Putting Faith into Practice
Jubilee Congregations
Jewish Edition DRAFT
Hi Kristin,
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Attached is the Jewish version of Jubilee Congregations with my edits. I don’t know how closely
you were planning on reading through it as well, but I have a couple of suggestions
Most of the facts about debt are from 2003 or 2004, which is when I’m guessing the
packet was first drafted. You all are probably in a better position to update those than me,
but just wanted to mention it.

There are several places in the packet when the reader is referred to another page or
section, except there is no page number or even table of contents. I inserted page
numbers in a few places, but it’s something to be checked if the pages change. I would
also recommend inserting a table of contents.

The section that was most troublesome to me was “The Jubilee Found in Our Texts and
Taught By Our Teachers” (page 40-42). There’s a note in track changes at the beginning
of the section, but it was a bit confusing in terms of both structure and text – there were a
bunch of short text references, all with citations, and then a longer section that might
have been meant to be read all together, but without citations or references. Overall, I
tried to find as many citations as possible throughout the packet, but it’s again something
to look at before publication.

An “Introduction to the Debt Crisis” is referenced twice (page 15 and 24) but there is no
section in the packet with that title. I think if it’s a separate packet or brochure, it would
be helpful to know that.

There are notes throughout when I had questions, comments, suggestions, etc. on certain
smaller points within the document – just something to be aware of.
I think that’s about it – I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any questions about what
I did (many of my changes were things like making sure all of the formatting stayed consistent,
spelling out “God” – we decided it would be fine for both Reform and Conservative synagogues –
and changing references from Church language to synagogue) or if I can be of help in any other
way.
Thanks!
Allison G. Grossman
Legislative Assistant
Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
2027 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036
202.387.2800 (p)
202.667.9070 (f)
www.rac.org
Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha’olam,
asher kidshanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu lirdof tzedakah.
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Blessed are you Eternal God, Ruler of the Universe,
who has hallowed us with the mitzvot and
commanded us to pursue justice.
Coming together for a holy purpose...
When people of faith join together for a holy
purpose, we can turn the tides of economic
injustice, challenge harmful policies and
advance a prophetic vision of fairness,
equality and hope for the world’s poor.
Acknowledgements
We thank the Religious Action Center of Reform
Judaism for their guidance in development of this
handbook.
Program and Vision
Welcome!
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The phrase “Let my people go” is an incredibly compelling one to those struggling for
freedom. These words, which Moses spoke to Pharaoh as he led the Israelites from
slavery in Egypt, still ring true today to millions of people across the world. Men,
women and children, each created b'tselem Elohim (in the image of God), are held in
bondage by the chains of international debt.
The Jewish community, with its belief in and practice of tikkun o’lam and tzedakah, can
be important and valuable advocates for those ensnared by debt slavery. A deeper
understanding, prayer, and action in support of debt cancellation for the world’s most
impoverished countries are what Jubilee USA is asking of religious communities.
In the Jewish tradition, learning is about living. The values taught in the texts provide the
basis for our long history of commitment to social action and social justice. The Talmud
tells the story of a debate between two major rabbinic academies, the school of Hillel and
the school of Shammai. They struggled to resolve the following question: If a person had
to choose between studying Torah and performing good deeds, what should he or she do?
After years of argument, they concluded that if a person could only choose one thing,
they should study Torah. Their logic was as follows: If you only performed good deeds,
you would be a good person, but you might never understand the richness and complexity
of our tradition. On the other hand, everyone agreed that it was impossible to study Torah
and not be motivated to perform good deeds and pursue justice. The rabbis found it
inconceivable that study would not lead to action.
Over 500 years of colonialism, slavery, and exploitation have led to a situation in which
the countries of the Global South are economically indentured to the North. Joining the
Jubilee USA Network in the struggle against this global economic injustice is a practical
way for congregations and individuals to live out their faith and convictions. The Jubilee
Congregations program provides resources and materials to help faith communities
educate themselves about the roots and current manifestations of the international debt
crisis while providing congregations with tools to create change while working in
collaboration with other people of faith.
At the most basic level, the debt crisis faced by poor countries prevents people from
accessing the most basic life necessities. Debt keeps children from getting the food and
education that they need. Debt keeps families from receiving health care. Debt keeps
millions of people bound to poverty. Funds freed by debt cancellation provide
desperately needed resources for hunger relief, medical care for children, clean water and
safe roads, as well as HIV/AIDS prevention, education, care and treatment.
This packet is an urgent invitation to your congregation to join the growing number of
faith communities across the country who are working together to break the chains of
debt for the world’s most impoverished people. Hopefully, the pages that follow will
serve as a resource tool for you and your congregation so that the Jewish community can
have a strong voice in what is becoming one of the largest global social justice
movements in history.
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Economic Justice and Jewish Values
Reprinted in full text with permission of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
The RAC pursues social justice and religious liberty by mobilizing the North American
Jewish Community and serving as its advocate in the nation’s capitol.
Hebrew scripture details for us one of the world's earliest social welfare system. We are
taught to leave the corners of our fields and the gleanings of our harvest to the poor
(based on Leviticus 19:9), and to open our hands and lend to people whatever it is they
need (based on Deuteronomy 7-11). We learn that helping fellow human beings in need,
tzedakah, is not simply a matter of charity, but of responsibility, righteousness, and
justice. The Bible does not merely tell us to give to the poor, but to advocate on their
behalf. We are told in Proverbs 31:9, to "speak up, judge righteously, champion the poor
and the needy."
Jewish history also provides us with an example for helping the needy. During Talmudic
times, much of tzedakah was done though tax-financed, community-run programs that
provided for the poor, the hungry, the ill, and the children—a close parallel to the
entitlement security we fought, and continue to fight, to persevere in our society today.
Judaism and Jubilee: The Power of Debt Cancellation to Fight Hunger,
Poverty and Injustice
Jubilee USA Network is a coalition of over 70 religious, labor and environmental groups
that work for debt cancellation for impoverished countries. Debt is one of the primary
stumbling blocks impeding development for poor countries that must spend limited
resources on foreign debt payments rather than on healthcare and education. Because
Jubilee has a vested interest in repairing the world, tikkun olam, we would like to invite
your Jewish community to become involved in our efforts.
Debt Facts:
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More than half of African countries spend a greater amount on debt payments
than on health care for their citizens
Sub-Saharan African countries spend $14.5 billion every year servicing foreign
debts that are decades old; an amount greater than that received in foreign aid and
greater than what is needed to alleviate the AIDS epidemic
The United Nations estimates that the lives of 19,000 children could be saved
every day if foreign debt payments were redirected to clean water, nutrition and
basic healthcare services
In cases where debt relief has been provided, countries have used the savings to
dramatically increase health and education budgets, resulting in millions of kids
returning to school, more vaccinations, stronger resources to fight the AIDS
epidemic and increased access to health care
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Why join Jubilee?
Although the Jubilee campaign has made great progress, debt loads continue to be
oppressive in many countries, and there is still a great deal of work to do. Fighting for
debt relief is a way to make a significant impact in the lives of millions of people in poor
countries. Jewish texts, commentary and tradition are aware of the necessity of providing
relief for those in need. The great scholar Maimonides, for example, wrote that it is the
greatest mitzvah to provide a means of self sufficiency. Working for debt relief is a way
to help impoverished nations break free from dependence on foreign nations and provide
for themselves.
There is textual support in the Torah for the cancellation of debt:
“And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all
the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto
his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family,” Leviticus 25:10.
“At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. And this is the manner of the
release: every creditor shall release that which he hath lent unto his neighbor: he shall not
exact it of his neighbor and his brother; because the lords release hath been proclaimed,”
Deuteronomy 15.
Jubilee Congregations
Jubilee USA Network is launching the Jubilee Congregations inter-faith program for
religious communities across the country to learn about Jubilee and do more for lifesaving debt relief. Jubilee Congregations participate through raising awareness and
taking action through activities such as letter writing campaigns to government officials.
We invite you to learn more about becoming a Jubilee Congregation. For more
information about how to become involved with Jubilee, please contact our office in
Washington DC at 202-783-3566 or visit our website at www.jubileeusa.org.
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Jubilee Congregations Commitments
In the guidelines we’ve outlined, we ask Jubilee Congregations to pray, act, fundraise and
write letters to support with the cause of Jubilee worldwide. We welcome your ideas for
other ways to express your commitment to Jubilee.
Pray
The first commitment for a Jubilee Congregation is prayer.
We believe in the power of prayer and how it impacts our personal lives. We invite you
and your congregation to actively pray for Jubilee, an end to the economic bondage of
debt and global injustice.
Here are some ideas on how to incorporate prayer into your work for Jubilee:
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Begin and end your meetings and activities with prayer.
Ask small groups—Torah study groups, men’s and women’s groups and youth
groups—in your synagogue to take turns praying for Jubilee.
Hold a Jubilee Shabbat Service
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Contact the Jubilee national office to find out about our national Jubilee Shabbat. If
your congregation follows the liturgical calendar, choose a Shabbat when a Jubilee
related parasha will be read.
After selecting potential dates for a Jubilee Shabbat, be in touch with your rabbi or
cantor and go through the planning process with their help.
Use the theological notes in this handbook to get you started. Share these resources
with others planning the service.
If your synagogue has decided to become a Jubilee Congregation, we recommend
including a banner dedication as part of your worship service.
A Jubilee Shabbat is a great time to hold letter writing campaigns.
Call the national staff as often as you need for support in holding a Jubilee Shabbat.
Your Prayers
A Jubilee Congregation of Sisters of the Humility of Mary in Cleveland Heights,
Ohio, writes liturgies on the theme of jubilee they use during their religious
community’s prayer services.
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Act
Another essential commitment is designating a contact person who will be a liaison between
your synagogue and Jubilee USA.
Your contact person is the linchpin to building a thriving and successful Jubilee
movement. When we seek to call your congregation into action at crucial moments in our
campaign, such as when we are having a national grassroots tour or when legislation is up
for a vote, we will be in touch with the contact person. This person also serves as a
liaison to the growing nationwide network of Jubilee congregations. We want to facilitate
communication among Jubilee Congregations so that we can learn from each other,
support each other and deepen our faith while we proclaim Jubilee. The contact person
will receive updates via e-mail, as well as Jubilee newsletters and special mailings.
Characteristics of a good Jubilee contact person:
- Someone who is, or has the potential to be, a leader in the congregation.
- Someone who supports canceling poor countries’ debt and knows the U.S. political
process.
- Someone who is able and interested in doing some research on the topic of debt.
- Someone who can teach others and creatively engage the congregation in Jubilee.
Designate contact person or persons on the Jubilee Congregations registration form.
Since the role of this contact person is so crucial, please let us know how we can best
support you. The Jubilee contact person needs to have internet access to receive e-mail
updates, action alerts and resources on our Web site.
“You are my servant through whom I show my glory.” Isaiah 49:3
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Your Action
Jubilee Congregations can participate in actions organized by the national office at
specific times, or plan gatherings at any time of the year.
Elain Hickman, contact person for a Mennonite Jubilee Congregation in Seattle,
Wash., has been active in the Jubilee Northwest Coalition. At their church building—
once an Art Deco style movie theater—they showed the film Life and Debt, about
Jamaica, and had a small group discussion.
For the June 2004 Group of Eight Summit in Georgia, Jubilee encouraged
congregations to take pictures of themselves with banners calling on the G-8 to drop the
debt. At a press conference Jubilee held during the summit with national and local
activists and pastors, 200 photographs of Jubilee grassroots members from across the
country were displayed.
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One Dollar
Jubilee Congregations also commit to financially supporting Jubilee USA.
Each congregation makes a financial commitment of one dollar per member or one
offering for Jubilee USA annually. This is a guideline to help keep the Jubilee vision
alive—and provide the staff and resources to keep the Jubilee Congregations program
running. If your congregation is able to give more, Jubilee will welcome your additional
donation, putting it towards the expansion of our program.
There are a number of places that donations can come from to fulfill the Jubilee
Congregation commitment:
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from the general synagogue budget;
from the outreach budget, or a special needs fund your congregation administers;
from a tzedakah box for Jubilee; and
from a special fundraising or education event.
Asking your congregational leaders to make a donation to Jubilee is another way to
involve your community. It provides an opportunity to talk about an issue you believe in
with your leaders. If it is the first time you have asked for money from your congregation,
or if you are not comfortable asking for money, or if you would simply like more ideas
about how to take this step feel free to be in touch with the Jubilee staff to seek support
and guidance in this process.
If your congregation is able to agree to financially support Jubilee, ask your
leadership to write the Jubilee commitment into the annual budget, so that you don’t need
to appeal for the funds each year. Instead you can simply check annually to make sure
that the Jubilee commitment stays within the budget or ask each year for the amount to be
increased.
Many congregations give money to sponsor a child to go to school or support
building projects in other countries. Remember that Jubilee debt relief has freed up
millions of dollars that has put tens of millions of children back in school and has
provided money for basic health, infrastructure and jobs in dozens of countries. How
much would that be worth to your faith community?
