Drasha
In a clear statement of God’s dominion over all land and property, our double Parshah begins with the shocking laws of Yovel and Shmitah. Seeing as we don’t live in an agrarian society, and we’re far removed from the land-based commandments that only apply in Israel, it’s easy to overlook just how radical these laws of redistributive justice are. The Torah tells us that every Jubilee year, all slaves– undoubtedly one of the largest expenditures a family would have– go free, and all land– the other main source of familial wealth– return to their ancestral owners. Undoubtedly, the Torah is reminding us of God’s dominion over the physical world while creating the means for upward economic mobility and a leveled societal playing field, as the economy is forced into a physical reset every 50 years.
Given those lofty goals, and the Torah’s lengthy focus on the various laws and trappings that come with this system of redistribution, the laws of redeeming property should come as a shock. Merely a few verses after God tells us (VaYikra 25:23): “The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land belongs to Me, for you are strangers and [temporary] residents with Me,” a seemingly immutable truth, the Torah goes on to carve out a major and seemingly arbitrary exception. The Torah tells us (VaYikra 25:29-30) that while land, in general, returns to the original owner during the Jubilee, a Beit Moshav BeIr Chomah, a residential house in a walled city, does not. Instead, the original owner has a year to pay off their debts and raise funds to buy back their home, and if they don’t, then the home is transferred to the new owner forever. Not even the Jubilee undoes the transaction.
This exception seems difficult to understand. First, the laws of Shmitah and Yovel we just learned didn’t make any type of distinction about what quality of land is being discussed. Farmlands, private homes, and corporate offices alike are all presumably included in the previous commandments. Why, all of a sudden, is the Torah singling out residential homes as having their own law? But beyond that, why is there this huge exception built into the system? If all residential homes are staying in their newest owner’s possession, that really mitigates the previous idea that “land shall not be sold permanently, for the land belongs to God?” Finally, even if there is some logic to making an exception to the Jubilee laws, why is it determined by living in a walled city? This isn’t Purim! Walls have seemingly nothing to do with the laws of the land of Israel? ... continued
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