Shabbat Behar
May 16-17, 2008
12 Iyar 5768
Day 27 of the Omer
Shabbat Behar
Torah Portion:
Leviticus 25:1-26:2
Haftarah Portion:
Jeremiah 32:6–27
“U’kratem d’ror ba’aretz l’chol yoshveha – Proclaim Liberty in the land and to all its inhabitants. (Leviticus 25:10)”
Dear Friends,
I am a gardener. In the cold and blustery days of early spring, I love starting seeds in cups of moss and watching them sprout on my windowsill. Outside, for a few weeks already the sugar snap peas have been climbing a trellis. They’re almost a foot high. Lettuce and spinach are growing nicely and we’ll be picking some for salad soon enough. The tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini have been patiently waiting for the morning frosts to pass. They get planted this weekend. Now that it’s warming up, I get to eat breakfast at the picnic table next to the garden and watch everything grow as the rabbits, squirrels, chip monks and birds scamper about (I’ll plant something for them, too, outside the fence).
In this week’s Torah portion, we find an explanation of the 50 year Jubilee cycle – seven times seven years followed by a year of celebration. Our tradition says that we must ‘proclaim liberty in the land,’ which seems to mean that all contracts for land sale and rental must be drawn up so that land possession reverts back to the original Hebrew tribal owners at the start of the 50th year. Furthermore, ‘to all its inhabitants,’ seems to apply to contracts regarding slavery and indentured servitude. They must likewise end at the 50th year. The Jubilee, therefore, is a Biblical ‘reset button’ – a way to set everything right again and start over.
These same words, inscribed on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, take on a new meaning. When we approach the bell, we think not of land deeds and indentured servitude. Rather, we speak of fundamental human rights, the freedom due to every individual – “Proclaim liberty throughout the land and to all the inhabitants thereof.”
Somehow, sitting by my garden, these words form yet another meaning to me. For such is the way of Torah study… ‘Proclaim liberty to the land’ means that we must cherish and protect the soil, the earth from which all life derives. We must honor it and permit it to thrive in fullness and health. The soil is God’s creation, too. Unfortunately, our society is often quick to carve, scrape and pollute the soil. We cover it with parking lots and monstrous roads. We plant wide swathes of lawn and cultivate with industrial methods, while spraying with fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides, insecticides and thousands of harmful chemicals that filter into our air, food and water. Somehow, we must find a way to stop all this damage. We must honor the soil, the earth and the natural and wild lands. Planet Earth has created an amazing infrastructure of life giving soil throughout the land. What right do we have to destroy and poison it? None whatsoever. ‘And to all its inhabitants’ refers to the sense of liberation we experience when we engage in working the soil in a healthy and productive way. Gardening in concert with the earth and the natural processes reconnects us and frees us. Gardening is a spiritual journey, for it connects us to all of creation and makes us aware of our responsibility to steward and protect our planet and all of life itself. This is expressed through the fundamental Jewish values of ‘tikun olam’ literally ‘healing the earth,’ ‘haganat hateva’ or ‘environmentalism,’ and ‘ladonay ha’aretz um’lo’o,’ which means, ‘the Earth and all that is in it belong to God.’
So, it’s a great weekend to plant a garden for vegetables and flowers. Fill some large flowerpots and do some ‘container’ gardening, if you haven’t got the space. Discover how something as simple as a garden can open up the doors of Jewish values and spirituality and restore and sense of connection to the soil and the land.
“U’kratem d’ror ba’aretz l’chol yoshveha – Proclaim Liberty in the land and to all its inhabitants. (Leviticus 25:10)” Happy Gardening!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Eitan Weiner-Kaplow
