Behar, בְּהַר  "On the Mount"  Leviticus 25:1-26:2

From The Mountain

Poetic notes on parashat Behar*

Adam

Where are you?

Cursed is the ground on account of you

Yet a time of hope is coming 

when the land of a holy people will rest

in the seventh year

And in the fiftieth year the land will sing

when the holy people from the mountain of G-d 

come of age

and the branches of the tree

are heavy with fruit

Do not pick the unripe fruit 

nor confuse the shell with the nut

Though the day is small and dark 

It shall become great

The sun and stars will fade in the light

of the day that is the culmination of Sabbath years

In the evening of the last year

logic will stand like a prosecutor

against the holy people from the mountain

How far you have fallen!

How you have been trampled in the street!

How will you lead the world to freedom?

Yet in that very hour of the final year

the fruit shall ripen on the vine!

On that day G-d will raise up the holy ones

and they will live in His sight

Joseph made slaves be slaves

In order to set them free

The nations have been bought and sold

In the liberty of the Jews they will be liberated

G-d will be known in His Land

He will anoint His people with His revelation

The Land of Israel will become heaven

The dead in the Land will be the living

And the living from elsewhere will be the dead

until the flood of the knowledge of G-d

fills the earth as the waters fill the seas

Then all divisions shall vanish

And all envy and anger shall cease

Redeem the Israelites, therefore!

Let brother redeem brother

And sister redeem sister

And stranger redeem stranger

For G-d has said

The Israelites are Mine

who I have redeemed and brought out of Egypt!

And make no longer idols for yourselves

upon the face of the earth

And dream no more the dream 

of the fallen angels

For the Sabbaths of G-d will be yours

and His Sanctuary a place for you to live!

*Being a meditation on the commentary by the Kehot Chumash on parashah Behar, as well as on a Torah class on parashot Behar/Bechutokai delivered by Rabbi Baitelman of ChaBaD Richmond, B.C., based on the series, Torah Studies, by Rohr Jewish Learning Institute. Neither Rabbi Baitelman nor the JLI have reviewed or approved of the content of this post.