Jubilee coming

Wed Oct 12 08:52:45 BST 2011

JUBILEE                                                                                                
jca pap: Jub

FAR AWAY AND LONG AGO

 A new old look at
land issues, ownership, rent, nationhood, 
immigration,  ethical
dealings  and a concept strange to
British   practice- reversion or  redemption of LAND- the Jubilee

Sabbath Day  every 7th
day 

Sabbath year every seventh year 

Jubilee  year  every 7x7 years    ……all are related by a divine sanction

Leviticus CH 25 vvs 1-10 relates  these three concepts 

And introduces the idea of a Sabbath year in land usage. 

a)       this
mirrors the more  familiar idea of a
Sabbath  day in work 

as set out in the
creation story in Genesis ch 1 v 31, 
after making man on the sixth day .God rested justifying man also  resting ..

Sabbath year and Sabbath
day  have a double sided nature in common

      The practical
and the  holy.  Both the 7th rest day and the 7th
rest year are practical- rest for workpeople after work and rest for the soil
as a crop rotational move.

The religious side is 
interesting because it too is directly related to the  ownership or proprietorship of land .

The premise for both the 
day Sabbath and the year Sabbath are

Divine sanctions- God created the earth (all the land) and
RESTED ON TH 7th DAY

-         
and the 7 yearly rest for the LAND  ‘is holy to the Lord’  – a divine sanction for  a rational or cultural practice – at 25 v 2

-         
“ When you come unto the land I give
you then will you keep a Sabbath to the Lord.”     

One cultural explanation is that here is agricultural advice
given to former pastoralists and sheep herders as they settle down to farm the
land – observe a fallow.

THE JUBILEE YEAR IS a year 
related to the Sabbath  year –

Every seven times seven years brings forward  a Sabbath Year – the JUBILEE

There is here a cabbalistic or mystical numerical juggling
of numbers.

The jubilee year starts not on the first  of January but on the 10th day of
the Seventh month-

And is further  
sanctified by being this being the  day of the  national cultural and  holy festival the annual ‘day of atonement’.
(still celebrated) 

This is the background to the JUBILEE

Leviticus 25  vvs 11ff

This special year is premised again on  LAND ..and the claim that LAND is HOLY

At CH 25 vs 55,  the
ultimate divine proprietorship of land s explicit 

  “For unto  me the children of Israel
are servants. “

and at v 23  “For the
Land is Mine….” 

WHAT HAPPENS AT THE 
JUBILEE

the Land shall not be sold for ever,

WHY ?  for the Land is
mine and you are strangers and sojourners with me Lev 25.v55. 

This introduces us to the 
terms of the  JUBILEE YEAR

WHAT HAPPENS ON JUBILEE YEAR?

 “Proclaim liberty
throughout the land”   the context
suggest liberty of slaves. (and as we will hear, reversion of land)  Nowhere is there the idea of releasing criminal
prisoners .

 but “to all
inhabitants it shall be a JUBILEE to you”

Each one is to return to his family property 

Which implies a clan system (Is this relevant to us today?)

DO NOT SOW OR REAP 
but live on wild food  

(impracticable literally) 

IF YOU SELL LAND TO A FELLOW COUNTRYMAN   do not take advantage of him.

(This  is a qualified
morality !)

YOU ARE TO BUY  AND
SELL ON THE BASIS OF THENUMBER OF YEARS 

what you are selling is really the number of crops before
the land reverts to the previous owner. 

It is a leasehold system more of that later

FEAR GOD AND FOLLOW THE LAWS.. this  will bring prosperity 

Suggests an explanation for 
the cyclical nature of farm prosperity. In  bad years you must have sinned! 

THE LAND MUST NOT BE SOLD PERMANENTLY 

Why ? “Because the Land is mine  and you are but aliens  and my tenants!”

