צדיק יהגה לענות ופי רשעים יביע רעות, “The heart of the righteous plans his answers carefully; the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil.” (Prov. 15,28)

Solomon contrasts the opposite natures of the righteous and the wicked. He reveals to us that the wicked are proud and arrogant by nature, whereas the righteous is modest and self-effacing. He does so in order to encourage us to practice the positive virtues of the righteous and to avoid practicing the negative virtues of the wicked. The word לענות used by Solomon when describing the righteous is the same word applied by Moses to Pharaoh in Exodus 10,3 when he asked Pharaoh how long he would still refuse to humble himself, לענות, before the Lord? Moses challenged Pharaoh saying that since he had not yet humbled himself before the Lord his answer to the requests made of him by G’d through Moses would reflect his arrogance. Man’s speech is a mirror of how or what he thinks. The חכמי המוסר (Chovot HaLevavot section HaBechinah chapter 5) describe language as the writing quill of the heart. Seeing the righteous person has a clean conscience the words he speaks truly reflect what he thinks and what is in his heart. The reverse is true of the wicked person. It is not enough that he has arrogant thoughts in his heart, but he has enough effrontery to verbalize his arrogance, showing one and all that he is a foolish person. It is a well known fact that self-effacement is one of the finest positive virtues as our sages have taught us (Chulin 89) the universe endures only due the people who perceive themselves as if they were of no consequence; this is what is meant by Deut. 33,27: ומתחת זרועות עולם, “and he who perceives of himself as beneath (everybody else) is what results in the world being planted successfully.” Examples of how the righteous down- graded their own selves are found in Genesis 18,27 when Avraham described himself as עפר ואפר, “dust and ashes.” Moses and Aaron when challenged by the people in Exodus 16,8 exclaimed ונחנו מה “who are we?” They meant that since they themselves derived all their spiritual input only from G’d why would the people complain against them! We find that in Psalms 22,7 David describes himself as “a worm, not a man.” Furthermore, we have a tradition that the presence of G’d manifests itself only to the humble, the self-effacing (compare Mechilta on Exodus 12, item 9). This is also what is meant in Isaiah 57,15: “I dwell on high, in holiness; yet with the contrite and the lowly in spirit - reviving the spirits of the lowly.” Similarly, Torah knowledge becomes the permanent property only of the lowly in spirit (compare Derech Eretz Zuta 8). Our sages in Taanit 7 ask: “why is the Torah compared to water so that the prophet Isaiah 55,1 when inviting people to learn Torah, called out: “come all you who are thirsty for water and get water!” Just as waters leave the elevated place they originate in and flow downwards, so the Torah cannot be at home for long in someone whose heart feels proud and superior to others. In the Aggadah of Eiruvin 55 we also have a statement that the words of Moses in Deut. 30,12 that the Torah is not found in heaven refers to arrogant people and that Torah does no make its home in the brain of such people. People who raise their own importance as if it reached heaven, are not liable to retain their Torah knowledge. True Torah knowledge is attained by those who “kill” themselves (i.e. kill their ego) in order to attain it. The Torah speaks of אדם כי ימות באוהל “when someone dies in the tent” (of Torah), compare Numbers 19,14. Our sages (Bereshit Rabbah 19,7) have formulated the principle that עיקר שכינה בתחתונים, that the principal manifestation of G’d’s attribute of כבוד is found among the terrestrial beings, as we know from Genesis 3,8 “they heard the voice of G’d walking by Himself in the garden following the prevailing wind of the day.” David alluded to the mystical element in all this in Psalms 104,17 when he said: “the stork has her home in the junipers.” [The word חסידה here translated as “stork,” was also the name of a daughter of Avraham who excelled in deeds of loving kindness for mankind which is why her name became known as חסידה, (as opposed to חסיד, masculine). Compare Zohar Pinchas 217. Rabbi Chavell. Ed.] Seeing that Adam sinned, the Shechinah began its gradual retreat from the terrestrial universe, a retreat which was reversed only with the advent of Avraham and which was reversed totally with the inauguration of the Tabernacle. The Torah was revealed on Sinai, a low mountain instead of on a high mountain such as Mount Hermon. This was intended to further make the point that what appears to dwarf all else physically is not necessarily what Torah and its message is all about. In Psalms 68,17 David refers to the hostility of the mountains of Bashan toward the mountain on which the Torah was given, Mount Sinai. Those mountains thought that they had a far better claim to serve as G’d’s residence on earth. [I have translated the author’s words according to the text in my and other editions, although, personally, I feel that the jealousy of the mountains in Bashan described in the verse quoted was directed against Mount Zion, the site of the Temple, much lower than the mountains of Bashan. After all, the psalm speaks about לשבתו “serving as His residence.” Mount Sinai never served as the site of G’d’s residence on earth. Ed.]

וידבר ה' אל משה בהר סיני לאמור, “The Lord spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, to say:” Most of the ancient commentators were perplexed why the Torah suddenly inserted a reminder of Mount Sinai into this verse when other similar verses introducing different kinds of legislation simply begin with the words: וידבר ה' אל משה לאמור. The insertion of the words בהר סיני prompted Sifra Behar 1,1 to comment that the Torah wanted to inform us that just as in the case of the Shemittah legislation the Torah revealed all the minute details of that legislation already at Mount Sinai, so the details of all the other commandments (what we know as the oral Torah) was revealed at the time G’d gave the Torah to Moses at Mount Sinai.

