Adapted by Channie Koplowitz Stein
Parshat Behar begins with the laws of shemittah, the seven year cycle which ends in a Sabbatical year for the land, when the land in Eretz Yisroel cannot be worked. The Torah then continues with the laws of yovel, the jubilee year. After seven cycles of seven years, on Tom Kippur the shofar blast is sounded throughout the land, and, "You shall sanctify the fiftieth year and proclaim freedom throughout the land for all its inhabitants; it shall be the jubilee year for you, you shall return each man to אחוזתו/his ancestral heritage and you shall return each man to his family... In this Jubilee Year you shall return each man to his ancestral heritage."
How are we to understand the significance of the Torah's insistence that the forty nine years consists of seven complete cycles of seven before reaching the fiftieth, jubilee year? We must conclude that each of the seven cycles of seven bears significance in itself.
The Maharal explains that all physicality exists on six planes. The seventh dimension lies within the six planes/sides and constitutes its essence. Therefore Hashem created the world in six days, and the seventh day infused the entire world with its mission and its essence -- to infuse sanctity into the physical world of six. Beyond the seven, eight moves beyond the physical planes of creation to the spiritual plane. Therefore we perform circumcision on the eighth day of a baby's life.
Each cycle of seven, continues the Maharal zt”l, begins on a different plane. Therefore, when concluding seven times seven cycles, all variant physical possibilities are covered. What now remains is the supreme eighth plane of the spiritual and Godly. Thus yovel represents a completely new beginning, a new creation of the world, not another cycle of seven.
We encounter other questions as well. What does the word yovel/jubilee mean? Further, we would proclaim freedom for slaves, yet the Torah proclaims freedom for all the inhabitants of the Land. How does freedom manifest itself to those who are not slaves? Further, notes Rabbi Birnbaum zt”l in in Bekorei Shemo, there seems to be a reversal of logic. While the simple understanding is that the land reverts to its ancestral person and family, the Torah commands that you return each man to his property rather than returning the property to the man.
The Tallelei Chaim delves into these questions. He explains that while shemittah is rooted in the seven, yovel is rooted in the eight, in the return of all creation to its perfected state. All creation is rooted in teshuvah, in the idea of returning to the perfected state. As Pirkei d'Rabbi Eliezer suggests, Hashem created seven worlds and destroyed them before He created the world we live in. We do not know much about those worlds, but Pirkei d'Rabbi Eliezer suggests that Hashem wanted to create the concept and ability of teshuvah, of the drive to return to the perfected, spiritual state within the physical world. That required going above the seven of the natural world to the eight, the essence of yovel. That is why the shofar blast that inaugurates yovel is sounded on Yom Kippur, the day devoted to teshuvah. Jubilation is the ultimate return of everyone and everything to its essence.
This essence includes the freedom for all the inhabitants to return to their essence. The root of the word yovel is to draw forth. During this time, all the people will be drawn back to their ancestral land and their ancestral homes. [I like to think of achuzah as legacy. All the people who have become slaves to the material and physical world, in the spirit of teshuvah, will now be drawn back to the legacy of their ancestors and be free to reconnect to their essence and their Source. CKS]
Rabbi Hofstedter discusses the practical implementation of the laws of yovel. Although the year begins on Rosh Hashanah and the slave is free immediately, he does not return to his ancestral home until Yom Kippur. These intervening days, explains Rabbi Hofstedter, serve as a training ground for the former Jewish slave to wean himself away from reliance on his human master to a full and total reliance on Hakodosh Boruch Hu. While he remains in his master's house, he and his former master are now equals as the former slave learns to eat, drink, and make his own decisions as a free man.
Interestingly, the text speaks of a yovel for all of you, and then reverts to speaking of the individual returning to his family. Here Rabbi Hofstedter emphasizes that we are all equal in service to Hashem, whether you were the "master" or the "slave," for it is only Hashem Who is the true Master.
And on Yom Kippur, we will hear the shofar blast, that same blast that we heard at Sinai as we formalized our relationship with Hakodosh Boruch Hu with the acceptance of His Torah. It is that acceptance that makes us truly free, free spiritually from the encumbrances of the physical world. And it is that same shofar blast that will herald the coming of Moshiach on that fateful day when our exiles will return from the four corners of the earth to our ancestral homeland.
The master must understand that he, too, like his slave, is only a sojourner and resident on this land that actually belongs to Hashem, writes Rabbi Pam zt”l. When we leave the world, only the Torah we acquired in His service remains ours. As the Ramban interprets דרור, it is not so much freedom as it is the continuation from דור (ל)דור one generation to the next generation. As Rabbi Zeichik zt”l says, it is only when we view the world from the perspective of the continuity of life from one generation to the next that we realize our own smallness. The only way to achieve freedom and greatness is to attach myself to the Infinite and transmit that legacy to the future, to the next generation. Real freedom is only in this relationship to Hashem.
