We inhabit a culture that seems to have no limits, that seems to want to overthrow all limits. Technology allows us to connect across time and space; to enjoy an endless supply of entertainment. It allows old friends to reconnect and activists to organize with greater freedom than ever before. These are benefits. It also enables us to work from home, all the time, and have no separation between work time and private time. People are ruthlessly evaluated for their utility. Whole categories of work have arisen and disappeared for the last 200 years, since the industrial revolution began. These are some of the deficits of a culture with no limits.
This week’s Torah portion presents a different perspective: “Six years you may sow your field and six years you may prune your vineyard and gather in the yield. But in the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath of complete rest, a sabbath of God: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. (Leviticus 25:3-4)
The land cannot be endlessly exploited; it must be given a rest for an entire year, a sabbatical. And every 50 years, the Jubilee, all debts are forgiven and all land holdings are redistributed to their original owners and families.
Wealth can be acquired, but not in perpetuity. Did this ever happen or was it just a vision of society in our Torah? We don’t know. But we do know this, the Sabbath for human beings, the seventh day of rest shocked the Romans who came to Judea. They could understand why the Judeans would take a day of rest but they could not comprehend why they allowed their slaves and servants to rest also. This was inconceivable to the Romans.
Of course, we Jews, the descendents of the Judeans, are still here and the Roman Empire is long gone. Perhaps there is something special, meaningful and long lasting about a culture that respects limits, for the land, for animals, and financial transactions and for people.
Behar, Leviticus 25:1-26:2 Parshat Hashavua for Shabbat, May 21, 2022
May 20, 2022 by Dean Kertesz • Drashot
We inhabit a culture that seems to have no limits, that seems to want to overthrow all limits. Technology allows us to connect across time and space; to enjoy an endless supply of entertainment. It allows old friends to reconnect and activists to organize with greater freedom than ever before. These are benefits. It also enables us to work from home, all the time, and have no separation between work time and private time. People are ruthlessly evaluated for their utility. Whole categories of work have arisen and disappeared for the last 200 years, since the industrial revolution began. These are some of the deficits of a culture with no limits.
This week’s Torah portion presents a different perspective: “Six years you may sow your field and six years you may prune your vineyard and gather in the yield. But in the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath of complete rest, a sabbath of God: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. (Leviticus 25:3-4)
The land cannot be endlessly exploited; it must be given a rest for an entire year, a sabbatical. And every 50 years, the Jubilee, all debts are forgiven and all land holdings are redistributed to their original owners and families.
Wealth can be acquired, but not in perpetuity. Did this ever happen or was it just a vision of society in our Torah? We don’t know. But we do know this, the Sabbath for human beings, the seventh day of rest shocked the Romans who came to Judea. They could understand why the Judeans would take a day of rest but they could not comprehend why they allowed their slaves and servants to rest also. This was inconceivable to the Romans.
Of course, we Jews, the descendents of the Judeans, are still here and the Roman Empire is long gone. Perhaps there is something special, meaningful and long lasting about a culture that respects limits, for the land, for animals, and financial transactions and for people.