Behar/Bechukotai Slides (pdf)
Behar Notes (pdf)
Overview of Behar (“On the Mountain”) Leviticus 25:1 – 26:2
The Book of Leviticus began with the “rules” of the Sacrificial System, and it will end with warnings and admonitions for disobedience to Yehovah’s instructions. But before we get to those, we learn this week about the Shmitah & Yovel years – the 7-year Sabbatical cycle and the 50th Year of Jubilee.
Yehovah has established His patterns for rest:
Every 7th day for Man
Every 7th year for the Land
Every 7th millennium for the Earth
Chapter 25 The Shmitah & Yovel Years
The cycle of Holy Days started with:
Weekly Shabbat Every 7 days
Shavuot (Pentecost) 7 Shabbats after Firstfruits
Fall Feasts In the 7th month
…and they continue here with:
Sabbatical Year In the 7th year
Jubilee Year In the 50th year
The Shmitah
We learned in Exodus 21:2 that all Hebrew slaves are to be freed in the 7th year; here we see that the land is also to rest in the 7th year. There is to be no planting and no harvesting…but the “volunteers” – the crops that seeded themselves from the prior year and grow on their own – may be used for food for the land owner’s immediate family, his servants and animals. But there shall be no harvesting for storage or for sale to others. Yehovah is teaching dependence upon Him!
According to the Rabbis, Israel is in the latter half of the current Shmitah cycle: the seventh year will occur in the year 5782…starting on September 7, 2021. We don’t know if this is the same date that Yehovah has on His calendar because this rule would apply only when Israel is in The Land; did the clock start when Israel became a nation in 1948?..or when the Jews started to return to The Land before then?? We don’t know for sure, but the Rabbis have made a determination so that the religious Jews can observe this requirement. Unfortunately, many “observe” it by leasing their land to a Palestinian farmer to avoid sowing and harvesting (thus satisfying the letter of the law), but still gain a profit from the lease income…not exactly what Yehovah had in mind when He said to allow The Land to rest.
The Yovel
The Jubilee Year starts on Tishri 10 (the Day of Atonement) in the year that follows the seventh Shmitah cycle (7 X 7 = 49). This year also has no sowing nor planting (this would be the second year in a row…Yehovah really wants to test our trust in Him!!); all Hebrew slaves were released; and all Land that had been sold in the previous years returned back to the original owner. This is Yehovah’s way of leveling the economy so that the rich do not continue to get richer nor do the poor continue to get poorer. Every 50th year everyone started over again economically. During these two years of no planting and no harvesting, Yehovah promised to provide three years of produce in the sixth year so that you may have food to eat until the crops planted in the eighth year mature.
When a person falls upon difficult times economically, he cannot sell his land outright; he can only lease it. The value of the land is determined by the number of harvests until the next Yovel, at which time it reverts back to the original owner. If the person reverses his economic situation he may buy the land back before the next Yovel; or a relative may buy it back for him. We see the application of this concept in the Book of Ruth, where Boaz (a close relative of Naomi) buys the land back for her by agreeing to marry Ruth. It’s worth reading this Book again to see this concept in action.
There is disagreement on the timing of the Yovel: is it every 50 years or every 49 years?? It is the year after the 49th year: is a year added after the 49th or is the 50th year also the 1st year of the next Shmitah cycle? I believe it is the latter, and we seem to see verification of that in the Book of Jubilees where Sarah’s age is described in the number of Jubilees…and a 49-year Jubilee cycle is the only way to get the math to work right (see the Behar Power Point slides).
Before we leave the Jubilee Year – when Yeshua returned from His encounter with Ha Satan (in Luke chapter 4), His first act of public ministry was to stand in His synagogue in Nazareth to read the Haftorah Portion (Isaiah 61): “He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord…” This is Jubilee language: giving liberty to the captives, and returning the land (“the acceptable year of the Lord”). So Yeshua’s first year of public ministry (when He was 30 years old) was also a Jubilee Year: and there is speculation that His Second Coming will also be in a Jubilee Year…we just don’t know for sure where we are on Yehovah’s Jubilee Cycle!
