Rabbi Sacks comments on the nature of the economy: “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” This phenomenon is the object of the legislation in parashat Behar. The Sabbatical and Jubilee years have the specific purpose of redistributing assets among the population. At the heart of the Tanakh, and in the words of the prophets, each person should be able to establish a basis of economic independence.
Rabbi Sacks comments on the nature of the economy: “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” This phenomenon is the object of the legislation in parashat Behar. The Sabbatical and Jubilee years have the specific purpose of redistributing assets among the population. At the heart of the Tanakh, and in the words of the prophets, each person should be able to establish a basis of economic independence
Rabbi Gold questions the admonition in Leviticus: “If you follow all these commandments…you will be rewarded. If you do not, you will pay the price…”. This contrasts with a reality where good people suffer and others who act immorally do not suffer. She focuses on the spiritual challenge: it is our inner state of consciousness, rather than outer circumstances, that determines whether our life is Heaven or Hell.” Please follow the link below to read the full article:
Among the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust was one young woman named Hana Szenes. Already having emigrated from Hungary to the land of Israel, she volunteered to return as a parachutist and aid the British in a special operation to save her landsmen, Hungarian Jews, from deportation to death camps. Hana was caught, tortured, and executed by firing squad. She refused to give up any information to the Nazis. She was 23. This is her poem, A Walk in Caesarea, arranged and performed by The Shvesters and Omri Bar Giora.
Rabbi Tuchman addresses the challenges with Leviticus 21 from the perspective of a blind rabbi. She states that society tends to claim that individuals with disabilities are no longer impacted by these passages because we have evolved. Yet we have not really evolved. Such individuals are still marginalized. She questions: “are we to assume that a supposed broken body equals a broken person?
The laws regarding the condition of tamei are complex and challenging to understand. Rabbi Sacks quotes Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai: “It is not that death defies or the waters purity. Rather, God say, I have ordained a statue and issue a decree and you have no permission to transgress it.” Even the sages didn’t understand the rules. The logic is in the concept of the holy. God is beyond time and space, yet God created them and the physical entities that occupy them.
Rabbi Barenblat quotes the beginning of the parashah, “y’all shall be holy, for I your God am holy”…emphasizing the plural. In other words, to be holy is for the society, not the individual. In a righteous society, we must ensure justice.
Rabbi Kaplan addresses the meaning of being holy: the text elaborates on forbidden sexual relations and sinful thoughts, many of which emphasize the male. Yet, human interactions involve multiple parties. How can we address the ancient laws regarding sexual ethics in light of contemporary values?
Rabbi Sacks considers the apparent disconnect between the different laws in Leviticus 19 – in fact, they are about limits, order, and boundaries. Reality has a structure whose integrity must be honored. When the order is violated, then chaos results.
Rabbi Barenblat writes that tum’ah means having a different spiritual frequency, rather than “unclean” vs “clean”. She cites the Talmudic teaching that in public, people should cry out “tamei, tamei”, which seems the be shaming, yet the intention is not to shame to afflicted person. Rather, it should evoke in us compassion for our fellow community members, and lead us to take helpful action.