Fundraising can also take place outside a congregation’s budget, such as at
awareness raising events. By first educating your congregations about international
poverty, your community can become more knowledgeable about Jubilee, giving their
time and commitment before giving financial resources.
Where does your donation to Jubilee USA go?
Jubilee USA relies heavily on donations from the Jubilee Congregation program,
as well as our network members and foundation grants to fund our program. We are a
non-profit 501(c) 3, so all gifts are tax-deductible. Your donations go to keep Jubilee’s
biblical mission for debt cancellation and economic justice running. Your gifts help us
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sustain the congregational program, so we can create the resources you need and pay our
staff to keep you up to date on timely actions to provide debt cancellation for the world’s
impoverished countries.
Make checks payable to:
Jubilee USA Network, 222 East Capitol Street, NE, Washington, DC 20003
You may also donate via credit card online at www.jubileeusa.org or by contacting the
Jubilee office.
One Letter
The final commitment for Jubilee congregations is to send one letter per member every
year.
Letter writing is one of the easiest and most effective methods of campaigning for debt
cancellation. It shows decision makers and elected officials we care enough to sit down,
think about the issue and contact them. Letter writing is a simple and direct action that
members of your congregation can take to express their concern for Jubilee.
The one letter per member commitment does not mean each person at your
synagogue must write a letter, but rather should be seen as a target for how many letters
you would like to have written over the course of one year.
Don’t underestimate the power of a handwritten letter—it can have a huge
impact! Many decision makers calculate every handwritten letter they
receive represents 100 who support the cause and 1,000 who rate it as
important.
How to organize letter-writing in your congregation:
- Plan in advance
It is always most effective to plan your letter writing efforts in advance. Connect them to
a Jubilee Shabbat worship service or a series of adult education classes, if possible.
Contact the Jubilee office or visit the Jubilee website to find out who is the most
appropriate decision maker to send letters to and when might be the most effective time
to write letters. We can also help you draft a sample letter.
- Seek support of others
Build a committee of people around you to help the letter writing be a success. A core
team of three to four committed people is usually enough to make the workload light on
everyone.
- Get the word out!
Advertise your plans to do letter writing for Jubilee in your synagogue newsletter and
bulletins a number of weeks in advance. Announce the letter writing table during your
service and encourage people to participate, or have the appropriate person make the
announcement and identify contact people.
- Make it simple and direct
Make the letter writing easy for those who come by your table. Have colorful graphics
and educational materials out for people, have greeting cards or paper and pens available.
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Write a sample letter—a few sentences in big bold font on a large piece of paper—and
place several copies on the table as references. Often Jubilee will have a sample letter on
our Web site or we will send you one by email.
- Twice is nice, but three times can be the charm
Try holding your letter writing table for a number of weeks after services. Three to four
weeks in a row is usually the best. If people want to take literature and learn more, they
still have a chance to write letters the following week. Likewise if people are out of town
or leave early, you can catch them on another occasion.
- Don’t Forget…
On the day(s) of your letter-writing table remember to take: lots of pens and paper/cards,
sample letters, a box for donations to cover the postage, informational material and a
colorful or ethnic cloth to spread underneath everything. Make sure each person signs her
or his full address on the inside of the letter or card as the envelopes are often discarded.
- Tell us about it
Mail the letters, and let the Jubilee office know how many there were and how the event
went.
A few tips to help get your message across:
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Start by thanking the decision maker for steps taken in the past—this positive
feedback can not be underestimated.
Express two or three points only.
Be polite and positive wherever possible.
State what you want the decision maker to do.
Let your Member of Congress know if you voted for him or her.
Always include your full name and address and the name of your congregation.
Ask for a reply.
Handwrite your letters.
Read the replies!
Feel free to respond to the reply. Share the responses with the Jubilee office. Post replies
on your congregational bulletin board or in another obvious place in the building so that
other letter writers can be encouraged that their voices were heard.
Contacting Members of Congress and Decision Makers
Consider sending your letter as a handwritten fax or as an e-mail. You can also make
phone calls to congressional staff who work on debt. Another option is sending letters to
the congressional district offices and asking they be passed on to the appropriate
Washington staff person.
Representative --United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Visit www.house.gov to find out who your Representative is and learn their contact
information.
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Senator --United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Visit www.senate.gov to find out who your Senators are and learn their contact
information.
The President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Secretary of the Treasury*
US Treasury Department
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20220
*The Treasury Department is the part of the Administration that works on World Bank
and IMF issues, including debt cancellation. They are very influential in setting policies at
the World Bank and IMF.
Managing Director
International Monetary Fund
700 19th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433
President of the World Bank
World Bank
1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433
Your Letter Writing
In April 2004, the 60th anniversary of the World Bank and International
Monetary Fund, Jubilee supporters worldwide marked the year with unhappy birthday
cards. Jubilee staff delivered their cards, along with over 11,000 others, during an
unhappy birthday party in front of the World Bank and IMF.
Josie Chrosniak and her congregation of Sisters of Humility of Mary in
Cleveland Heights, Ohio, signed 150 unhappy birthday cards during a community day,
a gathering of women in their community, after holding a prayer service.
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Activity Ideas
Here are some ideas for additional activities to build the Jubilee movement and influence
key decision makers on debt cancellation and global economic justice. Shape these
suggestions to fit your congregation’s needs.
Fostering the Jubilee Spirit in Your Congregation
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Set up a prayer corner in your congregation for debt relief and economic justice. Put
up posters, pictures and news articles about impoverished countries. Have prayer
cards for people to take with them to remember to pray for an end to debt and
economic injustice.
Hold an education hour for members of your congregation. See Sample Presentation
Outline. Ask people to write letters or take other kinds of actions at the end.
Do a series of adult education classes or Torah studies for members of your
congregation.
Form a Jubilee committee at your congregation to foster ongoing education, outreach
and action for Jubilee. Participate in the Jubilee monthly actions listed on our website.
Pick a country or sister city and learn more about that area’s specific debt situation.
Post information such as family stories, news articles or debt statistics. Use country
debt sheets on Jubilee’s website to make it concrete and personal. Also see “The
Human Impacts of Debt” on page 14.
Offer prayers during worship service on a regular basis for Jubilee and an end to
poverty.
Bring a speaker from the global South or a representative of Jubilee USA to speak to
your adult education classes or during Shabbat services. Contact the Jubilee office to
consider possibilities.
One Jubilee Congregation created a special celebration around their offering of letters
and dollars. Another had their member of Congress present as they did a banner
dedication.
Invite your Member of Congress to a Jubilee Shabbat or to an event at your
congregation where you can ask them about their support for Jubilee.
Advocacy
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Meet with your member of Congress on the debt issue. All you need is a few people
from your congregation to have a powerful visit. Ask your rabbi to join you on the
visit.
Meet with your city council members and ask them to pass a statement in support of
Jubilee.
Meet with the editorial writers at your local newspaper. Advocate that they write a
favorable editorial on debt cancellation and economic justice. Talk to the Jubilee
office about more ideas and “press hooks” for talking to these important opinion
setters in your community.
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Reaching Out
- If your congregation sponsors trips or international delegations, encourage these trips
to address economic justice issues and meet with Jubilee’s international partners
while traveling abroad.
- Occasionally Jubilee or our partner organizations sponsor international trips.
Encourage members of your congregation to join these delegations.
- Set up an interfaith Jubilee coalition in your community. Work with other contact
people from nearby Jubilee congregations, or contact the Jubilee office to see who is
already active.
- Encourage other congregations in your faith tradition or region to join Jubilee
Congregations.
- Meet with your regional leaders to ask for their support on a regional level. Help them
implement a regional program on Jubilee congregations. Ask them to speak out on the
issue of debt and economic justice. The Union for Reform Judaism’s regional offices
can be found at http://urj.org/offices/. The regions of the United Synagogue of
Conservative Judaism can be found at http://www.uscj.org. Find your local Jewish
Community Relations Council at www.jewishpublicaffairs.org.
- Write articles, letters to the editor and op-eds. You can submit them to your
congregation’s newsletter, denominational publications or a local newspaper. Contact
the Jubilee office for help in doing media work to get your pieces get printed.
- Host a public witness event in your community—a candlelight vigil, a human chain
or other creative actions to draw attention to the goals of debt cancellation and
economic justice.
More ideas for Jubilee justice … visit our website (www.jubileeusa.org) for a list of
organizations working on Jubilee related issues like fair trade, the AIDS crisis and
challenging the policies of the World Bank and IMF.
Call the national office to stay in touch with actions we are doing.
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Sample Presentation Outline
Human Impact of Debt
Start with personal story or use a short video to connect to the human face of the debt
issue. You can use the personal stories in this packet, stories from your own travels or ask
someone in your congregation who has traveled to a highly indebted country to share
stories about the reality of poverty and debt in people’s lives.
Overview of Debt and Global Poverty
Give basic statistics on global poverty:
- More than 1.1 billion people—one in every six on Earth—survive on less than $1 a day.
- Every day 831 million people in developing countries—13 percent of the world’s
population—go hungry. Over half of these are in Sub Saharan Africa or South Asia.
- Every year about 10 million children die of preventable illnesses—nearly 30,000 a day.
- 2.7 billion people do not have access to adequate sanitation.
- Every day 8,000 people die from HIV/AIDS—35 million have already, 70 percent of
them in African countries.
Give basic statistics of the problem of debt:
- Developing countries owe around $2 trillion dollars in foreign debts.
- More than half of African countries spend more on debt service than on health care for
their citizens. In 2002 the Democratic Republic of Congo spent 1.5 percent of its Gross
Domestic Product on health care and 16.2 percent on debt service.
- Countries in sub-Saharan Africa receive $19 billion in official aid every year, while
paying back almost $13 billion in foreign debt payments.
Sources: United Nations Human Development Report 2004; “Debt Sustainability: Oasis or Mirage?”
United Nations Report on Economic Development in Africa 2004; World Bank World Development
Indicators 2004; World Health Organization 1998 annual report; UNAIDS
Connect to Biblical Jubilee scriptures
Use the theological notes in the packet, beginning on page 37, to apply the Torah’s
message about Jubilee to the global economy and crisis of debt slavery for the world’s
poorest people.
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Give history of how countries got into debt
See “Introduction to the Debt Crisis” on page to give an overview of how countries got
into debt. You can also order education and action packets on the Materials Order Form
on page 35 that give more in depth information sheets.
Debt relief success stories
Share examples and statistics from the enclosed “Debt Relief Works” section (page 28).
It is crucial to highlight what debt relief is doing to benefit millions of families in
impoverished countries.
Respond by becoming a Jubilee Congregation
Share the vision behind the Jubilee Congregations program. Share the four commitments
to becoming a Jubilee congregation and propose that your congregation respond to the
information they are learning about the debt crisis by becoming a Jubilee Congregation.
Question and Answer section
See “Questions and Answers on Debt Cancellation,” page 23, to help anticipate questions
that might come up during your presentation. Leave at least ten minutes for questions and
answers—it is always great to engage people in conversation and respond to concerns.
End talk with personal story or inspiring quote and call to action
Make it personal—connect to what inspires you about Jubilee justice. This is the time to
speak from your heart and your faith. Remind people how powerful they are in seeking
change, what ordinary people have already done and how much more we can do together.
Letter writing
End the session by writing letters to Member of Congress, other decision makers, a local
newspaper or denominational publication. Pass around a sign-up sheet for those who
want to stay connected or get more involved.
Maimonedes’ ladder of tzedakah reminds us that it is good to give a person a fish
because he will be able to eat for a day. Better, however is teaching him to fish so that
he can eat indefinitely. Jubilee recognizes that debt and harmful economic policies
have taken the fishing poles and nets that would allow our brothers and sisters in
impoverished countries to use their resources and gain self-sufficiency.
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Overview of Jubilee USA Network
Jubilee USA Network is part of the worldwide movement of concerned citizens seeking
to cancel the international debts of impoverished countries. The successor organization to
the Jubilee 2000 campaign in the United States, Jubilee USA Network has been
instrumental in passing debt relief legislation over the last few years. The Network
believes that much of the international debt is fundamentally illegitimate and should be
cancelled without conditions that deny basic human rights or harm the environment.
Jubilee USA encompasses a broad range of both religious and secular organizations, as
well as thousands of individuals who share a moral commitment to finding a definitive
solution to the international debt crisis and achieving global economic justice. The
Network Council—religious, social justice, environmental and development
organizations, national and local—serves as the governing body for the Jubilee USA
Network.
Jubilee USA is a 501(c) 3 not for profit organization, and all donations are fully taxdeductible.
