Leviticus 25:1-26:2
On Mount Sinai, God reveals laws of land, rest, and economic justice, including the Sabbatical and Jubilee years. These commandments resist permanent ownership and unchecked inequality, reminding Israel that the land ultimately belongs to God. Behar envisions a society where freedom and dignity are preserved through sacred limits
In Jewish Thought and Philosophy and Parashat Behar by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
In adhering to our mission and its sacred foundations, we achieve moral liberty, not just physical freedom. Physical freedom can be lost when others take it away, but moral freedom can never be stolen.
The Torah tells us that we shouldn't worry about leaving the land untilled in the Shmita year, because He will bless the sixth year with a crop sufficient for three years. The question is: why has this blessing of abundance in the sixth year not been renewed?
In Halacha, Jewish Thought and Philosophy and Parashat Behar by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
What defines us? Is it what we do, or rather, who we are? If a human being is nothing more than the tasks he performs on a daily basis, then a mere chimpanzee can take his place and possible perform these tasks as well and even better. However, if we understand that the tasks themselves do not define us, but rather can act as a means to an end, as the means that allows us to realize our dreams, then only we can perform the tasks successfully over time. The Sabbatical year, Shemita, that we mark during the current year teaches us this important lesson; all that is left for us to do is to open ourselves to the Torah's teachings in this sphere.