Behar 5771 Jubilee - Ingrid's retirement from NPLS Rabbi Aaron Goldstein 14 May 2011

Leviticus 25:10







And you shall hallow the fiftieth year. You shall proclaim release throughout the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: each of you shall return to your holding and you shall return to your family.

The ancient Israelite Scripture, Torah, has given the world such a rich text to devote itself to. The most pious pour over its words, letters and even the gaps between the words and letters. Creatives from Michaelangelo to Bob Dylan have found it to be a treasure trove of inspiration, an anchor with which to reference the world around them. Pious and heretic, believer and ardent atheist all refer to Scripture to prove their point.

Until recently, the concept of a sabbatical year, shmitah, has been left in the realm of the horticulturalist or the religious. Even though our modern understanding of sabbaticals relates purely to letting land lie fallow or a rest-bite for those in certain professions, mainly religious, we cannot ignore the unique use of the word dror, for it only appears this once in the Torah, in relation to the seventh cycle of sabbatical years. In other places that denote freedom, the root chet-fay-shin is used as in the modern Hebrew word for a holiday, chofesh. Dror, a year of release must mean something else.

Of the verse from the Psalms, “The mighty in strength that fulfil God’s word” (Ps 103.20), the midrash (Lev R 1:1; Tanhuma Vayikra #1) asks: To whom does Scripture refer? R. Isaac said: To those who are willing to observe the Year of Release, the Sabbatical Year. In the way of the world, someone may be willing to observe a commandment for a day (meaning Shabbat), a week (Sukkot) or a month (the official period of mourning), but are they likely to continue to do so through the remaining days of the year? But [throughout that year] this [mighty] person sees their fields declared ownerless, their trees declared ownerless, their fences broken down, and their produce consumed by others, yet they continue to give up their produce without saying a word. Can you conceive a person mightier than that?

Perhaps in this Sanctuary there is such a person present, one that the ancient rabbis would truly call the mighty. For most of us our portion is that of a day-to-day, week-to-week and month-to-month struggle to maintain meaning, direction and a vision for the future. Generally, life is not governed by altruistic surety for we are uncertain, self-doubting and concerned that the world around us is not nurturing and protective but hostile to us.

Let us turn to our classical commentators to see if we can glean our own understanding of dror.

Sifra, one of the earliest midrashim states: “Dror simply means freedom. R. Judah said: What does the term dror mean? Like one who stays in a lodging house and goes about anywhere in the land.” Rashi on this midrash explains, “For he lives wherever he pleases and is not under the control of others.” A sense of freedom, of having the economic ability of living anywhere one pleases and with the confidence that community will support them in such a state, finding place in a lodging house.

Ibn Ezra poetically furthers this notion by linking it to the dror, the swallow. “Free, like “the dror, the swallow that flies (Prov 26:2) – a small bird that sings when it is under its own control, but when it is under human control it will not eat, until it dies.” Freedom, release, dror for Ibn Ezra is the natural state of the swallow and can be our own. Human potential is met when there is autonomy and self-determination.

Finally, a Chassidic tradition, notes that dror in the Torah relates to יֹֽשְׁבֶ֑יהָ all the inhabitants of the Land; and that includes avdeyhah, all its slaves. A true notion of yuval of the Jubilee, of a time of complete release can only be achieved when there are no slaves, when all can share in freedom.

There is the temptation to turn back the clock, to idealise a moment in the past that we hold to be perfect, even though it may only be perfect through the rose-tinted spectacle of time. As we age, how often do we look back and say that life was ‘better in our day.’ Perhaps for some it was but we will not create a better tomorrow in this way: and surely that is what we strive for. A time tomorrow, of yuval, a Jubilee that we can celebrate as a dror, a time of complete freedom and release.

According to our Rabbis, that is a state in which we - after years of service of hard work and devotion, be they seven years or seven cycles of seven years - can live off our efforts with the deserved support of the community and society in which one has lived. Yet it is more than that.

Our work has not ended. If there are still those who are slaves, then are task is not yet complete. Every human being has the ability to contribute to society. We cannot achieve dror, complete rest, if we read in the paper each day of those enslaved. Our Liberal understanding of the Jewish task does not let us have complete rest until we have fulfilled our potential to others.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, dror is a psychological state that we get when we place our trust in God. Today we might use the term, “what will, be will be.” In religious terms this recalls a name for God, Ehyeh, intimately revealed to Moses, I will be. In placing our future with God, therein lies peace and security, a serenity and freedom of the swallow. A small bird perhaps, yet with the strength to traverse continents each year and an instinct for home.

Ingrid, of you it can be said, “The mighty in strength that fulfil God’s word.” In your work at NPLS, you have been a mighty rock to so many and in that you have fulfilled God’s word. Now in your retirement from work at NPLS, may you find dror, a release in the comfort and security of your own home and in time, in the bosom of your community, as a true congregant. May you be welcomed in every lodging house that you choose to rest in and may your strength continue to be channelled to provide freedom for others. And may your life be enhanced by walking a path into a rich future, hand-in-hand with God.

From here may it be said that you flew like a dror, like a swallow.