One of the issues that has kept scholars from having to beg in the streets is the issue: is the Torah descriptive or prescriptive? Is the Torah telling us about a society that was in existence and recording its laws as God given, or is the Torah setting out to create a society that would live by the laws on its pages?

This controversy is apparent in the laws regarding the Sabbath and Jubilee year related in this parashah. The Sabbatical year was time when once in every seven years the land of Israel was to lie fallow and debts were to be remitted. In the Jubilee year, after a cycle of seven sabbatical years, the land was to lay fallow, debts remitted, slaves freed, and the ownership of land transferred back to the lands’ original owners, dating from the division of the land.

Was this ever actually practiced or was it a utopian idea of giving everyone a chance to start over at regular intervals? We really do not know. Some folks infer from statements about not withholding credit in the fifth year of a Sabbatical cycle that the laws must have been practiced to some extent. Others view the statement as a reasonable thing for the Torah to state given its view of human nature. Whatever the the situation was, in actuality we should not be so blinded by the details that we miss the point that the world and all that is in it belong to God and that we are but caretakers. We cannot allow our acquisitive natures to rule over us.

Question for reflection: Do you feel that everything that you have is a gift from God?