Sooner or Later, Jubilee is Coming

Parashat Behar, Leviticus 25:1–26:2

Russ Resnik, UMJC Rabbinic Counsel

Have you ever wished that you could start over? That you could be, as in the words of Dylan’s immortal song, “forever young”—going back to your earliest years of life, able to erase all your mistakes, cancel all your debts, and undo all your sins? In the dark time we’re living through right now, we might be especially drawn to the idea of a new, fresh beginning.

Such thinking may sound naïve and wishful, but it was a reality in the Torah legislation of the Jubilee recounted in Parashat Behar. From one Jubilee to the next, the Israelites counted forty-nine years—seven sevens of years. Seven, the number of perfection, was itself perfected. Then came the fiftieth year, in which Moses instructed the people to “proclaim liberty throughout all the land,” so that “you shall return, each man to his holding and you shall return each man to his family” (25:10). The liberty of Jubilee restores to its original owners any land holding that had been sold, and to his family any Israelite who had sold himself into slavery. Jubilee returns Israel to the original order that the Lord intended for it, the order that he will restore forever in the age to come. Thus, it is a great enactment, both of justice and of the prophetic future.

The count of forty-nine years between one Jubilee and the next reminds us of the count of forty-nine days leading up to Shavuot, the Counting of the Omer, as outlined in our previous parasha (Lev 23:15–21), in which we’re currently engaged. There we see that Shavuot, like all of the festivals, anticipates the conditions of the age to come. The laws of Shavuot provide a share of the harvest to all who live in Israel, anticipating the restored justice of the age to come.

Even more than Shavuot and the rest of the festivals of Leviticus 23, Jubilee provides a foretaste of “the day that will be all Shabbat, and rest for everlasting life” (Soncino Talmud, Tamid 33b).

As the year of restoration in Israel, Jubilee shapes the messianic hope of restoration described in the Scriptures and beyond. Thus, Ezekiel employs Jubilee language to rebuke the false shepherds of Israel. They have not done for Israel what the Jubilee is designed to do: “The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them” (34:4).

Ezekiel proclaims that the Lord intends the liberty of the year of Jubilee for all who are broken and estranged. He promises that the day will come when he himself will accomplish what the shepherds of Israel have failed to do. “I will feed my flock, and I will make them lie down. I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong, and feed them in judgment” (34:15–16).

The hope of Jubilee restoration echoes through the prophets and into the prayers of Israel. In the second blessing of the Amidah, the traditional series of daily blessings, we address the Lord as the One who “sustains the living with kindness, resuscitates the dead with abundant mercy, supports the fallen, heals the sick, releases the confined, and maintains His faith to those asleep in the dust” (Artscroll Siddur 101).

The accounts of the coming of Messiah also echo this hope. When Yochanan the Immerser was bound in prison, he sent two of his disciples to ask Yeshua, “Are you the Coming One, or do we look for another?” Yeshua answered in the language of Jubilee. The restoration of the age to come had already broken into this age, so Yochanan should know who Yeshua was. “Go and tell Yochanan the things that you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of me” (Matt 11:2–6).

Why would one be offended by Yeshua? Because he claims to be Messiah at a time when the Jubilee is not fully established. Yochanan remains imprisoned. Roman armies occupy the land of Israel. But Yeshua shows that the Jubilee has indeed begun with his arrival in Israel, and so will inevitably be fulfilled. In the meantime, do not be offended, but maintain hope.

Once during a discussion at my home congregation’s interfaith couples meeting, one of the non-Messianic Jewish men said, “OK, Yeshua is a great guy. I’ll even accept that he is the greatest guy, but Messiah—who knows? Besides, who needs a Messiah?”

I could have told my friend that I needed a Messiah and Yeshua proved himself as Messiah to me . . . and that if you ever figure out that you need a Messiah, Yeshua will be there for you too. Instead, I focused on the corporate aspect. You may not realize that you need a Messiah, but you cannot deny that this world does. Just look at the suffering, injustice, and oppression all around us. Yeshua embodies the hope of liberty, of a return to God’s order and justice that is rooted in the Torah and reflected throughout our Scriptures and prayers. Yeshua has already launched a restoration that has had immeasurable impact on the world we live in, and is evidence of the redemption to come. My personal story of salvation is only a foretaste of the worldwide Jubilee that Messiah will bring.

Jubilee decrees that each one is to return to his family and to his holding. In our day of isolation and estrangement, this promise is especially significant. In the final chapters of Leviticus, God provides a way of return to himself which anticipates the great restoration that is the underlying theme of all the books of Torah. This return includes restoration of families and friendships that may have been damaged, and restoration to the inheritance of Scripture and the tradition that flows from it. Those who follow Messiah Yeshua believe that he is the one who brings about this return. Therefore, we refuse to account our personal Jubilee complete apart from the Jubilee for all Israel, which ultimately is the Jubilee that restores all humanity.

Jubilee must be proclaimed. Moses says, “You shall sound the shofar, and you shall proclaim liberty” (Lev 25:9–10, paraphrased). As we await the Jubilee to come, may we proclaim the Jubilee that is already here in Messiah Yeshua, so that many in Israel and beyond may return to their families and their holdings, and to the God who is calling them back.

Adapted from Creation to Completion, Messianic Jewish Publishers, 2006.