"And you shall sanctify the fiftieth year and declare freedom in the land for all of its inhabitants; jubilee shall it be for you...." (Leviticus 25:10)

With these words, the Bible establishes its vision for the Land of Israel, the Jewish State. Each fiftieth year, the

The Bible establishes its vision for the Land of Israel, the Jewish State.

culmination of seven Sabbatical years, all debts are rescinded, every slave granted freedom, each individual living securely in his or her homestead; economic and political independence for all. But is this picture limited to Israel alone? Is it not possible that this idyllic and idealistic objective applies not only to Israel, but also to every nation in the world?

I would submit that a careful study of the Bible would lead to the inescapable conclusion that Israel is seen as a metaphor and symbol for the entire world at large. The Bible opens on a grand majestic and universal sweep: "In the beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1) The human being is then created in the image (or shadow) of the Divine (ibid 27), endowing him and her with the inalienable right to freedom from external human mastery, and the existential ability to choose between good and evil, right and wrong. Tragically, first Adam and then Noah failed to link responsibility to their freedom (ahrayut to herut), and each fell prey to the seduction of unworthy fruit and wine.

Mankind then divides into Shem, Ham and Yafet, the three sons of Noah, from whom develop the proverbial seventy nations of the globe (Genesis 10). These nations join together in the creation of a materialistic and uniform society, dedicated to the formation of a city whose tower would extend to the heavens for the sake of their own collective aggrandizement. Since they did not communicate with each other on a personal humanistic level, since one did not truly hear the words of his neighbor, G-d scattered them throughout the face of the globe (Genesis 11: 1-9).

Chapter 12 of the Book of Genesis places the spotlight upon one particular descendant of Shem, Abram (exalted father) who becomes Abraham (father of a multitude of nations, paterfamilias of the world (Genesis 17:4, 5). From Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (paralleling Shem, Ham and Yafet) emerged the 70 descendants (paralleling the seventy nations) who comprised Israel, and who descend into Egypt, the fiery furnace which will forge a new nation and a new world. Abraham, is, after all, charged by G-d to bring a blessing to the world (ibid 12:3), and transmit to his descendants the ultimate and eternal Divine values of compassion and justice (Genesis 18:19). These ideals, rather than egocentric edifices of Babylonian Ziggurats and Egyptian pyramids, must be the building blocks for a lasting society.

Hence Jacob-Israel, grandson of Abraham, dreams of a ladder rooted on earth whose top reaches up to the heavens (Genesis 28:12). Note well that here the ladder is not a tower which is in - and therefore takes over - the heavens, but is rather a link between the earth and the heavens, between humanity and the Divine, and so it simply reaches up to the heaves, where G-d is standing (as it were) in the dream.

Our classical interpreters insist that Mt. Moriah (the place of our Holy Temple) extended into Bet El for the purposes of the dream, the ladder symbolizing the Holy Temple which will bridge Heaven and Earth and become a "house of prayer for all nations" (Isaiah 56:7; Rashi on Genesis 28:17). And G-d promises Jacob within the dream that "your seed shall be as the dust of the earth (shall eventually comprise all of humanity, which was initially formed from the dust of the earth), and you shall extend westward and eastward, northward and southward, so that all the families of the earth shall be blessed through you and your seed." (Genesis 28:14).

However, we too, shall fall into a trap not unlike the materialistic egocentricity of the initial nations of the world; we shall sin, especially in the realm of interpersonal relationships, and the Lord will scatter us among all the nations from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth. (Deuteronomy 28:64) We will suffer the fate of being

Once we gain the capacity to listen to G-d's voice, we shall also begin to hear every human voice.

captives who do not even understand the language of their captors; we shall be aliens and exiles just as the peoples of the world are aliens and exiles, because no one can ever feel at home if they do not listen to the thoughts and hear the pain of those who live nearby. If you love your neighbor, then your neighbor is like you and you are like him; if you are apathetic and alien to the feelings of your neighbor, then your neighbor becomes "other" and alien to you, and you become "other" and alien to him.

But there is one basic difference; the Bible promises that we will return to G-d and His laws of compassion and justice, and that we will also return to our homeland. Once we gain the capacity to listen to G-d's voice, we shall also begin to hear every human voice; and then "even if you are scattered to the ends of the heaven, from there will the Lord gather you and from there will the Lord take you up, and bring you to the land which your ancestors have inherited, and you shall inherit it." (Deuteronomy 30:4,5)

And then, when the nations will come to learn about compassion and justice from our Holy Temple (Isaiah 2, Micah 4), G-d "will change the clear language of the nations to all call upon the name of the Lord and to serve Him, shoulder to shoulder (Zephaniah 3:9). Once listening to G-d obediently will become the substitute for aggrandizing ourselves selfishly, we will begin to listen to each other as well, and so transform the universe into our home of love and sensitivity.

Hence, Israel is the reflection and mirror of the world, the metaphor and repair (tikkun) for the world; thus the vision of peace and security expressed by the jubilee applies not only to Israel, but to the entire world. And so it must be, because in a global village, each of us human beings is responsible for every other. We dare not ask for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.