B’Har-b’Chukotai, 5786 (2026) - Hitting the Spiritual Reset Button

Right now (and seemingly always…), our world is plagued by political tensions, environmental disasters, war, religious battles and scandals, and a general sense of uncertainty and chaos. How do we keep going in troubled times? How do we replenish, where do we go for support and nourishment, and how do we soldier on in spite of all the obstacles? The Torah offers us some suggestions and advice, but it’s not always obvious to see… and certainly not easy to do! Our parashah this week concludes the Book of Leviticus, and its final subject deals with social inequalities and wealth gaps, which leads us to focus on the have's and have-not's in society. The Torah desperately tries to urge our ancestors to create - and maintain - just and fair community structures, so that social stratification doesn't become a gaping chasm. One major tool that the Torah attempts to implement in this regard is Sh’nat Ha-Yovel, the Jubilee Year.

In essence, the Jubilee Year is meant to be an occasion, every fifty years, where land reverts back to its original owners and all debts are forgiven. Anyone who sold off land due to famine or poverty would get a chance to start over. Not shockingly, the wealthy land owners and debt collectors were not fans. Nonetheless, the Torah keeps pushing this precept and demanding fairness. The Jubilee never leveled the playing field as much as the ancient Biblical author had hoped, yet it should still serve as a reminder to us all that we need a “reset.” When inequality and suffering seems endless, or when our apathy, lethargy, and fatigue cripple us and make us unable to even imagine change, let alone implement it; we need a reset. The Biblical Jubilee Year can inspire us to envision how to start afresh, get out of old ruts, and think outside the box. It may have only ever been aspirational, but nevertheless the text itself, and millennia of subsequent commentators, continued unrelentingly to push the concept of a do-over, a "mulligan," an equalizer that levels the playing field. Even when it seems unobtainable - and maybe especially then - we must continue to pray for it. Let us challenge ourselves to hit the spiritual "reset" button, and approach our troubled world with new eyes, greater support for one another, and an unyielding insistence that better times lay ahead.