If Woodie Guthrie had lived in ancient Israel the words to his famous song would, no doubt, read a little differently. Instead of “this land is your land,” he would have written instead, “this land is Your land,” as in God’s land. People did not own land in biblical times, only God did – all of it from the Lebanese mountains, to the Sinai desert, to the Jordan River to the great Mediterranean Sea.
As this week’s Torah portion, Ki Tavo, announces in the first verse, “when you arrive in the land that God has given you as an inheritance.” We receive this gift, graciously, recognizing that just as it was given to us, it can be taken away from us.
In the portion, each resident of Israel must bring a basket of their first fruits to the Temple, pledging loyalty to God and to the People of Israel. We also must pledge to take care of the Levite and the stranger in your midst.
How different a concept of ownership than exists in our world today. In his song, Guthrie was protesting the walls that were beginning to go up around our country dividing the haves from the have-nots. He too was emphasizing what a gift it is to live on God’s great earth and how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful space.
Interestingly enough, the modern state of Israel does not allow private ownership of land. So, who owns the land? We, the Jewish people, do. Under the control of the Jewish Agency, Jews all over the world have a stake in Israel. While antithetical to how we think about land ownership in the 21st Century, this practice is true to our biblical roots. The land is not only God’s, but ours.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex