Tonight we have another double feature over the three chapters that close out Leviticus! We open with a discussion of the rules concerning the "sabbath for the land" every seven years, as well as the year of Jubilee every fifty years. Pursuant to this, we also discuss property relations, debt, how to treat impoverished family, idolatry, and revisit the topic of slavery. These chapters we also go over the benefits of the covenant, as well as the threats for disobedience, and then close out with rules about how to value the lives of people, animals, and land when their value is sworn against in an oath to G-d.

It's an interesting set of chapters; the discussion of the sabbath of the land and jubilee has some implications regarding land stewardship and ecological obligations, but also still carries with it injustices as regarding certain categories of slave even as it mandates the well treatment of family on hard times, as well as supporting them before they end up in an even worse place. There's also an ongoing conversation about how the jubilee and sabbath years, despite seeming to have huge social ramifications, don't really come up much later, and the historical reasons that may be re: the redaction of the tanakh. Meanwhile, we also get a list of the punishments and exiles that G-d promises if we abandon our promises to them, but at the same time it ends with how G-d will never forget us, and in a moment of perhaps kindness, how even if our merit is not enough, surely the merit of the patriarchs must be able to redeem us now. We also observe that in some ways, the format here displays a similar structure as a lot of prophecy opening with castigation at the wrongs of the people yet ending with the return to grace. The final chapter didn't provoke too much conversation, though it's interesting to observe that oaths on thing's lives to G-d would be common enough as to warrant a standardized set of valuations for you to turn in to the priests, as well as pricing should you wish to redeem something and keep it.

It's a complicated set of chapters that touches on some of the messier elements like slavery and punishment, so there's a lot to unpack in them. Anyways,

So let's talk about the commentaries! Lots of Rashi this week.

Ibn Ezra starts out strong in a discussion of the chronology of this section in relation to the events at Sinai and the fields of Moab, by asserting that chronological order isn't real. During the sabbath years and jubilee, you're supposed to not plant new crops but rather subsist on what's growing in the fields to give the land time to rest. Interestingly, there's a specific mention of doing this with both your livestock and the wild beasts, which has interesting implications around land stewardship and how we should care for our animals and wildlife alike There was a weird recurring thing around bowels these parsha In the discussion of the blessings G-d would bestow upon the Israelites, they open with food and drink, but then go on to say peace; there's an interesting tension here about how plenty means nothing without peace behind it, and the concepts of positive/negative peace were brought up Rashi gives us a really weird light novel title while Ibn Ezra explains how numeric idioms work re: "describing the next bigger number from the previous for hyperbolic effect" Rashi discusses a threatened curse and how the metaphor is predicated on being somewhat familiar with the thermoconductive qualities of copper. Incidentally, Ibn Ezra has a comment earlier about how the blessings in this section are kept general, whereas the curse is in great detail as a way to emphasize how we should fear it. Also, the phrase "I will make your heaven as iron and your earth as copper" is just really metal. Rashi, during the section on curses, discusses the sword law on leaving the tools of the trade to a man who earns a living carrying loads

We also discovered an exciting data visualization tool on sefaria! We have no idea who would find it useful but it's cool and terrifying! This is only one of seven! There's so much going on here!

Next week, we'll be beginning the book of Numbers.

Short portion (only a chapter) and small group tonight.

This portion opens with a discussion of the jubilee, which is followed by a dive into how and where you can sell land, for how much, and how the right of "redemption" follows. This continues with how to treat with kin who experience hardship and sell land, kin who must sell themselves into debt bondage, and kin who sells themselves to well-off strangers. There's also an aside about the distinction between open country, walled cities, and whether or not they belong to Levites. The portion closes out with two verses on idolatry; Rashi suggests they are here because the entire portion is a cumulative sequence of destitutions that ends with the most severe possibility, of selling yourself to a heathen.

Lotta discussion this week about the sort of presumed structure of land ownership going on and how the apportioning to the different tribes worked, unsurprisingly. The topic of slavery is also a recurring one, as well as reminders of how it was structured. It's always a weird discussion since the rules around slavery are also the source of a lot of principles concerning labor practices and charity and property, which gets really weird when you consider them against modern practices and frankly, we do really bad these days. There's also this overarching question that requires more research that boils down to: How much was any of this actually implemented? To what extent is this an idealization or speculation of law versus something that ever actually existed in a meaningful way?

