Should your brother come to ruin and sell his holding,

his redeemer who is related to him shall come and redeem what his brother sold

(Vayikra 25:25)

And should your brother come to ruin and his hand buckle under you,

you shall hold him as a resident alien, and he shall live under you.

(Vayikra 25:35)

And should your brother come to ruin under you and be sold to you,

you shall not work him the work of a slave.

(Vayikra 25:39)

 

Know that according to the religion of the Torah of Moshe as received by the hands of the sages, people are divided into three categories. The first is the nation from which the Blessed Lord chose the patriarchs and their subsequent progeny and gave them the Torah and law and judgment by the hands of His servant, Moshe. The second group consists of all other people who are not included in Israel and not obligated by the Torah of Moshe, but in any case they do not behave improperly so as to overturn the vessel and worship other than the Blessed God who is all, and they worship only the First Cause to which all belongs. For that which is everywhere referred to as a goy idolater, the reference is that that he worships other than the Blessed One, for the term avodah zarah - strange worship - applies to anything other than the Holy One, for everything is strange in respect to the Holy One, and therefore one should not refer to a goy oved elilim - a gentile who worships idols - which would imply only one who worships statues and they are [considered] gods, but even the sun and the moon and the angels, all these are 'strange' in respect to the Blessed One. And when he accepts upon himself the worship of the First Cause he is called a 'ger toshav' - a resident alien. The ger toshav' is mentioned in the Torah a number of times - one who does not observe the Torah of Moshe but does not worship other than Him is called a ger toshav. In the Torah it is written (Vayikra 25) "And should your brother come to ruin and his hand buckle under you, you shall hold him as a resident alien", and Rashi explains "Even if he be an alien or a resident, and what is a resident alien? Whoever commits himself not to worship idolatrously yet eats carcasses, ...All these constitute a separate category, whoever takes upon himself to worship no other than the Blessed One, even though he does not observe the commandments which the Lord gave to Israel, but he does not worship any other than the Blessed One is included in the category of ger toshav - resident alien. He is not called a ger tsedek - [lit. "a righteous alien" - a convert to Judaism] who observes all the commandments of Moshe's Torah, but he is termed a ger toshav, as we have explained above, and a special law is applied regarding this category, that it is a mitzvah for him [the Israelite] to provide a livelihood for him [the ger toshav].

(The MaHaRaL of Prague; Be'er Hagolah - the Seventh Well)

 

A sojourner and a resident etc. - Since the ger tsedek - the righteous alien [the proselyte] is included in the category of "your brother, the ger toshav - the sojourning resident - must refer to that spoken by Abraham: "I am a sojourning resident with you" (Bereishit 23:4) I have come to you from a foreign land and now I dwell among you; I was not born here and I have not become a citizen with you - but I dwell with you [...] and therefore you are required to assist the alien who dwells in your midst - who is not yet included in "your brother" - so that he find his sustenance with you; you have to support him so that he finds his existence with you - and he shall live with you.

(RaSHaR Hirsch, Vayikra 25:35)

 

Sabbatical & Jubilee Year: "When your brother waxes poor"

Yehonatan Chipman

 In loving memory of my mother, Fannie Chipman,

who departed this world 28 years ago, on 24 Iyyar 5745

Upon reading this portion (Leviticus 25), attention is most often focused on the Sabbatical year, with its ban on agricultural labor and the numerous practical halakhic issues which arise as a consequence, which, since the return of Jews to tilling the soil of the Land of Israel, beginning with the sabbatical year of 1882, has been one of the most controversial polemic points among religious Jewry. But this chapter of the Torah deals with other, far broader issues of economics and of the responsibility of society to all its members. Beginning with the institution of the jubilee year, in which all land returns to its original owners, it presents a series of laws stating what one must do "when your brother waxes poor": when he is forced to sell his homestead, or his house within a city, or to borrow money, or to sell himself as a bondsman to pay back his debts, whether to a fellow Israelite or to a stranger. In general, it is incumbent upon his family members, near and far, and by extension upon society as a whole, to take whatever measures are necessary - including substantial outlays of money - to help him out and to restore him to his former situation.

