Behar - The Day that Is All Shabbat

In the Torah portion of Behar we learn about the Shmita year, an entire year where we’re supposed to let the land rest, and we ourselves are supposed to rest. We also learn about the year of Yovel, a “premium” version of the Shmita year. Both of these events point towards the everlasting Shabbat we’re going to have in the Messianic Era.


In this Torah portion, God commanded the farmers cultivating the land of Israel to cease all their work on the land. Every seventh year they were supposed to give the land a shabbat rest, so to speak. The Jewish community celebrates this sabbatical or Shmita year as a community, meaning that Shmita is a fixed year for everyone, just like the Shabbat is a fixed day for everyone.


The Shabbat foreshadows the Messianic Age. The sages compared each of the six days to a millennium of history and the Shabbat to the thousand years of the Messianic Era. On this note, Shabbat gives us a small taste of the Messianic Era.


This same symbolism can be applied to the Shmita year. The six years of working the land correspond to the six periods of history leading up to the redemption. The Shmita year corresponds to the coming age of peace. These connections can be illustrated with the Garden of Eden. In the Garden of Eden, man ate the produce of the garden without having to do any work to get the produce. After man's sin, however, God cursed the ground. It says in Genesis 3:17 and Genesis 3:19, "ln toil you will eat of [the ground] all the days of your life." "By the sweat of your face you will eat bread" The Shmita year is a reflection of that Edenic state. In the Shmita year, the people of Israel ate only what grew on its own, they could not work the land. As it says in Leviticus 25:4, "the land shall have a sabbath rest." Shmita year points towards the Messianic Age. On that day, the curse will be removed, and we will be back in the Garden of Eden.


It says in Leviticus 25:6-7:

“All of you shall have the sabbath products of the land for food; yourself, and your male and female slaves, and your hired man and your foreign resident, those who live as aliens with you. Even your cattle and the animals that are in your land shall have all its crops to eat.”

Shem Mishmu'el, a Chasidic commentary on the Torah, finds it astonishing that the Torah permits Gentiles to eat of the fruits of the seventh year. Since the seventh year alludes to the days of Messiah, the produce that grows in the land of Israel during the seventh year has an intrinsic holiness derived from the Messianic Era. This symbolizes that the Gentiles of the nations will partake of the kingdom and find spiritual sustenance in it that draws them to repentance and to become God-fearers. These laws allude to the Messianic Era when everyone will enjoy the peace and Edenic prosperity of the kingdom.


According to the Talmud, the number seven represents the redemption. In the view of the sages, the Messiah will come after a tumultuous seven-year period called "the footsteps of Messiah."' The Talmud refers to the seven years before the redemption as the Shavua sheBen David (שבוע שבן דוד), "Seven of the Son of David." Jewish writings about the end times predict seven years of cataclysms, natural disasters, earthquakes, conflagrations, plagues, pestilences, famines, persecutions, wars, and rumors of wars. For example, it says in b.Sanhedrin 97a:

“Our rabbis taught, ‘In the seven [years] of the son of David's coming, in the first year, the verse [from Amos 4:7 that says], “I would send rain on one city and on another city I would not send rain,” will be fulfilled. In the second, the arrows of hunger will be sent forth. In the third, a great famine, during which men, women, infants, the devout and men of deeds will die, and the Torah will be forgotten by her students. In the fourth, plenty and no plenty. In the fifth, great plenty, when men will eat, drink and rejoice, and the Torah will return to its disciples. In the sixth, voices [or noises]. In the seventh, wars. And at the end of the seven, the Son of David will come. Rabbi Yosef objected, ‘But many such sevens have passed, yet he has not come.’ Abaye replied, ‘Was there ever voices [noises] in the sixth year and wars in the seventh? Have such troubles ever come in this order?’”

