Parashat Behar contains a major series of mitzvoth of a social nature.  It begins with the mitzvoth of shemitah which deal with the limitations on human ownership of property, continues with the mitzvah of the return of landholdings on the Jubilee year, also dealing with the issue of ownership, and then continues with two additional commands that I will concentrate on below.

First:

“And if thy brother be waxen poor, and his means fail with thee; then thou shalt uphold him: as a stranger and a settler shall he live with thee.  Take thou no interest of him or increase; but fear thy G-d; that thy brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon interest, nor give him thy victuals for increase. I am HaShem your G-d, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your G-d”.

(Leviticus 25:35-38)
 

Second:

“And if thy brother be waxen poor with thee, and sell himself unto thee, thou shalt not make him to serve as a bondservant. As a hired servant, and as a settler, he shall be with thee; he shall serve with thee unto the year of jubilee. Then shall he go out from thee, he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. For they are My servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as bondmen. Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor; but shalt fear thy G-d”.

(25:39-43).
 

The first command deals with your brother who falls.  The Torah maintains that you have an obligation to hold him up and prevent him from falling.  The Torah also suggests a model for doing this by giving him a loan but not charging interest.  In this way the Torah emphasizes bond between you and your brother that requires you to assist him even without benefit to yourself.  After all, both you and he are partners with the same God, and both of you came out of bondage in Egypt.

This theme also forms the basis of the following law that limits the degree of indenture your brother has towards you when he cannot earn enough on his own and sells himself to you as a slave.  The Torah clarifies that despite the fact that he has been sold into your service as a slave, you must treat him as a salaried employee.  The Torah is aware of the weak position of the poor person and of his complete dependence on you.  It therefore commands you not to take advantage of his situation by establishing conditions for his employment and by stipulating that in the end he will be freed and return to his former landholding, which obviously has been sold as well.

The above is the foundation of the degrees of tzedaka of Maimonides:

A high degree, of which none is higher, is to hold the hand of an Israelite and give him a gift or a loan or enter into a partnership with him or provide him with a trade so as to strengthen his hand until he no longer needs to ask assistance of his fellow man.  As it is written, ‘And if thy brother be waxen poor, and his means fail with thee; then thou shalt uphold him: as a stranger and a settler shall he live with thee.’ (Maimonides, Laws of Gifts to the Poor, 10:7).

Thus the best way to give tzedaka is to prevent a person from falling by means of a gift, an interest-free loan, partnership of employment.  Maimonides emphasizes the importance of maintaining the poor person within the group, and is particularly concerned with preventing him from having to ask others for assistance.  Maimonides specifies that responsibility for the poor rests on you, you must make sure that he does not fall, and that he does not have to ask you to prevent him from falling.  This is Maimonides main emphasis.  He believes that a gift is definitely an appropriate form of assistance to the poor, but the initiative must come from you and not be a reaction to the anguished pleas of the poor.  Therefore the verb “chazak” (strong) is the dominant verb form in Maimonides discourse, since it emphasizes our commitment to strengthen and maintain the poor. 

During a week in which we heard about drivers who ignored a person lying injured on the side of the road, when the State Auditor remarks that the government has not concerned itself with the plight of its citizens and has failed to prevent them from falling, it is important that we remember our responsibility towards our brothers, a responsibility that will enable us to be aware of the plight of the poor before they fall.  Even in utilitarian philosophy the strengthening of the poor is to our advantage since it keeps them as part of society and maintains their ability to contribute to it.  It facilitates a discussion among friends and partners, rather than a discussion between the powerful benefactor and the weak recipient. In this way it is similar to employment rather than slavery, since the employee and his employer are partners, dependant one upon the other.  It is a relationship based not on power, but rather joint partnership and dialogue.  Thus the basis of Parashat Behar is the definition of man’s subservience to God, and the idea that a person’s property belongs to him only in a limited manner.  This subservience, to which a man belongs together with his brothers, and the fact that he was part of the exodus from Egypt together with his brothers, requires that he be concerned with what happens to his brother, prevent him from falling, and lift him up once he has fallen.  Thus we have an expansion of the commandment “thou shalt not stand idly by the blood of thy neighbor,” where our obligation towards our partner is not only towards his existence, but to his economic survival as well.

Recent Articles by Rabbi Avi Novis Deutsch

• Behar: Not standing idly by - May 10th, 2007
• Shemot: Changing the pain and suffering of the oppressed - January 12th, 2007
• Shemot: The power of resistance - January 11th, 2007
• Eqev: Human Rights and equality - August 11th, 2006
• Rabbi Avi Novis Deutsch - June 8th, 2006
• Vayyiqra: Hurting others and seeking atonement for our failures - March 30th, 2006

Categories: Behar
Tags: Bo, ease, human rights, palestinians, rest, settlers