Nachmanides adds that the words כללותיהן ופרטותיהן ודקדוקיהן, mentioned in Sifra, i.e. their general rules, their specific rules and their minutiae, were well chosen. The “general rules” referred to are mentioned already in Exodus 23,11 where the Torah writes: והשביעית תשמטנה ונטשתה “and in the seventh year you shall let it alone and abandon it (the field).” This is followed by the words: “and the destitute of your people shall eat of it, and the wildlife shall eat what is left.” In other words, we already knew that the general rules of the Shemittah legislation had been told the people at Mount Sinai. In our portion the Torah adds further detail to those general rules. Seeing the legislation is not all written in one part of the Torah, the words “at Mount Sinai” remind us that what is written here was not added at a later stage though the people may have been told it somewhat later. Nachmanides concludes by describing this explanation as כפתור ופרח, “excellent.” According to the opinion of Nachmanides the details we are told here were revealed after Moses had received the second set of Tablets, seeing that the principle of the legislation had been revealed at the time of the first covenant. After the second covenant the details and the respective penalties for non-observance were revealed.

It is possible to argue that seeing the people had heard the Sabbath legislation at Mount Sinai during the recital of the Ten Commandments, and seeing that the Shemittah and Yovel legislation appears to reflect similar motivations to the Sabbath legislation, the Torah reminded the people of that conceptual linkage of the two sets of commandments by introducing the details here with the words “at Mount Sinai.” According to the wording in the Torat Kohanim the words בהר סיני in our verse may be read as part of what follows and as part of what preceded this verse. Just as the legislation of what to do with a blasphemer is Sinaitic in origin so is what follows, i.e. the laws of how to observe the legislation regulating use of the land in Eretz Yisrael.

ושבתה הארץ לה, “and the land will observe a rest for the Lord.” G’d sanctified both the seventh day, (Sabbath), the seventh year, (Shemittah) and the seven times seventh year (Yovel). Each of these periods is referred to as “Sabbath” at one time or another. In our verse the Shemittah year is called a “Sabbath.” Sanctifying the conclusion of the seventh Shemittah year in a 50 year cycle, the Yovel is also called “holy,” as we know from verse 12 in our chapter.

According to the plain meaning of the text the meaning of this “sanctity” is that the land lie fallow, untouched by human hands for the entire seventh year. Man should not plough it, sow it, reap it, etc. This is the meaning of verses 3-4: “you shall sow the land for six years, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop; but the seventh year shall be a complete rest for the land, a Sabbath for the Lord. Your field you shall not sow and your vineyard you shall not prune.” You are not even to harvest (in the regular way) what grows by itself during that year. This is the meaning of verse 5: “the aftergrowth (that which grows without ploughing and sowing) of your harvest you shall not reap and the untrimmed grapes of your vineyard you shall not pick.” The word ספיח in verse 5 is similar to the word ונספחו in Isaiah 14,1 “and they will join the house of Yaakov” (the proselytes). Similarly, the vineyard which has not been worked or hoed and not pruned is called נזיר, (like the Nazirite who does not trim his hair) as one abstains from working it a if it did not belong to you. The general principle governing the rules of conduct during the Shemittah year is that all the activities which suggest ownership of the field or vineyard in question have to be avoided. Any fruit of produce which grows on the field or vineyard during that year is ownerless, available on a “first come first served” basis. The legislation is meant to remind us that even during the years when we treat the land as ours, protected by all kinds of laws against infringement by people who do not own it, the land is really only on loan to us from G’d.

A kabbalistic approach: The words 'ושבתה הארץ שבת לה' do not refer to individual parcels of land belonging to individual farmers but refer to the earth as a whole and are an allusion to the seventh millennium following the six thousand years when our terrestrial universe functions normally. They are a reference to the 1000-year transitional period when the earth will be desolate, unfit as a habitat for living creatures (compare Rosh Hashanah 31). That millennium is one described as “eternal rest” (Tamid 7,4), a reference to the world to come after physical resurrection has occurred. According to this concept the Shemittah discussed in our verse would be a cessation of agricultural activity which is not voluntary but imposed by the conditions prevailing in the universe at that time. [This does not replace the normal meaning of the verses 3-8 which speak about what happens every seven years. It only explains the halachically unnecessary words that “the land shall observe rest for Hashem” (verse 2) — Ed.] The observance of a bird’s eye view of what will be in the future, i.e. what we may term a “miniature” shemittah is intended for us to focus on the eventual meaning of the concept. All the severe penalties connected with failure to observe the legislation of Shemittah and Yovel, especially the fact that non-observance is the cause of our losing our homeland and going into exile, is all due to the fact that this legislation is to give us an inkling of a much grander concept G’d has in mind for the existence of the physical universe and the message that an imperfect terrestrial universe is eventually to metamorphose into a perfect terrestrial universe. (Compare 26,34 on the collective penalties for non-observance and Avot 5,9 spelling out the worldwide ramifications of failure to observe the laws of sanctifying the seventh year.)

