The Downtown Minyan: Behar Chabura

(1) יהוה spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai: (2) Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When you enter the land that I assign to you, the land shall observe a sabbath of יהוה. (3) Six years you may sow your field and six years you may prune your vineyard and gather in the yield. (4) But in the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath of complete rest, a sabbath of יהוה: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. (5) You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your untrimmed vines; it shall be a year of complete rest for the land. (6) But you may eat whatever the land during its sabbath will produce—you, your male and female slaves, the hired and bound laborers who live with you, (7) and your cattle and the beasts in your land may eat all its yield. (8) You shall count off seven weeks of years—seven times seven years—so that the period of seven weeks of years gives you a total of forty-nine years. (9) Then you shall sound the horn loud; in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month—the Day of Atonement—you shall have the horn sounded throughout your land (10) and you shall hallow the fiftieth year. You shall proclaim release*release Others “liberty.” throughout the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee*jubilee Heb. yobel, “ram” or “ram’s horn.” for you: each of you shall return to your holding and each of you shall return to your family. (11) That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you: you shall not sow, neither shall you reap the aftergrowth or harvest the untrimmed vines, (12) for it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you: you may only eat the growth direct from the field. (13) In this year of jubilee, each of you shall return to your holding. .... (18) You shall observe My laws and faithfully keep My rules, that you may live upon the land in security; (19) the land shall yield its fruit and you shall eat your fill, and you shall live upon it in security. (20) And should you ask, “What are we to eat in the seventh year, if we may neither sow nor gather in our crops?” (21) I will ordain My blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it shall yield a crop sufficient for three years. (22) When you sow in the eighth year, you will still be eating old grain of that crop; you will be eating the old until the ninth year, until its crops come in. (23) But the land must not be sold beyond reclaim, for the land is Mine; you are but strangers resident with Me. (24) Throughout the land that you hold, you must provide for the redemption of the land. (25) If one of your kin is in straits and has to sell part of a holding, the nearest redeemer*nearest redeemer I.e., the closest relative able to redeem the land. shall come and redeem what that relative has sold. ...........(39) If your kin under you continue in straits and must be given over to you, do not subject them to the treatment of a slave. (40) Remaining with you as a hired or bound laborer, they shall serve with you only until the jubilee year. (41) Then they, along with any children, shall be free of your authority; they shall go back to their family and return to the ancestral holding.— (42) For they are My servants, whom I freed from the land of Egypt; they may not give themselves over into servitude.— (43) You shall not rule over them ruthlessly; you shall fear your God. (44) Such male and female slaves as you may have—it is from the nations round about you that you may acquire male and female slaves. (45) You may also buy them from among the children of aliens resident among you, or from their families that are among you, whom they begot in your land. These shall become your property: (46) you may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property for all time. Such you may treat as slaves. But as for your Israelite kin, no one shall rule ruthlessly over another.

(1) The heaven and the earth were finished, and all their array. (2) On the seventh day God finished the work that had been undertaken: [God] ceased*ceased Or “rested.” on the seventh day from doing any of the work. (3) And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy—having ceased on it from all the work of creation that God had done.

