When a person would sell a house in ancient Israel, the house would revert to its original owner with the onset of the Jubilee year, which occurs every 50 years.
There is an exception to this rule. The Torah, in this week’s parsha, states:
“When a man sells a residential house in a walled city he shall be able to redeem it until the end of one year after he had sold it… However, if it is not redeemed by the end of this year, then the house in the city that has a wall shall become the permanent property of the buyer [to be passed down] to his descendants. It shall not be released by the Jubilee.”
The Talmud states that even if the city once had a wall, even if it no longer exists, it is regarded as a walled city and does not revert to the original owner at the Jubilee.
The Talmud bases this on the Hebrew word lo that appears in conjunction with the phrase “the city that has a wall.” The word lo is a homonym. For the same word can be spelled with the letter vav, which means “has,” or with the letter aleph, which then has the opposite meaning: “has not.”
In this context, that word lo has both spellings. In the written version of the text (known as the ktiv) it is written lo with an aleph and means, has no wall, while the authorized way of pronouncing it (known as kri) is with a vav which means that it “has a wall.”
To reconcile these two distinct readings of the text, the Talmud maintains that it refers to a city that had a wall, but does not have one now. It had but has no wall.
All matters of Torah must have a lesson for us in our own journey in life. What lesson can we derive from the law of the walled city; that it belongs to the purchaser forever. And, what lesson can be derived from the city that had a wall but does not have one now?
The city can be a metaphor for the world in which we live. This “city” really belongs to G-d, but He has allowed us to “purchase” a home and take up residence in this city and make use of it for fifty years.
The number fifty is based on the statement in Ethics of the Fathers that the age of 20 is when we first go out into the world and pursue a living. In addition, according to the Talmud, G-d does not punish us for our sins until the age of twenty, despite the fact that we assume responsibility for the commandments at the age of thirteen.
This means that true adulthood and maturity comes at the age of twenty. The Psalmists says that “man’s years are three-score and ten.” Hence, the number of years that we are in full control of our status as “homeowners” in this city we call life, is fifty.
After the years that we spend on this earth, we discover that we take nothing along with us. All the wealth, trophies and honors are left behind. However, if the city has a wall around it, our share in it belongs to us forever; it becomes our permanent acquisition. .
What does the wall refer to?
In rabbinic literature, the wall refers to Torah study because, in addition to all of its other properties, the Torah also possesses the capacity to surround us and protect us, so that the outside influences do not pollute and compromise our minds, hearts and souls. As such, our bodies remain pure and unaffected by the negativity of the world around us.
With the right protection afforded us by the Torah, we gain mastery over our own lives and everything that we do is encompassed and influenced by the Torah. Our city and the home we have in it is a Torah city that lasts forever and that we take with us into the next world and into the future Messianic Age.
This thought mirrors the talmudic teaching that when Moshiach will come, not only we all return to Israel, but even the synagogues and houses of study in the Diaspora will be transplanted in the Holy Land.
When we take our homes and transform them into places that are surrounded and influenced by the study of Torah, our homes are no longer defined as private, secular domiciles, but acquire the status of synagogues and houses of study. They to will endure forever and be transplanted in Israel.
However, there are two types of walls that parallel two levels of Torah study. The first is the wall that we can see with our eyes of flesh. This refers to the aspects of Torah that deal with worldly, ephemeral and, therefore, tangible objects and experiences, i.e., the laws of Torah that govern how we live our physical lives.
There is another dimension of Torah, however, one that deals with the spiritual and ethereal dimension of Torah, the part of Torah that discusses G-d, the soul and higher worlds. This wall—if it was preceded by a physical wall, i.e., the knowledge of the practical teachings of Torah, also has the capacity to protect one’s home and accord it permanence.
Indeed, the latter “invisible wall” not only imbues our houses with permanent status that will be transported to Israel, it is actually a prelude to the fulfillment of the prophecy that in the Messianic Age, G-d says, “I will be a wall of fire around her.” This wall of fire is the wall that we build now by learning the fiery dimension of Torah, the part of Torah that evokes our soul’s fiery passion for G-d.