On a more practical level, Rav Druck notes that freeing the Jewish slave also emancipates his master, for he is no longer obligated in the tremendous responsibilities toward his slave and the slave's family. With this understanding, it is logical that we do not observe yovel in the Diaspora, for in exile we can never feel superior, masters of all that "belongs" to us, notes Rabbi Hofstedter. In contrast, when we live in Eretz Yisroel we are in danger of becoming arrogant and rebellious against Hashem. It is in Eretz Yisroel that we need the reminder that all the land as well as all our possessions belong to Hashem.
Rav Hirsch zt”l notes that yovel can also be translated as canal, that which brings water to where it is needed. One sounds the keren, the horn to bring the people back to their homes, just as the horn of the ram leads the flock back to its home and a leader brings the people back to the right path and the shofar on Yom Kippur finally brings us back.
One cannot help but note the similarity between the cycle of yovel and the counting of the omer. Each is in seven cycles of seven, yovel counted in years while the omer is counted in weeks, the weeks between Pesach and Shavuot leading to receiving the Torah. The Ner Uziel points out that both counts lead to the Jewish view of freedom. Unlike the secular world, Jews don't view freedom as the ability to pursue all one's physical desires; Jewish freedom resides in self control, for man to be in control of his animalistic tendencies and rise above them to his true self. That can only be achieved through Torah and mitzvah observance. Both Shavuot and yovel serve this purpose, accepting the Torah as our guide while freeing oneself from the labor of the land. Each week we are reminded of this true aspect of freedom as we observe the Shabbat, a time when all men, not just the slave, are free from the mundane to explore and return to their true, free, inner selves, unencumbered by the pressures of the mundane world. As Mimaamakim notes, the Torah does not say he returns to his land, not even to his family, but to his achuzah, the spiritual self that anchors him.
The Modzitzer Rebbe zt”l notices another peculiarity in these verses. The verse states, "You will sanctify שנת החמשים שנה..." In our introduction to our discussion, we have translated this phrase simply as "the fiftieth year," ignoring the redundancy. The Modzitzer Rebbe suggests that the repetition alludes to turning back, to teshuvah, as the sounding of the shofar on Yom Kippur is meant to do an act that will bring freedom to all the inhabitants, not just to the newly freed indentured servant.
We have mentioned the aggadah that this is the eighth world Hashem created. In Bereishit 2:4, the Torah begins giving us more details of creation, "These are the products of the heaven and the earth בהבראם./when Hashem created them..." Rashi notes there that the letter heh is written small to tell us that Hashem created the world using the letter ה. Why is this significant?
Rabbi Bernstein explains the depth and beauty of the letters in our holy language of Hebrew. The letter ה is composed of two letters, the ד and the י. The daled represents physicality through the dimensions of length and width. The yud, on the other hand, represent pure spirituality, a mere dot that is suspended in mid air, touching no surface. With the proper placement, together they form the ה. Rabbi Bernstein then cites the Gemara: The letter ה resembles a three walled portico. Anyone who wishes to leave can leave. The gap on the top of the letter near the "roof," allows, him to reenter if he desires to return. He cannot return the same way he left through the bottom because once he has left, he has extended the bottom line of the letter so that it is now a ק, barring the path of his return. By creating the world with the letter ה, Hashem connected the physical world with the spiritual world.
Rabbi Bernstein continues. He explains that we are all in a form of enslavement as we are under the oppressive influence of the alien culture that values appearance over truth. In this culture, not only does truth disappear, but our true selves disappear as well, absorbed within the false presentation of truth within a society alien to Jewish values. This, notes the Gra zt”l is hinted at in the letter קוף [ק] which is also the word for monkey, one that mimics.
Our challenge is to hold on to the concept of the fifty even without the Beit Hamikdosh and Eretz Yisroel, to work on ourselves and return to our core and true freedom. As the Tosher Rebbe zt”l exhorts us, wake up from the sleep in our mundane world. Both the shofar blast of yovel and counting the omer to Shavuot should awaken us to our core selves. Instead of trying to evade the guilt, we should cry out to Hashem to help us to reframe our challenges as ways of enabling us to find our path back. The forty nine days of sefirah should serve as a mini preparation for yovel.
But even when we go through the process, we realize we have not reached our goal, and must begin the process again writes the Modzitzer Rav zt”l. We are always in a state of beginning, and, although all beginnings are difficult, one must begin if one hopes to improve.
One must desire to return to the legacy of our parents and ancestors, to the true freedom of life within the Torah perspective, and to transmit that legacy to the future generations.