B’Har-B’Chukotai - Leviticus 25:1-27:34 - 5/23/25

Who Owns the Land?

Every seventh day, Jews are commanded to observe a day of rest, a Sabbath. But it is not only Children of Israel who get a Sabbath, but also the land of Israel. Our Torah portion instructs us every seven years to allow the Land of Israel to lie fallow, that it is a sabbatical year for the land. And beyond that, every fiftieth year (the year after the 49th, or seven times seven, years), is a Jubilee year, when all land reverts to its original owners and all slaves go free.

God tells the Israelites they must do this because the land does not, in reality, belong to them. It belongs to God, and we are merely God’s tenants, living on the land at God’s sufferance. The Torah tells us, in this week’s Torah portion and in several other places, that we only will be allowed to live and prosper in the land for as long as we live by God’s laws.  If we transgress, we lose the privilege and will be subject to conquest and exile.

An important element of living by God’s laws includes treating the stranger among us the same as the citizen. In today’s context, that means treating the Palestinians, whether Israeli citizens or those living under Israel’s control, with dignity, respect, justice, and compassion.

Today Israel is at a crossroads. The majority of the population wants an end to the war and a return of the hostages. They want peace, for their soldiers to come home, and to have some semblance of normalcy to return to their lives. Yet, the government continues to wage war, endangering the remaining hostages, withholding aid from the people of Gaza, and threatening to reoccupy the region after voluntarily withdrawing 20 years ago.

Israel’s Declaration of Independence says:

“THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations….WE EXTEND our hand to all neighboring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighborliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East.”

Will Israel live up to the moral and ethical teachings of the Torah and to its own stated aspirations? Will the government move toward a lasting peace that will protect Israel’s sovereignty and security and also provide a sovereign and secure state for the Palestinians, or will this state of war continue indefinitely?

-Rabbi Bonnie Margulis