Behar (Leviticus 25:1-26:2) — What does the portion teach about the written and the oral Torah. What do we learn about the connection between Mount Sinai and the Land of Israel?
Shorashim Torah Overview and Study Guide
The Torah portion begins with us being told that the laws of the sabbatical year, the shmittah year were transmitted on HAR SINAI, Mount Sinai.
Much was transmitted on Mount Sinai , why must we be told that these specific laws were related to the people there as well?
Every seventh year, all agricultural work must cease, and the produce that grows on that year becomes HEFKER or free for the taking for all.
What is the deep lesson learned here about the the world?
How does it connect to the weekly Shabbat?
Seven — Shmittot — or sabbatical cycles are followed by a fiftieth year — the jubilee year — on which work on the land is again curtailed and all indentured servants are set free. This is determined on Yom Kippur.
What does the concept of “indentured servants” teach us about the system of justice and imprisonment that existed in that day?
What is the connection to Yom Kippur?
All the land returns to its ancestral, original owners.
What does that teach about the connection between the physical land and this people?
The Torah portion of Behar continues in discussing the laws governing the sale of lands and warns against fraud.
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