In brief, the laws here create a wide and extensive social safety net. In addition to the laws in this chapter one must include another, more radical one: the cancellation of debts every seven years, as stipulated in Deut 17:1-11. The underlying conception is two-fold: first, that the land, and wealth in general, originate in and belong to God, the source of all goods; "they are my servants, whom I took out of the land of Egypt" (v. 42). Ultimately, property is placed by God in human hands as a surety or pledge; it does not really "belong" to its supposed owner. Second, and as a corollary: poverty and indebtedness are seen as accidents, as chance events, which do not detract from the human worth and dignity of the person who has become impoverished. Hence, the Torah ultimately provides certain measures (albeit admittedly over a lengthy period of time) to assure that the poor man will be redeemed from his difficult situation and assured his rightful share in the Land of Israel.

These rules may be read as a counterpoint and complement to the social laws of Kedoshim (Lev 19): not to oppress others, not to lie or cheat, not to delay paying wages, not to hold a grudge or to behave vindictively, not to stand passively over one's brother's blood, etc. The basic concept in both Torah portions is that one must not treat one's fellow man as an object to be exploited, nor as a rival or even mortal enemy in the struggle to survive in a cruel world, but as a fellow man who, like oneself, was created in the image of God and redeemed from Egypt. The laws here in a sense complete the mostly negative proscriptions of Ch. 19; here we have a series of positive laws requiring that one treat one's fellow as oneself, specifically in the economic area.

After reading this parashah, the connection between pe'ah - the leaving of the corner of the field to the poor - and the festival of Shavuot, as noted in last week's portion (Lev 23:22), begins to make more sense. If the central theological conception is that God rules over all and owns all, including the land and the people who dwell therein, there follow two interrelated consequences: a) that we must acknowledge this fact in various ceremonial ways, such as the mitzvah of bringing the first sheaf of new grain (omer) or the first fruits of the land, to the Temple; b) that we perceive our fellow man in a brotherly, equal way, sharing with him in God's bounty - hence we must leave the corners of the field for the poor and indigent. This is the connection between peah and omer and cognate commandments. Beyond that, there is a link between Shavuot, as the festival of Torah, to a commandment embodying the concept of human responsibility and mutuality.

Thus far regarding our text. But the moment one reflects upon the reality of modern society, one is struck by the contrast between it and the values of the Torah. In recent years, the aphorism that "man to man is a wolf" has become accepted in broad circles of the Western democracies as normative. We live in an age of "Neo-Liberalism," in which global capitalism has acquired the power to pursue its agenda unfettered and with impunity. A series of new myths and conventions have given this view a veneer of intellectual respectability: that the fall of Soviet Communism somehow "proved" or "vindicated" the validity of the capitalist system, as if democratic socialism or social-democratic alternatives might be rejected out of hand; theories of "drip-down" economics, according to which economic growth and maximal profits for huge corporations will eventually benefit the ordinary citizen (a theory which patently disregards human greed); the grandiose conceit of the "End of History"; etc.

Yet, to be honest, there are also difficulties in reading the above picture as reflecting biblical reality. The late Prof. Binyamin Uffenheimer, in two articles that relate to this chapter, uses the terms "myth and reality" or "utopia and reality," to suggest that the picture drawn here was more of a utopian ideal than a blueprint for society that was ever realized in actuality.¹ There is no record in the historical books of the Bible of the practical observance of these laws, nor is it clear from the halakhic sources whether it was observed even during the First Temple period; it certainly was not during the period of the Mishnah and the Talmud. The Torah law canceling all debts every seven years was found by the Rabbis to be unworkable. The Torah tries to reinforce the dry law with moral exhortation on this point (Deut 17:7-11), knowing that people would be reluctant to loan money that they would never get back. By Mishnaic times the Sages developed a legal fiction to bypass it: Hillel's prozbul, perhaps the classic example of Rabbinic legislation intend to reverse unworkable or "outmoded" laws. Similarly, the law in our chapter against taking interest (Lev 25:36-37) is bypassed by a mechanism known as heter iska, used today by all banks in Israel, including the most Orthodox.