שבע שנים שבע פעמים והיו לך ימי שבע שבתות השנים, “seven years seven times; and the seven Sabbaths shall be for you, etc.” Why did the Torah have to add the words והיו לך, “they shall be for you?” Did we not know without these words that seven times seven years equal 49 years? It is possible to explain that the mystical dimension of what is written here is to give us a glimpse into the present as well as into the future. The first number, i.e. 7 times 7 plus the fact that the fiftieth year is holy refers to the commandment of observing the Yovel year. Seeing it is something which we have to perform the Torah asked us to count the years preceding the conclusion of that cycle. The word ספירה implies that something is not constant, not enduring. The word Yovel, on the other hand, implies something complete, permanent, enduring. The number 49 both in terms of the 49 gates of understanding granted to Moses, and wherever the number 49 appears, is an allusion to a domain beyond the merely physical, speaks of something permanent as Solomon said in Kohelet 1,4 והארץ לעולם עומדת, “earth will endure forever” (in spite of the recycling that we observe in nature). The mystical dimension is this: We are told in Rosh Hashanah 21 that the world was created with 50 gates (levels) of insight, בינה; Moses was granted 49 of them as David said in Psalms 8,6 ותחסרהו אחד מאלוהים, “You have made him a little less than divine.” The meaning of these words is [I am using my own words here to make the author’s words intelligible, Ed.] that ordinarily every 1000 years is equal to one “level of insight,” so that at the conclusion of 50 periods of 1000 years perfection of the universe is attained. G’d telescoped the 49,000 years to come and taught Moses one level of insight corresponding to each unit of 1000 years. The word לך in the verse וספרת לך “count for yourself,” equals 50 in numerical value, implying that every 50 years, i.e. every Yovel year, a new insight may be attained. The words והיו לך at the end of that period of counting imply that the period of progressing toward perfection then comes to an end and something permanent in terms of levels of insight will have been reached. The reason the Torah speaks of ימי, i.e. “days” or “years of,” is that that word has a numerical value of 50 just as the word לך. The Torah hints that the total number of years designated for the existence of the terrestrial universe is 50 (000). This is what David alluded to in Psalms 145,13 מלכותך מלכות כל עולמים, “Your Kingdom will span the duration of all “worlds.” We have clear evidence of the fact that G’d considers 1000 years as the duration of an עולם from Psalms 105,8 where the psalmist speaks of דבר צוה לאלף דור, “He commanded a “word,” i.e. a directive, to be valid for 1000 generations.” According to this concept the universe has a life span of 50,000 years. The word כל in the verse in Psalms 145 that מלכותך מלכות כל עלמיםn hints at the number 50.000 years seeing that the numerical value of the word כל is 50. [In order to avoid a contradiction between the common conception that the world will continue for 6000 years and the seventh millennium will be the time required to make the world over into a perfect place, we would have to consider each 1000 year period after each cycle of 6000 years as a transition to a better world to come until a final conclusion after 49,000 years with the last Yovel. This concept in turn could incorporate the concept discussed at length in the דרוש אור החיים by the author of the famous commentary on the Mishnah Tiferet Yisrael by Rabbi Yisrael Lifshitz of Danzig in which the author is at pains to prove that our universe is not the first of these seven cycles but is already the fifth such cycle, previous cycles having contained lower forms of life only, including pre-historic man. Ed.]

וקראתם דרור בארץ לכל יושביה, “you will proclaim freedom throughout the land for all its inhabitants.” According to Rashi from the date on which the shofar will be blown to announce this freedom, it will be called Yovel. Rashi bases this on the words במשוך בקרן היובל, “when a long blast will be blown on the Jubilee horn” (Joshua 6,5). This is also the view of other commentators such as Kimchi.

However, Nachmanides refutes this, writing that the קרן היובל as well as the שופרות היובל are expressions applicable only to a ram’s horn, and that the use of such a horn is mandatory only on New Year’s Day in order to remind G’d of the readiness of Yitzchak to die as a martyr for His great Name. Such a restriction does not apply on Yom Kippur, the date this horn is being blown when it is preferable to blow the horn of a יעל, a mountain goat, as indicated in Rosh Hashanah 26. This is why he interprets the word יובל as not referring to the blast blown on the instrument but as referring to the “freedom.” He claims that if it had been referring to the sound of the blast blown on the horn the Torah should have written והעברת שופר תרועה בחדש השביעי בעשור לחודש יובל היא; however, instead the Torah wrote: וקראתם דרור בארץ לכל יושביה, meaning that “you will proclaim freedom to dwell wherever you feel free to live.” The words יובל היא mean that during that year each person will be brought back to the ancestral tract of land which some member of his family might have had to sell during the preceding 49 years. He will be able to rejoin his family. This is the reason why the word יבול is also used to describe both grain and orchard harvests. Low lying areas in which water collects are also known as פלגי יבלי מים, “brooks and watercourses” (Isaiah 30,25). Thus far Nachmanides. The meaning of the commandment called יובל, according to the plain meaning of the text is that fields return to their original owners, (seeing only a number of harvests had been sold, verse 15). Even those Jewish servants who had volunteered to stay with their masters beyond the original six years and who had their ear pierced, have to leave their employer during that year. The word Yovel implies that everything and everybody has to return to their original state, i.e. ownership and family.