Chapter 26 – Warnings Against Idolatry
This Portion ends with the first two verses in the 26th chapter which warn against making idols and images of Yehovah, and reminds us to keep the Shabbat.
The Haftarah Reading (Jeremiah 32:6-22) tells the story of Jeremiah’s prophecy concerning Israel’s 90-year exile in Babylon. Yehovah told the Prophet to purchase a field for the purpose of redeeming it at the end of the 70-year exile, echoing one of the subjects of this week’s Torah portion—the restoration of land in the Jubilee Year. Jeremiah was imprisoned in King Zedekiah’s royal compound for having prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and Israel’s Babylonian exile. While he was detained there, Yehovah told Jeremiah that he would be approached by his cousin Hanamel with an offer to purchase his ancestral lands. Yehovah told him to accept this offer. As prophesied, Hanamel arrived in the compound with the offer, and Jeremiah accepted. Money was transferred and a document of purchase was signed in the presence of witnesses. The prophet then gave the deed to his disciple Baruch and told him to bury it in a clay jar where it would remain until Jeremiah’s return at the end of the 70 years. We read from Jeremiah 32:6-22:
“And Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you, saying, “Buy my field which is in Anathoth, for the right of redemption is yours to buy it.” ’ Then Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the Lord, and said to me, ‘Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord. So I bought the field from Hanamel, the son of my uncle who was in Anathoth, and weighed out to him the money—seventeen shekels of silver. And I signed the deed and sealed it, took witnesses, and weighed the money on the scales. So I took the purchase deed, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open; and I gave the purchase deed to Baruch the son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses who signed the purchase deed, before all the Jews who sat in the court of the prison. “Then I charged Baruch before them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Take these deeds, both this purchase deed which is sealed and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may last many days.” For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.” ’ “Now when I had delivered the purchase deed to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord, saying: ‘Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You. You show lovingkindness to thousands, and repay the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them—the Great, the Mighty God, whose name is the Lord of hosts. You are great in counsel and mighty in work, for Your eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. You have set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, to this day, and in Israel and among other men; and You have made Yourself a name, as it is this day. You have brought Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror; You have given them this land, of which You swore to their fathers to give them—“a land flowing with milk and honey.” And they came in and took possession of it, but they have not obeyed Your voice or walked in Your law. They have done nothing of all that You commanded them to do; therefore You have caused all this calamity to come upon them. ‘Look, the siege mounds! They have come to the city to take it; and the city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it, because of the sword and famine and pestilence. What You have spoken has happened; there You see it! And You have said to me, O Lord God, “Buy the field for money, and take witnesses”!—yet the city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans.’ ” Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me? Therefore thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it. And the Chaldeans who fight against this city shall come and set fire to this city and burn it, with the houses on whose roofs they have offered incense to Baal and poured out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke Me to anger; because the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only evil before Me from their youth. For the children of Israel have provoked Me only to anger with the work of their hands,’ says the Lord. ‘For this city has been to Me a provocation of My anger and My fury from the day that they built it, even to this day; so I will remove it from before My face because of all the evil of the children of Israel and the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke Me to anger—they, their kings, their princes, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
The Brit Chadashah reading comes from Luke’s Gospel, and references the Year of Jubilee from this week’s Torah Portion. To set the stage for this: Yeshua has been baptized in the Jordan River and was immediately filled with the Ruach HaKodesh; He successfully confronted Ha Satan for 40 days in the wilderness and has now returned to His hometown of Nazareth. He was in the synagogue on Shabbat, reading the Haftarah Portion. He used this opportunity to announce the beginning of His public ministry by reading a very Messianic passage from the Prophet Isaiah. Watch as we read from Luke 4:16-21; see if you can pick out the references to the Jubilee Year:
“So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Shabbat day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the scroll, He found the place where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.’ Then He closed the scroll, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’”
The underlined verses (by me) all are Jubilee language. So it’s very likely that Yeshua’s ministry began in a Jubilee Year …. and He also may return to finish that ministry in a Jubilee Year!