Some Christians also look forward to seven years of tribulation before the coming of Messiah. Dispensationalist Christians divide the seven years into two periods of three and a half years each, the tribulation and the great tribulation. Those who hold this view derive it from the prophecy of the sevens in Daniel 9 and three prophecies which seem to speak of three-and-a-half-year periods as a "time, times, and half a time," i.e., a year, two years, and half a year.' Revelations 12:6-14 seems to speak of two three-and-a-half-year periods of persecution before the redemption, adding up to a seven-year period of tribulation.


How do we know which year is the correct seventh year? For that matter, how do we know which day is the correct seventh day? People often refuse to keep Shabbat on the basis that no one knows which day is supposed to be kept. This is not a valid reason to not keep the Shabbat. The Jewish heritage has a direct link all the way back to Mount Sinai. If Moshe and the people he led in his time knew when the Shabbat was to be kept, Jewish people today also know when the shabbat is to be kept. While it might be possible for one person to wake up and not remember which day of the week it is, it is impossible that an entire nation could simultaneously forget the day of the week. Yeshua did not hesitate to keep Shabbat on the same day that the Jewish community in his time did. The Shmita Year works the same way. Just as the Jewish community has not forgotten when Shabbat is, neither have they forgotten when the Shmita year is.


In Leviticus 23, God commanded Israel to count seven cycles of seven days as they counted off the days until Shavu'ot. Just as Shavu'ot occurs on the fiftieth day of the Omer count, the Yovel (Jubilee year) occurs in the fiftieth year of the Shmita cycle, the year right after seven Shmita years. The Yovel year has the same prohibition against working the land, but it also has additional rules. Debts were canceled, property in the land of Israel reverted back to the original family owners, and slaves were freed. The laws of the Yovel allude to the final redemption and the Messianic Era.


In the final redemption, the sins (debts) of Israel will be canceled. The land of Israel will revert back to the Jewish people. Those languishing in exile and servitude will be released, and the people will be gathered back to their ancestral heritage.


It says in Leviticus 25:9:

“You shall then sound a ram's horn abroad on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land.”

There is another way the Yovel points towards the Messianic Era. Ten days after the year of Yovel begins, on Yom Kippur, a shofar is sounded throughout the land of Israel to announce the arrival of the Yovel. According to Rashi, the word Yovel (יובל) is related to the Arabic word for horn, “yuvla”. He says, "lt is called yovel because it is named after the blast of the shofar."


It says in Isaiah 27:13, "A great trumpet will be blown, and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria and who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD in the holy mountain at Jerusalem."


The Yalkut Moshiach says, in Or HaTorah teachings for Rosh HaShanah:

“A deeper understanding of the sounding of the shofar "all through your land" pertains to the great shofar that will herald the Messianic Era. In regard to the jubilee year, the Torah says, "You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release through the land" (Leviticus 25:10). The "release" proclaimed in the jubilee year symbolizes the eternal heights of the worlds which will be released in the future time of the Messianic Era, at the time of the great shofar.”

Ever since the exile in Babylon, the Yovel has not been observed. There is no rest of the land, no returning it to its original owners, no cancellation of debt, and no freeing of slaves. However, we do have a commemoration of the Yovel every year at the conclusion of the last Yom Kippur service. Just before the end of the holy day, the congregation takes part in one last prayer service. Then there’s one long blast on the shofar to signal the closing of the gates of heaven. The shofar announces the end of Yom Kippur, but it also alludes to the shofar of the Yovel and to the final redemption. As it says in the Yalkut Moshiach:

“The last blast of the shofar [at the end of Yom Kippur] signals the conclusion of judgment, when the heavenly court seals its verdicts and adjourns the court. On a deeper level, this signals the nullification of idolatry, as it says regarding the great shofar of the future, they "will come and worship the LORD in the holy mountain at Jerusalem." This Is the deeper meaning of the shofar. The essential revelation will come in the Messianic Era, on the day when He will sound the shofar.” (Or HaTorah teachings for Rosh HaShanah)

In the Torah portion of Behar, we learn about the Shmita and Yovel year. Both of these events are reflections of how things will be in the Messianic Era.

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