Rabbinic aggadah also contains a motif in which poverty is interpreted as the result of moral shortcomings, e.g., as punishment for profiteering in produce of the Sabbatical year. Thus, the various personal disasters found in this chapter are seen by the Talmud (b. Kiddushin 20a) as a series of steps in such a person's downfall, if he does not repent at each stage. This reflects an almost Calvinistic-type morality, in which wealth is seen as a sign of divine pleasure, and vice versa.2

The fundamental question is: Why is it that, of all human shortcomings, economic greed remains so intractable to religious teaching and law? I do not pretend that Jews were exempt from the lures of the Yetzer ha-Ra, the "Evil Urge," in other areas, but it does seem that the Torah succeeded, to a large extent, in at least creating communal, social norms that people were reluctant and even afraid to publicly flaunt, e.g., in the laws of Shabbat, kashrut, and basic sexual morality (at least until the modern age). By contrast, in matters of economic greed, the Rabbis were essentially forced to capitulate to popular pressures and reinterpret many basic institutions out of existence. It is a sad commentary on human nature.

1. See B. Uffenheimer, "Utopia and Reality in Biblical Thought," Immanuel 9 (1979), 5-15; idem., "Myth and Reality in Ancient Israel," in The Origins and Diversity of Axial Age Civilizations, ed., S. N. Eisenstadt (Albany: SUNY Press, 1985), 135-168, esp. 152-156.

2. See my article published in this forum: "Between Judaism and Calvinism" [Hebrew], Shabbat Shalom, Parshat Behar, 2009 / 5769.

Rabbi Yehonatan Chipman is a translator by profession, specializing in Jewish studies. He writes a weekly sheet (in English) on the portion of the week and the haftara, titled "Hitsei Yehonatan". (Anyone interested in ordering a sample of subscription can write via email to: yonarand@internet-zahav.net.

 

Holiness in Life is Connected to Covenant and Memory, not Dead Stones

You shall not make idols for yourselves, or set up for yourselves carved images or pillars, or place figured stones in your land to worship upon, for I the Lord am your God. You shall keep My Sabbaths and venerate My sanctuary, Mine, the Lord's.

(Vayikra 26:1-2)

 

Venerate My sanctuary - The Sabbatical year, for it is written, It shall be holy for you.

(Ibn Ezra ad loc)

 

It is My Sabbaths which will bring Me and My rule home to you wherever you are, and the sanctifying place which will win your whole life over to My Presence - My Sanctuary, the Sanctuary of My Torah. Hence, You shall keep My Sabbaths and venerate My sanctuary, Mine, the Lord's.

Not by means of statue and pillar, not by means of likeness and memorial stones have we to keep ourselves conscious of God and His rule; the Sabbaths of God, the Sabbath of Creation and the Sabbath of the Land, the Sabbatical year and Jubilee, which regulate the whole of our private and public lives with the thought "God," and by great acts of sacrifice make the acknowledgment of God real in our lives, as well as the Sabbaths of God in the wider sense, the appointed seasons of the Lord, the times of gathering and reunion dedicated to the memory of His rule and management, these are our sign and covenant, and appointed time. From these, not from molded dead stone, but from the symbols of acknowledgement, bond and memories woven out of the living tissue of our active life, not so much from them themselves as from the influence they have in forming the pattern of our daily lives, from these do we draw the inspiration which makes us find ourselves at one with God.

(Rabbi S.R. Hirsch ad loc, Levy translation )

 

The Patriarchs' Merit and the Patriarchs' Covenant

Following the description of the destruction and the redemption, it is said: and I shall remember My covenant with Jacob, and even My covenant with Isaac, and even My covenant with Abraham I shall remember, and I shall remember the land... Yet, even then when they are in their enemies' land, I will not reject them or spurn them so as to destroy them, annulling My covenant with them: or I am the Lord their God. I will remember in their favor the covenant with the ancients, whom I took out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God, I am the Lord.

Let us consider those verses: They say that God remembers the covenant, but say nothing at all about what happened. The covenant is remembered in God's mind, God who "remembers the covenant." These verses are understood by popular religious thought to refer to the merit of the patriarchs: and even My covenant with Abraham I shall remember, and I shall remember the land - we benefit from the merit of the patriarchs.

All those who make such a connection ignore our Sages' discussion of the question, "when did the merit of the patriarchs end?" (Shabbat 55a)... According to the greatest Amoraim, the merit of the patriarchs has already ended. We gained this land by the merit of our patriarchs, and due to our sins, we lost it... The Ba'alei Ha'Tosafot accept this as a plain fact: there is no more merit of the patriarchs. Rabbeinu Tam points out that while the merit of the patriarchs has ceased, their covenant has not been annulled - Scripture testifies that it is still enduring and valid. The notion of covenant can be understood in two ways. In parashat Noah we read that following the Flood God made a covenant that the flood would not reoccur, and that the rainbow was the sign of the covenant, the sign that the order of nature shall not change. In this case, it is clear the covenant is a divine promise. Nature bears no obligations and is incapable of taking obligations upon itself.