A kabbalistic approach to the words יובל היא: The word יובל is derived from the expression ועל יבל ישלח שרשיו, “sending forth its roots by a stream” (Jeremiah 17,8), a hint that all the succeeding generations are traced back to their original roots, to the prime cause which determined their development. This is the reason why the Yovel is called דרור, “freedom,” a reminder of when man was free from sin. All of mankind originated with the pool of souls at G’d’s disposal and eventually this is where the souls will return to. Each one of the seven times periods of a cycle of 7000 years will perform the tasks assigned to the respective day of creation making a total of 49,000 years. When they have completed these 49,000 years the universe will revert to the Tohu Vavohu which preceded the words בראשית ברא (Genesis 1,1). The meaning of the words בשנת היובל הזאת תשובו איש אל אחוזתו, then is literal, i.e. that each person will return to his origin in the year described as Yovel. Philosophers have understood the paragraph as meaning that just as all phenomena in the universe date back to a single original cause, they will again revert to that original cause. If you are fortunate enough to understand the mystical dimension of the legislation of the Shemittah and the Yovel concepts you will not fail to notice the significance of such words in the text as שדך כרמך, ספיח קצירך, ענבי נזירך all of which are in direct speech, i.e. ‘your field, your vineyard, etc.” Prior to the occurrence of the year called שבת לה', “the Sabbath of the Lord,” the Torah had mentioned the suffix “your” only as an afterthought, i.e. תזרע שדך, whereas after that Sabbath the Torah emphasises the fact that it is your field, etc. by writing: שדך לא תזרע, as if to emphasise that you have acquired an inalienable right to that field through the observance of that Sabbath. The Torah emphasises that just as these fields, etc., were yours prior to the “Sabbath,” they are even more so yours after you have observed this “Sabbath.” In Psalm 92,1 the hymn dedicated to the Sabbath, the psalmist reiterates that after the Sabbath has been observed the righteous will flourish like the palm tree (verse 13). In another Psalm (72,7) the author describes the righteous as “flourishing in his time, at which time there will be an abundance of peace until there is no more moon.” Such a vision is already forecast in the opening paragraph of the second chapter of Genesis where the Torah writes that G’d blessed the seventh day (verse 3). The verse which we understood as the conclusion of the act of G’d’s creative activity, concludes (quite unexpectedly) with the word לעשות, “to do, or to keep on doing;” In other words, G’d’s active role in shaping the universe did not conclude at the end of the sixth day of creation. With this verse G’d gave notice that He is planning what is going to happen to the various generations even at that stage. You will therefore observe that whereas for the periods prior to this “great” Yovel at the end of 49,000 years no more mention is made of any parts of the terrestrial earth being “yours,” i.e. man’s, up until that time it is described as “man’s” in varying degrees. In connection with what happens after the Yovel the Torah speaks of ספיחיה, נזריה, “its aftergrowth”, “its set aside residual grapes.” This is a clear hint that due to the arrival of the Yovel (the great and ultimate Yovel) everything had reverted to the original cause, i.e. to G’d. I have already drawn attention to this in my commentary on Parshat Mishpatim on Exodus 21,6 in connection with the words ועבדו לעולם. This may be the reason why the Torah writes in Leviticus 27,24 לאשר לו אחזת הארץ, “to the one who had possession of the land,” instead of writing: “who had inherited the land, i.e. נחלת הארץ. The term נחלה is applicable only if the property in question came into one’s possession from someone who owned it previously, whereas the word אחוזה refers to the “original” owner. Solomon alluded to this when he wrote in Kohelet 5,7 כי גבוה מעל גבוה שומר, וגבוהים עליהם, “for high above the high ones is someone who keeps watch, and above them are those who tower above them.” [The thrust of Solomon’s words which are addressed to the oppressors who feel all-powerful, as well as the thrust of the hidden message in our text, is that there are forces at work beyond those that meet the eye when we merely look at the text of the written Torah superficially. Ed.]

וכי תמכרו ממכר ...אל תונו, “If you will sell property to your neighbor...do not wrong one another.” According to Rashi the verse speaks about monetary wrongdoing, i.e. not to overcharge; when you sell land you are aware how many years there are left until the Yovel year when the land reverts to its original owner. You must make the price of the land commensurate with the number of years the purchaser will be able to enjoy the use of the land he is purchasing. אונאה, “wrongdoing,” in this instance can occur in both directions. Either the price is too high which makes the seller guilty, or the buyer exploited the seller’s need and paid for less than the number of harvests he can expect until the Yovel year in which case the buyer is guilty of wrongdoing. Our sages in Sifra Behar 6,1 understand the wording in our verse, i.e. the Torah’s adding that the sale or purchase is to or from a Jew, (לעמיתך or מיד עמיתך) to mean that land deals should be concluded only between Jews and not between Jews and Gentiles so as not to enable Gentiles to own land in Eretz Yisrael.

The reason that this subject of selling land is written adjacent to the legislation dealing with the laws of Shemittah and Yovel is to warn us that he who fails to observe the former because he begrudges the loss of income during the Shemittah year will find that instead of losing only one year’s income he will become impoverished and have to sell his land so that it will not provide him with any income at all (compare Tanchuma Behar 1). The sages go as far as to say that failure to observe the Shemittah and Yovel laws will eventually reduce the guilty party to having to dispose even of his chattels. They base this on the extraneous words מיד עמיתך, “from the hand of your fellow Jew” (verse 14). Chattels are sold from hand to hand. They view our verses as describing a certain sequence of events. 1) You observe the Shemittah legislation. 2) If you do not, you may have to sell your real estate, i.e. ממכר; 3) if you did not get the message that your economic decline was due to your not observing the Shemittah legislation, you will eventually be in a position where fellow Jews have to buy your chattels so that you will have what to live on. Similar commentaries are offered in connection with the need to sell one’s house. In verse 25 the Torah paints a scenario of someone selling part of his inherited land due to having become impoverished; in verse 29 the Torah already speaks about this someone having to sell his home; if he learned his lesson through having been forced to go begging all well and good. If he did not he may be so reduced (verse 39) that he has to sell his service (take a job he is not free to leave for a given number of years.) If this did not teach him why he is in such reduced circumstances, he may find that a Gentile buys him (his body) compare verse 47-to the end of the portion). Thus far the scenarios painted by the Midrash. Unfortunately, a review of Jewish history shows that what is described here as a warning actually became the fate of large sections of the Jewish people prior to the destruction of the first Temple. Jeremiah 34,11 is quite explicit on the matter when he chided his countrymen for making a mockery of the temporary freeing of their Jewish slaves, indirectly forcing them into slavery again as they did not help them to establish themselves. Subsequent to that travesty, he told them in the name of the Lord that their punishment would include loss of their land, marching into captivity by those who had not been killed by the Babylonians first, etc. (Compare Chronicles II 36, 17-18).

