Weekly Torah portion: Behar-Behukotai
When you sell property to your neighbor, or buy any from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. In buying from your neighbor, you shall deduct only for the number of years since the jubilee; and in selling to you, he shall charge you only for the remaining crop years: the more such years, the higher the price you pay; the fewer such years, the lower the price; for what he is selling you is a number of harvests. Do not wrong one another, but fear your God; for I the Lord am your God… But the land must not be sold beyond reclaim, for the land is Mine; you are but strangers resident with Me. Throughout the land that you hold, you must provide for the redemption of the land. If your kinsman 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. (Leviticus 25:14-27)
The primary ethical values expressed in these verses are given practical effect in the haftarah of parashat Behar:
At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard which was in the palace of the king of Judah. For Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him, saying, "Why do you prophesy and say, `Thus says the LORD: Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it... Then Hanamel my cousin came to me in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the LORD, and said to me, `Buy my field which is at An'athoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.' Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD. And I bought the field at Anathoth from Hanamel my cousin, and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. (Jeremiah 32:2-9)
Similar ethical values would also appear to be expressed in the story of Ruth:
Then he said to the next of kin, "Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land which belonged to our kinsman Elimelech. So I thought I would tell you of it, and say, Buy it in the presence of those sitting here, and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it; but if you will not, tell me, that I may know, for there is no one besides you to redeem it, and I come after you." And he said, "I will redeem it." Then Boaz said, "The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you are also buying Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of the dead, in order to restore the name of the dead to his inheritance." (Ruth 4:3-5)
- In parashat Behar, we are told that land is valued according to “the remaining crop years”, that is, in accordance with the number of harvests expected until the Jubilee. One year before the Babylonian Exile, Jeremiah – who prophesied the fall of Judea – is asked to redeem land that he knows will yield him no crops. Why does he agree to redeem the land?
- The biblical rules prohibiting fraud would appear to apply equally to seller and buyer. Why do these rules not apply to Jeremiah’s purchase of land that is effectively valueless?
- In the Book of Ruth, the kinsman is asked to redeem Elimelech’s land. Why is he also expected to marry Ruth as part of the bargain? Is the redemption of land a commercial transaction, or should it be classified as something else in light of its social purpose? Does that social purpose explain why Jeremiah purchased Hanamel’s field? Can it also explain the obligation to marry Ruth
Iyunei Shabbat is published weekly by the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary, The Masorti Movement and The Rabbinical Assembly of Israel in conjunction with the Masorti Movement in Israel and Masorti Olami-World Council of Conservative Synagogues.
Chief Editor: Rabbi Avinoam Sharon
