Why Is Israel a Gift?
When you come to the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath to the Lord.
Why is Israel a “gift”, and not merely “the land which I show you” or “the land which I choose” or even just “when you come to the land, then shall the land keep a sabbath…”?
Might it be connected to the first time the word for giving, notein, is found in the text?
And God set (yitein) them [the sun/moon/stars] in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth
Why is that verse does G-d not sham, put the light -giving bodies in the heavens? Why does he gift them?
Perhaps the answers are the same? After all, light illuminates the earth. It is an ongoing connection, a bridge, between heaven and earth. The light of the sun and moon enable a relationship between the two! And the gift is thus a facilitator for that relationship?!
If this is true, then does G-d gift us the Land of Israel for precisely the same purpose – to facilitate a relationship between us and our Creator?
Does this supplement the idea that the Land of Israel is not actually ours, that it is instead always meant to be an ongoing loan, with ongoing requirements and conditions in order to keep it? Does this gift, like all gifts, come with strings attached?
Why is the Jubilee Announced on Yom Kippur?
Why isn’t the Yovel announced on the first month (the month with Pesach)? Why is it announced on the 7th month, and specifically on Yom Kippur?
Or might it be connected to Pesach after all? While Pesach begins on the 14th day of the month, the commandment to start Pesach off, by sequestering an animal, is on the tenth day of that first month. Is there a relationship using the number ten?
How might this work? In the Flood (Gen. 8), the waters went on diminishing until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible. We know that Avram tithed 10% to Malchitzedek. Jacob promises to set aside, of all that you give me, a tenth for [G-d]. (Gen: 28:22). Ten becomes the number of salvation – the quorum for a minyan, to receive collective blessings. Which might explain why ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to get grain rations in Egypt.
Indeed, the “coincidences” keep stacking up. Joseph uses the same number in communicating with Jacob: And to his father he sent the following: ten he-asses laden with the best things of Egypt, and ten she-asses laden with grain, bread, and provisions for his father on the journey. (Gen. 45:23)
How are all these things connected? Is there a better answer than that “ten” is the number of our handwork (ten fingers), and so acknowledging “ten” is a way of recognizing that our blessings are NOT solely because of the work of our hands, but are instead received from G-d?
Might this explain why, in the Torah, the word “ten” and “wealth” are the same three letters? When someone is rich, he has “ten.” He has received material blessings from G-d, and he should acknowledge it?
Don’t all of these add up to explain why the Jubilee is declared on the tenth day? That it is a day where we connect with divine salvation throughout our history?
Speak to the whole community of Israel and say that on the tenth of this month each of them shall take a lamb to a family, a lamb to a household.
And so Num: 18:21-26 commands us to give “from the ten” of all of our agricultural harvest to the Levites. And Deuteronomy 14:22-28 contains another tithing commandment, that You shall consume the tithes [from the tenth] of your new grain and wine and oil, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks, in the presence of the LORD your God.
The Torah has wrapped it all in a bow. Giving “from the ten” echoes Avram’s decision to credit his victory to G-d, as well as Jacob, Rachel and Leah for seeing things the same way.
Is this not our choice? We can choose to ascribe our blessings to man, nature, other deities or even ourselves. Or we can choose to do as have countless ancestors: we credit G-d?
OK. That covers “ten”. But why on the seventh month? Might it be because, like the first Shabbos, there is no melacha (work) on the seventh – so there is no melacha on Yom Kippur and the Jubilee?
Could we add that the connection because Yom Kippur is known as shabbat shabbaton, the sabbath of sabbaths – 7th of 7s? And so the 49th year is similarly seven sevens?
Or might it be because Yom Kippur is really a “reset” for the Jewish people, and so the Jubilee fits right in?
Is there a better answer why the Jubilee is declared on the 10th day of the 7th month?
The Walled City Exclusion?
Everything reverts on the Jubilee – except for a home owned within a walled city. Is that not odd?
Could it be that the purpose of the Jubilee is to force everyone to seek a connection with G-d and with others? No matter how wealthy a person becomes, on the Jubilee they are reintroduced to insecurity? And insecurity forces us to seek connections and relationships?
Even if we assume this is correct, what does it have to do with owning a home in a walled city?
Consider what living in those conditions required: Walled cities were necessarily not very large, because walls are expensive to build and maintain. Those who live in a walled city share water supplies, food supplies, and even sewer arrangements. And because the city has walls, it also has self-governance and taxes. It is hard to live that closely with other people!
And yet: might G-d value those forged relationships?
Could this be the answer to our question? That G-d values our relationships with each other so much that if we have built those kinds of “walled city” relationships, G-d does not want to tear them asunder by making people give up the property in that city?
After all, we know that each person has a soul on loan from G-d, so loving other people is a way to love G-d.
So perhaps property does not revert because G-d is willing to lose the opportunity to fully connect with those who are already deeply invested in other people, in other relationships?
The archetypal walled city in ancient Israel was, of course, Jerusalem – a name that includes “shalem”, meaning completeness. Does the Torah considers life in a unified community to be fulfilled and whole?