ולא תונו איש את עמיתו ויראת מאלוקיך, “Do not wrong one another, but fear your G’d, etc.” The אונאה referred to in this verse is called אונאת דברים, hurting people with words. Examples are: not to offer deliberately poor advice; irritating one’s fellow and provoking him to become angry (Rashi). We have a statement in Baba Metzia 59 that “all the gates are closed (subject to being closed from time to time) except the gate of אונאה, i.e. the supervision by the watchful eye of G’d if someone is guilty of that sin. The sages based this on Amos 7,7 הנה ה' נצב על חומת אנך וידו אנך, “here the Lord was standing on a wall checked with a plumb line, and in His hand a plumb line.” [The word אנך in that verse is related to אונאה, and the prophet describes the constant alertness of G’d for deviations from the ‘straight and narrow’ symbolized by the plumb line. Ed.] The reason for this is that the victim of such provocations is ever upset and prays to G’d to deliver him from such verbal persecution. This results in G’d’s being involved in matters such as these around the clock. In the event the guilty party who employed language subject to different interpretations consoles himself by saying that his intention to cause his victim anguish could not be proven, the Torah reminds him: “and fear your G’d,” i.e. He knows.

ועשיתם את חוקותי, “You shall perform My decrees, etc.” The Shemittah and Yovel legislation belongs to the commandments categorized as “decrees.” The words ואת משפטי תשמרו, “and My social laws you shall observe,” which follow immediately refer to the rules about reversing the sales into service, or the sale of property due to duress which when the party making the sale became more affluent can be reversed, as well as to all the laws involving wrongdoing under the heading of אונאה. Both categories of laws are mentioned in our paragraph. וישבתם על הארץ לבטח, “you will dwell securely in the land.” This assurance is important as through non-observance of the Shemittah legislation the Jewish people were exiled from the land in fulfillment of the warning by the Torah in 27,34 that the land would recoup the years of Shemittah which the people did not allow it when the people would be in exile. The seventy years of the Babylonian exile were in direct retaliation for the neglect of that commandment (70 times) as we know from Rashi on that verse in 27,34.

מה נאכל בשנה השביעית, “what are we to eat in the seventh year?” The question seems unfounded as the people would naturally eat the harvest of the sixth year of the cycle in the following year, i.e. the seventh year! We must therefore understand the words בשנה השביעית as linked to the words “here we have not sown and we will not gather in,” at the end of our verse. The question is voiced in the seventh year and refers to the eighth year.

עד בא תבואתה, “until its harvest will arrive.” The suffix ה at the end of the word תבואת-ה, refers to the eighth year, not the ninth year mentioned in our verse. The meaning of the whole verse is as follows: “you will sow in the eighth year and you will eat from the old harvest until its harvest (the one which you planted) comes in; this will be sufficient for you until the ninth year.” When the Torah adds the words לשלוש השנים, “for these three years,” the reference is not to three whole calendar years but the words: ‘the sixth year’ in verse 21 refer to the second half of that year, the year which G’d blessed with a bumper harvest; the entire seventh year when you did not plough, seed, etc., you will eat of that harvest, plus the first half of the eighth year until the harvest of that year’s planting comes in. This is the commentary by Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra.

והארץ לא תמכר לצמיתות, “and the land shall not be sold in perpetuity.” this teaches that if the purchaser of the field fails to hand it back to the seller or his heirs at the appropriate time, it will automatically revert to ownership of the original owner in the Yovel year. The expression צמיתות means something absolute, final. This is why Onkelos translates it as לחלוטין.

כי לי הארץ, “for the earth belongs to Me.” The message is addressed to the person who has to give back the land he has purchased. He is reminded that seeing the whole universe belongs to G’d he has no reason to feel aggrieved. G’d is at liberty to make dispositions over what is His (compare Sifra Behar 4,8).

A kabbalistic approach: the words “for the earth belongs to Me,” are a reminder that in the “great” Yovel which we have discussed earlier the entire earth will revert directly to G’d. This is what David had in mind when he said in Psalms 24,1: “the earth and all that is thereon belongs to the Lord, the world and its inhabitants.” Do not ignore the letter ל the largest of the letters in the aleph bet at the beginning of that hymn, i.e. ל-י-ה-ו-ה. The experts of the Kabbalah have called this letter ל “a tower sprouting forth into space” (compare Sanhedrin 106). This is an allusion to all that we wrote earlier about the terrestrial earth reverting to Tohu Vavohu at the end of seven Yovel cycles each of seven thousand years. Another way of approaching the subject mentioned by David in that Psalm [I suppose that the author’s difficulty is another hymn (Psalms 115,16) in which the earth is described as man’s whereas heaven is described as G’d’s. We need to reconcile the different versions. Ed.] The words לי הארץ, “the earth is Mine,” refers to the “earth’s” equivalent in the celestial spheres, a phenomenon which is inactive in the terrestrial spheres during the seventh year, the Shemittah year. This cessation of celestial “earth’s” input into terrestrial earth during that year is as if G’d had renounced ownership of it during that period. Seeing that it is no longer G’d’s, how could it be man’s i.e. “yours,” seeing that all you have you have received from Me.

This may also be the meaning of the words of the Midrash (Sifra Behar 4,5) “for strangers and settlers are you to Me.” G’d is warning the Israelites not to consider themselves as the centre of the earth, its most important phenomenon. The words אתם עמדי, “you are with Me,” in that Midrash mean that a servant should never aspire to be more than his master. It is enough if he attains parity with his master. Translated into our situation it is as if G’d said to the Jewish people: “as long as the earth is Mine, i.e. when I treat it as Mine, it is also yours. When I do not relate to it as Mine, it is not yours either.” G’d said that during the Shemittah year He considers earth as if it were not His. The meaning of our verse then is simply this: “when the earth is Mine, as evident by celestial input from Me in the years other than the Shemittah year, it is also yours. When it is not Mine, seeing that I do not provide any celestial input into it, i.e. in the Shemittah year, it is also not yours. The reason that it cannot be yours during such a time is that you could not possibly have a greater claim to it than I have.”

