IN A NUTSHELL
Behar is just a single chapter, but this short parasha has a very important message – it teaches us how to build a fair society where everyone is free but also equal.
Sometimes you can have freedom without equality, such as in a country where everyone is free to do whatever job they wish, and spend their money however they wish, but some people are poor and some are rich, so not everyone is equal (this is called a capitalist free economy). And sometimes you can have equality without freedom, where everyone has the same possessions but the government takes away a lot of choices (for example, Communism or socialism). Rarely do we see both.
The powerful insight of the Torah is that you can have both, but not at the same time. Therefore, time itself has to become part of the solution, in the form of the seventh year (the Shemitta year) and, after seven Sabbatical cycles, the fiftieth year – the Jubilee (Yovel). These work as corrections to the inequalities caused by the free market that allow some to become rich while others suffer the loss of land, home, and even freedom.
QUESTION TO PONDER
How can doing mitzvot change society for the better?