However, there is also a covenant which is reciprocal... we see that Rabbeinu Tam understood the term covenant in this second sense. The covenant between Israel and its God - or should we say, between the God of Israel and His people - remains enduring and valid because one side remembers it. Yet, if the covenant is to be fulfilled, that depends also on the other party to it.

(Prof. Yishayahu Leibowitz, z"l, Herarot Le'Parshiyot Ha'Shavu'a)

 

The Laws of the Torah Were Intended to Mold a More Ethical Person, Lest He Be Draw by His Evil Inclination

...It appears to me that with "the thing vowed and its substitute shall both be holy", as with "and if he who has consecrated his house wishes to redeem it, he must add one-fifth to the sum at which it was assessed, and it shall be his" - the Torah understood man's deepest thoughts and some of his evil inclination, for man's nature tends to increase of his possessions and safeguarding of his property, and even though he made a vow and consecrated he is liable to retract and redeem for less than real value.

The Torah ruled that if one redeems for himself, he is to add a fifth, and he consecrated the body of an animal, he is liable to regret and since cannot redeem such an animal, he might replace it with a less valuable animal, and if you permit him to exchange bad for better, he may exchange good for worse, saying "It's good". Therefore the Torah forbade exchange, and if he should so exchange he is to be fined as is written, ""the thing vowed and its substitute shall both be holy". All these are in order that one rule over his inclination and correct his ideas, and most of the Torah's regulations are but counsel from afar, from the Master of Counsel, for perfection of ideas and the straightening of acts. And so it is written "Indeed, I wrote down for you a threefold lore, Wise counsel, To let you know truly reliable words, That you may give a faithful reply to him who sent you."

(Mishneh Torah, Rambam, Laws of Substitution 4:13)

 

Is Redemption Automatic or Conditional?

Rabbi Eliezer says: If Israel repents, they will be redeemed, and if not, they will not be redeemed.

Rabbi Yehoshua said to him: If they do not repent, they will not be redeemed!? Rather, God places a king over them whose decrees are harsher than those of Haman - then Israel will repent and return to its better self.

(Sanhedrin 97b)

 

When the Torah tells us of the great promise and I shall remember the covenant (Vayikra 26:42), and that God will not forget the covenant even when we are in the lands of our enemies - it does not promise us redemption, because we have no right to it. In order for the covenant, which exists only potentially, to become actual, it is necessary for the other party to the covenant to act. We are that other party.

This must be stated against the idolatrous belief that we have been promised unconditional redemption - a notion which is common even among the public which views itself as faithful to God and His Torah. The midrash states explicitly: "Three things were given conditionally- the Land of Israel, the Temple, and the Kingdom of David." The Torah, (and the priesthood of Aaron's family) were given unconditionally.

(Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz: He'arot le'Parashiyot Ha'Shavua pp. 84-5)

 

[...] our hearts also have complete confidence that our prayers - including our daily prayer "Return in mercy to your city Jerusalem" - never go unanswered, and even though as yet we have not been privileged to have it answered in actuality, let one not be disheartened. For in truth, all the prayers of the souls of Israel affect the spirituality of every individual; each soul in proportion to the measure of its yearning does he merit the appropriate consolation in his heart, as is written: "Whoever mourns over Jerusalem merits and sees her joy". This promise is certainly not intended for realization in the world to come, for it is written in the present tense - 'he merits and sees etc.' But only according to the intensity of his yearning and his longing in his innermost heart does he immediately merit to see and feel in his heart her joy, in the sense of 'Rejoice, O righteous one, in the Lord'. And this is the reason that all the prayers are formulated in the present tense - "who builds Jerusalem", "who causes salvation to flourish", "who restores His divine presence to Zion", for in truth they are constantly being answered, as is written "Let Israel rejoice in its maker; let the children of Zion exult in their king".

 (Rabbi Tsadok HaCohen of Lublin: Pri Tsedek, Parashat VaEtchanan - Article 23)

 

 

 

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