Behar

Toward a Jubilee Economy & Ecology in the Modern World

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

[This essay is a chapter in Rabbi Waskow's book Godwrestling -- Round 2 (Jewish Lights, 1996). The book is available as a free gift from The Shalom Center, personally inscribed by Rabbi Waskow as you choose, if you use the Donate button on the left to make a tax-deductible contribution of $36 or more.

[At the end of this essay you will find citations on teachings from the Hebrew Bible & related materials toward a Jubilee Economics and Ecologics.]::

One lesson that we have discerned from studying the story of the Flood [see a previous chapter from Godwrestling -- Round 2] is that it is profoundly necessary for us to affirm and celebrate the cycles of life if we wish to preserve the cycles of life. Are those cycles now in danger? And if so, how can we affirm them?

Two intertwined drushas: Eden & Shmita

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

[These two drushas (commentaries/ interpretations of Torah) are by Rabbi David Seidenberg of Neohassid.org and Rabbi Arthur Waskow of The Shalom Center.]

First, by Rabbi David Seidenberg:

 In Genesis 3:8, God is described as "mit'halekh bagan" -- hyperliterally, "They heard God's voice walking himself in the garden (of Eden)", or more idiomatically, "They heard the sound of God walking about in the garden".

Bankers, the Bible, & the Bail-out

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Hard-headed Bankers or Masters of Disaster?
Sacred Economics -- Is it Silly?
Hard-headed Economics -- Is it Breaking our Heads?

If you listen to the hard-headed people who presumably keep us prosperous, Biblical and Quranic economics are, of course, quaint and unrealistic. They're based on romantic ideas about benefiting the poor, the landless, the outcast. Good for motivating open-hearted charity; bad for making hard-headed decisions necessary to run a successful economy.

Right. Which is why the hard-headed folks have created a crazy economic yo-yo skidding on the edge of massive disaster, in which the worst-hit will of course not be the Wall Street / Washington power-houses but the rest of us.

The Shmitah and Yovel: Sabbatical and Jubilee Years

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Shmitah & Jubilee

Is it irresponsible for a society to insist that land is returned the original land-holder, even if they had lost it through laziness and lack of care? What kind of society would insist that moneylenders continue to lend to those in need, even if they knew that the borrower would be unable to pay the money back by the 7th year? These are some of the questions we might ask about Shmitah and Jubilee, the 7 year and 50 year cycles described in Leviticus 25.

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