Leviticus Cycle Six Behar/BeHuko-thai

Behar and BeHuko-thai

Thoughts on Redemption

By Chava Lion

 

 

Think for a moment about looking into the eyes of a loved one. We can see the blue or brown pupils, our own reflection and the expanse beyond. We can see universes beyond universes. Then in a moment we are back to the pupil, the eye, the person in front of us, ourselves, the situation, the words, the conversation, the room we are in, the house the room is in, the land the house is on, the community. Metaphorically, we say, once back on earth, we have been lost in someone’s eyes.

However, the whole experience and all the intricate moments described above  can be seen as being found. It can be seen as redemption.

I am referring to the Hebrew word ga’al.

 And oh what a word! We can use it to see the expanse beyond time and space. Or we can use it to attain evaluative logic. We can apply it to our metaphoric liberation from Egypt, as we so often read in our prayers and in Torah. I will liberate you (v’ga’alti) with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to myself as a nation and I will be to you as a God (Shemot 6:6). And we can apply it to our land as we read in Vayikra 25:24. …there shall be time of redemption (g’ulah)  for all your hereditary lands. We can apply it to our houses as we read in Vayikra 25:25 to 25:32: When a man sells a residential house in a walled city he shall be able to redeem it (yigael) until the end of one year after he sold it.

However, we do not use this word when Israelites are sold as slaves to Israelites. When this slave is free  a different word is used: yatza. Not to confuse the matter but this word is often used as well in terms of our Exodus from Egypt.  Yatza literally means to go out.   What’s interesting though is that when an Israelite slave is being freed from a gentile owner the word ga’al is used again: After he is sold he must be redeemed (g’ulah) and one of his close relatives must redeem (yigalanu) him first.

We also read that the word ga’al is tied to intricate financial matters.  There’s the continual mention of redemption value in BeHuko-thai chapter 27. And not surprisingly, the word ga’al is also applied to kosher and non-kosher animals. Even that which is haram (translated taboo) is described in terms of its ability to be redeemed.

Let’s return to the different levels of the idea of redemption. Our teachers deal with these levels in pointing to two specific concepts: space and time. In terms of time, in the Babylonian Talmud it says that the word yamim (Behar 25:29) which literally means days, in Behar can also mean years. So then, according to the rabbis of Gemara days mean more than days. To continue, Rashi says that land is given a rest in this parashah for the sake of God. Pieces of land are made solid not by us but by God. Time and space do not get stuck in one definition. 

This is the same for the idea of redemption. Redemption is a force of God and is holy in all definitions, from non-redemption to  valuation to our intimacy with God Himself. Redemption is the action of God to us, for us or through us on all levels as we rise to be closer to Him. As redemption happens we give up certain things whether  a hold on the practical, a need for a threshold, a mother’s breast, a person who will care for us, a house, a lover, our bodies. Concurrently, depending on the type of redemption we also gain certain things like our dreams, our freedom from the quotidian world, a lover, a house, our bodies, our souls.

In any case, when we use the word ga’al we know that something is being given up for an intimacy with ourselves or our own intimacy with God. We know we are referring to an action, a flow.

The idea here is that we don’t get stuck in our own concepts. We don’t get stuck in anger or in sadness. We don’t get stuck in a certain era, a certain vision. We want to remain open to both giving up and gaining. We want to see redemption as an action to us as well as to God.  And we want to know the boundaries.

So, may we go ahead and get lost in the eyes of a friend.  May we also see the eyes. May we travel through the expansive universe and then may we land right back here on earth.   May we understand the importance of giving up increments of ourselves. May we allow things to be redeemed to us and may we allow ourselves to be redeemed for God. May we continue to act this way as a community so that we will all be as One in a place of Peace and Love.

Note:  The kabbalists say that this complete redemption will happen. But not for about 4000 years ( between 6000 and 7000).  For, as Rabbi Katina of Talmud has taught: Just as the seventh year is the Shmita  year, so too does the world have one thousand years out of seven that are fallow,  as it is written, ‘And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day’ (Isa. 2:11); and further it is written, ‘A psalm and song for the Shabbat day’ (Ps. 92:1) – meaning the day that is altogether Shabbat – and also it is said, ‘For a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past’ (Ps.90:4) (Sanhedrin 97a).