PARSHAS BEHAR
Can you figure out what each picture has to do with the parsha?
Rabbi Dani Staum
KEY to Parshas Behar Pix
Blowing shofar – On Yom Kippur of the Yovel year the shofar was blown – 25:9
Yovel (Zoosman) – The 50th year is Yovel when the land may not be worked, all sold ancestral lands return to their original owners, and all Jewish slaves are freed – 25:8-13
How to help the poor – If someone is becoming poor, it is the responsibility of fellow Jews to help him so that he does not become impoverished – 25:35, see Rashi
Sabbatical in progress – The seventh year is shemittah when all land must remain uncultivated – 25:4
What will we eat tomorrow – The Torah addresses the one who will say “what will we eat in the seventh year if we don’t work the land?” The Torah promises that the land will be blessed and the faithful farmer will have what he needs – 25:20-21
Liberty Bell – Inscribed into the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, Pa, are the words, “”Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants thereof”, a quote from Vayikra 25:10 regarding the Yovel year when all slaves are freed.
House built into city wall – Unlike a regular ancestral land that was sold which must be returned in the Yovel year, a house attached to a wall can only be redeemed within the year after it was sold. If it’s not, then the house becomes the property of the new owner forever – 25:29
Buy your home – If one sold his ancestral land, it is a mitzvah for his relatives to help him buy it back as soon as possible – 25:25
48 – The Torah states that the cities of the Leviim is their ancestral property and they can always redeem land they sold – 25:32, see Rashi who notes that there were 48 such cities.
Family tree – If a Jew sells himself as a slave to a non-Jew, the Torah instructs his uncles and cousins to help redeem him as soon as possible, so he isn’t influenced by his non-Jewish owner – 25:49
Who owns the land – The overarching theme of parshas Behar is “For the land is Mine” – 25:23. It all belongs to Hashem!
