Joining the Human Race

This week’s Torah portion is Behar, which means, on the Mountain. Behar gives us the laws for the Sabbath of the land, which occurs every seven years, and for the Jubilee, every 50th year. At the Jubilee, the land was to return to its original, ancestral owners, slaves were freed, loans were forgiven, and liberty was proclaimed for all inhabitants, the sentence inscribed on our Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. In this portion we are told that the land belongs to God and that we belong to God. Then there are laws to prevent poverty, such as the necessity to buy back land that was sold out of dire economic need, and the responsibility to help a relative who becomes impoverished.
Tonight I’d like to draw your attention to one verse in Behar which reads, “If your brother becomes impoverished and his hand falters with you, you shall hold onto him, stranger and resident, so that he can live with you.” This quotation features the word, Brother, achicha, which appears in the portion six times and also the words, with you, imach, which appears in this portion more than 10 times. The point being made here is the same as in the Shema – that God is one and that we are all brothers and sisters for each other – that we are all a part of each other and of God. This quotation actually answers the question posed by Cain about his brother Abel, Am I my brother’s keeper? The answer of course is yes, we are all our brother’s keepers. Each person is responsible fro every other person.
When my younger son was about five years old, I once said something about the human race. He asked me, Mommy, are they still racing? I laughed and then explained what human race meant, but since then I have thought about his question and I think there is a kind of wisdom in what he asked. There are different levels of joining the human race. Some people are like out of town members who would like to be aloof and live apart from others, not having a full fledged membership. Others are donating but inactive members who prefer to contribute financially but not participate personally. And then there are those who are fully engaged – full members of the human race with their sisters and brothers. This exemplifies that teaching in Leviticus which is a distant goal and which we are asked to struggle for all our lives: Love your neighbor as yourself. But how can we even begin to move in that direction? It seems like such a hopeless task. Moses is our great teacher in this area. The Torah says, “Now the man Moses was exceedingly humble, more than any person on the face of the earth.” Moses loved his people He volunteered to sacrifice his life for them to win forgiveness on their behalf. Luckily God did not accept his offer, but forgave the people anyway. God gave Moses two opportunities to abandon the people and start a new nation, after they had sinned, but Moses never would walk away from them. He repeatedly threw his fate in with theirs. Moses was only able to do this because of his humility. One of the great Chassidic rabbis, Rabbi Elimelech, wrote about his quality of humility. He cites a story from the Talmud that all the mountains gathered together before God and asked that they be chosen to serve as the place for the giving of the Torah. God answered them, “you are all blemished compared with Mt. Sinai.” Rabbi Elimech, in the name of the Arizal (Rabbi Isaac Luria) asked, “what is Mt. Sinai’s great quality? It’s the lowest and most humble of all the mountains, teaching us that Torah can only be given to one who is humble and (who chooses to) lower himself… that is why Moses was able to receive the Torah directly from God.” The Torah makes clear in an earlier verse in Behar, that from God’s point of view, we are all alike. “The land is Mine; for you are sojourners and residents with me.” And also, “for the children of Israel are servants to me, they are my servants.” In other words, To God we are all alike. It is only the walls of our own egos that keep us from loving and accepting each other. The Karliner Rebbe taught it this way: “When someone falls in to mud, we must jump into the mud to save him. So it is when your brother stretches out his hand in need, put yourself in him place and save him.” These teachings are also echoed by Jesus, who taught the very same Torah concepts: (Mat 5:5) “ Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. (Mat 5:3) “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Mat 19:24) “…it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!” (Mat 5:39) But I tell you not to resist an evildoer. On the contrary, whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other to him as well.” All these teachings tell us that we must actively strive to break down the walls of ego we have erected which keep us from connecting with each other. We can emulate our great teachers and sages and pursue humility. It is only by working to join the Human race so that we can stop racing to overtake and best each other that we can begin to walk toward loving each other. Then we will experience the true goodness and blessing of being fully human, a full member of the human race. Then will we be true brothers and sisters and the world will be so much better for it.