Friday, May 11, 1984 39
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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THE JEWISH NEWS
Parashat B'har
A liberal view of Jubilee
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BY ARTHUR WASKOW
Special to The Jewish News
From the Torah's portion
> - of B'har comes the line that
is inscribed on America's
3' Liberty Bell: "Proclaim lib-
erty throughout the land to
all the inhabitants thereof"
(Lev. 25:10).
But what is this "liberty"
that B'har proclaims? It is
not free speech, or a free
press, or habeas corpus. It is
something much more
amazing: an act of "reli-
gious ritual" that also redis-
• tributes all wealth in the
society, family by family, in
equal shares, so that the
rich and poor become equal.
This "liberty" or "release"
or "emancipation" (the He-
brew is d'ror) is to be pro
claimed with the blast of the
shofar every 50th year. This
"Jubilee" year comes as the
ultimate climax to the great
spiral of Shabbat years, for
it comes at the end of the
"week" or "weeks" of years
— at the end of the seventh
set of seven-year cycles.
In the "ordinary" seventh
year, all land was to lie fal-
low and all debts were to be
annulled — so that people
who had become so poor as
to be forced to borrow money
would be able to start out
fresh again. Then, in the
Jubilee year, the land would
lie fallow again and all of it
be redistributed. Each fam-
ily would return to its an-
cestral acres. And all inde-
ntured servants would be
freed, so that after a year of
rest they could begin work-
ing for themselves — rather
than for a boss.
What a challenge to us! In
a post-industrial society,
what could this mean?
The most profound teach-
ing is that a pause for not-
doing is crucial if all our
doing is to give life, rather
than death. It is the lesson
of Shabbat, written large.
The Jubilee also teaches
us that communal spiritual
repose, political renewal,
economic justice, ecological
respect, the local face-to-
face community — strands
of life that we usually see as
different — are to be woven
together.
_ And — most starkly
Torah is teaching that once
v_ every 50 years, the eco-
nomic machine will stop. It
will either stop joyfully and
creatively through a
Jubilee of sharing, or it will
stop in conflict, pain,
hunger, despair — through
a Depression. For if weath is
not recycled — if it is con-
rentrated among fewer and
fewer families or people —
then the deepening poverty
of a growing segment of the
people acts as a frictional
drag on economic processes.
And the rich become too
self-satisfied with their suc-
cess to change when change
is necessary — too addicted
to old-fashioned steel
hearth furnaces, unproduct-
ive missile systems, gas-
guzzling cars, to notice
when some upstart is corn-
-
7_p
Arthur Waskow teaches at the
Reconstructionist Rabbinical
College; is the author of"These
Holy Sparks: The Rebirth of
the Jewish. People"; and edits
Menorah, a. "journal of Jewish
renewal."
This dear Torah is written
in memory of Paul Lichterman
of Fabrangen, Beit Havurah
and the Gray Panthers, who
rooted his acts of social justice
in his study of Torah.
Parashat B'har:
Leviticus
25:1-26:2.
Jeremiah
32-6:27.
peting better. So if recycling
is delayed too long, if the
wealth of the wealthy is
piled too high, if the poverty
of the middling of the poor
becomes too deep, the fric-
tion finally stops the
machine. Clang, Rattle.
Bang. Clunk.
The teaching of the
Jubilee is for recylcing. Not
to a swollen state bureauc-
racy — the Torah does not
say that the king shall tax
all produce and dole it out to
the poor — but through de-
centralized bodies. What
are the modern local
analogues of the ancient
clan or extended family?
Co-ops. Worker-controlled
enterprises. Local
businesses that make solar
energy right on the spot,
rather than global corpora-
tions importing Middle East
oil.
And what do these
"families" — these local
firms — need, to do this
work? In Biblical days,
land. And in our time? In-
vestment capital to create
new jobs.
If we were applying the
spirit of the Jubilee, per-
haps we would put Ameri-
cans back to work by mak-
ing venture capital avail-
able to a great network of
local, decentralized firms —
owned by local publics,
workers, consumers, or
comparatively small pri-
vate families or groups.
How could we begin?
Suppose that a group of
synagogues and churches
held a Jubilee Festival. It
could address the economic
renewal of the city and its
neighborhoods by inviting
co-ops and worker-managed
firms, innovative small
businesses, etc., to explain
their work. It could demon-
.
strate equipment for energy
conversion and the local
generation of solar/
renewable energy.
It could turn empty parts
of the congregation's
grounds into communal
vegetable gardens. It could
hold workshops on how ten-
ants can buy apartment
houses and turn them into
co-ops.
Above all, it could raise
money for a venture-capital
investment loan fund to
create new enterprises in
high-unemployment areas.
And it would do all this in
an atmosphere of festival —
song, dance, story-telling,
sharing food.
Certainly the Torah gives
us, in the Jubilee, a great
vision of social justice. But
is that all? Not so. The
Torah is teaching us that
the Jubilee is a great mo-
ment of ritual; that great
acts of social justice :,acre
moments of liturgy, prayer;
and that great moments of
liturgy and prayer become
acts of social justice. At our
best, we make them one.
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New York — A new pro-
gram of Jewish studies
seminars, to be held in Is-
rael for Americans over 50,
will be introduced by the
American Jewish Congress
this summer at The Hebrew
University in Jerusalem
and The Diaspora Museum
on the campus of Tel Aviv
University.
Known as "Israel Univer-
sity Seminars," the two-
week sessions will combine
classroom studies with
course-related touring. The
seminars in Israel are an
outgrowth of AJCongress'
domestic University Sum-
mer Seminar program of-
fered at universities across
the United States. Two ini-
tial seminars will be offered
in August. Beginning in
November, seminars will be
offered each month.
For information regard-
ing the seminars in Israel,
contact the AJCongress, 15
E. 84th St., New York, N.Y.
10028.
Ileitis, Colitis
topic of parley
The Michigan chapter of
the National Foundation for
Ileitis and Colitis will
sponsor a day-long confer-
ence on the two disorders
Saturday at St. Joseph
Mercy Hospital in Pontiac.
For information on the
conference, call the founda-
tion, 424-8658._ .4 it- s&
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AJC schedules
HU seminars
COMFORTERS
MINIM
All sada flail
Detroit Chapter
THE
AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR TECHNION
ISRAEL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
guest speaker ...
Harry Tauber
Detroit Edison Company, group vice president for operations, engineering and
construction, planning and research, and fuel.
topic ...
The Keen-Eyed Adventurous Engineer
■ Effect of the public perceptions of technology on nuclear power power
plants and the utilities who are building them.
■ Popular misconceptions and their results on United States' worldwide com-
petitive position.
film ...
Why In Israel?
Israeli industries: Aircraft, Computer Sciences, Electronics, Drip Irrigation,
Clothing and Graphic Arts. Dead Sea Solar Ponds.
moderator ...
PROF SHLOMO CARMI
• Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Wayne State University .
• former Senior Lecturer, Aeronautical Engineering, Technion (on leave from
WSU)
• former Research Fellow and Instructor, Aeronautical Engineering, Univer-
sity of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
It's commonly said that Israel has one real resource - brains. But those brains
must be properly educated in order to be fruitful. And education costs.
7:45 p.m. Thursday
MAY 24
UNITED HEBREW SCHOOLS
21550 West 12 Mile Road / Southfield
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