כי ימוך אחיך ומכר מאחוזתו, “When your brother becomes impoverished and sells you a part of his inherited land, etc.” The introduction to this legislation teaches that one does not have the right to sell the land one has inherited in Eretz Yisrael from one’s forefathers except when in economic distress. In addition the Torah teaches that even if one is forced to sell, one should retain at least part of one’s holding.

ובא גואלו הקרוב אליו וגאל את ממכר אחיו, “and his redeemer who is closest to his brother shall come and redeem his sale;” this law which the Torah promulgates here is based on the compassion one is to display for the person, in particular a relative, who was forced to sell part or all of his ancestral property. The Torah sets aside a certain period of time during which such land is subject to “buy-back.” He can either buy it back himself or the redeemer can buy it back for him. Failing an improvement in the seller’s circumstances or in the absence of a redeemer willing or able to buy it back, it reverts to the seller in the Yovel year. The minimum time period the new owner is allowed to retain what he has purchased regardless of a redeemer offering the “buy-back” is two years. This is the reverse of the rules pertaining to the sale of a house we shall read about presently. When selling a field the right to “buy-back” does not begin until after two years, whereas the right to buy back a house in a walled city which was sold due to economic distress expires at the end of a year. Houses in open areas are considered like fields, i.e. they revert in the Yovel or are bought back after a minimum of two years in the new owner’s possession.

A Midrashic approach (based on Tanchuma). The choice of the word וכי ימוך suggest that the economic eclipse suffered by the person mentioned in our verse is due to his being “soft” מכין in his מצוה-performance. The words “and he sells part of his possessions,” imply that they are sold to Gentiles who may have demanded payment of debts. The redeemer mentioned refers to G’d who is described in Jeremiah 50,34 as “their Redeemer is mighty, His name is the Lord of Hosts.” The words הקרוב אליו also refer to G’d seeing that in Psalms 145,18 G’d is described as “near” all those who “call upon Him.” The words אלך אשובה אל מקומי, in Hoseah 5,15 meaning: “I will go and return to My abode,” instead of אלך ואשובה, are the difference between something final and something temporary. The wording without the letter ו in front of the word אשובה means that G’d’s turning away from Israel is not final and absolute but that due to the troubles which will afflict the people once G’d turns His back on them they will repent and G’d will once again embrace them as is written in Deut. 4,30: בצר לך ומצאוך, “when you are in trouble and they have found you (the afflictions) you will return to the Lord your G’d.” When that happens, says G’d through the prophet, “I too will restore My Presence, Shechinah.”

ואיש כי ימכור בית מושב עיר חומה, “and a man who will sell a house which is his residence in a walled city, etc.” After the Torah had earlier described someone who, through having fallen on hard times, was forced to sell part of his ancestral land-holdings and had legislated that he will get his land back no later than the Yovel year, that legislation was in recognition of the crucial importance of such a field for a person’s economic independence. He needs it to earn his living. Now the Torah speaks about someone who had to sell his residence, a source of profound embarrassment to him. In order for such an embarrassment and related social fallout to be minimised, the Torah allows such a person to buy back his house immediately, within a year of the sale. The purchaser cannot object.

A Midrashic insight into this legislation (compare Tanchuma Behar 1): The word איש here is a simile for G’d. G’d’s “house,” i.e. the Temple, was sold to the Chaldaens (Babylonians). The term בית מושב here is appropriate seeing that the Temple has been described by Psalms 132,13 as כי בחר ה' בציון אוה למושב לו, “for the Lord chose Zion, He desired it as a residence for Himself.” What happened to this residence? Look at Kings II 25,9 where we are told that “Nebuzaradan burned the House of the Lord, the king’s palace and all the houses in Jerusalem as well as every great house he burned by fire.” The expression עיר חומה, is also reflected in that verse in the Book of Kings where the prophet reported about the wall around Jerusalem being put ablaze and burned by the combined army of the Chaldaens (Kings II 25,10).

ימים תהיה גאולתו, “the period during which it may be redeemed extends for one year.” The wording means that the 12 month period during which this house may be redeemed may be combined between so many months in one calendar year and the balance in the next calendar year. This is also what the sages meant when they described the age of the Messiah’s coming as extending over 2000 years, i.e. part in one millennium and part in another (Avodah Zarah 9).

אני ה' אלוקיכם אשר הוצאתי אתכם, “I am the Lord your G’d Who has taken you out, etc.” According to Baba Metzia 61 in this verse G’d refers to how He distinguished between each drop of sperm in order to know which was a firstborn and which was not, as a result of which the former were killed and the latter were redeemed. Similarly, G’d warns that when the time comes He will apply similar careful distinction between who has lent money to a fellow Jew charging interest and who has not. The former will be punished, and it will not help them to claim that they thought the recipient was a Gentile to whom it is permissible to charge interest. This is behind our verse (36) “do not accept from him or charge him interest, but fear your G’d.” The Torah invokes the fear of G’d also in connection with the warning not to impose undignified labour on a Jewish servant (verse 43). Telling such a servant to heat the cup of his master when there is no need for this to be done is considered as demeaning the servant. Whenever there are no objective yardsticks for determining if certain chores are necessary or if the master merely demands them as a form of caprice, the Torah reminds the person demanding such chores to be performed: “fear your G’d,” i.e. He knows what is in your heart even if the servant does not.

