YAVNEH STUDIES IN BEHAR Haskel Lookstein

One of the most profound sources for religion’s social consciousness is to be found in Chapter 25 of Leviticus. In that chapter we find the Sinaitic revelation concerning social justice, or freedom, in society. Moreover, freedom is discussed here not as an abstract concept to be mouthed piously or cherished intellectually, it is formulated as a concrete, workable, realistic pattern for life in society While the vocabulary of that pattern is couched in phrases and accents almost 3500 years old, its message and implications are dramatically relevant for our day.

The keynote expression of Chapter 25 is the central injunction concerning the Jubilee year: “And you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof” This expression has become a sacred principle of American democracy, emblazened by the founding fathers on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. While the Bell itself is cracked, its inscription is - in theory at least - untarnished.

But how does the Torah construe this concept of liberty? The Talmud (Rosh Ha-Shanah 9b) interprets it as follows: “Rabbi Judah asked what does the word dror - freedom connote?” He answers: “Kimeda-yaar bai daira: freedom describes a state of being wherein a man can dwell wherever he chooses to dwell. ‘Umovil skhorah b’khol medinah’: and wherein a man can do business in every locality.”

I have made a point of citing the Talmudic reference in full, for one might well assume that such an interpretation of freedom must come from a civil rights manual. But it doesn’t! It is the Talmud which interprets the Torah’s concept of freedom in economic terms. It is the Talmud which affirms that freedom must be translated into concrete, materialistic realities. It is the Talmud that says that no man is free if he must live in a segregated community, whether that segregation is the creation of law or the result of informal social consensus. It is the Talmud that states that no man is free unless he has economic opportunity, a chance for employment and the social possibility to work in any geo and economic area in accordance with his God-given and acquired talents.

It is not enough to say that all men are equal. It is not even enough to legislate freedom and equality. The solution of the “American Dilemma,” like the Biblical dilemma, requires a concept that goes beyond mere legislation for equality. This is but a first - though basic - stage. The second moral commitment must be to a concept of equal opportunity which recognizes that, however equal we may be in the eyes of the law, such equality is not meaningful when so many of our citizens suffer from social and economic deprivations stemming from the operation of what Cloward and Ohlin called “differential opportunity systems.” What is clearly required is not only freedom and equality in law, but freedom and equality in life. (Metropolitan-Rural Development for Equal Opportunity, Spring 1966, p. 8)

But what is “dror - freedom”? “Kimeda-yaar bai daira umovil skhorah bekhol medinah.” It is the opportunity to dwell where one chooses and the opportunity to work where one chooses. This is freedom, not as a bland platitude, but as a workable concept for reality.

But it is still only a concept. It is not reality because it lacks concrete measures by which to translate the concept into social life. And so the Bible prescribes certain social institutions which operate in the Jubilee year - and to a lesser extent in the Sabbatical year - to make this freedom concept operational. (These might be considered the mitzvot - or the details - of freedom.)

The first such institution is the cancellation of all debts - shmitat kesafim. Every seven years all indebtedness ceases. Call it modified social benevolence, charity, welfare, rent subsidies, guaranteed annual income, or anything else; it still amounts to the same thing. There can be no freedom in life if one class of people remains shackled by the unbreakable chains of poverty, penury and indebtedness.

The second institution is the emancipation of slaves. No man can remain a slave forever; not even one who chooses slavery. No man can be deprived of a living wage with which to support a family. On the other hand no man may be encouraged to find indefinite security in slavery - or endless welfare - where he has no responsibility to himself, to his wife, to his children. This, too, is a form of slavery, where the slave chooses the security of slavery against the insecurity and challenge of freedom. Even the slave who refuses to go free after six years, who enjoys the master’s protection, who is happy in his carefree indolence, who is satisfied to be fed, clothed, housed by a human master - or a benevolent department of welfare - even such a man must be liberated on the Jubilee year, whether he wills it or not.

In an industrial economy land is not the means for opportunity. Jobs are! If we understand the Bible’s intention, we would infer from it the need to create job opportunities for the underprivileged. We would infer the need for training in necessary skills, quality education for technical and professional competence; yes, even expanded public works programs. We would infer this because the Torah implements freedom by restoring man “to his holding” - in ancient Israel, land, in 20th century America, a job, or at least a realistic opportunity for a job. Anything less is a caricature of freedom

But what is he to do without such paternalism? How is he to survive? For this the Bible prescribes a third institution “Each man shall return to his original land holding.” On the Jubilee year, all land reverts back to the original owner. In an agricultural economy, land is the only source of economic opportunity and wealth. On the Jubilee year, each man is given this economic opportunity once again

The attainment of the Biblical genre of freedom in society does not come cheaply. Can you imagine the social wealth which was lost by the cancellation of all indebtedness, the emancipation of all the slaves, and the return of all land to its original holders?

Even by modern standards this would constitute a phenomenal social expense. Perhaps, then, the estimated figure for a similar program in our country today is not so unrealistic. It has been put at around 30 billion dollars by the President’s Commission on Civil Disorders; 30 billion dollars to be spent every year for the next five years. It is admittedly a vast sum, although it is still only about one third of what we are spending this year for national defense and the war in Vietnam.

Events of the past decade, and especially of the past weeks, have demonstrated that launching such a program to make freedom operational is no longer a matter of choice. Interestingly; the Torah alluded to this when it said: “And you shall observe these statutes (chok) and the laws (mishpat).” Those trained in Biblical language will recognize the use of the words mishpat and chok. The one refers to laws accepted out of conviction and agreement; the other to laws accepted perforce, out of obligation and submission to God’s will. Moreover, the Bible, with an understanding nod toward human nature, mentions chok, the obligatory law, first.

Most people, the Torah implies, will not appreciate the moral urgency of the Biblical message. They will pose compelling arguments against its validity. They will marshall sociological evidence and economic data against its practicality.

But, unfortunately, there are few options open to man. If in the Biblical world freedom had to be a reality “for all inhabitants thereof” regardless of the cost, surely in our modern explosive world there is no choice. We may ensure equal opportunity out of a moral decision or we may ensure it out of a pragmatic that none is secure if a substantial number are doomed to under privileged status.

John McCone, the former head of the C.I.A., as Chairman of the Watts Commission, described the riots in Los Angeles as “a symptom of a sickness in the center of our cities,” a sickness whose contagious germs have infected no less than all major urban areas which according to the Wall Street Journal are “high tension” cities liable to explode at any moment because of festering social sores similar to those discovered in Los Angeles. These explosions, prophesied but three years ago, have already transformed frighteningly the social landscape of America.

Freedom in society, then, is not a matter of choice. It may be viewed as an act of free moral decision. But, if not, it must be provided out of compulsion and obligation. However it is achieved, as a chok or as a mishpat, there is a Divine promise that when all segments of society will experience the economic realities of freedom, all mankind will dwell in the land in security and peace.