BIRMINGHAM BLOOMFIELD

Arr

il 4111

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Presents
the asst
Annual

birmingham

Presented by:

Lifia2 @at;

26

Parshat Behar/Bechukotai: Leviticus
25:1-27:34; Jeremiah 16:19-17:14.

0

ur parshah contains within
it the historic words that are
engraved upon the Liberty
Bell in Philadelphia: "Proclaim lib-
erty throughout the land unto all the
inhabitants!'
The context of these words in the
Torah is that after seven sabbatical
cycles, a total of 49 years, the Jubilee
should be declared. In the Jubilee, all
land in Israel that may have been sold
since the last Jubilee is to be returned
to its owner or the relatives
of the original owner; also,
any indentured servant is to
be emancipated and permit-
ted to return to his family.
The liberty mentioned is
referring to that of the
emancipated servant.
Surely, shouldn't the verse
have said, "and you will
declare liberty to all the ser-
vants," rather than "liberty
throughout the land"?
The answer is that grant-
ing freedom to the servants does not
only benefit the servants themselves,
it benefits the masters and it benefits
society as a whole. No man can appre-
ciate freedom until it is enjoyed by all.
The Jubilee represents the end of a
process that involves seven sabbatical
cycles. This is similar to the process
of counting the seven weeks between
Passover and Shavuot (otherwise
known as the Feast of Weeks). Shavuot
is therefore like the Jubilee.
In the same way that the emancipa-
tion of the servants is liberation for
all the people of the land, so, too, the
giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai was
also liberation not only for the Jewish
people but for the entire world. Indeed,
the values that the Torah has imparted
to mankind have changed the world

In downtown SAVIOAM-6PM
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many times over and the Jewish
people have been the vanguards of the
Torah.
As American scholar Thomas Cahill
wrote in his 1998 book The Gifts of the
Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads
Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and
Feels:
"The Jews started it all — and by
`it' I mean so many of the things we
care about, the underlying values
that make all of us, Jew and gentile,
believer and atheist, tick.
Without the Jews, we would
see the world through
different eyes, hear with
different ears, even feel
with different feelings ... we
would think with a differ-
ent mind, interpret all our
experience differently, draw
different conclusions from
the things that befall us.
And we would set a differ-
ent course for our lives!'
It is little wonder, there-
fore, that the sages of the Talmud
viewed Shavuot, beginning the eve
of May 26, as a celebration that tran-
scends that of all other festivals. The
freedom of Passover released the
people from oppression, but Shavuot
gave us a hallowed identity and a gift
for all mankind.

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