Behar
On the mountain — בהר
Regular readings above are often interrupted with special readings on Jewish holidays, special Sabbaths, and Rosh Chodesh. Refer to the current Torah Portion Schedule for all these variations, and special portions.
Portion Summary
The thirty-second reading from the Torah and second-to-last reading from the book of Leviticus is called Behar (בהר), which means "On the Mountain." The name comes from the first words of the first verse of the reading, which could be literally translated to read, "The LORD then spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai" (Leviticus 25:1). This portion from the Torah introduces the laws of the sabbatical years, the jubilee and laws concerning redemption. In most years, synagogues read Behar together with the following portion, Bechukotai.
Portion Outline
- Torah
- Leviticus 25:1 | The Sabbatical Year
- Leviticus 25:8 | The Year of Jubilee
- Leviticus 26:1 | Rewards for Obedience
- Prophets
- Jer 32:1 | Jeremiah Buys a Field During the Siege
- Jer 32:16 | Jeremiah Prays for Understanding
- Jer 32:26 | God's Assurance of the People's Return
The Year of Freedom
Individuals experience redemption on individual levels, but when Messiah comes, "all Israel will be saved."
(Image: © Bigstock)
The year of Jubilee is the year of freedom. According to the Torah, a Hebrew slave could only be enslaved for six years. Exodus 21:2 says, “If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment.” Even if the Hebrew slave had not served his six years when the Jubilee arrived, his term of service ended and he went free.
This illustrates the difference between the personal salvation of the individual and the national salvation of Israel. Throughout the course of time, individuals experience redemption on individual levels, but when Messiah comes, “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:26).
The Torah uses a particular term for national salvation. The Hebrew word deror (דרור) seems to mean “free flowing” or “running.” The Bible uses it to describe the freedom and release that comes in the Jubilee:
You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release (deror, דרור) through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family. (Leviticus 25:10)
In the days of the prophet Jeremiah, the prophet rebuked Israel for failing to keep the law of releasing the Hebrew slave in the seventh year. King Zedekiah made a covenant with the people of Jerusalem to proclaim release (deror) for all of their Hebrew slaves. When the people reneged on the obligation to release their slaves, Jeremiah declared the following:
Therefore thus says the LORD, “You have not obeyed Me in proclaiming release (deror) each man to his brother and each man to his neighbor. Behold, I am proclaiming a release (deror) to you,” declares the LORD, “to the sword, to the pestilence and to the famine; and I will make you a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.” (Jeremiah 34:17)
The same Hebrew word appears in Isaiah 61 in reference to the mission of the Messiah:
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty (deror) to captives and freedom to prisoners; to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD. (Isaiah 61:1-2)
Yeshua read this passage from Isaiah in the Nazareth synagogue and applied it to Himself, saying, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). He identified Himself as the one anointed with the Spirit of the LORD and His mission of proclaiming the year of the LORD’S favor. This does not imply that the particular year Yeshua read the passage in the Nazareth synagogue was the Jubilee. Instead, the Master alluded to the prophetic significance of the Jubilee, namely, the final redemption and the dawning of the Messianic Era. Yeshua offered His generation the freedom of the final redemption and the kingdom of heaven if they would repent.
The generation did not, and we still wait for the final redemption. Nevertheless, the Master’s death and resurrection accomplished the redemption of our souls. If a person will repent and turn to the LORD for the forgiveness of sins in Yeshua’s name, he can enter into the spiritual Jubilee today. The Redeemer has already paid the price for the ransom, and He extends His hand to lift us up out of the miry pit. The doors of redemption stand open before us even now.
The Jubilee Year
The Jubilee year anticipates and rehearses the final redemption when a great shofar will sound throughout the land and all things will be set right.
The sabbatical year occurred once every seven years. God commanded the children of Israel to count off seven full sabbatical cycles. Seven cycles of seven years multiplies out to forty-nine years. The fiftieth year was called the yoveil (יובל) year. Yoveil is transliterated into English Bibles as "jubilee."
The jubilee year is supposed to be declared ten days after it begins by a sounding of trumpets on the Day of Atonement. During the jubilee year, agriculture is to be left fallow, just like a sabbatical year. When the jubilee comes, debts are forgiven, loans are cancelled, slaves are released and property holdings return to their original tribal/family owners. Jubilee years have not been practiced in Israel since the tribes went into exile, but imagine what it must have been like when the jubilee was kept. Suppose all your debts were cancelled and you were given an expensive tract of land that had belonged to your great-grandfather generations ago. Suppose you were a slave because you owed a large sum of money. When the trumpet of the jubilee year sounded, your debts were forgiven and you were set free. How could you keep from dancing?
This is what it is like to be saved. The Bible tells us that before knowing Yeshua, we are all debtors. Our sins collect like a great financial burden that we have no hope of ever repaying. Worse, we are slaves to the adversary. Without Messiah, we are spiritually hopeless, in bondage and without inheritance.
Yeshua is our jubilee year. He told the people in the synagogue in Nazareth that He had come to "proclaim release to the captives ... to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD" (Luke 4:18-19). The favorable year of the LORD is the jubilee year. Yeshua is a spiritual jubilee. His death pays the debt of sin that we cannot repay. In Yeshua, sins are forgiven and wiped away forever. He sets us free from bondage to the adversary, and, to our utter astonishment, He gives us the rich ancestral inheritance of a place in Israel. We are transformed from misery to spiritual riches. That's what salvation in Yeshua is all about.
Perhaps this explains why the jubilee year is proclaimed on the Day of Atonement. More than any other festival on the biblical calendar, the Day of Atonement teaches about Messiah's atoning sacrifice and the forgiveness of sins. What an auspicious day to declare the remission of debt and freedom from bondage!
No hay comentarios.:
Publicar un comentario