Parashat Behar

On Mount Sinai God gives the land its own Shabbat. Every seventh year the fields lie fallow and whatever grows belongs to everyone. After seven such cycles comes the fiftieth year, the Yovel, announced by a shofar on Yom Kippur: land sold during the previous decades returns to its original family, and Hebrew servants go free. Because of this, land in Israel is never sold permanently; the price reflects the harvests until the next Yovel. The portion adds the duty to support a relative who falls into poverty, forbids lending at interest, and insists that an Israelite who sells himself into service be treated as a hired worker, not a slave.