Behar

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For the Indian state, see Bihar.

Behar, BeHar, Be-har, or B’har (בהר – Hebrew for "on the mount,” the fifth word, and the first distinctive word, in the parshah) is the 32nd weekly parshah or portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the ninth in the book of Leviticus. It constitutes Leviticus 25:1–26:2. Jews in the Diaspora generally read it in May.

The lunisolar Hebrew calendar contains up to 54 weeks, the exact number varying between leap years and regular years. In years with 54 weeks (for example, 2008), parshah Behar is read separately on the 32nd Sabbath after Simchat Torah. In years with fewer than 54 weeks (for example, 2006, 2007, and 2009), parshah Behar is combined with the subsequent parshah, Bechukotai, to help achieve the needed number of weekly readings.

Contents 1 Summary 1.1 A Sabbatical year for the land 1.2 Limits on debt servitude 2 Commandments 3 Haftarah 4 Further reading 5 External links

[edit] Summary

[edit] A Sabbatical year for the land

On Mount Sinai, God told Moses to tell the Israelites the law of the Sabbatical year for the land. (Lev. 25:1–2.) The people could work the fields for six years, but in the seventh year the land was to have a Sabbath of complete rest during which the people were not to sow their fields, prune their vineyards, or reap the aftergrowth. (Lev. 25:3–5.) They could, however, eat whatever the land produced on its own. (Lev. 25:6–7.)

The people were further to hallow the 50th year, the Jubilee year, and to proclaim release for all with a blast on the horn. (Lev. 25:8–10.) Each Israelite was to return to his family and his ancestral land holding. (Lev. 25:10.) In selling or buying property, the people were to charge only for the remaining number of crop years until the jubilee, when the land would be returned to its ancestral holder. (Lev. 25:14–17.)

God promised to bless the people in the sixth year, so that the land would yield a crop sufficient for three years. (Lev. 25:20–22.) God prohibited selling the land beyond reclaim, for God owned the land, and the people were but strangers living with God. (Lev. 25:23.)

If one fell into straits and had to sell land, his nearest relative was to redeem what was sold. (Lev. 25:25.) If one had no one to redeem, but prospered and acquired enough wealth, he could refund the pro rata share of the sales price for the remaining years until the jubilee, and return to his holding. (Lev. 25:26–27.)

If one sold a house in a walled city, one could redeem it for a year, and thereafter the house would pass to the purchaser beyond reclaim and not be released in the jubilee. (Lev. 25:29–30.) But houses in villages without encircling walls were treated as open country subject to redemption and release through the jubilee. (Lev. 25:31.) Levites were to have a permanent right of redemption for houses and property in the cities of the Levites. (Lev. 25:32–33.) The unenclosed land about their cities could not be sold. (Lev. 25:34.)

[edit] Limits on debt servitude

If a kinsman fell into straits and came under one’s authority by virtue of his debts, one was to let him live by one’s side as a kinsman and not exact from him interest. (Lev. 25:35–36.) Israelites were not to lend money to countrymen at interest. (Lev. 25:37.) If the kinsman continued in straits and had to give himself over to a creditor for debt, the creditor was not to subject him to the treatment of a slave, but to treat him as a hired or bound laborer until the jubilee year, at which time he was to be freed to go back to his family and ancestral holding. (Lev. 25:39–42.) Israelites were not to rule over such debtor Israelites ruthlessly. (Lev. 25:43.) Israelites could, however, buy and own as inheritable property slaves from other nations. (Lev. 25:44–46.)

If an Israelite fell into straits and came under a resident alien’s authority by virtue of his debts, the Israelite debtor was to have the right of redemption. (Lev. 25:47–48.) A relative was to redeem him or, if he prospered, he could redeem himself by paying the pro rata share of the sales price for the remaining years until the jubilee. (Lev. 25:48–52.)

[edit] Commandments

According to Maimonides and Sefer ha-Chinuch, there are 7 positive and 17 negative commandments in the parshah:

• Not to work the land during the seventh year (Lev. 25:4)
• Not to work with trees to produce fruit during that year (Lev. 25:4)
• Not to reap crops that grow wild that year in the normal manner (Lev. 25:5)
• Not to gather grapes which grow wild that year in the normal way (Lev. 25:5)
• The Sanhedrin must count seven groups of seven years (Lev. 25:8)
• To blow the shofar on the tenth of Tishrei to free the slaves (Lev. 25:9)
• The Sanhedrin must sanctify the 50th year (Lev. 25:10)
• Not to work the soil during the 50th year (Lev. 25:11)
• Not to reap in the normal manner that which grows wild in the fiftieth year (Lev. 25:11)
• Not to pick grapes which grew wild in the normal manner in the fiftieth year (Lev. 25:11)
• To buy and sell according to Torah law (Lev. 25:14)
• Not to overcharge or underpay for an article (Lev. 25:14)
• Not to insult or harm anybody with words (Lev. 25:17)
• Not to sell the land in Israel indefinitely (Lev. 25:23)
• To carry out the laws of sold family properties (Lev. 25:24)
• To carry out the laws of houses in walled cities (Lev. 25:29)
• Not to sell the fields but they shall remain the Levites' before and after the Jubilee year (Lev. 25:34)
• Not to lend with interest (Lev. 25:37)
• Not to have a Hebrew servant do menial slave labor (Lev. 25:39)
• Not to sell a Hebrew servant as a slave is sold (Lev. 25:42)
• Not to work a Hebrew servant oppressively (Lev. 25:43)
• Canaanite slaves must be kept forever (Lev. 25:46)
• Not to allow a non-Jew to work a Hebrew servant oppressively (Lev. 25:53)
• Not to bow down on smooth stone (Lev. 26:1)

[edit] Haftarah

The haftarah for the parshah is Jeremiah 34:6–27.

When parshah Behar is combined with parshah Behukotai, the haftarah is the haftarah for Behukotai, Jeremiah 16:19–17:14.

[edit] Further reading

The parshah has parallels or is discussed in these classical sources:

• Exodus 21:1–11, 23:10–11.
• Leviticus 26:34–35.
• Deuteronomy 15:1–6, 12–18; 31:10–13.
• 2 Kings 4:1–7.
• Isaiah 61:1–2.
• Jeremiah 34:6–27.
• Amos 2:6.
• 2 Chronicles 36:20–21.
• Nehemiah 5:1–13.
• Mishnah: Sheviit 1:1–10:9; Ketubot 9:9; Nedarim 9:4; Kiddushin 1:2–3; Bava Metzia 5:1–11; Sanhedrin 3:4; Makkot 3:9; Bekhorot 9:10; Arakhin 8:5, 9:1–8.
• Mekhilta 1:2 (e.g., Jacob Neusner, Mekhilta According to Rabbi Ishmael, vol. 1, 6. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1988. ISBN 1-55540-237-2).
• Sifra 245:1–259:2.
• Babylonian Talmud: Gittin 36a–37b, 65a; Arachin 29a.
• Leviticus Rabbah 33:1–34:16.
• Zohar 3:107b–111a.

[edit] External links

• Masoretic text and 1917 JPS translation
• Hear the parshah chanted
• Commentaries from the Jewish Theological Seminary
• Commentaries from the University of Judaism
• Torah Insights from the Orthodox Union
• Commentaries from the Union for Reform Judaism
• Commentaries from Reconstructionist Judaism
• Commentaries from Chabad-Lubavitch
• Commentaries from Torah.org
• Commentaries from Aish.com
• Text studies and commentaries from MyJewishLearning.com