Jubilee USA Network Council members, as of early 2005:
AFL-CIO
Africa Action
Africa Faith and Justice Network
African Services Committee
American Friends Service Committee
Augustinian Justice & Peace Office
Bay Area Jubilee Debt Cancellation Coalition
Center for Economic Justice
Center for Economic and Policy Research
Center of Concern
Church of the Brethren Washington Office
Church World Service
Columban Justice and Peace Office
Conference of Major Superiors of Men
East Timor Action Network
Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education
Ecumenical Program on Central America and the Caribbean (EPICA)
Environmental Defense
Episcopal Church USA
Episcopal Peace Fellowship
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Southern Africa Network ELCA
50 Years Is Enough Network
Friends of the Earth
Global AIDS Alliance
Global Justice
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Global Ministries United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Haiti Reborn/Quixote Center
Health GAP Coalition/Act Up Philadelphia
Inter-Religious Task Force on Central America
International Development Exchange
Jubilee York County
Jubilee Chicago
Jubilee Colorado Network
Jubilee LA/OC
Jubilee Missoula Coalition
Jubilee Network Oregon
Jubilee Virginia
Leadership Conference of Women Religious
Lutheran World Relief
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
Medical Mission Sisters
Mennonite Central Committee
Michigan Jubilee Coalition
Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate
National Council of Churches
Network for Environmental and Economic Responsibility/UCC
Nicaragua Network
Nicaragua/US Friendship Office
Jubilee Northwest Coalition
Oxfam America
Pan African Children’s Fund (PACF)
Pax Christi USA
Presbyterian Church USA
Priority Africa Network
Quest for Peace/Quixote Center
Religious Action Center, Union for Reform Judaism
Religious Task Force on Central America and Mexico
RESULTS
School Sisters of Notre Dame, Shalom North America
Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur
Sisters of the Holy Cross
Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia
Sojourners
TransAfrica Forum
United Church of Christ, Public Life and Social Policy Office
United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society
United Methodist Church New England Conference Jubilee Committee
United Methodist Women
Washington Office on Africa
Witness for Peace
World Vision
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Yes, our faith community wants to become a Jubilee Congregation!
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Address:_______________________________________________________________________
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Enclosed is an additional donation to Jubilee USA Network of $__________
Tell us about your plans to promote Jubilee in your congregation through prayer, education
and letter writing:
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Send registration form and donation to:
Jubilee USA Network
222 E. Capitol Street, NE
Washington, DC 20003
Thank you for becoming a Jubilee Congregation and joining us to restore right
relationships and economic justice through proclaiming Jubilee! Your Jubilee
banner and welcome letter will arrive within 2-4 weeks.
19
Background and Information
The Human Impact Of Debt: Personal Stories
Ghana
Clinic Fees
Illness forced 43-year-old Okoso to leave his job at a Ghanaian gold mining company.
Just three months later, his family’s funds exhausted, he stopped going to the local clinic.
“If I went to the clinic,” he said, “they would make me pay this new fee which, frankly,
my family and I cannot afford. I have no work, no salary. We live day to day on what my
wife can make selling vegetables in the local market or what my sons can bring home
from selling things on the streets. Some days we eat only one meal and we often go to
bed hungry.”
Source: Jim Yong Kim, “Dying for Growth,” Common Courage Press, 2000
Hospitals Become Jails
In the West African country of Ghana hospitals can become prisons if you are a patient
unable to pay the bills. In the town of Tarkwa located in the Ashanti gold mining region,
a young woman waited for weeks, detained in the hospital nursing her newborn baby,
while her husband tried to borrow money from relatives to pay the hospital fees. The
Ashanti region sits on a mountain of gold, but the local people are not benefiting from
this wealth.
Even World Bank officials recognize that user fees are an obstacle to people
receiving needed health care services. Bank loan documents for Ghana state that “after
user fees were initially introduced in 1985, utilization of health services at public clinics
fell markedly.” Yet neither the Government of Ghana nor the World Bank appear ready
to take the bold and courageous step of condemning their past policies and abolishing the
user fee system. Until this happens, innocent people will be detained in hospitals merely
because they cannot afford the fee. And countless others in need of health care will never
seek services.
Source: Sara Grusky, “Hospital Become Jails.” Grusky works at Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and
Environment Program and with the International Water Working Group; Staff Appraisal Report, Health
Sector Program, World Bank, 1997, 8.
Haiti
Everywhere you look you can see the impact of debt and structural adjustment. Kids are
out of school because they cannot afford the user fees. I have dozens of pictures of empty
beds in public clinics and the primary hospitals because the majority of the people live on
less than a dollar a day and they cannot afford to pay a quarter of their wage to get into
the door of the hospital, much less pay for x-rays and prescriptions. We passed a man
sitting on a dusty bench outside one hospital, holding on to his catheter. A woman at a
20
clinic in a small town was lying naked on a hard metal platform, strapped down in
preparation for a c-section. She was fully awake and alone as she waited for her surgery.
If a Haitian goes to an emergency room and receives care, but cannot pay the fee, he or
she is held in the hospital until a family or community member is able to raise the money
for the release of the patient. This has led to some women having their newborns
“kidnapped” to get them out of the hospital.
While we were there the government buckled to creditor pressure and lifted the
gas subsidies causing a sharp increase in gas prices. It suddenly cost more for the average
Haitian worker to get to work than the person would make in a day.
More than 40 percent of the population does not have access to clean water at the
best of times, and some areas have no access at all. The most horrifying image that I
came away with from the trip is of women bathing their children in the open sewer as it
was the only running water they could find.
Source: Marie Clarke Brill, then Jubilee USA Network national coordinator, 2003
Mexico
On a hot summer day Honesimo Franco scampers up and down Tabasco Street flagging
down vehicles and leading them to parking spaces. He opens doors for señoritas and
watches the cars while their owners eat or shop. It is not what he would call a job but it is
a way of surviving. “Looking after cars is what I do,” said the grey-haired 58-year-old. “I
get one or two pesos a time. It is difficult to survive on that.”
Franco explains that he lost his job as a carpenter a few years ago, one of an
estimated 1.5 million people thrown out of work when government financial bungling led
to pesos crash. That worst crisis, the second major devaluation in seven years, forced
Mexico to go cap in hand to international donors, who coughed up $51 billion in shortterm loans. The government paid off ahead of schedule but still owes $149 billion in
other debt. It is indeed people like Franco who feel they are paying the price.
Source: Jim Yong Kim, “Dying for Growth,” Common Courage Press, 2000
Senegal
Demba Djemay is a nurse in an understaffed and under-equipped clinic in Senegal.
“Under these conditions,” he said, “I simply cannot provide my patients the kind of care
they urgently need.” He can write a prescription, he said, but, “Most patients would have
to trade away the family’s food supply to purchase the medicines. Many have already
sold livestock to pay for their transportation to town and hospital admission fee. So often
after losing a day or more of work, patients go home empty-handed.”
Source: Jim Yong Kim, “Dying for Growth,” Common Courage Press, 2000
South Africa
Jonah lost his wife to AIDS. He has recovered through critical antiretroviral drugs, so he
can look after his two kids. However, Jonah faces a grave dilemma. His girlfriend is also
21
HIV positive, and they cannot afford the antiretroviral drugs. Jonah only can afford
enough for himself, so his dilemma is, should he share, or watch her die?
Agnes also lives in South Africa, and is an HIV mother. She lives with the fact
that she has passed on HIV to her children. Agnes has created a memory book for her
children that is filled with thoughts and pictures of Agnes so that her children might
remember her when she dies, for want of $1 a day antiretroviral treatment.
Source: Bono, DATA founder
Zambia
A Dumping Ground
Zambia once had a thriving clothing industry. But when government officials began
opening Zambia’s economy to foreign trade 10 years ago in exchange for loans from
international donors, tons of cheap, secondhand clothing began to pour into the country,
virtually duty free. Not especially efficient, Zambia’s textile factories were overmatched
by the wholesalers, who could deliver affordable, passable clothing without paying
production or labor costs or the tariffs that once protected local manufacturers from
foreign competition.
So, Zambia’s clothing industry all but vanished. Within eight years, about 30,000
jobs disappeared, replaced by a loose but crowded network of roadside and flea market
vendors beckoning shoppers to ‘rummage through the pile,’ or ‘salaula’ in the language
of Zambia’s Bemba tribe. The expansion of global trade following the end of the Cold
War has transformed Africa into a dumping ground for what the industrialized world no
longer needs or wants, a deluge of secondhand clothes, used cars, old furniture and tools
and weapons.
Source: “The Dumping Ground: As Zambia Courts Western Markets, Used Goods Arrive at a Heavy
Price,” Jon Jeter, The Washington Post, 22 April 2002, A1
Rural community school
One of the days on the Jubilee women’s delegation to Zambia, we went to visit a
community school in a rural area outside of Lusaka. When we arrived, we drove up onto
a field of grass towards a structure that I couldn’t believe was what we had come to visit.
It was in the shape of a barn with brick walls on the far ends and plastic sheeting on the
top and sides of the structure. The hail season had just come through so the plastic was
torn and blowing in the wind like sheets on a line to dry.
We met the teachers there, very serious and quiet. The community school receives
no government money. They set themselves up to serve the children that are so far
removed they can’t walk to any government schools. This school serves more than 400
students and there is one teacher for each grade 1-6. None of the teachers are paid, they
are all volunteers. We asked them how they survive and they said that many of them had
land by their houses where they grew corn and greens for food. Sometimes family
members or friends will give them a little money for soap or toothpaste.
22
We saw a series of rocks on the red dirt earth. The little rocks were to sit on, the
big rocks were the desks. One of the teachers showed us how they taught the students
their ABCs by drawing them in the dirt on the floor. We were told that they taught the
Lord’s prayer and the chapters in the Bible. “Then we teach them to share everything you
have with your friends,” continued Mr. Chaunca. “We teach them to not be stingy...”
Source: Mara Vanderslice, written on a Jubilee sponsored women’s delegation to Zambia, 2003
Sauti’s Story
My name is Lewis Sauti, I was enrolled as first grader in 1985 in Northern Zambia at
Remmy Chisupa Primary School. I was one of the 50 pupils in my class that year. We
enjoyed going to school. The Government distributed the materials we needed, including
textbooks, work-books and chalk. This government’s priority of subsidizing the ministry
of education sector improved the quantity and quality of education.
For those first five years, things went well, there was high rate of enrollment and
many continued to secondary school. However, in 1990, something new emerged, the
introduction of fees for grade eight qualifying exams. The parents who could not afford
to pay for their children’s exams took them out of school and those who wrote the exams
without paying had their results withheld until they could pay.
The next year the government started charging fees for basic school attendance.
The fee was set at 1,500 Kawacha, the Zambian currency. Most of the parents depended
on subsistence fishing for their source of income. Their average income per year was
K5,000. Fishing is a seasonal occupation and many families did not have enough to pay
the fees and therefore were forced to take their children out of school or at the very least
choose between their youngsters as to who would continue.
By the time I was writing my final exams in 1994, the fees went up to K26,000.
That steep increase affected many families who had sacrificed for their children for some
years, only at last to find themselves in a situation that incapacitated them. My class size
had already dropped from 300 to 168. Of these only 17 pupils were able to make it to
grade ten.
“Cost sharing” as these school fees are called, were supposed to help improve the
quality of education and empower the community to get involved in education.
If the economic constraints remain intolerable in a country that has 80 percent of its
population living below poverty line, most of them living on less than a dollar per day,
how does charging fees they can’t afford for education help them?
I graduated from secondary school almost six years ago, the number of pupils at
secondary school continues to decrease as fees continue to rise; the rate of illiteracy keeps
on increasing and the questions people keep asking are, “how will the poor be educated,
how will they afford?”
- Lewis Sauti Chilembwe, Oblate novice from Zambia, June 2002
23
Questions and Answers on Debt Cancellation
Individuals have to pay back their debts, why should we seek debt cancellation for
countries?
Normally each person should pay his or her debts. Yet, debt repayments should not come
at the cost of basic human dignity and survival. Many societies currently and throughout
history have recognized the prudence of bankruptcy proceedings, in order to avoid
driving individuals and families into poverty in order to pay back debt.
Forgiveness is the central tenet of Jubilee. The concept, first expressed in the
Torah, declares the moral conviction that debts should be forgiven before people are
driven to misery and hopelessness.
In recent decades, lenders helped create the debt crisis of poor countries by giving
loans without concern for how they would be used, or to achieve political goals. Today,
those who hold the least responsibility, impoverished people in impoverished countries,
have suffered most. They should no longer sacrifice their hope for the future to repay old
debts they never chose to borrow.
Will debt relief benefit the poor?
Debt cancellation could save millions of lives by allowing governments to keep their
resources and invest them in health, education, clean water and the fight against
HIV/AIDS. The World Health Organization reported in 1998 that nearly 10 million
children a year die of preventable diseases. The lives of almost 30,000 children a day
could be saved if current debt payments were redirected to health and basic services in
impoverished countries.
Debt cancellation will not solve all the problems of global poverty. However,
unless there is substantial debt cancellation, progress for most poor countries will be
impossible. There is also evidence that debts have led to instability and conflict, and have
reduced countries’ ability to cope with natural disasters. Debt cancellation is the first step
in creating an environment where countries can make progress towards development
goals and generate economic growth.
How much do developing countries owe and to whom?
Developing countries owe around $2 trillion dollars in foreign debts. Many of the
countries with the largest debts, like Brazil and Mexico, are called “middle income
countries,” according to the World Bank. They are considered ineligible for debt
cancellation. Jubilee campaigns have focused their attention on the world’s most
impoverished countries, many of them in sub-Saharan Africa, Central America and
Southeast Asia. However, debt campaigns also oppose the odious and illegitimate
debts—those contracted by a dictatorial regime which nations are not forced to pay under
international law—of middle income countries, many of which have large impoverished
populations.
