Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Behar בהר – A Fair Price

In parshas Behar the children of Israel are commanded to leave the land fallow every seven years and every fifty years. In these years slaves are released and debts are cancelled. In addition on the fiftieth year, Yovel (יובל) or Jubilee, land is returned to its ancestral owners.

Not all of the land is under ancestral ownership.  All of soldiers that conquered the land of Canaan under Joshua received a plot of land. This was passed onto their descendants based on the laws of inheritance. The Chumash forbids the permanent sale of this parcel and only permits it to be leased until Yovel. In connection with this the price must be determined by the number of crops it will yield from the date of sale until the fiftieth year. The Chumash cautions that when selling or buying from a landsman a man should not squeeze (אל-תונו) his brother (see Leviticus 25:14).

The Kli Yakar brings a Talmudic (Buba Metzia 47b) analysis of this mitzvah. It raises the issue that over time the value of land fluctuates particularly due to business conditions. Therefore, how can laws concerning a fair price be applicable? He does point out that over time the purchaser should be able to recover his investment. The Gemara also explains, that the assumption that the prohibition only applies to a buyer trying to chisel, is false. In fact it also applies to a seller trying to gouge. Similarly one may think it is okay for a layman to squeeze a professional, but it is not.

It seems though that the Chumash is examining this land from a financial standpoint. In this case the Chumash is viewing a parcel of land as a stream of income. If the sale results in an income that is too high for one party at the expense of the other party, one of them is cheating and the other is being cheated. The seller is entitled to a fair profit on a sale. He is cheating his customer if he charges more. Likewise the customer is cheating if he pays too little. The basic idea is to be fair in the conduct of business, to be fair with money, and fair in general.

The Chumash then continues with a discussion of dealing with a person who has become impoverished (ibid 35), saying that his countrymen should try to help him. If money is given to a poor person, interest should not be charged. Two terms are used for interest neshech (נשך) and marbis (מרבית). נשך is the language of biting and implies that one should not exploit another’s miserable situation as a wedge to profit by. מרבית is the language of jelly (ריבה) implying that one should not milk a fool.

The parsha’s concluding topic is about Israelite slaves. Its thrust is that every effort should be made to redeem them starting with relatives. If that is not possible the slave at least should not be abused. The idea is the rescue and protection of the weak. The Chumash in the book of Exodus (22:20) also forbids squeezing or persecuting a resident alien also using the language of לא-תונה. It’s mentioned with the prohibition against mistreating widows and orphans.


The basic idea is that one should not exploit the weaknesses, financial, social, or otherwise, of others for fun or profit. On the contrary one should be generally kind and not only avoid hurting the weak, but should try to strengthen them as well. This is alluded to by the commandments not to work the land from time to time. Just like we are commanded to be kind to the land, which has no feelings and is the lowest of the low; even more so we should be kind to a fellow Jew who indeed feels pain and is given the high command of service to Hashem.

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