לעקר משפחת גר, “or to an offshoot of an alien’s family.” According to the plain meaning of the text the Torah speaks about an alien who never converted but who is descended from a family which converted (i.e. he was alive at the time his parents converted). The verse wants to inform us that regardless of whether the Israelite in question was sold or had sold himself to the convert or to a descendent of this convert who had himself remained a Gentile, such an Israelite is entitled to the rules of redemption, i.e. fellow Jews are obligated to buy his freedom. Onkelos also translates the word as ארמאי, i.e. as “a Gentile.” At any rate, although such a Jew had no right to sell himself to a Gentile, the Torah writes: גאולה תהיה , “he is subject to the normal rules of redemption” (by his fellow Jews). This is spelled out in greater detail by the words: “one of his brethren shall redeem him” in verse 48. If he has relatives able to redeem him, the relatives’ obligation precedes that of other Jews, and if he is able to redeem himself, having come into some money, obviously he is to use the money to buy his freedom. The Torah spells out these various scenarios in verse 49.

A Midrashic approach to the word לעקר: The word is an alternative for “Roman.” The reason the Torah uses the term עקר for a Roman is that in the future G’d will uproot (עקר) all the Romans. There is a scriptural allusion to this in Daniel 7,11: והובד גשמה ויהבית ליקדת אשא, “its body destroyed and consigned to fire for burning.” This is also what is meant in another Midrash (Tanchuma Behar 1) i.e. that the words in our verse that “if a stranger attains sufficient clout so that the poor amongst you are sold to him,” refer to Nevuchadnezzar King of Babylon. The word תושב, resident, in that verse is taken to refer to the king of the Medes (Ahasverus) whereas the words ונמכר לגר are understood to refer to the kings of the Greeks, whereas the last alternative או לעקר משפחת גר are a reference to the Romans. According to that Midrash our verse alludes to the four exiles the Jewish people will have to endure at one time or another in their history. I believe the sages of the Midrash looked for this allusion as they understood previous parts of our portion already as dealing (allegorically, not halachically) with allusions to both the four exiles and the redemptions to follow. I believe there is also a hint that redemption depends on repentance, although even if repentance is not forthcoming G’d’s timetable for the final redemption will not be delayed on account of this. (compare what the author wrote on Genesis 2,2). The difference between the words אחרי and אחר respectively is that the former refers to something in the distant future whereas the latter refers to something in the immediate future. Seeing that in connection with the עקר משפחת גר the Torah speaks of redemption occurring אחרי, there is every reason to believe that when the Torah uses this paragraph as a metaphor it refers to the ultimate redemption i.e. the one following the Jewish people’s having been sold into exile to the Romans.

We may be entitled to extrapolate as a continuation of that thought that the words: “one of his brethren will redeem him,” is a reference to the Messiah, descendant of David, from the tribe of Yehudah. The use of the word אחד in that verse is justified seeing that the tribe of Yehudah is unique, ‘one of a kind.’ Another meaning of the words אחד מאחיו “one of his brethren,” is that the redeemer will be of flesh and blood, a real relative born of a father and mother just as Moses had been a redeemer born of a father and a mother. This may be a polemic by the Midrash against the Christian concept of Jesus not being the son of a biological father and the Romans having adopted the Christian religion as their official religion in the fourth century. The view of the sages in the Midrash is that the wording of our paragraph clearly undermines the theological theories of the Christians The words in verse 49 speaking of the Jew who has sold himself to a Gentile, “or he attains sufficient means,” refer to his having come into some money, [not that he overpowered his master by physical force. Ed.] The word בכסף in the Midrash does not refer to actual money but to repentance, seeing repentance is described as כסף, silver being a metaphor for something white and pure. Repentance has the same effect on the soul, purifying it, removing its stains. [I believe that the author found it difficult to believe that the Jew in question who was now a physical property of the Gentile who had bought him would be able to legally buy his freedom with any money he had inherited or otherwise come by as all his money (under Jewish law) belongs automatically to his master, and he has no property of his own. Ed.] The words וחשב עם קונהו, “he must make a reckoning with the one who purchased him” (verse 50), refer to G’d the true קונה, “Owner,” of heaven and earth who prepares for a reckoning with the people who have enslaved His people. The words משנת המכרו לו, “from the year he has been sold to him,” mean from the beginning of the original exile until that of his final redemption. The final redemption is called here by the Torah שנת היובל, “the year of the Yovel,” as that word symbolizes freedom as we know from verse 10: “you shall proclaim freedom for all the inhabitants on earth.” The word יובל is also used in Psalms 76,12 יובילו שי למורא, “”they bring a tribute to the Awesome One.” We also find a verse in Isaiah 66,20 telling us that at that time of the final redemption the nations will all offer gifts to the Lord, just as the Israelites used to do.” When the Torah speaks of אם עוד רבות בשנים, or ואם מעט נשאר בשנים (verses 51 and 52 respectively), the meaning is that if at the time the slave (Jew in exile) is to be redeemed there are “still many years left before the Yovel year,” or “there are only a few years left until the Yovel year,“ the Torah uses the euphemistic expression to describe the relative degree of repentance by the Jews in exile. Inadequate repentance is described as “many years until the Yovel year,” whereas intensive repentance is described as “only a few years until the Yovel year,” i.e. redemption from exile. When the Torah continues in verse 55: ואם לא יגאל באלה, this means “if the redemption cannot occur due to the (inadequate) repentance,” then when the Yovel year arrives, i.e. the final date in G’d’s timetable for the redemption, ויצא בשנת היבל הוא ובניו עמו “then he together with his sons will go out (into redemption) in the Yovel year.” in other words, the final date G’d has foreseen already at the beginning of creation will not be adjusted due to absence of sufficient merits accumulated by the Jewish people in the interval. All of the foregoing corresponds to the opinion of Rabbi Joshua in Sanhedrin 93 who said that the meaning of the words in Isaiah 60,22 בעתו אחישנה, “at its time I will hasten it,” mean that if there is repentance the final redemption will occur prior to the original date set for it by G’d, whereas if there is no repentance the original date for the redemption will stand. The words הוא ובניו עמו in verse 54 mean that there will be two groups of people who will be redeemed; they are the ones who were outcast and the ones who were scattered amongst the nations (born in exile) with them [or a reference to initial exile to one country from which the children of the original exiles scattered throughout the globe. Ed.] The words “for the Children of Israel are My slaves, the ones I have taken out of Egypt,” [words which cannot apply literally to returning exiles after thousands of years, Ed] are understood by the Midrash as G’d saying that just as the Exodus from Egypt at the time was a redemption which occurred suddenly, comprehensively, not in stages, so the redemption in the future will parallel those aspects of the Exodus from Egypt. The concluding words of the paragraph אני ה' אלוקיכם, are the promise of the redemption in the future.