There are over 50 very poor and highly indebted countries in need of full debt
cancellation as a first step toward fulfilling Jubilee’s vision. These countries combined
owe around $300 billion dollars to foreign creditors. Impoverished countries owe little to
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private banks; rather, they owe international financial institutions like the World Bank
and International Monetary Fund and the governments of wealthy countries. Although the
break-down is different for every country, the current averages are:
-
Around 50 percent is owed to international financial institutions, such as the
World Bank, IMF and regional development banks, called multilateral debt;
Around 40 percent owed to creditor governments, know as bilateral debt; and
Less than 10 percent to private lenders, such as private banks, know as private
debt
Is it possible to cancel this much debt? Where would the money come from?
The cost of canceling the debts would be shared by many countries and institutions and
could be spread over many years. The cost to individual taxpayers in creditor countries
would be almost imperceptible. In 2000 and 2001, the United States has canceled 100
percent of the debts owed directly to our Treasury for countries that qualified for the
HIPC initiative. The impact was so small on ordinary taxpayers that you probably did not
notice it at all.
Now the largest creditors to impoverished countries are the World Bank and IMF,
as well as other rich countries. The U.S. government must negotiate with these
institutions and with other rich countries—such as the Groups of Seven and Eight—to
supply full debt cancellation. These institutions can bear the cost of debt cancellation
through IMF gold sales and from reducing their profits over many years. Keep in mind
the debt for impoverished countries is debilitating because they are so poor, but the sums
we are talking about are relatively small in terms of the global economy.
Just think: The estimated cost to cancel the debts of the world’s impoverished
countries is $100 billion, equal to one hundredth of the annual U.S. economy, one
third of the current U.S. military budget or the same amount U.S. citizens spend
annually on weight loss products and services.
How did poor countries get into debt in the first place?
The current debt crisis came about for a variety of reasons, depending on the country
concerned. But in almost every case, the lender, as well as the borrower, carries
responsibility. See “Introduction to the Debt Crisis” for more information.
How much debt relief has been provided and what are the impacts of debt relief so far?
The Jubilee movement has won limited debt relief for many of impoverished countries.
Around $36 billion in debt relief has been offered so far through the Heavily Indebted
Poor Countries Initiative. This is only 12 percent of what the poorest and most indebted
countries owe.
Through HIPC close to 30 countries have received debt relief, reducing their
annual payments by one third on average. A study of 10 countries receiving debt relief
25
done by Jubilee Research in the United Kingdom showed in every case health and
education budgets increased dramatically, while spending on military remained
unchanged. See “Debt Relief Works” on page 28 for examples.
However, not enough debt relief has been provided and many of impoverished
countries, like Haiti and Bangladesh, do not qualify. Many countries will see their debt
payments increase in coming years and because of new borrowing, many will find
themselves back in unsustainable debt by the end of the decade.
How do we assure that debt relief funds are not siphoned off into corruption?
Today an increasing number of governments are more democratic. Also, ordinary citizens
and non-governmental organizations are more active in holding governments
accountable. While corruption remains a problem in many places, the solution is not to
deny debt cancellation, penalizing ordinary people not corrupt leaders. The real answer is
to find ways—through participatory processes—to ensure that the resources newly
available from debt relief are used for poverty reduction and other socially useful
expenditures. Another way is to support civil societies in impoverished countries to
enable them to hold their governments accountable.
Since HIPC was expanded in 1999, poverty-reducing expenditures have doubled
in countries that have received relief while there has been to increase in military
spending. Since debt relief has been provided to dozens of countries over numerous
years, we now have evidence to prove in country after country the freed up resources are
indeed being used towards poverty reduction programs.
Will debt cancellation undermine countries’ ability to attract new loans and investment in
the future?
In fact the evidence points to the opposite. Canceling debts would actually increase
investment in impoverished countries. This is because of a problem called “debt
overhang”—enormous debts hanging over a country’s economy which create uncertainty
about future prospects, and deter investors. It is easier to develop without debt. For
example, after WWII Germany was given generous debt reduction, much more than is
offered to impoverished countries today. Now Germany’s economy is one of the
strongest in the world.
The great majority of highly indebted poor countries will never be able to pay off
their foreign debts. In this condition they cannot attract private investment. A definitive
debt cancellation could hardly make them less creditworthy. In fact, it is likely to make
them more able to attract private sector investment and loans. Economies no longer
dragged down by a crushing debt burden can grow and develop. Canceling this debt will
also free their trained government personnel from endless debt renegotiating and allow
them to engage in long-term planning and development work.
How can countries be prevented from getting into a debt crisis again?
Creditors as well as debtors need to take responsibility for future borrowing and make
sure countries don’t fall back into debilitating debt. Even if all the debt were cancelled
tomorrow, the world’s most impoverished countries would continue to need development
26
assistance and new resources. Lenders and borrowers need to take more responsibility for
the loans they make, ensuring the money will be invested sensibly in development.
Lenders are in the position of power, and should bear some of the costs of
irresponsible lending as a recognized part of the loan system. That is their incentive to
behave responsibly. Some rich country governments, such as the United States, have
supported giving grants to poor countries for poverty reduction and development goals
instead of loans. Grants provide resources for health, education and the fight again
HIV/AIDS, without accruing more debt.
Harmful, discredited economic conditions that have been tied to loans and debt
relief must end immediately. Structural adjustment, or neo-liberal economic policies,
have been enforced by the international financial institutions for decades and have
thoroughly failed to stimulate economic growth and bring countries out of poverty. New
policies must be pursued with the participation of civil society and government leaders in
the countries themselves. Making sure that countries sustain economic growth and
prioritize poverty reduction will be the best way to make sure they don’t fall back into
debt again.
Why should people of faith put effort into debt cancellation when we have social problems
and poverty in our own country?
Canceling the crushing debt burden of poor countries is a matter of justice and
compassion. People of faith have always sought to address injustice and poverty in the
United States and abroad. Jubilee USA salutes the work of the many capable
organizations fighting domestic hunger and poverty; in fact, many members of our
coalition are leading this work.
We also know that the United States is the world’s most powerful country in
defining international economic policy. The power and wealth we have as a nation also
brings a certain responsibility. As citizens of the United States, our actions have an
increased impact in generating the will to cancel the debt and creating a more just and
equitable world. We must not turn our back on the influence we can have to shape just
and responsible economic policies that ultimately impact millions of people’s lives.
Since our world is increasingly interconnected, economic, social and
environmental problems in some countries affect people everywhere. In today’s world,
none of us can prosper for long unless all of us have the things we need to live fully. The
debt burden carried by people in poor countries harms us all, and its cancellation will
benefit us all. As people of faith, we know God is concerned about the well-being of all
people. God’s love crosses all borders. Therefore, we are called to act where and how we
can for brothers and sisters regardless of where they live.
If debt cancellation is the right thing to do, why aren’t more governments and international
financial institutions supporting it?
Rich country governments and international financial institutions make many arguments
against providing debt cancellation. Some common arguments we hear:
- Debt relief has already been provided to impoverished countries. Many argue that the
amount of debt relief already given to impoverished countries will be enough to make
27
their debt burdens “sustainable,” or payable far into the future. However, only full debt
cancellation, not just relief, will stop the loss of human life and obstacles to development
caused by debt now, especially with the global epidemic of AIDS. In order to meet the
United Nations Millennium Development Goals by 2015, impoverished countries must
receive full debt cancellation, as well as increased foreign aid.
- Debt cancellation will cost money and no one is willing to foot the bill. Multilateral
institutions can afford to provide 100 percent debt cancellation. Reports by British
accounting firms and a Fall 2004 study by Jubilee Research in the United Kingdom show
that the World Bank and IMF can finance debt cancellation through selling of IMF gold
reserves and accepting a decrease in annual profits to the World Bank. The reports also
showed debt cancellation would have no impact on their credit rating.
- Debt provides incentives for countries to enact sound economic policies. Officials in our
Treasury Department, as well as at the World Bank and IMF have used debt relief to
leverage policy reforms in impoverished countries. Overall these policies, known as
structural adjustment, have been harmful to the economies, industries and citizens in
impoverished countries, while benefiting Western businesses and consumers. With 100
percent cancellation, governments will have the right to make economic polices
benefiting their own people through democratic decision making, without the control of
financial institutions in Washington, DC.
- Countries need to show responsibility and pay back their debts. Both creditors and
debtors need to take responsibility for the debt crisis. If creditors are never penalized for
reckless lending and failed policies, then they also will not learn to have better habits.
- We would love to do more, but the American people just don’t care about the fate of
poor countries. We hear this from politicians all the time. American people are perceived
to not care our brothers and sisters around the world. You can help convince our elected
officials that this is not true. Help Jubilee build a movement of concerned people of faith
willing to stand up for the needs of the poor and vulnerable and demand jubilee justice
for impoverished nations.
What are Jubilee USA Network’s goals?
Jubilee USA Network joins with millions around the world in building a grassroots
movement calling for definitive debt cancellation:
- For countries burdened with high levels of human need and environmental distress
which are unable to meet the basic needs of their people or achieve a level of sustainable
development that ensures a decent quality of life;
- Of all illegitimate and odious debts through a just process not controlled by the
creditors;
- For the benefit of countries’ impoverished majorities, accountable to them and
advancing their participation in directing their economies and societies;
- Not conditioned on economic policy prescriptions, such as structural adjustment;
- Acknowledging the responsibility of both lenders and borrowers, and recovering
resources diverted by corrupt and undemocratic regimes, institutions and individuals; and
- To promote global economic policies and trade rules that eradicate poverty, promote
human development and prevent recurring, destructive cycles of indebtedness.
28
Debt Relief Works
The international Jubilee movement calls for full debt cancellation for impoverished
nations throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America. While this goal has not been met,
limited debt relief has been provided in response to the Jubilee call. In countries that have
had more access to their own resources through debt relief, poverty reduction initiatives
doubled between 1999 and 2004, according to a 2004 World Bank/IMF study. Initial debt
relief has benefited millions of people. Imagine the impact of full debt cancellation.
Here are just a few examples of the impact debt relief can have:
Tanzania: Back to School Days
Tanzania is one of 11 countries to complete the current debt relief program. According to
the World Bank, Tanzania received $3 billion in debt relief. Tanzania has increased
funding for poverty reduction by 130 percent over the last six years. Tanzania has
focused the savings to increase education spending and eliminate school fees for
elementary school education. Almost overnight, an estimated 1.6 million kids returned to
school. By 2003, 3.1 million children were back in school. The net enrollment ratio has
risen from 58.8 percent in 2000 to 88.5 percent in 2003. Tanzania expects to attain
universal basic education by 2006.
With debt relief savings in 2002 and 2003, Tanzania built 31,825 classrooms and
the number of primary schools increased from 11,608 in 2000 to 12,689 in 2003, a net
increase of 1,081 schools. Also in these two years, 17,851 new Grade A teachers were
recruited and 9,100 science-teaching kits were supplied. The pass rate in primary school
exams rose from 19.3 percent in 1999 to 40.1 percent in 2003. This rate would have been
higher if the pass rate standard had not been raised.
Source: President’s Office, The United Republic of Tanzania, in letter dated Feb. 17, 2004
Burkina Faso: Meeting Basic Needs with Services
Burkina Faso has focused debt relief savings on fighting AIDS, education and access to
safe water. In 2002, money freed up from debt service payments went to joint
government and civil society initiatives to fight AIDS. These initiatives have been
successful in controlling the spread of the virus and stabilizing the HIV+ share of the
population which at 6.5 percent is significant for West African standards. Two clinics
were built and the cost of drugs decreased by between 38 percent and 96 percent.
Debt relief savings have been used to build 746 schools, 20,251 classrooms and
put over 110,000 children back in school over the last three years. Access to clean water,
an essential ingredient in good health—especially for children—has increased by 26
percent for families. This means that over one million people now access safe drinking
water.
Source: IMF Country Report No. 04/79 and 04/78 of March 2004
29
Mozambique: Combating HIV/AIDS
Debt relief has enabled Mozambique to make strides in combating HIV/AIDS. In 2001 a
national plan to fight HIV/AIDS was launched. The programs will slow infection rates
and mitigate effects through education, prevention, support and care. By early 2002, 24
testing and counseling offices had opened; 50 offices will be operating by 2007. More
than 24,000 people were tested in 2002 alone.
Source: IMF Country Report No. 03/201, July 2003
Uganda: Doubled School Enrollment
Debt service payments in Uganda have dropped from $151 million a year to $88 million.
The extra resources are channeled through the Poverty Action Fund, which is overseen by
representatives from government, national nongovernmental organizations, churches,
unions and international organizations. The bulk of debt relief in Uganda has helped fund
universal primary education—the number of young children attending school has
increased from 2.3 million at the start of 1997 to 6.5 million by March 1999, more than
doubling the enrolment rate to 94 percent.
