בהר

On Mount Sinai, God spoke to Moses with instructions for the Israelites about the land they would one day farm. They could work their fields and vineyards for six years, sowing seeds, pruning vines, and gathering the harvest. But the seventh year was different. The land itself was to have a full rest, a sabbath for the land.

That meant no planting and no pruning. They were not to reap the extra growth that came up after harvest, and they were not to gather grapes from vines left untrimmed. Instead, they could eat only what the land produced on its own.

God made it clear that this food was for everyone: families, servants, hired and bound workers living among them, and even their cattle and the wild animals in the land. The resting year was meant to shape how the people lived, slowing down, sharing what grew naturally, and remembering that the land was not something to squeeze dry, but something to care for under God’s guidance.

Next, God told Moses to count seven sets of seven years, forty-nine years in all. Then, on the Day of Atonement, a loud ram’s-horn blast would announce the fiftieth year. This special year was called yovel, meaning “ram’s horn.” In that year, the land rested again: no sowing, no reaping the aftergrowth, and no harvesting untrimmed vines, only eating what grew directly from the field.

It was also a year of release. People returned to their family and to their original land holding. Because of that, land sales had to be fair: the price depended on how many harvest years remained until the next jubilee, more years meant a higher price, fewer years meant a lower price.

God promised that if the people worried about food, God would bless the sixth year with enough for three years. And God said the land could not be sold forever, because the land belongs to God and the people live on it as “strangers resident.”

God also spoke about what to do when someone fell into hardship. If an Israelite became poor, others were to support them so they could live alongside the community. Loans were not to become a trap: they were not to charge advance interest on money or extra interest on food.

If a struggling relative had to work for another Israelite, that person was not to be treated like a slave. They were to be treated like a hired or bound laborer, and no one was to rule ruthlessly. They would serve only until the jubilee year, and then they, and their children, would go free and return to their family and ancestral holding.

If an Israelite ended up working for a resident alien who had prospered, the family still had the right to redeem them. A brother, uncle, cousin, or the person themself could pay a fair amount based on the years left until jubilee.

Finally, God warned the people not to make idols, and told them to keep God’s sabbaths and honor God’s sanctuary.