Parashat HaShavua - Behar Bechukotai

We are in the midst of counting the Omer. Today (Friday) is the 40th day of the Omer which corresponds to 5 weeks and six days. The Torah instructs us to count from the second night of Passover, 49 days, 7 weeks of seven days each, to Shavuot -- translated as the Festival of Weeks. Towards the very beginning of this week’s double Torah portion Behar-Bechukotai - we read a verse that sounds like it might be talking about counting the Omer. Except, we are counting something different. Here - also counting in sevens - we are counting seven cycles of seven years each -- towards the proclamation of the Yovel, the Jubilee year.  At the conclusion of the 49th year, we welcome the Yovel by sounding the Shofar.

The Holiday of Shavuot (which if today is the 40th day of the Omer, begins at the end of 9 days from today) celebrates the Revelation at Sinai -- the moment when God gave us the Torah. This was a great theatrical moment, accompanied by light and sound, including the sound of the Shofar.  How are these two sounds of the Shofar - one to usher in the Yovel (Jubilee year) and another to accompany Revelation - similar? 

The sound of the Shofar at the start of the Yovel proclaims דרור Deror - Freedom. Nechama Leibowitz z”l (modern commentator) explains the word deror as the positive gift of freedom, different from the word חופש, also translated as freedom, which signifies the release from a yoke.  In the Jubilee year, when the shofar is sounded and deror is proclaimed throughout the land, all Israelites regain their independence and personal freedom.

While we joyfully celebrate the attainment of freedom, acceptance of this gift is layered with other emotions as well.  Rashi (11th century) explains that different from the sounds of other wind instruments which usually get duller the longer that they are blown, the sound of the Shofar began as a soft sound and progressively got louder. Ibn Ezra (12th century) clarifies that God intentionally began with a softer blast so that the Israelites would not die from fear. 

The sound of the Shofar at Sinai ushered in the culmination of the Exodus from Egypt. The Israelites had achieved freedom: they were a free people preparing to receive God’s Torah. Simultaneously, the Israelites indeed should have been terrified. As we are reminded throughout the Torah, the gift of our freedom comes with the responsibility of securing freedom for all other people. This is why we must sound the Shofar as we usher in the Jubilee year: to remind us of our responsibility to give the same gift of freedom to all people in our midst. 

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Dahlia Kronish
HS Associate Head