וחשב עם קונהו, “he will make a reckoning with the one who purchased him.” The verse warns that one must make a meticulous accounting and not try and trick the Gentile in one’s calculations. The reason is that stealing from pagans is prohibited as a form of desecrating the holy name of the Lord. The Torah demands such careful accounting when the Gentile in question is under Jewish authority. I might have thought that seeing the Torah permits charging interest to Gentiles, something which the Torah elsewhere appears to view as a form of unethical conduct, that stealing, at least indirectly, from a pagan is permitted; therefore the Torah makes a point of telling us that this is not so. We know already from Joseph’s brothers whose money had been returned to them by the Egyptians (at least they thought so) that they took it back to Egypt with them (Genesis 43,13) in response to their father Yaakov’s instructions. If Yaakov thought (as he said) that even if the pagans had made an error we must not take advantage of it to their detriment, how much more so must we not disadvantage them deliberately. All of this occurred before the Torah was given, when we did not have these limitations imposed upon us. How much more meticulous must one deal with a Gentile now that the laws of the Torah apply to us! The prohibition is derived from Deut.7,16 that “during the time G’d gives us the land of the seven Canaanite tribes we are commanded to destroy them.” The words אשר אני נותן לכם, “which I am about to give to you,” make this commandment an exception. Only the pagan nations G’d gives to us may be treated in such a fashion as described in that verse. We are to relate to other Gentile nations in accordance with the moral and ethical imperatives which are part of the Jewish code of ethics. Another law derived from the words in this verse that one is to make a careful calculation is that the redeemer must calculate the number of years remaining in the contract of the Jewish slave to the Gentile before the Yovel year, and he must pay him for the years of service that the Jew will not serve him. The basis of the law is to prevent the desecration of the Lord’s name, i.e. not to give the pagan an opportunity to claim that our G’d deals unfairly with him who had paid good money for the services of this slave. To allow such a thought to take hold in the mind of a Gentile is a more serious crime than doing the same thing to a Jew. The Tosephta Baba Kama 113 states expressly that if one has robbed a pagan one must return the stolen goods. It adds that such robbery is a graver crime than robbing a Jew because the crime includes the sin of desecrating the Lord’s name. When one robs a fellow Jew the victim does not use this as an excuse to question the rules of the Torah and the fairness of G’d. You will find an interesting illustration of this principle in the inaugural prayer of Solomon when the Temple was dedicated. Solomon prayed that when a Gentile comes all the way from across the ocean or from countries closer by in order to offer his prayers to the Jewish G’d in the Temple, that G’d should respond positively to such prayer. Regarding similar prayers offered up by Jews, Solomon asked that if the Jews in question were worthy then G’d should respond positively to such prayers. Clearly, the reason that Solomon asked for a blanket acceptance of prayers offered by the Gentiles was in order not to give them an opportunity to denigrate the Jewish G’d which would have been a form of desecrating the Lord’s name (compare Kings I 8,39-43 respectively). Solomon was not afraid that if a Jew’s prayer would not be answered positively, that such a Jew would question the existence or fairness of the Lord as a result.

ואם לא יגאל באלה, “And if he will not be redeemed by means of these methods, etc.” Our sages in Kidushin 15 explain the words או דודו in verse 49 (normally translated as “his uncle,”) as including all kinds of relatives. The words או השיגה ידו they interpret as referring to the slave succeeding in redeeming himself by his own efforts. The word ונגאל at the end of that verse, they explain as redemption by people not related to the slave. This is why the Torah writes here that if the slave לא יגאל had not been redeemed by other Jews not related to him he will leave in the Yovel year, i.e. against the will of his master the Gentile, seeing that the Torah speaks of a Gentile who lives in the land of Israel under a Jewish government. The Talmud in Kidushin 16 already points out that if the Jew of whom the Torah speaks here had been bought by a Gentile in the Gentile’s domain it would be futile for the Torah to write such a sentence as: “he will go free in the Yovel year,” as there is no one to enforce such legislation. As to the meaning of the word גאולה, the Talmud in Kidushin 16 already points out that just as redeeming himself (גאולה) makes sense only if the one-time slave now becomes free, so being “redeemed” by either his relatives or other Jews makes sense only if as a result he becomes totally free, not if he changes status from being owned by a Gentile to being owned by a Jew. The word גאל means a transition to absolute independence. [The author cites the conclusion in the Talmud of an argument whether if a non-relative buys the contract from the Gentile, the Jew has to serve out his time as a servant of the Jew who bought him from the Gentile.].