Rabbi Jonathan Kligler

Behar instructs us that we do not own the earth, and that every 7 years (the sabbatical year) we must let the land rest and become ownerless, and every 50 years (the Jubilee)we actually return any land we have acquired to those who have lost it to debt or other misfortune, so that everyone can get a fresh start. We are to "proclaim liberty throughout the land, for all its inhabitants" - the very words inscribed on the Liberty Bell. In this class we explore the nature of that liberty in relation to a sacred connection to the earth and to one another.