Parshat Behar-Bechukotai G-d, Egypt, and care for our fellow man

The Torah gives three examples of “Your brother becoming impoverished.” (V’khi yamukh achikha). The first has to do with selling family property, and how it returns to the original owners at the Jubilee year.

The second and third examples deal with a case where he cannot sustain himself and is relying on community assistance (25:35-38), or even needs to be sold into slavery to support himself (25:39-42), respectively.

At the end of each of the latter little segments, a similar statement is made:

“I am G-d your L-rd who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, [and] to be a G-d for you,” (25:38) and “This is because I brought [the Israelites] out of Egypt, and they are My slaves. They shall not be sold [in the market] as slaves.” (25:42)

The idea of being slaves to G-d instead of slaves to men, or of G-d’s intent to “be a G-d for you” would likely make for a great psychoanalytical study, were we not speaking of G-d.

But the truth is, it doesn’t end there. The next section begins with a reference to the “brother becoming impoverished” (though with a different language) (25:47), and it concludes with instructions for when the Jubilee comes, and all slaves are freed, as G-d says, “[All this] is because the Israelites are [actually] My slaves. They are My slaves because I brought them out of Egypt. I am G-d your L-rd.” (25:55)

This last summary sentence actually brings together the notions set forth by the earlier verses – Israelites are slaves to their G-d, Who is their G-d because He took them out of Egypt. The focus on Egypt is so significant, not only because it reminds us of the other times in the year when we mention Egypt (every evening Kiddush, during the Shema, and otherwise on a regular basis), as we remind ourselves of what exact moment turned a group of slaves who happened to share a common ancestor, into a nation sharing a destiny forever.