Parshiyyot Behar-Bekhukotai: Linked In

In the Yovel (jubilee) year, the Torah says there will be dror lekhol yoshveha, “freedom to all the land’s inhabitants (Lev 25:10).” Why to all? The law is that slaves go free. Not everyone is a slave. Why is there a broad declaration of freedom for all? Because none of us is free as long as any of us is a slave. Our lots are intertwined.

That is why, if your fellow falls on hard times, you are to hold on tight to him, bring him in to live with you, help him rise out of the hard times (25:35). Vehai ahikha imakh, your brother should live with you. With you. He shares in your good fortune and you share in his burden. Your lives, your hayut, in the Sefat Emet’s words – your living essences – are dependent on one another. All deriving from the same Source, they are unbreakably linked.

Vehazakta bo, the Torah says – hold on to him. Don’t let him fall further into a downward spiral, says Rashi; stop the trend now, before it gets so bad that it becomes impossible to help. But the term vehazakta bo can also be read (playfully) as a reference to one’s own process of growth – Become strong through him. You thought you didn’t have anything to give someone, but here, through the very act of giving, you show yourself to be strong, to be connected to others and therefore linked in to the Source of all life, all strength.

Hazan et ha'olam kulo -- He who nourishes the whole world in its entirety, we say of God in Birkat Hamazon, the blessing after meals. Note, says the Sefat Emet, that we speak of His nourishing of the world, not of an individual; it is to the world as an entirety that He provides enough food; in God’s eyes we are a unit, and it is only when we act as one – providing each for the other and living in connection -- that we feel the fullness of His blessing.

We aren’t just talking about wealth or food here. We are talking about a state of mind. A state of mind that sees the interconnectedness of human beings, that understands that our separateness as individuals is in a way an illusion that masks our deep interdependence. Perhaps that is why Rabbi Akiva thought that the precept VeAhavta LeRe’akha Kamokha – love your neighbor as yourself – was the principle rule of the Torah; the key to a religious life is to learn to see the connections, to view others as if they are yourself, to understand that there is only true dror, freedom, in this world for any of us when the whole land is free. The call to declare freedom for all on the Yovel year is perhaps unrealizable, a kind of utopian dream, but it is also aspirational, a declaration of what we hold dear.