(the Divine sanction)

here is the   
revolutionary  doctrine-

Throughout the country 
that you hold as a possession 

You MUST provide for the 
redemption of the  LAND

Lev. Explains IF A COUNTRYMAN IS POOR AND SELLS HIS LAND 

His nearest relative is to redeem the land (buy it back) 

the poor man has the right to buy it back if he finds the
money later.

IF NOT REDEEMED the Land is alienated (ONLY) –

 UNTIL THEYEAR OF the JUBILEE

 “ It will be returned
(FREE) in the year of the Jubilee”

IF A COUNTRYMAN GETS POOR AND WORKS AS A SLAVE- free him at
Jubilee

IF A MAN SELLS A HOUSE WITH A WALLED GARDEN in a city 

- HE CAN REDEEM IT WITHIN A YEAR. 

After a year the sale is permanent and is not redeemable at
the jubilee

HOUSES IN VILLAGES  on
the contrary, are in open country and can be (like land) redeemed. 

IF A COUNTRYMAN IS POOR 
help him as you would an alien

DO NOT TAKE INTEREST OF ANY KIND. 

DO NOT MAKE A PROFIT ON FOOD YOU SELL

YOU MUST NOT LEND MONEY AT INTEREST 

If a countryman is poor and sells himself 

Treat him as a  hired
worker and free him with his children 

  AT THE   JUBILEE

Why? 

 Because I brought you
out of Egypt
and I am God 

AND ISREALITES ARE MY SERVANTS    they must not be sold as slaves

( conditional  ethics
here , slavery of aliens condoned by implication) 

and explicitly at ch25 v 44 where we read …

“Take your male and female slaves from the nations around
you”

A COUNTRYMAN CAN BUY HIMSELF BACK FROM AN ALIEN….

This implies aliens too can keep slaves) 

BUT HAS THE RIGHT TO BE FREED AT THE  TIME OF THE JUBILEE 

THE  VALUE OF THIS OLD
DOCTRINE  FOR TODAY  (It is doubtful if it was ever adhered to) .

Here is set out  an
alternative system of landholding 

Accept the aeteological explanation of the text 

 or the
alternative,  Divine  revelation

-         
or both-  a written account explaining present day
(then) Israeli  practices

      but giving an overarching  acknowledgement to  ethical and highly unethical practices, 

There is an ethical ( flawed ethical )  code included as an integral  part of 
land law 

Both Exodous and Leviticus posit  ancient provenance as the justification of
their present     practice.  

-         
 If there is one lesson from the details of
JUBILEE in Leviticus it  is the consideration
to treat all private exclusive ownership as conditional and temporary and  subsidiary 

-         
– then to the Jewish God - now in a
hybrid monarchy and parliamentary 
democracy (where the people hardly figure) to  the sole landowner as the head of state

-         
but if we reformed and effective ‘democracy
‘ where the people are sovereign- the people as a whole would have  sole ownership of the land with individuals  holding temporary and subsidiary rights  

With an understanding that control of the land is more
important than possession or ownership.

Also bearing in mind that 

The worst failing of the present system is it enables
exploitation of the landless  by the  monopoly land owners  by means of making the landless pay in rents,
high house costs, and by direct taxes (e.g. CAP payments benefiting the
landowners) which they are able to do since 99 per cent of people own no bulk
land .

  Also monopoly as at
present is a progressive disease and tightens over the years.

All this is premised on the National  myth  ,
or historical event,  of the
Israelites  being freed from slavery in Egypt
and being promised LAND (occupied by 
other people)

(part of the promise was also partisan and shocking -  

“and you shall have peace in the land and you shall chase
your enemies and they will fall before you by the  sword “. Lev 26.v7 

The ‘promised land’ credo 
always carries with it the reverse side - ethnic cleansing - of the original
 occupants.      

So  human ownership of
LAND in the Old Testament is not absolute but 
always conditional 

   The Israelis  only at best 
are (explicitly) strangers and sojourners with me  ( tenants?) for the land is mine “  (Lev 
25v 23 )

Who is this who owns the land ?

