have the horn
sounded throughout the land, and you shall hallow the fiftieth year. You shall proclaim release (deror)
throughout the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee year; each of you shall return to his
holdings and each of you shall return to his family…you shall not sow neither shall you reap the after-
growth or harvest the untrimmed vines…
PaRDeS
1. P’shat – Understanding the plain sense meaning of the text
You shall proclaim release throughout the land for all its inhabitants: The Hebrew term deror has
conventionally been rendered “freedom, liberty.” More has been learned about it in recent years, however.
Hebrew deror is a cognate with Akkadian andururu, which designates an edict of release issued by the Old
Babylonian kings and some of their successors. The edict was often issued by a king upon ascending to the
throne and was a feature of a more extensive legal institution known as mesharum, a moratorium declared on
debts and indenture. The Akkadian dararu, like the Hebrew d-r-r means, “to move about freely,” referring in this
instance to the freedom granted those bound by servitude. In Jeremiah 34:15, we read that, as the Chaldeans
approached Jerusalem, King Zedekiah ordered the people to release their indentured servants to proclaim a
deror, “release.” In Isaiah 61:1, the Judeans exiled in Babylonia are to be freed under a deror as they are
restored to their land. The Biblical laws of the Jubilee year thus incorporate Near Eastern Legal institutions of
great antiquity. (Baruch Levine, The JPS Torah Commentary, Leviticus)
My Commentary: Professor Levine offers a social and cultural context in which to understand the meaning of the
word, deror, and the significance of the Jubilee year. The people of Israel envisioned their God in the same way
that other Ancient Near Eastern peoples envisioned their monarch. Just as the monarch had the power to release
people from debt and to reapportion societal wealth, Israel’s God could do much the same. Later, in the passage
in Leviticus quoted above, the Torah says, “But the land must not be sold beyond reclaim, for the land is Mine;
you are but a stranger resident with Me.” (Leviticus 25:23) Rather than power, however, God is motivated by
justice. Social justice is only possible in a society in which the gap between rich and poor is not allowed to
become so large that it is unbridgeable. We can find at least two historic occasions in scripture in which the
release of slaves was actually practiced in ancient Israel, but for the most part we hear little else about the
practice of the Jubilee year. We are left to wonder whether this was a high minded but ultimately impractical
vision or one that was a constant challenge to our ancestors.
2. Remez – Allusions: Finding meanings hidden in the text
(Readers note: You may want to read the “My Commentary” below before you attempt to read this passage.)
Our Rabbis taught: It is a Jubilee -- even though they did not observe the release of fields, even though they did
not observe the blowing of the trumpet. I might say [that it is still a Jubilee] even though they did not observe
the dismissal of slaves. Therefore it says, ‘it is’. So says Rabbi Judah. Rabbi Jose said: ‘It is a Jubilee’ - even
though they did not release fields, even though they did not dismiss slaves. I might think [that it is still a Jubilee]
even if they did not blow the trumpet. It therefore says, ‘it is’. Now since one text brings some cases under the
rule and another text excludes others from it, why should I expound: ‘A Jubilee’ - even though they did not
dismiss, but it is not a Jubilee unless they blew the trumpet’? Because it is possible that there should be no
[opportunity for] dismissing slaves, but it is not possible that there should be no [opportunity for] blowing the
trumpet. Another explanation is that the performance of the latter depends on the court, but the performance of
the former does not depend on the court. What need is there for the alternative explanation? Because you might
argue that it is impossible that there should not be someone in some part of the world who has not a slave to
dismiss. Therefore I say that the one depends on the Court but the other does not depend on the court….
All authorities agree that the word deror means freedom. What does this tell us? … Rabbi Judah said: What is
the significance of deror? It means (freedom of) one who dwells [medayyer] where he likes and can carry on
trade in the whole country. Rabbi Hiyya ben Abba said in the name of R. Johanan: The views given above are
those of Rabbi Judah and Rabbi Jose, but the Sages say that [the neglect of] any of these three ceremonies
renders the Jubilee inoperative. Their view was that a text can be expounded in connection both with the clause
immediately preceding it and with the one before that and with the one that follows it. But it is written ‘Jubilee’?
This is to show that it must be kept even outside of Palestine. But it is written ‘throughout the land’? This means
that when liberation is carried out in the land it is carried out abroad, and when it is not carried out in the land it
need not be carried out abroad. (Babylonian Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 9b)
My Commentary: We find here a somewhat obscure discussion of the meaning and practice of the Jubilee year.
