Parshat Behar-B’Chukotai 5772: “Homecoming-The Return of the Jubilee!”

Parshat Behar-B’Chukotai 5772: “Homecoming-The Return of the Jubilee!”

L’Iluy Nishmat Chaim Yissachar ben Yechiel Zeidel Dov

“You shall sanctify the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim freedom throughout the land for all its inhabitants; it is a Yovayl year for you, and you shall return, each man, to his ancestral heritage (Achuzato); and you shall return, each man to his family.[i]

This past week I had the privilege of driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco. In addition to adventuring to the Redwood Forest, Golden Gate Bridge, and the House of Love and Prayer, I found that the drive itself was most deepening. I learned ever so quickly, and slowly, that California’s landscape is the home of over three-hundred miles of farmland. Although a different type of goldmine, this agricultural empire has awarded the state embrace by over 156 countries as one of the leading agricultural exports in the world with a gross annual income of nearly two-trillion dollars![ii]
Undeniably, our ability to manipulate our environment; and combine the elements of nature in order to reap the benefits of this world is our G-d given gift, and in some ways responsibility. Even so, we must ask ourselves –“Farmer Bob” or not—is harvest for the sake of harvesting the underlying purpose of our labors? Are my subway rides, late hours at work, and long weeks there just so I can produce in order to see immediate results? On the one hand, the answer is yes! But on the other, the matter of fact is, one day the farmer will be unable to work the field and he will call in his children and say “it was for this moment that I have worked all my life, I learned as I taught you, and I only taught you, so you can learn from yourselves.” Like the farmers before him, Farmer-Bob sits totally sobered by his new reality; hence he stops his daily activity, and explores the original intentions of his agricultural legacy—Jubilee.
At times, we may like to sing our own praises, and boast in our ability to perform successfully, but the involvement in such a schema teaches us that at some point you too will need to take a seat and bear in mind that you, like every organism in this generation, are but a link in the chain that’s strength is measured by an understanding of the links before that you connect to the future. At the seder we are regarded as children, we use the gift of broken shackles as our catalyst to explore our beginning (Pesach), middle (Sfira) and end (Shavout). We are challenged to engage in battle with the present, consider our trials and failures of our past, and ensure the vital continuity, and unbreakable strength of connecting today with tomorrow—essentially, a parent’s role and responsibility is not to raise children, but to raise parents.[iii]

Often times we become consumed by our day to day tasks, that we forget our human frailty, and we pay no attention to our limited time on this earth. Many can be caught in the net of their own reality that anything before 1988 didn’t actually happen or that your parent’s had a life before you were born. It is impossible to be a connector if we do not know have the foundation, the awareness of the past, to do so. So much of life is moving forward, but only when we are clear of our link in the chain and our important and delicate contributions that guarantee our children’s ability to create the next link for the future.

The world moves at a mile-a-minute. We finish tasks to begin the next; we are always in the midst of adaptation. Being born into this generation, and any generation for that matter, demands us to understand the progression of the world until the present, what better place to start than from the last link in the chain-your heritage, your matriarchs and patriarchs? We stiffed-necked folk could go a whole life without such considerations, and thus we are commanded:

You shall sanctify the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim freedom throughout the land for all its inhabitants; it is a Yovayl year for you, and you shall return, each man, to his ancestral heritage (Achuzato); and you shall return, each man to his family.[iv]

In this week’s Parsha we explore Torat Eretz Yisroel[v] in its novelty, the Jubilee (Yovayl). The restoration of the land, tree and you, to its original purpose; everything to its birthplace, as if untouched, unscathed and still clutched (Achuz) to his/her mothers bosom. Though many profound lessons can be learned from this week’s read of the Torah, the commandment of Yovayl is given to us not when we enter the land, but when we receive the Torah, solely to communicate that the essence of Torah, the original intentions of our Matriarchs and Patriarchs is to participate in the cohesion of time as it is, and to absorb the meaning of the restorative process of Yovayl.[vi]

This Week I Will Try to:  I will meditate on the self and strengthen my today for the security of tomorrow. I will recognize that the success of the world’s future does not depend on others for I am s/he and s/he is I. Consider that although I may be productive, and although I may have a solid foundation of what I want/need from my life, I still must be the farmer and recognize there many different ways to plant seeds in the field.

Shabbat Shalom!

Mazel tov to Aryeh and Channa Sobol on the birth of a baby boy!
L’Iluy Nishmat Chaim Yissachar ben Yechiel Zeidel Dov

[i] Leviticus 25:10

[ii] U.S Department of Agriculture, 2009. Trade and Agriculture: Whats. at Stake for California?

[iii] Sfirat Ha’omer, the month of Iyar and the time from Pesach to Shavout are all represented by the letter Vav—vav is a letter of connecting and joining. Vav-Yesod-foundation. Someone who has a foundation is able to connect. Yosef is the attribute of Yesod-Vav.

[iv] Leviticus 25:10

[v] The teachings and commandments of the Land of Israel

[vi] See Oar HaChayim Al HaParsha-The Whole purpose of mentioning Shmitta and Yovayl at Sinai is because it is our link from the moment of Israel’s conception to the land of their dwellings.