And then, as always, we come back to asking what we're supposed to do with all this now.

Meanwhile, Ramban mentions an instance of the popular posting format "imagine [a] guy(s) who are dying of thirst in a desert" that is also apparently foundational to the jewish ethics of saving lives

sorry if this is short; frankly, i'm not really feeling it tonight.

this portion concludes leviticus and is divisible into roughly two parts: the first, longer section is a discussion of various blessings and curses that will come about as a result of adhering to abandoning g-d's commands, and the second revolves around a particular sort of transaction that occurs around vows pertaining to sacrifices and the appropriate valuation for things like people's lives, animals, land, and so forth.

in addition to the usual discussions around the purpose and function of curses in the torah, particular attention was paid to the notion that the land accrues debts that must eventually be repaid if handled improperly, and that it slowly redeems itself in exile. lots of thoughts on exile, really, because of the things the sevenfold vengeance g-d lists and all being very present things in jewish history, and that there's so much to dig into there in a number of directions.

Tonight we have another double feature over the three chapters that close out Leviticus! We open with a discussion of the rules concerning the "sabbath for the land" every seven years, as well as the year of Jubilee every fifty years. Pursuant to this, we also discuss property relations, debt, how to treat impoverished family, idolatry, and revisit the topic of slavery. These chapters we also go over the benefits of the covenant, as well as the threats for disobedience, and then close out with rules about how to value the lives of people, animals, and land when their value is sworn against in an oath to G-d.

It's an interesting set of chapters; the discussion of the sabbath of the land and jubilee has some implications regarding land stewardship and ecological obligations, but also still carries with it injustices as regarding certain categories of slave even as it mandates the well treatment of family on hard times, as well as supporting them before they end up in an even worse place. There's also an ongoing conversation about how the jubilee and sabbath years, despite seeming to have huge social ramifications, don't really come up much later, and the historical reasons that may be re: the redaction of the tanakh. Meanwhile, we also get a list of the punishments and exiles that G-d promises if we abandon our promises to them, but at the same time it ends with how G-d will never forget us, and in a moment of perhaps kindness, how even if our merit is not enough, surely the merit of the patriarchs must be able to redeem us now. We also observe that in some ways, the format here displays a similar structure as a lot of prophecy opening with castigation at the wrongs of the people yet ending with the return to grace. The final chapter didn't provoke too much conversation, though it's interesting to observe that oaths on thing's lives to G-d would be common enough as to warrant a standardized set of valuations for you to turn in to the priests, as well as pricing should you wish to redeem something and keep it.

It's a complicated set of chapters that touches on some of the messier elements like slavery and punishment, so there's a lot to unpack in them. Anyways,

So let's talk about the commentaries! Lots of Rashi this week.

Ibn Ezra starts out strong in a discussion of the chronology of this section in relation to the events at Sinai and the fields of Moab, by asserting that chronological order isn't real. During the sabbath years and jubilee, you're supposed to not plant new crops but rather subsist on what's growing in the fields to give the land time to rest. Interestingly, there's a specific mention of doing this with both your livestock and the wild beasts, which has interesting implications around land stewardship and how we should care for our animals and wildlife alike There was a weird recurring thing around bowels these parsha In the discussion of the blessings G-d would bestow upon the Israelites, they open with food and drink, but then go on to say peace; there's an interesting tension here about how plenty means nothing without peace behind it, and the concepts of positive/negative peace were brought up Rashi gives us a really weird light novel title while Ibn Ezra explains how numeric idioms work re: "describing the next bigger number from the previous for hyperbolic effect" Rashi discusses a threatened curse and how the metaphor is predicated on being somewhat familiar with the thermoconductive qualities of copper. Incidentally, Ibn Ezra has a comment earlier about how the blessings in this section are kept general, whereas the curse is in great detail as a way to emphasize how we should fear it. Also, the phrase "I will make your heaven as iron and your earth as copper" is just really metal. Rashi, during the section on curses, discusses the sword law on leaving the tools of the trade to a man who earns a living carrying loads

We also discovered an exciting data visualization tool on sefaria! We have no idea who would find it useful but it's cool and terrifying! This is only one of seven! There's so much going on here!

Next week, we'll be beginning the book of Numbers.