Parashat Behar

Shabbat Year and Jubilee

25 Then Adonai said to Moses on Mount Sinai, ² “Speak to Bnei-Yisrael and tell them: When you come into the land which I give you, then the land is to keep a Shabbat to Adonai. ³ For six years you may sow your field and for six years you may prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits. ⁴ But in the seventh year there is to be a Shabbat rest for the land—a Shabbat to Adonai. You are not to sow your field or prune your vineyard. ⁵ You are not to reap what grows by itself during your harvest nor gather the grapes of your untended vine. It is to be a year of Shabbat rest for the land. ⁶ Whatever the Shabbat of the land produces will be food for yourself, for your servant, for your maidservant, for your hired worker and for the outsider dwelling among you. ⁷ Even for your livestock and for the animals that are in your land—all its increase will be enough food.

⁸ “You are to count off seven Shabbatot of years—seven times seven years, so that the time is seven Shabbatot of years—49 years. ⁹ Then on the tenth day of the seventh month, on Yom Kippur, you are to sound a shofar blast—you are to sound the shofar all throughout your land. ¹⁰ You are to make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It is to be a Jubilee to you, when each of you is to return to his own property and each of you is to return to his family. ¹¹ That fiftieth year will be your Jubilee. You are not to sow, or reap that which grows by itself, or gather from the untended vines. ¹² Since it is a Jubilee, it is to be holy to you. You will eat from its increase out of the field.

¹³ “In this Year of Jubilee each of you will return to his property.

¹⁴ “If you sell anything to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you are not to wrong one another. ¹⁵ Corresponding to the number of years after the Jubilee you are to purchase land from your neighbor’s hand. He is to sell it to you based on the number of years of crops. ¹⁶ In proportion to the extent of years you may increase its price, or decrease its price in proportion to the fewness of years, because he is selling a number of harvests to you. ¹⁷ You are not to cheat one another, but fear your God, for I am Adonai your God.

¹⁸ “Therefore you are to keep My statutes and observe My ordinances, and carry them out, so that you may live securely in the land. ¹⁹ Then the land will yield its fruit, and you may eat your fill and live there in safety. ²⁰ Now if you ask: What are we to eat during the seventh year if, see, we are not to sow, nor gather in our increase? ²¹ Now I will command My blessing to you in the sixth year, so that it will yield a harvest sufficient for three years. ²² When you sow during the eighth year, you will still be eating the old, stored harvest until the harvest of the ninth year comes in.

²³ “Moreover, the land is not to be sold permanently, because the land is Mine. For you are sojourners with Me. ²⁴ For any land you possess, you are to provide for redemption of the land.

²⁵ “If your brother becomes poor and sells some of his property, then his nearest kinsman may come and redeem what his brother has sold. ²⁶ If a man has no kinsman-redeemer, but he himself recovers and finds sufficient means to redeem it, ²⁷ then let him reckon the years since its sale and restore the surplus to the man to whom he sold it. Then he will return to his property. ²⁸ But if he is not able to get it back for himself, then what he has sold is to remain in the hand of the one who has bought it until the Year of Jubilee. Then in the Jubilee it should be released, so he may return to his property.

²⁹ “If a man sells a house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it has been sold. For a full year he has the right of redemption. ³⁰ But if it is not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city will belong permanently to the one who bought it throughout his generations. It will not be released in the Jubilee. ³¹ But the houses of the villages that have no wall around them are to be considered as open country. They have redemption rights and are to be released in the Jubilee.

³² “But as for the towns of the Levites, the Levites may have a permanent right of redemption for the houses in the towns of their possession. ³³ The Levites may redeem a house sold in the town of its possession. Also it should be released in the Jubilee, for the houses of the Levitical towns are their possession among Bnei-Yisrael. ³⁴ But the fields in the pasturelands of their cities may not be sold, for it is their permanent possession.

³⁵ “If your brother has become poor and his hand cannot support himself among you, then you are to uphold him. He may live with you like an outsider or a temporary resident. ³⁶ Take no excessive interest from him, but fear your God, so that your brother can live with you. ³⁷ You are not to lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. ³⁸ I am Adonai your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

³⁹ “If your brother has grown poor among you and sells himself to you, you must not subject him to slave labor. ⁴⁰ Let him stay with you as a hired worker or as a temporary resident. He will work for you until the Year of Jubilee, ⁴¹ then he is to be released from you—he and his children with him—and may return to his own family and to the property of his fathers. ⁴² For they are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. They are not to be sold in a slave sale. ⁴³ You are not to rule over him with harshness, but fear your God.

⁴⁴ “As for your male and female slaves whom you may acquire out of the nations that are around you—from them you may buy male and female slaves. ⁴⁵ You may also acquire from among the children of the foreigners dwelling among you, as well as from their families who are with you—those born in your land—they may also become your property. ⁴⁶ You may also leave them an inheritance for your children after you, to receive as a possession. These may become your slaves permanently. But over your brothers, Bnei-Yisrael, you must not rule over one another with harshness.

⁴⁷ “If an outsider or sojourner with you becomes rich, while your brother beside him has become poor and sells himself to the outsider dwelling among you or to a member of the outsider’s family, ⁴⁸ after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him, ⁴⁹ or his uncle or his uncle’s son may redeem him, or anyone who is a close relative to him from his family may also redeem him. Or if he has grown rich, he may redeem himself. ⁵⁰ He is to calculate with the one who bought him, from the year that he sold himself to the Year of Jubilee, and the price of his sale will be in proportion to the number of years. Like the days of a hired worker it will be with him. ⁵¹ If there are still many years, in proportion to those he is to reimburse the price of his redemption from his purchase price. ⁵² If there remain only a few years until the Year of Jubilee, then he should calculate with him in proportion to his years of service he is to reimburse the price of his redemption. ⁵³ He will stay with him as a hired worker, year by year. But he is not to rule with harshness over him in your sight. ⁵⁴ Even if he is not redeemed by these means, then he will still be released in the Year of Jubilee—he and his children with him. ⁵⁵ For Bnei-Yisrael are My servants—My servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am Adonai your God.