Source: Reality Check Report, Drop the Debt, April 2001
Overall Health and Education Spending Increases
Life-saving debt relief is allowing for increases in spending on health and education in
the countries that have started to receive relief. In 10 African countries studied by Jubilee
Research (UK), all of which had started to receive some debt service relief by the end of
2000, the following has been documented:
Education spending had risen from only $929 million in 1998, or less than the
amount spent on debt service, to $1.3 billion in 2002, more than twice the amount spent
on debt service. Health spending had risen from $466 million, or 50 percent of debt
service spending, to $796 million, or one third more than spending on debt service. Over
the same period there had been no increase in spending on the military.
Source: World Bank/International Monetary Fund Status of Implementation Report for HIPC, 2004
Full Debt Cancellation Would Do Even More
If impoverished country governments invested in human development rather than debt
payments an estimated:
- Three million more children would live beyond their fifth birthday.
- One million cases of malnutrition would be prevented.
Source: “Life over Debt,” American Friends Service Committee report, 2004
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Debt and Global Issues
We envision a world in which external debt no longer impoverishes nations and peoples by diverting
resources from health, education, and environment to pay rich countries and financial institutions. A world
in which families and communities have a voice in economic policies and decisions that affect their lives.
A world where right relationships are restored between nations. We respond to the call for Jubilee found in
Judeo-Christian scripture; where those enslaved because of debts are freed, lands lost because of debt are
returned, and communities torn by inequality are restored.
- Jubilee USA Network Vision Statement
The vision of Jubilee is, most fundamentally, about the need for right
relationships—between people and among nations. The crushing debt of impoverished
nations represents a set of broken relationships between nations. But debt cancellation
alone will not be sufficient—in order to restore relations of justice in the global
community, broader issues must be addressed and far-reaching changes must be enacted.
Jubilee USA Network and the Jubilee Congregations program are committed to linking to
and addressing these broader issues of Jubilee justice.
In today’s global economy, poverty is all too prevalent. While millions live in
abundant wealth, billions live on less than $2 a day. The crushing debt burden
exacerbates poverty by diverting resources impoverished nations need to fight poverty.
Likewise, unjust trade policies and practices deny countries’ abilities to sell their
products in a dignified manner. The HIV/AIDS pandemic has devastated families,
livelihoods and economies, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and the
Caribbean. Meanwhile, policies and projects of institutions like the IMF and World Bank
often have disproportionate impacts on women, and harm our natural environment. In the
Jubilee vision of restoring right relationships among peoples and nations, we must take a
holistic, multi-issue approach to challenging poverty and injustice.
As U.S.-based organizations and citizens, we have a special obligation to work for
our broad vision of justice and equality. As the United States exercises a dominant role in
international organizations like the IMF, World Bank and World Trade Organization,
decisions made by our government have tremendous impacts around the world. It is our
responsibility and our challenge to pressure our government to work cooperatively with
the international community to support moves towards global justice and sustainability.
The following section explores in greater depth connections between debt and
related global issues: HIV/AIDS, trade, the environment, and the struggle for women’s
rights and dignity. Feel free to make copies and share these resources at presentations,
meetings, conferences, and rallies. Jubilee USA Network also has information sheets
available on other global issues; contact the national office to request additional
educational resources on global issues.
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Debt and the Environment
The World Bank and International Monetary Fund, two of the largest creditors of
impoverished country debt, have come under criticism for many years for the impacts of
their policies on the environment. Critics argue that World Bank projects and IMF/World
Bank structural adjustment programs force indebted countries to weaken environmental
safeguards and promote export industries, such as extraction of oil, metals and minerals.
Exploiting Natural Resources?
While the World Bank and IMF talk of sustainable development, their policies and loans
have encouraged countries to weaken or eliminate environmental protections to make
their economies more attractive to foreign investment. The results are deforestation, soil
erosion, pollution and dislocation of millions of people. In Indonesia, 3.6 million people
were forced from their homes by a $500 million World Bank-financed logging project.
The World Bank and IMF have also supported toxic mining projects in indebted
countries with lax safety regulations. The World Bank has set no limits for harmful
chemicals released by mining such as arsenic, dissolved ammonia, or sulfates. The Bank
has helped finance some of the world’s most environmentally damaging projects—such
as the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline. During their lifetime operation, World Bank-financed
fossil fuel projects will release 46.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into
the atmosphere. By comparison, total worldwide carbon dioxide emissions in 2000 were
23.6 billion tons. The IMF pushes countries to increase oil exports to generate revenue to
repay debts while lowering environmental and labor standards. Renewable and clean
energy alternatives such as wind and solar power are proving a better way to bring
electricity to rural communities in impoverished nations. In rural areas of the Philippines
and Bengal, small hydropower and photovoltaic plants are providing power to thousands
of households and public buildings. While the World Bank has lent $25 billion for fossil
fuel projects since 1992, it has provided $1.35 billion in financing for renewable energy
and energy efficiency projects in the same period.
In response to widespread criticism for its lending for extractive industries, the
World Bank initiated the Extractive Industries Review in 2000 to evaluate whether
support for oil, mining and gas projects reduces poverty. Released in January 2004, the
final draft called for the World Bank to end support for coal mining and require
companies seeking World Bank support to follow human rights standards. The review
also recommended the World Bank to phase out lending for oil production by 2008 and
instead devote its resources to alternative energy sources. Most importantly, the review
found funding oil, mining and gas projects does not achieve the primary goal of the
World Bank’s mandate: alleviating poverty. In July 2004, the World Bank’s executive
board considered the review, but refused to implement its recommendations and failed to
make concrete commitments to do so in the future. Through debt cancellation, an end to
structural adjustment and increased environmental regulation, impoverished nations
could promote the health of environments and people in them.
Sources: Vinod Raina, “Debt, Development, and the Environment;” Jubilee Research, “Deforestation;” Friends of the Earth
International, “The Citizens’ Guide to Trade, Environment and Sustainability;” Jim Vallette and Steve Kretzmann, “The Energy Tug
of War: The Winners and Losers of World Bank Fossil Fuel Finance,” Sustainable Energy and Economy Network.
32
Debt and HIV/AIDS
Imagine a town where you only see grandparents and young children and everyone else is
missing. AIDS is creating this situation in impoverished countries by killing 8,000 people
every day, 70 percent of them in Africa. But people all over the world are fighting back
by calling for debt cancellation and significantly increased funding for programs for
education, care and treatment.
Debt Service and Structural Adjustment Policies
Sub-Saharan Africa pays almost $13 billion each year in debt service payments to
wealthy creditors, according to a 2004 United Nations report. Every dollar spent on
servicing the debt is a dollar not spent on HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention.
Meanwhile, the UN has estimated investing $10-15 billion a year could stem the tide of
HIV/AIDS in Africa. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank often demand
structural adjustment reforms as a condition on debt relief and new loans. These policies
undermine the fight against global AIDS in a number of ways. Budget ceilings imposed
by the IMF may force nations to cut the number of clinics they support; while charging
user fees for medical care means far too many people do not go to a clinic because they
can not afford the fees. This has severe repercussions for the AIDS crisis.
For example, if people with sexually transmitted diseases, who have an increased
risk of HIV infection, were given treatments costing as little as $2.11 per person, the rate
of HIV infection could be cut by around 40 percent. But when Kenya, following a
recommendation by the World Bank, instituted a user fee of $2.15 to visit STD clinics,
attendance fell by 35-60 percent, putting an increased number of people at risk. Whole
families are potentially exposed to HIV infection in part through the lack of primary
education and displacement of rural workers caused by structural adjustment policies.
Children drop out of school because of user fees and are not adequately educated about
how the virus is spread. Many women are widowed—not infrequently by AIDS—and
turn to high-risk sex work to support themselves and their children. Displaced rural
workers in urban areas often become infected with the virus after having intercourse with
sex workers and spread it to their spouses and children.
Debt Cancellation is Part of the Solution to the AIDS Crisis
Partial debt cancellation has allowed many nations to devote resources to the fight
against AIDS. After a 30 percent cut in its debt service payments Malawi purchased
critical drugs, hired extra staff and trained new nurses for hospitals and health centers.
Uganda increased spending on primary health care by 270 percent as a result of debt
relief, earmarking $1.3 million for its national HIV/AIDS plan. Cameroon used its $114
million cut in debt service to fund several emergency actions in their national HIV/AIDS
plan, including promoting behavior change, making voluntary testing and counseling
widely available and preventing HIV transmission from pregnant women to their babies.
The AIDS crisis in Africa and many other regions is unparalleled in its
devastating effects on communities. Debt cancellation for the world’s impoverished
countries and an end to structural adjustment policies will not, by themselves, solve the
problem, but they will go a long way toward addressing the challenges of HIV/AIDS
prevention and treatment. Become part of the solution, and call for debt cancellation and
increased resources to fight global AIDS.
33
Debt and Trade
Unjust global trade rules exacerbate the crisis faced by impoverished and indebted
nations. As Charles Abugre of the Third World Network, an independent group of
development organizations, said: “Debt and trade are inextricably linked. Unfair trade
rules left Africa in debt and debt has allowed creditors to impose further unfair trade rules
on Africa.”
Trade and the Debt Crisis
Declining commodity prices in the 1970s meant many developing countries were
not earning enough through exports to pay for imports—or to pay off debt accumulated
when interest rates were low. By the late 1970s and early 1980s developing nations had
to borrow even more to pay for previous loans. Since then, commodity prices have
remained on a decline, and the debts of poor nations have grown exponentially.
Free Trade or Fair Trade?
The World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s structural adjustment
programs promote free market policies—including promoting exports, removing import
barriers and privatizing public services—that have led to a decreased standard of living
for the poor in heavily indebted countries. As Christian Aid points out, “Debtor countries
were expected to dive head first into the international trading system. The theory was that
they would therefore be able to earn enough dollars to repay their debts.” The result is the
opposite, with many countries growing and selling the same crops. Commodity prices are
still low, and poor farmers cannot support their families on the wages they receive.
In addition, the current global trading scheme is designed in a way that benefits
the richest countries and penalizes the most impoverished. The World Trade Organization
(WTO), which sets global rules, continues to ignore the serious problem of low prices for
the main exports of poor countries, while requiring that poor country markets be open for
foreign imports. The WTO, along with the IMF and World Bank, also pushes
privatization of services like water, health, and education. In countries like Bolivia the
privatization of water caused costs for ordinary people to shoot up. Only widespread
protests have led to the canceling of contracts with foreign companies.
A New Beginning
By mobilizing people across the United States—and around the world—for debt
cancellation and trade justice people of faith and conscience can help free developing
nations from a web of global economic inequity. Poor farmers and workers deserve a new
start, without from the burden of debt and in a global market that promotes fair prices for
their products.
Sources: World Development Movement, London; Christian Aid, www.christian-aid.org.uk
Interfaith Working Group on Trade and Investment, http://www.tradejusticeusa.org/
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Debt and Women
Globally, many women bear the responsibility of being the primary caregiver for their
families. As mothers, wives, daughters, and grandmothers, women care for family
members through illness, gather water, produce food, and educate children. Women bear
the brunt of economic policies required for new loans and debt relief. Cuts to social
services, privatization and other reforms push women further into poverty and increase
their workloads, jeopardizing the health and well being of their families.
The Effects of Structural Adjustment Programs on Women
Structural Adjustment programs—economic reforms imposed on impoverished
countries as a condition of new loans and debt relief from the IMF and World Bank—
require countries to make drastic changes in trade and social spending. One major change
required by these policies is opening agricultural markets to heavily subsidized goods,
often from the United States. In sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America,
where women produce between 60 and 80 percent of food, small farmers cannot compete
with cheap imports from rich nations.
Trade liberalization has also caused men to migrate at higher rates to urban
centers or other countries in search of work. Women are left as sole providers for their
families. When faced with the inability to produce food for subsistence and income,
women turn to work in factories in free trade zones. Women in these factories often face
sexual harassment, intimidation, unsafe work conditions, meager pay and repetitive stress
injuries. In addition, when governments cut social spending to meet budget requirements
set by the IMF, women often have to make up for the loss to social services. Cuts to
education spending and the increasing cost of education to the student’s family often
mean that girls lose out. In countries where there are fees for education two thirds of the
children who don’t attend school are girls.
Women are also disadvantaged by the privatization of health care services, and
many watch their children die of preventable diseases like diarrhea and malaria while
their countries send money instead for debt service. Mothers in the global South also lose
much needed prenatal care without access to health services. In Congo, where the
government spends 16 times more for debt service than health care, 515 out of 1000
children die before they turn 5. One mother, Nsimenya Kinyama, 36, has lost six
children, most to treatable diseases.
Standing in Solidarity with the Women of the World
The burden of debt rests disproportionately on the shoulders of women. By
becoming part of the Jubilee movement, women and men in developed countries can help
build a better world for women and their families everywhere.
Sources: United Nations Human Development Report 2004; Craig Timberg, “For Congo's Mothers,
Unceasing Loss: War, Though Ended, Still Claiming Children,” The Washington Post, Feb. 12, 2000
35
Materials Order Form
Please print this form, fill it out and mail with your payment to Jubilee USA Network.
Checks or money orders accepted. Credit cards accepted online or by phone. Please allow
two weeks for delivery. Contact us if you need items express shipped.
