Parashat Behar - Fourth Aliyah
Read the biblical text and try to understand it on your own, before reading the commentary.
The aliyah describes a painful reality: a person forced to sell their field, their ancestral inheritance, because of poverty. But the Torah does not leave them there. It builds three layers of hope, three paths back home.
The close redeemer. “Ki yamukh achikha umakhar me’achuzato uva go’alo hakarov elav vega’al et mimkar achiv” (verse 25). The responsibility falls first on the closest relative. Family, community, whoever is nearby. The Torah does not say “let them manage alone.” It says: the closest takes priority. Whoever can extend a hand, must.
Self-redemption. “Ve’ish ki lo yihyeh lo go’el vehisigah yado umatza kedei ge’ulato” (verse 26). If there is no external redeemer, and the person themselves has managed to recover, they have full right to redeem their holding. “Vechishav et shenei mimkaro veheshiv et ha’odef” (verse 27). The Torah instructs precisely how to calculate, repay, and return home.
The Jubilee as the ultimate safety net. “Ve’im lo matze’ah yado dei hashiv lo vehayah mimkaro beyad hakoneh oto ad shenat hayovel veyatza bayovel veshav la’achuzato” (verse 28). Even if redemption was not achieved, hope is never lost forever. The Jubilee is the Torah’s deepest social restoration: returning every person to their roots, restoring every family’s inheritance.
Three layers, one principle. Close redeemer, self-redemption, Jubilee. Three levels of repair that ensure an economic fall does not become a final verdict. The Torah builds a society where there is always a way back. Not as condescending charity, but as a legal structure that protects human dignity.