Leviticus 25:1-26:2 – Jeremiah 32:6-27 – Luke 18:31-43

This week's edition of The Set Table contains:

Questions and Commentary on Shabbat Behar
Chayyei Yeshua - A Devotional Commentary on the Besora Reading
In Summary
Looking Ahead

Questions & Commentary on Parashat Emor

1. According to our parasha how are we to deal with the poor?

Rabbi Jonathan Kaplan

Parashat Behar builds on the theme of care for poor through exploring how the community should provide for those who have lost property through economic hardship (Leviticus 25:25ff). Following the discussion of the Jubilee legislation and God's declaration that "the land must not be sold beyond reclaim, for the land is mine," the parasha details how this radical economic vision should be applied in the community.

If your kinsmen is in straits and has to sell part of his holding, his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his kinsman has sold. If a man has no one to redeem for him, but prospers and acquires enough to redeem with, he shall compute the years since its sale, refund the difference to the man to whom he sold it, and return to his holding. If he lacks sufficient means to recover it, what he sold shall remain with the purchaser until the jubilee; in the jubilee year it shall be released, and he shall return to his holding.

Leviticus 25:25-28

The radicalism of this vision is that it respects both the investment of the individual who buys the property and the conviction that everyone should have a stake in society. Leviticus Rabba 34:1 expands on the vision of this passage not by discussing this radical social vision, but instead by focusing on the meaning of the opening phrase ki-yamukh achikha "If you kinsmen is in straits."

The Midrash offers us a number of potential meanings for this phrase to expand upon our obligation to care for the poor (cf. Exodus 23:6, Deuteronomy 15:7, Luke 12:33).  The editor of this section of Leviticus Rabba begins by stating our verse and then the verse with which he will bring our verse into conversation, "Happy is the one who is thoughtful with the poor; the LORD will keep him from harm in bad times" (Psalm 41:1). For the darshan, it is not merely enough to buy your kinsman's property when he is in financial straits. The obligation to care for the poor extends to a number of other areas of life.

The darshan begins by bringing the interpretation of Abba b. Jeremiah that being thoughtful with the poor entails enthroning "the Good Inclination over the Evil Inclination." In rabbinic literature, the Good Inclination is often personified as a poor person. In this case, Abba b. Jeremiah's interpretation is expansive. Care for the poor means living a life in which we work to have our Good Inclination prevail over our Evil Inclination and thus pursue a just society.

The darshan next mentions the contention of Isi that this "refers to one who gave a perutah to a poor man." A perutah is a small coin, but, though small, it is enough to help buy food to sustain the person (see Psalm 41:3).

Another way in which the darshan tells us we are called to care for the poor is through the interpretation of R. Jochanan that this verse "refers to one who buries a met mitzva." Met mitzva (lit. commandment of the dead) refers to the obligation of all Jews, including priests, to ensure the burial of a person who has no relatives or friends to look after his burial (cf. Psalm 41:3). This interpretation may seem odd at first, but if we consider the broader vision of the Torah and Yeshua, we are called to pursue a society in which people are cared for and respected in both life and in death.

The final way in which the darshan enjoins us to care for the poor is through the visitation of the sick. The poor in this case are not those who have lost property but those whose lives are threatened and whose spirits are often made poor by the weight of illness and pain. Visiting and caring for the sick (bikkur cholim) has the power to encourage and strengthen those who are suffering and even save their lives. This is illustrated in a parable Yeshua tells in response to the question of a learned scholar about the limits of neighborliness.

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coinsand gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,' he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.' Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?

Luke 10:30-35

As we can see from the four interpretations of the Midrash and the parable of Yeshua, caring for the poor fundamentally entails nurturing a just society in which we "love our neighbor as" ourselves (Leviticus 19:6).

2. What is the concept of the yovel "jubilee" discussed in this week's parasha? How does it relate to Messiah?

Nick Amic

The related principles of the shemita (sabbatical) and the yovel (jubilee) years have been influential in our culture. For instance the shemita has been adapted to stipulations of forgiveness of debts every seven years in bankruptcy laws. Likewise the concept of yovel has taken on the meaning of the completion of certain anniversaries, commemorations and retirement periods. What is the concept of the yovel, and what is its origin?

Rashi defines yovel by pointing to its first use in Exodus 19:13. There Rashi equates yovel with the shofar blasts at the revelation of the Torah on Mount Sinai. He later links this idea with Leviticus 25:9: "You shall proclaim [the yovel with] shofar blasts" in our parasha. The significance of Rashi's insight is that Yom Kippur (the culmination of the 49 years of counting) and Shavuot (the culmination of the 49 days of counting) are thematically linked.