Jubilee USA Network Brochure
A concise introduction to the Jubilee movement and how one can get involved. Provides
a brief overview of the current situation in indebted countries. First is free, additional
copies $ 0.25 each.
Send me ______ brochure(s) @ $0.25 each (incl. shipping)
Call for bulk order prices.
Jubilee Congregation Brochure
Introduction on how your Congregation can help, with specific steps how to become
active. Provides a brief overview of the current situation in indebted countries. First is
free, additional copies $ 0.20 each.
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Jubilee Congregations Handbook: Fall 2007 Jewish Edition
The three sections include information on the Jubilee Congregations program, facts on
international debt and global economic injustice, prayer, holiday and learning materials.
Each Jubilee Congregation receives a complimentary copy after joining the program. Call
the Jubilee office to find out the cost of additional copies, or to place orders.
Jubilee Congregations Handbook: Spring 2005 Christian Edition
The three sections include information on the Jubilee Congregations program, facts on
international debt and global economic injustice, worship, prayer and study materials.
Each Jubilee Congregation receives a complimentary copy after joining the program. Call
the Jubilee office to find out the cost of additional copies, or to place orders.
Newsletter
Latest news about the Jubilee USA Network and the debt situation of impoverished
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“Cancel the Debt Now” Jubilee Video
A 24-minute VHS tape narrated by Julie Harris. Gives a background to the origin of
today’s debt crises and highlights the global Jubilee movement. This is a visually
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powerful resource, useful for both secular and faith-based audiences. Videos are $10.00
each, and can be ordered from the producers:
John Ankele and Anne Macsoud, Old Dog Documentaries
http://www.olddogdocumentaries.com
5 W. 19th St., 3rd floor
New York, NY 10011
Jubilee Education Packet
A colorful pocket folder with over 20 photocopy-ready inserts including information on
the debt burden, moral, action ideas, and a list of resources. $5.00 each.
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Empty Promises Booklet
The IMF, the World Bank and the Planned Failures of Global Capitalism. Published by
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37
Learning and Reflection
Justice Found in Our Texts and Taught by Our Teachers
You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show partiality; and you shall not take a bribe
… Tzedek, Tzedek tirdof … Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live
and inherit the land which the Lord your God gives to you. (Deuteronomy 16:19-20)
If your brother becomes poor… you shall uphold him. Take no interest or increase, but
you shall fear your God and your brother shall live with you. (Leviticus 25:36) (interest
prohibitions also in Exodus 22:44 and Deuteronomy 23:20-21)
And the work of tzedakah shall bring peace. (Isaiah 32:17)
Let justice roll down like water, righteousness like a mighty stream. (Amos 5:21-24)
Speak up, judge righteously, champion the poor and the needy. (Proverbs 31:9)
God has shown you what is good;
And what the Lord requires of you:
Only to do justice and to love mercy
And to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)
It is not your duty to complete the work. Neither are you free to desist from it. (Pirkei
Avot 2:16)
If there is among you a poor person, one of your neighbors, in any of your towns within
your land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart or shut
your hand against your poor neighbors.
But you shall open your hand to them, and lend them sufficient for their needs, whatever
they may be.
You shall give to them freely and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to
them, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that
you undertake.
For the poor will never cease out of the land; therefore I command you, you shall open
wide your hand to your neighbor, to the needy and to the poor in the land. (Deuteronomy
15:7-11)
Poverty is considered the most devastating of all possible afflictions; therefore,
alleviating it is a holy mission…Let thy house be open wide; let the poor be members of
thy household. (Pirke Avot 1:5)
If all afflictions in the world were assembled on one side of the scale and poverty on the
other, poverty would outweigh them all. (Exodus Rabbah, Mishpatim 31:14)
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Tzedakah is clearly considered a duty and not an option. It is the path to redemption of
the Jewish people. (Mattanot Aniyim 10:1)
When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses to live in, and your herds and
flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold have increased, and everything you own
has prospered, beware lest your heart grow haughty and you forget the Lord your God,
who freed you from the land of Egypt, the house of bondage… and you say to yourselves,
“My own power and the might of my hand have won this wealth for me.” Remember that
it is the Lord your God who gives you power to get wealth… (Deuteronomy 8:12-18)
The Torah, in Deuteronomy 15:8, says: "v'ha'a'vet ta'a'vee'tenu day mach'saro asher
yech'sar lo," be sure to give the poor person sufficiently, according to his or her needs.
The Talmud, in Ketubot 67b, says that Hillel the Elder felt particularly obliged to care for
a wealthy person who had lost his fortune and was now poor. In order to fulfill the
biblical obligation of caring for his brother "according to his need," he made sure that the
former wealthy person was properly cared for, even to the extent that he had a horse to
ride and a servant to run before him. Once when Hillel could not find a servant, Hillel the
Elder, himself ran before the poor man for three miles.
Maimonides’ Eight Degrees of Tzedakah:
One of the many great contributions of Maimonides, the Spanish philosopher and
halachist, 1135-1204, was his listing of the sequential degrees of charity in his Code of
Jewish Law, the Mishneh Torah, in the 10th chapter of the section dealing with gifts to
the poor. The lowest level of giving, says Maimonides, is to give to the poor
begrudgingly. The second level is to give insufficiently to the needy, but at least
pleasantly. The third level is to give to the needy when they request. The fourth level is to
voluntarily give to the needy before they ask. The fifth level is when the donor is aware
of the recipient, but the recipient, the poor person, is unaware of the donor. The sixth
level the recipient, the poor person, is aware of the donor, but the donor is unaware of the
recipient. The seventh level neither the donor nor the recipient is aware of each other's
identity. The highest level, says Maimonides, is to give a gift or loan or establish a
business partnership with the poor person so that the poor will no longer be in need of
charity.
The highest level of tzedakah, exceeded by none, is that of the person who assists a poor
person by providing her/him with a gift or loan or by accepting her/him into a business
partnership or by helping her/him to find employment—in a word, by putting her/him
where s/he can dispense with other people's aid.
(Mishne Torah 10:7-14)
Hillel said: Do not separate yourself from the community. (Pirke Avot, 2)
If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
If I am only for myself, what am I?
If not now, when? (Rabbi Hillel)
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If you want to raise a man from mud and filth, do not think it is enough to keep standing
on top and reaching a helping hand down to him. You must go all the way down yourself,
down into mud and filth. Then take hold of him with strong hands and pull him and
yourself out into the light. (Rabbi Shelomo of Karlin, Eighteenth Century)
Our Rabbis teach: One person was created to teach us the importance of the actions of
every individual, for we should treat the whole world as half good and half bad, so that if
we do one good deed, it will tip the whole world to the side of goodness. (Based on
Mishna Sanhedrin 4:5)
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The Jubilee Found in Our Texts and Taught By Our Teachers
You shall hallow the 50th year and proclaim liberty throughout the land and to all its
inhabitants: it shall be a jubilee for you, property and person returning to their ancestral
families. Furthermore the land must not be sold beyond reclaim, for the land is mine, you
are but resident aliens under my authority. Therefore, throughout the land you hold, you
must provide redemption for the land. (Leviticus, 25:1-24, esp vss. 10 and 23-24)
At the end of every seventh year you are to cancel the debts of those who owe you money
… the Lord himself has declared the debt canceled. (Deuteronomy 15:1-2)
Every seventh year you shall practice remission of debts. This shall be the nature of the
remission: every creditor shall remit the due that he claims from his neighbor (re’ah) he
shall not dun his relative or his neighbor, because this remission is for the Eternal.
(Deuteronomy 15:1-18 esp. vss. 1-2 and 13-14)
You shall count seven Sabbatical years, that is, seven times seven years. The period of
the seven Sabbatical cycles shall thus be 49 years. Then on the l0th day of the seventh
month, you shall make a proclamation with the ram's horn. This proclamation with the
ram's horn is thus to be made on Yom Kippur. You shall sanctify the 50th year, declaring
emancipation in the land for all its inhabitants. This is your jubilee year, when each man
shall return to his hereditary property and to his family. (Leviticus 25:8-10)
The Torah teaches us the laws of the jubilee, Yovel in Hebrew. The Torah tells us that we
must count seven Sabbatical years. The jubilee begins on the tenth day of the seventh
month of the fiftieth year. The seventh month here is Tishrei and the tenth of Tishrei is
Yom Kippur. On Yom Kippur of the fiftieth year the shofar is sounded. This is an
announcement that it is the jubilee, a year of liberty and emancipation. Anyone who has
Hebrew slaves, whether male or female, must free them. Similarly, if anyone has bought
a field, he must return the field to its hereditary owner.
In order to enhance commerce without violating prohibitions on interest the Rabbinic
authorities innovated the heter iskah – setting up a partnership so that the lender would
supply a sum to the borrower for a joint venture. This indicates the manner in which
loans might be made in order that lenders have a joint interest in the success of
borrowers.
The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee to you insofar as you may not sow, harvest crops
growing of their own accord, or gather grapes from unpruned vines during that [year].
The jubilee shall thus be holy to you. You shall eat the crops from the field that [year].
In the jubilee year, every man shall return to his hereditary property. (Leviticus 25:1113)
The jubilee year is like the Sabbatical year, when it is forbidden to plow, plant, harvest,
or prune trees. All crops must be left as public property. Just as on Rosh Hashanah we
41
must sound the ram's horn or shofar, we must do so on the jubilee. The shofar is sounded
in exactly the same manner with the same blessings recited.
Initially, this is a commandment incumbent upon the court. After that, every Jew must
sound the ram's horn. From Rosh Hashanah until Yom Kippur of the fiftieth year, slaves
would not return home but would not work either. The fields would not return to their
hereditary owners, but the owners would eat, drink and rejoice with their crowns upon
their heads. Then, when Yom Kippur arrived, the slaves would return home and the fields
would revert to their hereditary owners.
The jubilee in Hebrew is Yovel. This comes from the word hovel which means to
transport. It is thus written, "Bring a gift to he who is to be freed." (Psalms 76:12) It is
called yovel because during this year each thing is "transported" to its owner and
everything reverts to what it was in the beginning.
Others say that yovel denotes a shofar or ram's horn. It is thus written, "When the yovel
blows the loud blast, they may climb the mountain." (Exodus 19:13) Obviously, the
jubilee entails great mysteries that the human intellect cannot fathom. However, there is
also a reason that we can understand. God wants to show God’s nation that God is the
Master of the universe. God said, "To Me is the land." (Leviticus 25:23) Therefore, in the
end everything reverts to the owners whom God wants.
When a person sees this, he will refrain from stealing. He will not desire or reach out his
hand for something that is not his. He knows that nothing will remain with him in the
end; he will eventually have to return everything to its rightful owner. If a person takes
something illegally from his friend, God will bring about a chain of events so that he will
give it back. Therefore, a person has no gain stealing from others. The only thing that will
remain from it is the sin.
The Sabbatical year and the jubilee also teach a person how he must direct his life. The
seven years of the Sabbatical cycle allude to the seventy years that a person lives. A
person sows and harvests for six years. In the seventh year he withdraws from his fields
and leaves everything for the public. Similarly, a person can spend the first sixty years of
his life studying and working to earn a living, but in the "seventh year," as he enters the
seventh decade of his life, he should put aside his business and separate himself from the
worldly. He should start concentrating on the World to Come. He should study Torah as
much as possible and keep as many mitzvot and good deeds as he can.
During the seventh year a person abandons his fields, vineyards and all their fruit so that
other people will be able to eat of them. Similarly, a person must leave all his goods and
property to others so that they can enjoy them.
When a person goes to the World to Come it is as the Sabbath. Neither gold nor silver
will accompany him, only the mitzvot and good deeds that he has done in this world. The
jubilee has a similar teaching. Among the seventy years allotted to man, the first ten do
not count. A person is still immature and does not understand what life is all about.
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Therefore, from his tenth until his sixtieth year a person has fifty years during which he
functions in this world. These fifty years are alluded to in the fifty years of the jubilee
cycle.
The Torah literally says, "You shall sanctify the fifty years..." (Leviticus 25:10). This
teaches that when a person reaches his sixtieth year and his fifty years of toil are over, he
should strive to leave everything aside. He should try to forget all worldly matters and
sanctify the fiftieth year. These are the years of the seventh decade. A person should
think only of the future world.
The Torah says "emancipation" shall be declared. A person should emancipate his body
of all worldly concepts. This is the time when "A man shall return to his hereditary
property and to his family." The soul is ready to go to its original abode under the Throne
of Glory. It has no more time for the temporal life. Therefore, a person should prepare his
needs for the future life so that his soul will find repose.
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Justice and the Jubilee in the Parasha
Gleanings from Parshat Behar
Excerpts from Learn Torah with Professor Jacob Milgrom
Cancellation of debts and return of fortified land was also known in the ancient Near
East. It usually occurred when a king acceded to the throne. Its purpose was to “prevent
the collapse of the economy under too great a weight of private indebtedness.” However,
it was generally limited to the king’s retainers and subject to his whim. The Biblical
Jubilee, in contrast, was inexorably periodic and incumbent on every Israelite.