  The word in Hebrew –
Adonai - frequently translated as Lord , denotes ownership, 

usually  in the
context of  a landowner and slave owner
and  owner of servants.

 .This is an
alternative view of land ownership in contrast to our present legal set up.

Why bother with   ancient
cases from partisan Hebrew writings? 

The Queen  is the only
legal owner of land in UK
as I understand Cahill,  all others even
freeholders having ‘title’ to land , only.

Here the Queen steps into the place of God- the royal  claim 
Fid Def  on our coins- defender of
the faith- implies just that, and in England ,the Queen is the head? of the state
church- the Church of England.  This is a
pale reflection  of  the Stewart claim to  inheritance of the monarchy by divine right. 

However  the Queen is
also one of the largest private landowners in UK-

Read the Wealth of the Windsors   by Andrew Morton, also Who Owns Britain
by Kevin Cahill. 

The implication sows confusion. When  royals acquire title by means of privately buying
 estates particularly Balmoral  and Sandrigham , the Queen’s inheritance from
Queen Victoria and King Edward respectively 
has abrogated her claim to divinely inspired title to all the land of
UK,.

(If she  owns all alnd
why buy it? ) Has  she therefore
invalidated all inherited title?  These
are  based ultimately on  the conquest of the land
 of England
by Duke William- or at least of all land titles going back to Tudor times.  Since so many current bulk landowners  owe their title to lands confiscated from the
Church at the time of the Dissolution in 1536 .’37  etc , 
is it now  unreliable  to 
attribute good title to any such past sales or grants of land from the
crown rendering present tiles to many vast estates  invalid?  

Our Western civilization , constitution, ethics,   and 
social norms (as well as religion), and capitalism (read RH Tawney, “Religion
and the rise of capitalism”)  owe a huge
debt to   judo- Christian origins.     

The crudity of  these
old writings, particularly the chauvinism, racial discrimination

Animal sacrifice, and ethnic cleansing are repugnant to many
beliefs.

Noticeable  too is the
subordination of women  in ancient Hebrew
society..

In addition  for many
there is no longer the same need for an explanation of the origin of species
and attributing it to   hands-on divine
intervention, nor to look for  divine
inspiration for ethical standards.

Religious belief has perhaps declined , only to be replaced
by  spiritualism and mysticism, or
perhaps by a more  intellectual  and less anthropomorphic  sort of religion, and a less literal
interpretation of the bible. .

Atheists have to explain why religion and spiritual beliefs
are so widely shared as to be almost universal - if  diverse - in different societies world-wide. 

What some can find in Leviticus is   an alternative to the  present 
UK
system of rights to land  alternative to  absolute ownership  with more inclusive not exclusive  control of Land.   Also
there is a strong input of  ethical
behavior (if limited to the  in group of
fellow countrymen.).

 Slavery  too is repugnant to modern thinking. 

 The
different system of  land use and control
set out in Leviticus  is worthy of
consideration if it helps abolish  what
is to–day a failing of the present system- 
the divisive nature of  monopoly
land ownership, and promises to end the abuse of this for a few powerful  individuals and corporations which  use this control to oppress those without such
exclusive access and which control and use 
land to exploit the excluded group .

The present system 
encourages massive monopoly 
Landbanking by corporate house builders, distorts  the provision, rents and pricing of houses in
the UK.
Agribusiness  increases factory
farming,  creates rural unemployment, and
enables landowners to  secretly harvest
massive annual taxes  in the name of ‘farming’.

   Excessive
concentration on nationalism- which is the arrangement of society behind   exclusive territorial frontiers, and land
hunger has caused wars on an unprecedented scale .

Socialisation (I prefer that term to  ‘nationalization’)  of land, 
deserves a consideration  and
Leviticus may have some lessons on how to achieve or not to achieve a better
system of land use and control.      
Here endeth the lesson for to-day.  
(that’s a joke) 

JA October 2011                                                                                         
JCA papers: Jubilee. 

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