The Torah commands three mitzvot to count: 1) Leviticus 15:9 - counting seven days of nidda (ritual impurity) for a woman; 2) Leviticus 23:15-16 - counting the omer till Shavuot; and 3) Leviticus 25:8-9 - counting until the yovel. Each mitzva connects thematically and progressively. The first instance deals with the basic unit of creation - a week - and spiritually makes a tikkun (repair) for the loss of potential life. The counting of the omer introduces the unit of 49, and is meant as a tikkun for the spiritual uncleanness that Israel as a nation had undergone in physical and spiritual slavery in Egypt. The counting of the yovel culminates with 49 years. The yovel symbolizes the basic unit of time itself - one year - and spiritually represents the tikkun for the subjugation of all of creation into bondage and slavery (cf. Isaiah 61).

Delving further, we ascertain many mystical insights into the yovel. First, what is meant by the 49 + 1 formula the Torah asserts? Using gematria, we see that the number 49 equates to the letters מ (mem) and ת (tav) which spell out meyt (death), but is overcome by the one = א - which is the source of all life. The counting of the unit 49 + 1 gives us the picture of the overcoming of spiritual and physical death. By way of Shavuot we see this portrayed by the first letter of the Ten Utterances beginning with an aleph (א). In the case of the yovel, Ramban (Nachmanides) renders the word yovel differently from Rashi tying it etymologically to the word yuval meaning "crops". He interprets this to mean that the essence of the yovel is dror (proclamation of freedom, see Leviticus 25:9), or a "returning to one's original roots and potential" by way of connection of the atonement through Yom Kippur. Lastly, Shaul relates a whole mystical discourse (see 1 Corinthians 15:12-58) where he ties together the idea of the omer, calling Yeshua the "bikur" (first fruit; cf. 1 Corinthians 15:20, 23 and Leviticus 23:10-13) who will be the one to overcome death (1 Corinthians 15:21-30) and will one day soon return with the blast of a shofar (1 Corinthians 15:52) to bring about the ultimate Yovel. Until then Shaul admonishes us to "stand firm and immovable, always doing the Lord's work as vigorously as [we] can, knowing that united with the Lord [our] efforts are not in vain" (15:58).

Sean Emslie 

Luke 18:31-43 - Everything Written in the Prophets

In this week’s besora reading we hear Yeshua make the statement that his mission was to accomplish “everything written through the prophets about the Son of Man.”

As we have just completed Pesach, we have looked at the death of the Passover lamb as the covering for Israel in Egypt and as followers of Yeshua, reflected on his place as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” of which the first fulfillment of the words of the prophets, the impending self-sacrifice of the Messiah is foretold.

Yeshua said to them, “We are now going up to Jerusalem, where everything written through the prophets about the Son of Man will come true. For he will be handed over to the gentiles and be ridiculed, insulted and spat upon. Then, after they have beaten him, they will kill him. But on the third day he will rise.”

Luke 18:31-33

Yeshua points out to the talmidim that one of the important works of the Messiah will be his impending rejection and death, followed by his rising from the dead three days later. 

As we continue on in our besora, we get a less dramatic fulfillment of the words of the prophets when Yeshua restores sight to a blind man. In restoring sight to the blind Yeshua was bringing to fulfillment the words spoken by Isaiah:

I shaped you and made you a covenant for the people, to be a light for the gentiles, so that you can open blind eyes, free the prisoners from confinement, those living in darkness from the dungeon. 

Isaiah 7:7

As Yeshua restored the blind man’s sight, he was bringing healing and new life to this man who had been in darkness and making known that he is the true Servant of God. 

So then we can see how Yeshua demonstrates his place as Messiah, by his death and rising that he speaks of at the beginning of the reading and also as the bringer of sight to blind eyes as demonstrated in the healing of the blind man in the concluding words of this passage.

In this we see Yeshua making his Messianic claim in both his death, but also in his life. It is in his self-sacrifice on the stake that atonement and unending life would be secured; it was through his living and walking in Torah and being open to fulfill the words of the prophets by living in service to people through bringing a healing touch, that shows the power of Yeshua as the living Messiah that was active in the world and still is today through us as his talmidim.

NEXT WEEK'S READINGS - PARASHAT BECHUQOTAI

Leviticus 26:3-27:34
Hosea 2:1-22
Luke 18:31-43

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