בהר סיני (“At Mount Sinai”)
May 19, 2017 By Louis Polisson | Commentary | Behar | Behukkotai
At Mount Sinai
We chose Her
And what did She say?
Read MoreDeclare liberty for boy and girl
There shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land
A Sabbath
For Being
How Many Harvests
May 27, 2016 By Joel Alter | Commentary | Behar
In its radical reframing of our right to claim ownership of anything and anyone, Parashat Behar sets our mortality against God’s eternality, and our contingent lease to the Land against God’s permanent deed: “The Land must not be sold beyond reclaim, for the Land is Mine; you are but strangers resident with Me” (Lev. 25:23).
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Facing Our Past and Looking Toward the Future
May 27, 2016 By Michal Raucher | Commentary | Behar
Recently, the US Treasury Department announced that Harriet Tubman will replace Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States, on the $20 bill. Tubman was born as a slave around 1820, ran away in 1849, and returned south repeatedly to usher more than 300 slaves to freedom via the Underground Railroad. Her selection for the $20 bill is exciting news, because Tubman will be the first African American and the first woman to appear on federal paper currency. Women and civil rights leaders will be added to the $5 and $10 bills in the coming years, as well. While these changes are long overdue, the question is whether this change is merely symbolic or a further step toward acknowledging our nation’s ugly history of slavery.
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We Are All Borrowers
May 13, 2011 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Behar
I love discovering rabbinic texts like the one above that make such radical claims about Torah and God in general or about particular laws like tzedakah (righteous giving), one subject at the heart of this week’s Torah portion.
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Our Role in Creation and Revelation
May 20, 2006 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Behar | Behukkotai
Parashat Behar–Be–hukkotai opens curiously enough on Mount Sinai — curiously given the law promulgated at the beginning of the Torah reading. There, at the introduction to this parashah, we find the detailed laws related to sh’mitah, the sabbatical year, as well as the yovel, the jubilee year. While sh’mitah involves a seven–year cycle of letting the land lie fallow and the remission of loans, the yovel reflects a fifty–year cycle involving the emancipation of slaves and the return of property to their original owners.
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The Hardest Mitzvah?
May 15, 2004 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Behar
Which of the mitzvot of the Torah is the most difficult to observe? The prohibition on coveting? Or, perhaps, being forbidden to gossip? Each of those choices represents a never-ending challenge. One is supposed to avoid ever coveting or gossiping. When viewed in terms of frequency, the mitzvah that begins this week’s parashah could be seen as easier to perform. The sabbatical year, or shmittah, falls only once every seven years. Yet it could be the most difficult. During that year, farmers must not plant or harvest. Refraining from planting or harvesting for an entire year seems highly risky. If there is not enough reserve food from prior years, people will starve; surely the Torah does not want people to endanger their lives.
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What is a Slave?
May 4, 2002 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Behar
We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt. This is the story at the heart of the Passover Haggadah. Some editions of the Haggadah suggest a song that begins with We were slaves and goes on to say: Now we are free people. However, this song is somewhat misleading. We are not completely free people. The Torah claims that the Jewish people are still slaves: of God.
Freedom in Relationship
May 17, 2003 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Behar
Coercion is part of the essence of Judaism. Indeed, a well known midrash describes God coercing the Israelites into the acceptance of Torah. Sparked by the Hebrew phrase “the Israelites were rooted underthe mountain” (Exodus 19:17), (most translations read “the Israelites were at the foot of the mountain”), the rabbinic imagination conjures up a threatening portrait of God holding Mt. Sinai over the heads of the those assembled, declaring, “if you accept the Torah, well and good; but if not, this shall be your resting place” (BT Shabbat 88a). Coercion is indeed at the heart of this teaching and potentially at the heart of Judaism. Most observant Jews feel a sense of external motivation — observance is not simply a matter of personal choice, but a response to a God who has expectations.
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