A Dead Sea Scrolls conference brought me to the Annenberg Institute in Philadelphia, where for the first time (I am embarrassed to say) I saw the Liberty Bell. There I learned that the name “Liberty Bell” was not given to it by the American revolutionaries but by the abolitionist movement during the decades before the Civil War.
As all Americans know, the name stems from the quotation from Leviticus 25:10 that borders the bell, “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants thereof” (King James Version). “Liberty” (Hebrew, dror) in reality means “release” and it refers, as spelled out in the rest of the verse, to the jubilee year “when each of you shall return to his kin group.” This verse implies that the indebted Israelite had lost his land and was separated from his family. In other words, he had become a slave. That process is described in Leviticus 25:25–55. Thus the abolitionists, perhaps unwittingly, intuited the correct interpretation of verse 10, applying it to release from slavery.
Here, however, the similarity ends. Three steps describe the descent into slavery of the Israelite who had possessed ancestral land. First, overwhelming debt requires him to sell his land (Leviticus 25:25–28); next, he becomes a tenant farmer on land he once owned (Leviticus 25:35–38); and finally debt forces him to sell himself as a slave (Leviticus 25:39–43). The jubilee (the etymology is unclear), occurs every 50th year and cancels his entire debt. He regains his land even earlier if it is redeemed (see below). He starts afresh and, with prudence, good weather and a little luck, may avoid catastrophic debt next time. In effect, the Israelite never really sells his landed patrimony; he only leases it until the jubilee.
By what authority does Leviticus restore his land? It stems from God: “The land is mine; you are but resident aliens under my authority” (Leviticus 25:23). Israel has the status of “resident aliens” who do not own land. Terminology confirms this status. In Leviticus the land is never called nahalah, “inherited land,” implying permanent possession. It is called ‘ahuzzah, literally “holding” land, which Israel merely holds in trust but does not actually own.
The owner of the land is God who decrees: “You must provide for the redemption (ge’ullah) for the land” (Leviticus 25:24). Redemption means the restoration of the status quo, a responsibility that rests on the next of kin, called the go’el, “the redeemer.” He is variously (1) the levirate who, as in Ruth 3:13, provides his deceased kinsman with a survivor by marrying his childless widow; (2) the receiver of reparations due his deceased kinsman (Numbers 5:7); (3) the “blood redeemer” who is required to put to death the (unlawful) slayer of his kinsman (Numbers 35:16–34); and (4) the case dealt with here, the one obliged to buy back the inherited field of his indebted kinsman (Leviticus 25:25–28) and to free him from slavery to a non-Israelite (Leviticus 25:47–55). The jubilee year guarantees redemption in case the redeemer does not fulfill his responsibility. Early in Israelite history, it seems (to judge by Jeremiah 32), that the redeemer retained the land permanently. In that way, at least, the property remained in the possession of the clan. The jubilee, however, constitutes a revolution in the laws of landed property. The redeemer must return the land to its original owner at the jubilee. Individual ownership is thereby preserved.
To be sure, statewide cancellation of indebtedness and the right of redemption are known in the ancient Near East (especially in Mesopotamia). However, the former is not cyclically fixed as in Israel, but depends on the whim of the ruler. And redemption occurs only if the buyer decides to sell the property, whereas in Israel even if the buyer wants to hold on to the property he must always release it to the redeemer.
There is one more problem I would like to address: There is no redemption provision for an Israelite slave of an Israelite owner. This omission is all the more startling because redemption of slaves prevails in Mesopotamia. Why is it missing in Israel? The answer again comes from a divine edict, “For they [the Israelites] are my slaves, whom I freed from the land of Egypt; they must not sell themselves as slaves are sold” (Leviticus 25:42). Instead, “If your brother, being [further] impoverished must sell himself to you, do not make him work as a slave. He shall remain under you as a resident hireling; he shall work under you until the jubilee year” (Leviticus 25:40).
An Israelite is a servant to God, not to another person. Therefore he works for a wage. Since he pays no interest on his debt (Leviticus 25:36–37), his work amortizes the principal. He may eventually see the light at the end of the tunnel. This reverses the Mesopotamian practice by which labor pays only the interest, thus virtually guaranteeing lifelong slavery. Moreover, 054the Israelite as a hireling is a free person. Finding more favorable conditions else-where, he may work for someone other than his creditor. A family member may cover his debt with a grant or loan, but the land will revert immediately to the original owner. This is not “redemption.” Finally, if all else fails to clear the credit cards, the jubilee year, the levitical deux ex machina, will free him.a
The people of Israel and its land belong solely to God; neither may be owned in perpetuity. Absolute ownership of ancestral property and Israelite persons is abolished; persons and land may be leased, not sold. Whether real or utopian, the laws in Leviticus seem to be a more sensitive safeguard against pauperization than we, here and now, have been able to devise, with our dispossessed sleeping in doorways and over hot air grates—in the shadow of the Liberty Bell.
A Dead Sea Scrolls conference brought me to the Annenberg Institute in Philadelphia, where for the first time (I am embarrassed to say) I saw the Liberty Bell. There I learned that the name “Liberty Bell” was not given to it by the American revolutionaries but by the abolitionist movement during the decades before the Civil War. As all Americans know, the name stems from the quotation from Leviticus 25:10 that borders the bell, “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants thereof” (King James Version). “Liberty” (Hebrew, dror) in reality means “release” and it refers, as […]
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