Jewish Guide to Fairtrade: Sustainability

Part five of five text and discussion sheets included within the Jewish Guide to Fairtrade - which can be found in full here.

1. How should you support people in need?

2. Does it matter how you give?

3. What do these texts say about sustainability?

4. What might be some alternatives for Rabbi Huna that would still avoid the type of dependency he is genuinely trying to avoid?

Leviticus 25:8 - 10

וְסָפַרְתָּ לְךָ בַע שַׁבְּתֹת שָׁנִים שֶׁבַע שָׁנִים שֶׁבַע פְּעָמִים וְהָיוּ לְךָ יְמֵי בַע שַׁבְּתֹת הַשָּׁנִים תֵּשַׁע וְאַרְבָּעִים שָׁנָה׃ וְהַעֲבַרְתָּ שֹׁופַר תְּרוּעָה בַּחֹדֶשׁ הַשְּׁבִעִי בֶּעָשֹׂור לַחֹדֶשׁ בְּיֹום הַכִּפֻּרִים תַּעֲבִירוּ שֹׁופָר בְּכָל־אַרְצְכֶם׃ וְקִדַּשְׁתֶּם אֵת שְׁנַת הַחֲמִשִּׁים שָׁנָה וּקְרָאתֶם דְּרֹור בָּאָרֶץ לְכָל־יֹשְׁבֶיהָ יֹובֵל הִוא תִּהְיֶה לָכֶם וְשַׁבְתֶּם אִישׁ אֶל־אֲחֻזָּתֹו וְאִישׁ אֶל־מִשְׁפַּחְתֹּו תָּשֻׁבוּ׃

Leviticus.25.8-10

8 You shall count off seven weeks of years - seven times seven years - so that the period of seven weeks of years gives you a total of forty-nine years. 9 Then you shall sound the horn loud; in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month - the Day of Atonement - you shall have the horn sounded throughout your land 10 and you shall hallow the fiftieth year. You shall proclaim release throughout the land for all of its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: each of you shall return to his holding and each of you shall return to his family.

Suggested Discussion Questions

What is being commanded by this text?
How does this marking out of time echo other traditional ways the bible marks out time?
What connections might there be between the weekly Sabbath, the Shmitta (Sabbatical) cycle every seven years and the Yovel (Jubilee) taking place after 49 years?
What did "proclaim release throughout the land" mean in biblical times?
How might we apply this concept today?
How does this idea challenge how we understand the passing of time compared with Wetsern notions of linear progress?

Babylonian Talmud, Ta’anit 20b

תענית כ׳ ב:י״א-י״ב

אמר ליה רבא לרפרם בר פפא: לימא לן מר מהני מילי מעלייתא דהוה עביד רב הונא! - אמר ליה: בינקותיה לא דכירנא, בסיבותיה דכירנא: דכל יומא דעיבא הוו מפקין ליה בגהרקא דדהבא, וסייר לה לכולה מתא, וכל אשיתא דהוות רעיעתא - הוה סתר לה. אי אפשר למרה - בני לה, ואי לא אפשר - בני לה איהו מדידיה. וכל פניא דמעלי שבתא הוה משדר שלוחא לשוקא, וכל ירקא דהוה פייש להו לגינאי - זבין ליה, ושדי ליה לנהרא. - וליתביה לעניים! - זמנין דסמכא דעתייהו, ולא אתו למיזבן.

Taanit 20b:11-12

Raba said to Rafram b. Papa: Tell me some of the good deeds which R. Huna had done. He replied: Of his childhood I do not recollect anything, but of his old age I do. On cloudy [stormy] days they used to drive him about in a golden carriage and he would survey every part of the city and he would order the demolition of any wall that was unsafe; if the owner was in a position to do so he had to rebuild it himself, but if not, then [R. Huna] would have it rebuilt at his own expense. On the eve of every Sabbath [Friday] he would send a messenger to the market and any vegetables that the [market] gardeners had left over he bought up and had then, thrown into the river. Should he not rather have had these distributed among the poor? He was afraid lest they would then at times be led to rely upon him and would not trouble to buy any for themselves. [Soncino translation]