Parashah Behar Comments 2024
The number seven appears a little over 450 times in the Bible. About 80% of the time, the number 7 or its multiples are found in the Tenach (Tanakh, the Older Testament). Half of those references (about 40% of the Bible’s “sevens”) appear in Genesis and Leviticus.
In case you were wondering where these references are located, here is a very short list:
Genesis 2:2–3 – G-d created the world in six days and rested on the seventh.
Genesis 41 – Seven years of plenty and seven years of famine.
Exodus 20:10 – The seventh day of the week is the Sabbath of rest.
Exodus 23:15 – Seven days observing Chag HaMatzot (Feast of Unleavened Bread).
Leviticus 13 – Seven-day examinations in determining tzara’at (spiritual leprosy).
Leviticus 23:34 – The Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh month and for seven days.
Leviticus 26 – Seven increases in punishment (seven times) for unrepented sins, and three additional increases—seven times more intense—for each of three successive displays of remorseless sin.
Numbers 8:2 – Seven lamps in the menorah.
Joshua 6:4 – Seven priests, seven trumpets, seventh day, march around the walls of Jericho seven times.
1 Samuel 16:10 – Jesse (David’s father) had seven sons pass before Samuel.
1 Kings 6:38 – Seven years to build the First Temple.
Psalm 119:164 – Praise for G-d seven times a day.
Proverbs 9:1 – Wisdom has carved seven pillars.
Daniel 3:19 – Nebuchadnezzar heated the furnace seven times more than usual (Shadrakh, Meishakh, and ‘Aved-N’go).
2 Chronicles 7:9 – Solomon celebrated the completion of the Temple for seven days.
Matthew 15:34 – In the feeding of the four thousand, Yeshua started with seven loaves and had seven basketfuls.
Matthew 18:21–22 – Peter asked Yeshua how many times to forgive and offered seven times; Yeshua replied, “seventy times seven.”
Revelation 1:4 – Seven Messianic communities, the seven-fold Spirit of G-d.
Revelation 4:5 – Seven flaming torches.
Revelation 5:1 – Seven seals.
Revelation 5:6 – Seven horns and seven eyes.
Revelation 8:2 – Seven angels and seven shofars.
Revelation 10:3 – Seven thunderclaps.
Revelation 10:7 – When the seventh angel sounds the shofar, G-d’s hidden plan will be revealed.
Revelation 11:8 – Jerusalem will experience seven earthquakes during the Last Days.
Why “777” matters
“Altogether, Lamech lived a total of 777 years, and then he died.” (Genesis 5:31)
The number 777 appears only once in Scripture, yet many attach great significance to it. Some Christians see the Trinity in 777; others read it as a sign of G-d’s victory over the devil (often associated with 666). In every case, its force rests on the meaning of seven itself.
Early in Genesis, G-d creates in six days and rests on the seventh. The Sabbath offers us a foretaste of His rest. He withheld that rest from the first generation freed from Egypt because they lost faith at the threshold of the Promised Land. We are placed here to prepare to enter His eternal rest—and that preparation is our life’s purpose.
G-d rested after He completed creation. In that completion lies perfection, for G-d makes no mistakes. Fittingly, the Hebrew word for seven, sheva (שבע), shares the same consonants (ש-ב-ע) as words for “fullness/completion,” so seven has come to signify spiritual completion and perfection.
Behar: Sevens, Shemittah, and the Yovel (Jubilee)
Leviticus uses the number seven repeatedly—fifty-seven times in one form or another. Chapter 25 includes (wait for it) seven references. The density of “sevens” signals that as biblical numbers go, seven carries great weight for the presence and purposes of G-d. A triple seven amplifies this sense of divine gravity and goodness.
“This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.” (Revelation 13:18)
In Parashah Behar (Leviticus 25:1–26:2), the first “seven” appears in the Shemittah, a Sabbath of years—every seventh year the land rests, and self-sown produce is hefker (ownerless), free for all to take. Creditors release their debtors.
“At the end of seven years you will make a release. And this is the manner of the release: to release the hand of every creditor from what he lent his friend; he shall not exact from his friend or his brother, because the time of the release for the L-rd has arrived.” (Deuteronomy 15:1–2)
If the calendar gives us weekly Sabbaths, Shemittah is a Sabbath of years. After seven Shemittot (seven times seven), the year following is the Yovel—the Jubilee, consecrated to HaShem and celebrated every fiftieth year. Debts are released, land reverts to ancestral stewards, and the enslaved go free. It is the “Sabbath of Sabbaths.” As compelling as “777” may be, the sanctification of time every fifty years is even more transformative.
“Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.” (Leviticus 25:9–10, KJV)
Part of this verse—“Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof”—is inscribed on the Liberty Bell (cast in 1753). The Yovel mandates the freeing of slaves and the return of land to its original stewards.
Stewardship, not ownership
The Shemittah cancels debts. The Yovel returns land and liberates those who had fallen into servitude—along with the agricultural rest and financial release of Shemittah. These commands remind Israel: we own nothing; G-d owns everything. We are tenants, stewards, partners in His purposes.
Practically, this embeds fairness into the commercial life of G-d’s people. Our world runs competitive “win/lose” transactions; Behar calls us to “win/win”—enlarging the pie and sharing it more justly so all may benefit.
Five examples (four personal, one current)
My father’s shop. He ran a small manufacturing company for thirty years. His employees called him “Papa Dave” because he treated them like family—an ethos many have found among Jewish employers who prize dignity and fairness.
Joining our family business. When we invited Dad to help in our growing company, we offered what we could afford, promising increases as we could. He surprised us: “That’s too much.” We negotiated a figure fair to everyone. We wanted to pay more; he wanted less. It was invigorating—and instructive.
Household generosity. My sister-in-law, who has long lived with us, watches our special-needs daughter and keeps our home humming. She and my wife “argue” over who gets to do the dishes or laundry—each trying to spare the other. That mutual care is the spirit of Behar in miniature.
Success and humility. Early success in insurance nearly derailed me. Income can create distance and the illusion of superiority. Unless you remember all blessing is from above, money’s power can warp the soul. I’m grateful G-d rescued me from that trap.
Student-debt relief. Set aside politics and imagine those burdened by unpayable loans receiving release. It must feel like taking off a painfully tight shoe. Imagine a system that bakes in humane resets—known in advance by all parties—restoring honor, trust, and love of neighbor to economic life.
Did Israel ever practice this?
Yes. Ezekiel refers to Yovel as “the year of liberty.”
“But if he give a gift of his inheritance to one of his servants, then it shall be his to the year of liberty; after it shall return to the prince: but his inheritance shall be his sons’ for them.” (Ezekiel 46:17)
Rabbinic tradition says Yovel requires all the tribes restored to their ancestral lands. Whether or not we have met that condition, the heart of the matter remains: it is all G-d’s.
“The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.” (Leviticus 25:23)
“And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant: But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubile. And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen.” (Leviticus 25:39–42)
Even if Yovel awaits full national restoration, faith calls us to embody its principles now. Notably, Jubilee implies two consecutive years of agricultural rest (year 49 Shemittah + year 50 Yovel) and systemic forgiveness. Modern Israel and the wider world have rarely, if ever, practiced this in full. Perhaps our lack of will and faith explains why Isaiah’s “perfect peace” feels elusive.
“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee.” (Isaiah 26:3)
Guardrails against concentration and slavery
Unchecked accumulation enslaves. Pharaoh gathered Egypt’s wealth during famine when people sold everything for bread. Behar’s commands prevent such collapse by regularly resetting the board—releasing people from bondage and returning land to families. Today, as wealth concentrates and the middle class erodes, Behar’s rhythms stand as a prophetic corrective.
We live in a world of contempt; Torah calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Behar gives practical tools to obey—and prosper under—G-d’s commandments.
“This chapter is a noble expression of social idealism and humanitarian concern. It presents complicated and tantalizing problems to the student of history, but its message for our time rings loud and clear with clarity and power.” — Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut, The Torah: A Modern Commentary, p. 940
Yeshua and the Acceptable Year of the Lord
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18–19; cf. Isaiah 61:1–2; 58:6)
“The acceptable year of the Lord” evokes Yovel. In Messiah, the Jubilee heart—release, restoration, and return—breaks into our present age.
Prayer
G-d loves us. His ways are higher than our ways; He will never forsake or abandon us. We are to trust Him and follow Him.
Dear Father in Heaven, if it is Your will, send Your shaliach, Yeshua HaMashiach, to conform this world to the commandments of Your Word. Amen.