The Jubilee has become the rallying cry for oppressed people today, as did the Exodus
theme for their counterparts in previous decades. This time, however, they are not
enslaved politically (except where colonial rulers have been replaced by their own), but
shackled economically. The global market economy has generated unprecedented
growth and prosperity, but not to [the poor]. As a result the debtor (third) world has
issued the following demands to the creditor nations (who operate through the
International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and similar agencies):
1. Cancellation of their debts;
2. Restitution of land and resources to their original owners;
3. Cessation from pilfering natural resources and polluting them; and
4. Termination of economic slavery by universally raising wages to a subsistence level.
The Jubilee, prescribing remission of debts, restoration of land, Sabbath rest for land and
person, and release from economic servitude corresponds to all four demands.
Sources: www.jewishgates.org, Torah, Mishnah 1 and 2, Ketubah 67b.
Gleanings from Parashat Shoftim
By Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson
Full article at My Jewish Learning (www.myjewishlearning.com). This article is
reprinted with permission from University of Judaism.
The Hebrew Bible possesses in unique measure: a passion for justice for the poor, the
weak, and the despised…One cannot claim to love God and not be passionate about
justice. That is the primary Jewish contribution to the human spirit…We betray the broad
heritage of Torah when we fail to recognize justice and righteousness as primary
religious categories of Judaism…The midrash affirms the centrality of justice as a Jewish
calling…How we treat the weakest in our midst (the "widow" and "orphan," to use the
Torah's language) is still the irreplaceable core of our identity.
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A Rising Tide Lifts All Souls:
The Spirituality of Economic Justice Activism
By Alex Sugerman-Brozen
Full article originally found at Social Action, online Jewish magazine
(www.socialaction.com).
Sugerman-Brozen discusses how following the words of the Torah in regard to how
activism can build greater community for the Jewish people and provoke a higher
experience of Jewish spirituality. He connects these themes to the worldwide Jubilee
movement and emphasizes the importance of working together toward justice for all.
[Leviticus 25] has for obvious reasons been extremely important to Jewish and other
faith-based economic justice activists.
Judaism is a communal culture and a communal religion. We practice our spirituality and
our ritual lives in community, not in monastic solitude.
Similarly, the strength and power of our prayer is deepened by offering them together, in
a group. We are responsible for each other's spirituality. Each of us individually depends
on the group to reach a certain spiritual state and level. And each of us is responsible for
helping others reach those higher levels as well.
Judaism creates… a communal moral accountability.
Reaching any kind of true spiritual fulfillment requires working for changes that will
enable others to meet their basic survival needs. Only then can they too begin to address
their own safety needs, their needs for love and affection, and so on. As long as they are
prevented from meeting those higher needs, so am I. It is expressed well by the
ubiquitous bumper sticker, "No one is free while others are oppressed," and by the words
of Martin Luther King, Jr., "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Today, a huge portion of humanity is suffering from economic oppression and injustice
of one kind or another. Economic justice movements such as those to cancel Third World
debt, to end sweatshops and child labor, to protect human rights, to narrow the huge gap
of wealth inequality, and countless others all seek to help others to meet their basic needs.
By working to repair the world, we make our own connection to the Divine possible.
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Mitzvah of Tzedakah:
The Mitzvah of Giving to the Needy
Full article at Gates to Jewish Heritage (www.jewishgates.com).
Explanations of textual references that point to the mitzvot involved in an active
awareness of and response to those in need in our communities are found in this article.
The article also takes the reader, step by step, through the process of giving tzedakah.
As Jews, we do not give out of the goodness of our hearts; we give because it is a
mitzvah.
Failure to provide for the poor is tantamount to stealing from them, since the money
originally had been given to them by God.
Even the poor person receiving tzedakah is required to give tzedakah to a person even
poorer. Giving a twentieth of one's earnings was considered stingy.
There are numerous stories in the Talmud about Jews being generous to the poor and
receiving divine rewards for their goodness. It is a recurring theme in our texts.
Traditionally, the protector of the poor was Elijah the prophet and, in Jewish literature, he
returns to test the goodness of Jews to see if they give tzedakah generously. Jews felt a
financial responsibility to extended family members and tried to ensure that even distant
relatives were taken care of.
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Issues of Conscience: There Shall Be No Poor …
By Rabbi Richard G. Hirsch
Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism, Union of American Hebrew
Congregations, 1965.
Excerpts from the Chapter entitled: Judaism in Pursuit of Economic Justice.
[The] two emphases – all wealth comes from God; human life is sacred – became the
foundation stones for Jewish treatment of the less privileged members of society
…Wealth, properly used, is a means of preserving and sanctifying life. Improperly used,
it is a profanation of God and the being created in His image.
Unlike some religions, Judaism does not encourage the ascetic life. Poverty is not the
way to piety. Scarcity does not lead to sanctity. The search for holiness is not made easier
by insufficiency of basic necessities. Without the necessary material goods of life, man
cannot attain the personal growth and satisfaction essential to human fulfillment. “All the
days of the poor are evil” (Proverbs 10:15).
Tzedakah is not an act of condescension from one person to another who is in a lower
social and economic status. Tzedakah is the fulfillment of an obligation to a fellow-being
with equal status before God. It is an act of justice to which the recipient is entitled by
right, by virtue of being human.
Throughout the Bible, the poor man is not called “poor” but “thy brother,” thus
establishing a relationship of equality between poor and rich. The recipient of charity is a
“brother” to the donor. The poor man’s needs are spiritual as well as material. Because
the poor man lacks material blessings, he is likely to feel inferior. Therefore, treat him
like a brother. Spare his feelings. Zealously guard his dignity. Respect from others is
poverty’s most helpful counterbalance. Self-respect is poverty’s most effective antidote.
In the Talmudic Period the existence of the poor was an indication of social inequity,
which had to be rectified by society itself.
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Rambam’s Ladder: A Meditation on Generosity and Why It Is
Necessary to Give
By Julie Salamon
Workman Publishing Company, Inc., 2003
Giving should not be an afterthought, what nations do to repair the damage they’ve
inflicted on one another, what individuals do to assuage their guilt for their excesses or
indifference. But the building material for every step of Rambam’s Ladder is
conscientiousness – and consciousness. Anonymity, self-sufficiency, absence of
reluctance, not inflicting shame: All of these ideas mandate an awareness of our common
humanity. They remind us that in the end we are not measured by what we have, but by
what we give to one another.
TheWorld in Balance
By Howard Witkin
Full article at Aish (www.aish.com).
Witkin’s article reflects on the balance found in focusing on Teshuva (Return), Tefillah
(Prayer) and Tzedakah (Righteousness). These elements allow us to “act, react, and
interact” for the betterment of ourselves and for others. He also discusses the role of the
three Jewish patriarchs in setting the stage for perpetuating the pillars upon which the
world supposedly stands.
Shimon HaTzaddik was from the
remnants of the Great Assembly.
He used to say:
On three things the world stands.
On Torah,
On service [of God],
And on acts of human kindness.
Human beings interact with the world on three levels: thought, speech and action. Each of
these three is the key to the three basic relationships: You act on yourself through thought
or will. You interact with God through speech. And you relate to others through
actions…
We are required to look at other human beings, try to understand what they are lacking,
and endeavor to help them. One of the worst mistakes is to turn a blind eye and become
insensitive to the suffering of others.
At its highest level, tzedakah requires us to "understand" another human being: Who is
he? What does he lack? How can I help him fulfill his role in life? Then I need to act…
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The first pillar of creation is knowing your identity and your mission … Avodah, the
second pillar, is service of God…Chesed, the third pillar, is a commitment to performing
acts of human kindness. Life is not a zero sum game. The success of others is your boon
not your bane.
God created us in order to give us good. The world was designed such that the greatest
good is to give to others and to be other-centered. A person totally focused on himself
and oblivious to the needs of others has, almost by definition, failed in the first two
pillars. The third pillar of creation is to know that you are not in it alone. You are your
brother's keeper.
Words Matter: Tikkun Olam
By Arthur Green
Full article at Social Action, on-line Jewish magazine (www.socialaction.com).
Tikkun olam, which means "mending the world," is an ancient Hebrew phrase that has
taken on new life in the past few decades. Its verbal form is found in the alenu prayer,
which concludes every service in the traditional synagogue. There le-takken olam means
"to establish the world in the kingdom of the Almighty (shaddai)," or to bring about
God's rule on earth. In contemporary usage it refers to the betterment of the world,
including the relief of human suffering, the achievement of peace and mutual respect
among peoples, and the protection of the planet itself from destruction.
While associating these ideals with tikkun olam may be a recent innovation, the values
themselves are deeply rooted in Jewish tradition. Spreading our most basic moral
message--that every person is the divine image (tselem elohim)--requires that Jews be
concerned with the welfare, including the feeding, housing, and health, of all. The
Torah's call that we "pursue justice, only justice" (Deuteronomy 16:20) demands that we
work toward closing the terrible gaps, especially in learning and opportunity, that exist
within our society and undermine our moral right to the relative wealth and comfort most
of us enjoy. The very placing of humans on earth "to work and guard" (Genesis 2:15)
God's garden, as well as the halakhah forbidding wanton destruction of resources, tells us
that protecting the natural order is also a part of that justice. The rediscovery of ancient
spiritual forms in recent decades has paralleled an age of activism for political and social
change. In some cases these have been quite separate from, or even opposed to, one
another. Many of those attracted to seeking spirituality have given up on the possibility of
any serious improvement in the human condition altogether. In the case of Judaism, such
a bifurcation of spiritual and sociopolitical concerns is hardly possible. Anyone who tries
to undertake it ultimately has to deal with the prophets of ancient Israel, still the strongest
and most uncompromising advocates for social justice our world has known. If you try to
create a closed world of lovely Jewish piety and build it on foundations of injustice and
the degradation of others, Isaiah and Amos will not let you sleep.
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Searching the Prophets for Values
Chapter IV: Justice
By Balfour Brickner and Albert Vorspan
New York, UAHC 1981.
This chapter asks the thought provoking question, “What would happen if we could
conjure up an unlikely Hebrew prophet in our midst?” In a world where there is no
trusted source speaking to the justice that God requests, where can we look to answers?
Brickner and Vorspan take us on an imaginary trip in which an ordinary man becomes a
prophet and attempts to preach justice, the word of God. This new prophet takes a trip
around present day America and examines all the current injustices and issues…poverty,
suburbia, the rise of industries, and environmental degradation. This chapter questions
the reader as to how we can change the course of our lives and come up with a just
solution to the world’s issues.
Saying something is not your problem is like drilling a hole in your end of a boat. It may
be “your” end of the boat but a hole so drilled will sink the entire craft. Lack of empathy
for another’s pain is the gaping hole in the human boat. In our tradition, saving one
person is equivalent of saving the entire world.
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Proclaiming Jubilee throughout the Land
By Rabbi Arthur Waskow
From his book Godwrestling -- Round 2 (Jewish Lights, 1996).
Copyright (c) 1996 by Arthur Waskow. Reprinted with the author's permission.
The book can be ordered from http://www.shalomctr.org/node/1011.
Since the Torah is rooted in the Land of Israel and the People of Israel, that is the politics,
economics, and ecology it explores in depth. When it does, amazingly enough, it puts forward the
vision of a social rhythm— the Jubilee cycle — that has spoken to individuals and peoples thousands
of years later and thousands of miles away.
Here the Torah whirls time into its loftiest spiral: the fifty-year rhythm of the Jubilee. The Jubilee
passage (Lev. 25 and 26) teaches about time and timelessness, about the rhythms of doing and being,
wealth and sharing, work upon the earth and healing with the earth, inward ritual and outward
action. In it is the verse (Lev. 25:10) that found an echo in the Liberty Bell: "Proclaim liberty
throughout the land, to all the inhabitants thereof."
For several years, as I discovered the Torah, I read and admired this passage in a rather academic
way. Then three events in 1975 and 1976 lit up the passage with intensity.
Take One: Early on July 4, 1976, people began gathering on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial in
Washington, D.C.: A choir of children and teenagers from a Black church. Fiddlers and guitarists
wearing knitted yarmulkes. Several dozen sleepy-eyed women and men debarking from a batch of
battered trucks, lightweight camping packs upon their backs. An old man in a long white robe,
carrying a curved and convoluted ram's horn almost as tall as he was. A band of women setting up
the sound equipment for a public address system. Other women putting up an array of glowing
banners.
One of the banners read, "Proclaim Jubilee Throughout the Land."
As the number of people grew to about 5,000, the man with the ram's horn climbed to the top of the
Memorial stairs. He raised the horn and blew a long and eerie blast. Someone else read from
Leviticus:
"You shall count off seven sabbaths of years, seven times seven years. ... Then you shall make
proclamation with the blast of the horn.... On the day of atonement you shall make proclamation
with the horn throughout all your land. And you shall make holy the fiftieth year, and proclaim
liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof.
"It shall be a jubilee to you, and you—every one of you— shall return to his own ancestral holding,
every one of you, to his family.... You shall not sow, nor reap what grows, nor gather the grapes of
the unpruned vines. ... And the land shall not be permanently sold --
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"For the land is Mine. You are strangers and visitors with Me."
