Pro-Life Torah Behar

The Torah reading, Behar: Leviticus 25:1-26:2, opens on Mount Sinai, where the Almighty conveys to Moses the laws of the Sabbatical and Jubilee cycles. These rules cover agriculture and property rights, business and financial transactions, and indentured servitude. The Sinai mountain location of these revelations informs us that spiritual principles govern their formation, rather than science or philosophy. The penalties for ignoring them are personal ruin and spiritual bankruptcy.

Abundant harvest occurs in the sixth year, providing sustenance enough to rest farmland in the seventh year and share the natural harvest with animals and the needy. Abundance comes in the the sixth year, the most soil depleted, not after a fallow period. This counterintuitive occurrence nurtures reliance on God’s providence and confidence in His blessings. Assured of God’s provision, a sprit of service towards the impoverished flourishes in the human heart.

In the Jubilee year, real estate must be returned to the original owner, and those held as indentured servants must be allowed their liberty. The Almighty creates and owns everything; therefore, we are God’s servants and not servants to human masters. As autonomous beings, our labor and property may be loaned temporarily, but God gives us dignity and guarantees our civil liberties. Causing financial servitude by charging interest on a loan is also forbidden.

Business must be transacted honestly. God forbids misrepresentation, fraud, and deliberately giving bad advice injurious to another party. He reminds us of His presence, warning against the human tendency to justify unethical business practices when no oversight exists.

Sabbatical and Jubilee laws differentiated Judaism from normative slave culture, placing us on a trajectory toward embracing Torah based universal human rights for all people, where no one is exploited for personal gain. We advance this Heaven on Earth when we assist our fellows in life affirming actions that respect the life and dignity of all people, including the unborn child. 

Near the end of Behar, God warns the Israelites to renounce their earlier belief in false gods, the worship of whom included the abhorrent practice of child sacrifice. We would do well to heed this warning today because competing ideologies and philosophies, subject to evil and corruption, imperil human rights and lead to tragic loss of life and societal disintegration. We must choose life saving solutions to unplanned pregnancy rather than profit in any way from ‘helping’ vulnerable parents destroy their children’s lives through abortion.

Behar concludes with a reminder to observe the Sabbath and to maintain a healthy respect for God’s authority and power over us. In so doing, we enjoy His gracious blessings and avoid personal failure..

Cecily Routman

May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and good life upon us and upon all Israel. Amen.