Leviticus | Vayikra

This week’ s Torah portion, Behar, begins with a beautiful vision. Earth experiences a rest when people enter her. How we long for this relationship, rather than the development and exploitation that accompanies modern human occupation of land. How we need this great turning.

When my friend Sulieman Khatib, one of the Palestinian leaders of Combatants for Peace, came to speak at the synagogue I belong to in Asheville, he said, “When we Israelis and Palestinians look at the land we share, do we think, the land belongs to us, or do we think, we belong to the land?”