Yom Yerushalayim
The opening commandments of our double Torah portion of Behar-Bechukotai concern the Shemittah, the once every seven years Sabbatical during which most agricultural activity was forbidden, and the Yovel, the Jubilee that was declared once every fifty years. During that Jubilee year, debts were forgiven, slaves were freed, and land that had been bought and sold was restored to its original, ancestral owners. According to our sages, these commandments reminded the people of their inherent equality to each other. Rich families knew that their wealth was always, on some level, ephemeral, and poor people knew there would always be a chance to make a fresh start.
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A worldwide famine rages on and Jacob sends all of his sons but Benjamin, his youngest, to Egypt to purchase grain. There they encounter their brother, Joseph, whom they had sold into slavery twenty two years earlier. Joseph, currently second only to the Pharaoh, recognizes his brothers but he will not reveal his true identity until he is certain that they have mended their ways[1]. He needs them to bring his brother, Benjamin, down to Egypt. His plan is to force them into a situation in which they must sacrifice their own freedom for Benjamin’s. And so he accuses them of espionage and incarcerates their second brother, Shimon, telling them that if they ever want to see him alive a