(1) The word that came to Jeremiah from GOD in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar. (2) At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was confined in the prison compound attached to the palace of the king of Judah. (3) For King Zedekiah of Judah had confined him, saying, “How dare you prophesy: ‘Thus said GOD: I am delivering this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he shall capture it. (4) And King Zedekiah of Judah shall not escape from the Chaldeans; he shall be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak to him face to face and see him in person.aand he shall speak to him face to face and see him in person Lit. “and his mouth shall speak with his mouth, and his eyes shall see his eyes.” (5) And Zedekiah shall be brought to Babylon, there to remain until I take note of him—declares GOD. When you wage war against the Chaldeans, you shall not be successful.’” (6) Jeremiah said: The word of GOD came to me: (7) Hanamel, the son of your uncle Shallum, will come to you and say, “Buy my land in Anathoth, for you are next in succession to redeem it by purchase.”bfor you are next in succession to redeem it by purchase Lit. “for yours is the procedure of redemption by purchase.” (8) And just as GOD had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me in the prison compound and said to me, “Please buy my land in Anathoth, in the territory of Benjamin; for the right of succession is yours, and you have the duty of redemption. Buy it.” Then I knew that it was indeed the word of GOD. (9) So I bought the land in Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel. I weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. (10) I wrote a deed, sealed it, and had it witnessed; and I weighed out the silver on a balance. (11) I took the deed of purchase, the sealed text and the open one according to rule and law,caccording to rule and law Force of Heb. uncertain. (12) and gave the deed to Baruch son of Neriah son of Mahseiah in the presence of my kinsman Hanamel, of the witnesses who were nameddwho were named With many mss. and ancient versions; so ancient Near Eastern practice. Other mss. and the editions read “who wrote” (i.e., signed their names). in the deed, and all the Judeans who were sitting in the prison compound. (13) In their presence I charged Baruch as follows: (14) Thus said GOD of Hosts, the God of Israel: “Take these documents, this deed of purchase, the sealed text and the open one, and put them into an earthen jar, so that they may last a long time.” (15) For thus said GOD of Hosts, the God of Israel: “Houses, fields, and vineyards shall again be purchased in this land.” (16) But after I had given the deed to Baruch son of Neriah, I prayed to GOD: (17) “Ah, my Sovereign GOD! You made heaven and earth with Your great might and outstretched arm. Nothing is too wondrous for You! (18) You show kindness to the thousandth generation, but visit the guilt of the parents upon their children after them. O great and mighty God whose name is GOD of Hosts, (19) wondrous in purpose and mighty in deed, whose eyes observe all the ways of mortals, so as to repay each one according to their ways, and with the proper fruit of their deeds! (20) You displayed signs and marvels in the land of Egypt with lasting effect,ewith lasting effect Lit. “to this day.” and won renown in Israel and among humankind to this very day. (21) You freed Your people Israel from the land of Egypt with signs and marvels, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror. (22) You gave them this land that You had sworn to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey, ... (26) Then the word of GOD came to Jeremiah: (27) Behold I am GOD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too wondrous for Me? (28) Assuredly, thus said GOD: I am delivering this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, and he shall capture it. (29) And the Chaldeans who have been attacking this city shall come and set this city on fire and burn it down—with the houses on whose roofs they made offerings to Baal and poured out libations to other gods, so as to vex Me. (30) For the people of Israel and Judah have done nothing but evil in My sight since their youth; the people of Israel have done nothing but vex Me by their conduct—declares GOD. (31) This city has aroused My anger and My wrath from the day it was built until this day; so that it must be removed from My sight (32) because of all the wickedness of the people of Israel and Judah who have so acted as to vex Me—they, their kings, their officials, their priests and prophets, and the citizenry of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. (33) They turned their backs to Me, not their faces; though I have taught them persistently, they do not give heed or accept rebuke. (34) They placed their abominations in the House that bears My name and defiled it; (35) and they built the shrines of Baal that are in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, where they offered up their sons and daughters to Molech—when I had never commanded, or even thought [of commanding], that they should do such an abominable thing, and so bring guilt on Judah. (36) But now, assuredly, thus said the ETERNAL, the God of Israel, concerning this city of which you say, “It is being delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon through the sword, through famine, and through pestilence”: (37) See, I will gather them from all the lands to which I have banished them in My anger and wrath, and in great rage; and I will bring them back to this place and let them dwell secure. (38) They shall be My people, and I will be their God. (39) I will give them a single heart and a single nature to revere Me for all time, and it shall be well with them and their children after them. (40) And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them and that I will treat them graciously; and I will put into their hearts reverence for Me, so that they do not turn away from Me. (41) I will delight in treating them graciously, and I will plant them in this land faithfully, with all My heart and soul. (42) For thus said GOD: As I have brought this terrible disaster upon this people, so I am going to bring upon them the vast good fortune that I have promised for them. (43) And fields shall again be purchased in this land of which you say, “It is a desolation, without humans or animals; it is delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans.” (44) Fields shall be purchased, and deeds written and sealed, and witnesses called in the land of Benjamin and in the environs of Jerusalem, and in the towns of Judah; the towns of the hill country, the towns of the Shephelah, and the towns of the Negeb. For I will restore their fortunes—declares GOD.