The sages were inspired by the concept of the Jubilee year but they struggled with its applicability. They were
fully aware that it was never put fully into practice. They questioned whether we still proclaim ‘Jubilee year’
even though we cannot or do not observe all of its elements. There are four parts to the Jubilee year: the release
of property, the liberation of slaves, allowing the ground to lie fallow, and the sounding of the shofar. What
happens if some but not all of them are observed? Is the fiftieth year in the cycle still considered the Jubilee
year? The fact that the Torah repeatedly says, “It is a Jubilee year” leads the sages to conclude that if even some
of the elements of this institution are in effect, then it should be proclaimed. The Talmud also offers its own
interpretation of the word deror; it is connected to the word la-dur, to dwell. It is interesting that this
interpretation offers us something the original biblical meaning did not; Jubilee allows for social and economic
fluidity. Through release people can dwell where they wish and practice their trade throughout the land. The
original Jubilee was about a return to one’s ancestral holdings (which in theory were given to the people after
the conquest of the land). The rabbinic notion of Jubilee was to create a society of constantly renewed
opportunities for individuals to rebuild their lives.
3. Din – Law: Applying the text to life
God, blessed be He, wished to impress on His people that everything belongs to God and that ultimately
everything reverts to who He had wished to give it in the first instance, since the land is His, as it is so written.
The mitzvah enjoining the counting of years would deter them from stealing their neighbors land and coveting it
in their hearts, being conscious that all returns to whomsoever it is God’s will to give it. This matter recalls the
custom of temporal kings who appropriate from time to time the lands belonging to their barons around their
castles in order to assert royal authority. Similarly God declared it His will that all land should return to its
original possessor and that every slave should be freed from his master and come under the authority of His
Creator. But temporal kings do so to intimidate their barons and deter them from rebellion while the Almighty
instituted this regulation to promote the welfare and increase the merit of His people. (Sefer HaHinukh, quoted
in Studies in Vayikra by Nehama Leibowitz)
My Commentary: Sefer HaHinukh, a work which discusses the 613 commandments in the Torah, suggests that the
essence of the Jubilee year is theological. Because the land does not belong to us we should not presume
absolute and perpetual ownership of it. Written in the thirteenth century in Spain, the anonymous author
compares the role of royalty to the role of God. The king had the power to control ownership of the land as a
 way of limiting the influence of the local gentry. As the original possessor of the land (that is why the Torah
begins with the story of creation), only God has absolute control over the land. What we have has been loaned to
us – and that should influence the way in which we treat not only the land but the people who dwell upon the
land. The hallowing of the land, then, in this passage follows a pattern we see throughout the book of Leviticus.
We are called on to sanctify time, to hallow the individual and to sanctify all social relations. The Torah
correctly understands that social relations begin with the role of property and material wealth in society.
4. Sod – The Meaning and Mystery of Faith
There is a story that is told of two brothers, who, upon the death of their father, fought incessantly over a piece
of property that had been left as an inheritance. Each brother claimed the property as his own; after years of
fighting their families were alienated from one another. At long last the two brothers came to their rabbi and
asked him to adjudicate their claims. Each presented his argument vehemently claiming that the other had
wronged him. After listening to the brothers, the rabbi asked the brothers to take him to the property so he could
properly decide to whom it belonged. When he arrived at the field, the rabbi got down on the ground and put his
ear to the earth. After several minutes, the brothers who grew more and more uncomfortable asked their rabbi
what he was doing. “I am listening to the earth,” said the rabbi, “to find out to whom it belongs. And do you
know what? The earth says it does not belong to either of you! You, however, belong to the earth! You can
argue about this trivial piece of land but in the end you will return to the earth and not the earth to you!” Today’s
Torah portion challenges our notion of ownership and property. What do we really own? How does one measure
wealth? The Mosaic notion of ownership challenges us to think of ourselves and caretakers and not the owners
of all that is in our hands. If one begins with such a premise, then it should radically affect how you share your
wealth with others. This institution challenges some of our most cherished economic and political concepts and
values in American society. It presumes that an economy will not necessarily be self regulating and that
economic success by some will not necessarily trickle down and benefit everyone else. Whatever else it may
have meant, the Jubilee year challenges society to take a proactive role in assuring the needs of all its citizens.
Questions to Ponder
1. The Sabbath, the sabbatical year and the Jubilee year are all based on cycles of seven years. What is the
significance of this number? What do all three institutions say about our relationship to nature and the
world?
2. Do you think the Jubilee year had practical and realistic expectations for society? If not, why would the
Torah contain a piece of legislation which was visionary but not applicable in ‘the real world?’
3. What implications do the Sabbatical and the Jubilee year have for the concept of private property? In what
ways is the Jubilee similar to and different from socialism and communism? What implications does it have
for a democracy like ours?
4. In the category of “Din” I usually search for ways to apply the concepts and ideas in the Torah to our daily
lives and the world. While we cannot always do so literally, often ideas in the Torah can influence the way
we see ourselves and society. How can we apply the notion of the Jubilee to society today?
5. What can the Jubilee year teach us about our relation to God? What do we really own?
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“All it takes to study Torah is an open heart,

a curious mind and a desire to grow a Jewish soul.”
Copyright 2011 Rabbi Mark B Greenspan