The energy intensified. People sang. People pledged themselves to work toward sharing wealth and
power in America. People spoke with passion about money and justice—a Black woman from
Chicago, a rabbi from the Maryland suburbs, an Episcopalian woman who had just been ordained a
priest of her Church. The Bible spoke—Isaiah, Jeremiah — and before each passage was heard the
voice of the ram's horn. Even the dead spoke: from audiotapes came Phil Ochs, singing about the
bells of freedom, and Martin Luther King, Jr., dreaming aloud so that we would awaken. The ram's
horn spoke again, and this time a liberty bell rang out with it. The 5,000 moved into a procession,
heading for Independence Mall to be joined by thousands more. The mood shifted from service and
celebration, to rally and reexamination.
"Liturgy" means "the people's work." That American liturgy for the Bicentennial Fourth of July at
Mr. Jefferson's memorial had actually begun half a world away, in the Land of Israel. Begun there
twice—once in its deepest origin in the Bible days 4,000 years ago, which inscribed the line from
Leviticus on the Liberty Bell; and again just a year before the liturgy itself.
Take Two: One year earlier, I was visiting a kibbutz in the Israeli Negev desert: Kerem Shalom,
"Vineyard of Peace." I was sitting in a circle, quietly talking with two other visiting American Jews,
eight or nine sabras, a few kibbutzniks who grew up in Europe or America.
The kibbutzniks were worried — and angry. One of their comrades was in jail for hurting a
policeman during a sit-in. Between my sparse Hebrew and their staccato English, I had trouble
understanding. I ask them to repeat.
"It happened when the Gush Emunim, the Band of the Faithful, were marching onto Palestinian land
to set up Jewish settlements. The Gush Emunim were breaking the law. But worse, they were
making it harder to achieve peace with the Palestinians. They were claiming Jews needed more land
so that more Jews could settle in the Land of Israel. They were stirring the blood of many Israelis.
We decided we must show how foolish this idea was.
"We decided to act, not just to speak. Their act was stirring; our act must be stirring.
"So we went to the ranch of General Sharon. He is one of their heroes, he wants to annex the
Palestinian lands. He is also very rich. He has plenty of land.
"We set up tents on his land, as they had set up tents in the occupied territories. 'Israelis!' we said.
'You need more land? General Sharon has more than he needs, more than any one person needs. We
do not need to take Palestinian land, we can share our own land. Come share!'
"We were arrested and dragged away. Our chaver kicked a cop when they grabbed him Now he is
going to jail. The Gush Emunim does not go to jail. The government criticizes them, but goes
along."
I interrupted. "Did you do anything else about Sharon's land?"
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"No," they said. "We made our point. That was all we meant to do."
I pressed a little more. Sharing the land, taking back a rich man's land, maybe there were Israelis
who would have liked this idea? I had heard so much about the "social gap" between Israeli Jews of
Western and Eastern origin, about the poor and downcast Eastern Jews. They voted for the rightwing parties because they got no hope from the Labor government. Maybe this notion of sharing the
land would appeal to them?
"You don't understand," the kibbutzniks said. "The real issue we must solve before we can deal with
the social gap is the issue of the Palestinians. First peace, then the social gap."
"But . . . ," I muttered, a little embarrassed; after all, it may be my Land, but it is their country.
"Maybe you have pressed the Palestinian issue as far as it can go right now. Maybe you should talk
about what Israel could be like if there were peace. I have heard you talk about creating an Israeli
form of socialism, but you never say what it means. I like this land thing. It reminds me of the
Jubilee."
"What?"
"The Jubilee. You know, from the Torah. Maybe it’s a Jewish kind of socialism, maybe it’s even
where socialism comes from. But it’s an odd kind of socialism. The Torah doesn’t seem to mind if
people get rich for awhile. But every fifty years the land must be shared, with every family getting
an equal share, family by family, clan by clan. The rich give up their extra land and the poor get
back their share. And then there’s another odd thing: no one is allowed to work the land at the very
moment they get the chance again. Maybe you should call a Jubilee!"
They puzzle out the English, realize what I mean: "Aha, the yovel." They grin at me. Torah.
Religion. What can you expect from an American Jew?
"No," they say, not so patiently any more. "The primary problem is the Palestinian question. That's
what we need to work on."
I keep quiet. It is their country. The Jubilee floats to the back of my head.
Take Three: A week later, back in Washington. It is late in the summer of 1975, and two sets of
people are planning Bicentennial celebrations for the coming year: officials, who plan fireworks and
galas; and populists, modern equivalents of Sam Adams, who see the global corporations as modern
equivalents of George the Third.
One group of these new populists, the People's Bicentennial Commission, is meeting at the research
center where I work. As they talk about anti-corporate "tea parties" and "economic democracy," a
piece of arithmetic leaps out at me: 4 x 50 = 200. The American Bicentennial should really be the
fourth American Jubilee, but there has never been even one.
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Wait, yes there was—"Hoo-rah, hoo-rah, we bring the Jubilee . . .Hoo-rah, hoo-rah, the flag that
makes you free! . . . And so we sang the anthem from Atlanta to the sea, as we were marching
through Georgia!"
Freeing the slaves, that was our one American Jubilee; yes, that was part of the ancient Jubilee too,
all the slaves were to be freed when the Jubilee year came. But in 1865, America never did the other
part, never shared the land. That was what "forty acres and a mule" meant: It was the slaves’ demand
that the land be shared. It was their proposal for a Jubilee.
We never did it, and now look where we are.
I returned to the present with a jerk. The populists want a protest/celebration in Washington on the
Bicentennial Fourth of July. They are calling together the labor unions, food co-op organizers,
environmental activists, feminists, antiwar people, Blacks, Hispanics, the religious who believe in
social justice — to demand the end of the corporate oligarchy and the beginnings of an economic
democracy.
They are brainstorming about the early morning of July 4, 1976. Should there be a sunrise service?
A memorial service for those who died in the Revolution and those who fought for freedom since
then?
I spoke up: What about the Jubilee? The religious traditions not only mourn the dead, they command
us to do what the dead had in mind: Free the slaves and share our wealth. They call on us to make a
Jubilee!
From that moment to the celebration at Mr. Jefferson's memorial was no straight and simple road.
There were many twists and turns and disappointments. And since July 4, 1976, there have been
even more disappointments. We have not yet found a way to sound the ram's horn that will call forth
"liberty throughout the land, for all the inhabitants thereof." Who owns the Earth?
Indeed, the years that followed the Bicentennial saw the most sweeping redistribution of wealth in
all of American history -- but in the opposite direction from what the Torah called for. Far more
wealth was concentrated into the hands of far fewer people, leaving the rest of us to become either
Overworked or Disemployed (some actually jobless, others working at far lower levels than our
ability and education made possible).
Yet, the deeper our disparities in wealth, the more shattered our families and neighborhoods, the
more we fear falling off the career ladder, the more despoiled our earth and water, the more I am
convinced that the Jubilee has much to teach us.
In 1976, we asked religious officials to join our call for an American Jubilee. One ruefully wrote
back that the church laity were not "well enough schooled in the Bible to make the Jubilee alive for
them." Another wrote that it seemed like a great idea, but his was the wrong organization: "Our lay
trustees are exactly the factory owners whose property would be shared out in the Jubilee. You'd
better start somewhere else."
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But we also got some unexpected affirmations: ? A Black preacher remembered his granddaddy’s
telling him there was a Jubilee in 1865. He had already organized his own conference on applying
the Jubilee to American society. ? A rabbi proposed that in honor of the Bicentennial/ Jubilee every
family in America be offered a small homestead of country land to garden and preserve. ? The same
rabbi suggested asking groups of ten or a dozen to do "Jubilee dreaming" as a way to work out what
kind of community they would like to live in—at the neighborhood or even the continental level. ? A
Catholic priest told us that in the Holy Years that used to come every fifty years, each diocese
forgave the debts owed it by the poorer parishes. ? A Reformed Churchman was organizing a church
education project for the Bicentennial year, with the Jubilee at its heart. ? A Mennonite wrote that
when Jesus quoted Isaiah on "the acceptable year of our Lord," he was proclaiming the Jubilee—and
was run out of town not for claiming to be Messiah but for demanding that the rich give up their
wealth.
This was a new kind of long-distance Godwrestling, not face-to-face like Fabrangen but just as real.
And I began to hear the Jubilee in a deeper way, as a great Shabbat.
By now I had been making Shabbat for about four years. I discovered it was not just a set of rules
about what I couldn’t do, as my neighbor up the street had yelled at me when I was growing up in
Baltimore. It was not even just a chance to sleep late, take a nap, rest from my work. After all, I
loved my work: working for justice and peace; healing the fractured human race. Why rest from
work like that?
I discovered that was just the point. Even from the best work in the world, I needed rest. Shabbat had
brought me a new kind of freedom: liberation from anxiety, sorrow, guilt that I was not doing even
more to heal the wounded world. Shabbat brought not merely sleep, but peacefulness. For on one
day of every seven, the world was already healed, already perfect. That day was a day of song and
neighbors, playful reading and unhurried eating, feeling loved and making love. It was a return to the
home of my soul.
I began to see that the Jubilee was about more than redistributing land or money. It was about a
longer, deeper Shabbat in which everyone would share. Just as Jewish communities have always
known that on Shabbat there must be food for the hungry -- otherwise, how could they stop
working? -- so on this Great Shabbat there must be land for the poor.
And there must also be rest for the land. Odd. Very odd. No reformer or radical I had ever heard of
said that if land and wealth were redistributed, the poor should wait a year before beginning to work.
I recalled that the ice-skating rink at Rockefeller Center was shut one day a year. Why? Because
under common law, if land is totally devoted to public use, the owner may lose legal title to it.
Closing the rink for a single day established that its owners were still the owners, with power to
control the property. How to assert Divine Ownership of the earth in the face of all the human uses
of it? Shut down the rink. Close down the harvest and the sowing-season. The Owner reminds us:
All the earth is Mine.
But what does it mean for God to own the earth?
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It means that the spiritual and the political, the ritual and the practical, are fused.
How different this is from our "multiple choice" way of thinking about the world! Tongue in cheek, I
began to imagine an exam in Anthropology 101, with a multiple-choice question: Check off the
category of cultural behavior (priestly ritual; prophetic pursuit of social justice; governmental
economic planning; monkish contemplative meditation) that is exemplified by the following
practice:
? Rhythmic seven-year event, followed by seven-times-seven year event, initiated by blowing a
ram’s horn. ----------- Answer: Ritual.
? Redistribution of land. --------------------------- Answer: Social Justice.
? Moratorium on organized agriculture. ----- Answer: Economic Planning.
? Celebration, study of sacred texts. ----- Answer: Contemplation, Meditation.
Question 2: If all these practices were the same event, under what category would you place them?
That is the Jubilee. Resting, redistributing, and reflecting are profoundly the same act, and that one
act is infused with celebration of the Spirit.
The Jubilee tradition says to us: You cannot achieve equality unless you accept that no human really
owns the wealth, not the boss, not the proletariat, not even the people as a whole: only God, Who is
Beyond. It says: You cannot achieve spiritual transcendence, you cannot free yourself from
"attachment" and addiction to material values, unless you know that everyone needs and must share
the wealth. It says: You cannot heal the earth if you are driven by greed, or fear, or envy.
And the Jubilee is not static. It does not imagine that we can achieve a Great Plateau of social peace
or spiritual peace, and then just sit there. It speaks of a rhythm, a cycle of change. It does not
imagine that the land can be shared and justice achieved once and for all, and it does not imagine
that a little change, year after year, can make for real justice. The Jubilee says that in every year the
poor must be allowed to glean in the corners of the field, that in every seventh year loans must be
forgiven and the poor lifted from the desperation of debt, that for six years of every seven it is all
right for some to accumulate wealth and some to lose it, and for the earth to be forced to work under
human command -- but that once in every generation there must be a great transformation. And that
each generation must know it will have to be done again, in the next generation.
This rhythm is not what we have come to know as conservative or liberal or radical. It carries a more
subtle sense of human behavior than any one of them.
Rhythms of Rest
And the Jubilee says that there is a connection between the cycle of nature and the cycle of human
life. For the Jubilee is rooted in a set of smaller rhythms, the rhythms of earth and sun and moon:
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There is first the rhythm of the earth’s spin upon its axis. Count seven sunsets, and we dance our
way into Shabbat.
And there is the dance of earth and moon. Count seven new moons, and we reach a month of
Shabbat. Begin counting with the month the Torah teaches is "the first of months," the month of
spring and Passover, and our seventh month is Tishri, the month of holy festivals for every phase of
the moon:
Rosh Hashanah (the new moon), Yom Kippur (the waxing moon), Sukkot (the full moon) and
Sh’mini Atzeret/Simchat Torah (the waning moon). And then if we begin counting again from the
Shabbat month of Tishri, we reach the seventh new moon in the spring; Nisan, the month of
Passover.
Tishri and Nisan: months of rest, renewal, sharing—sharing the frail hut of the sukkah in the fall,
sharing the flat bread of the matzah in the spring.
Months of Shabbat
And then we count the circlings of the earth around the sun. Count seven autumn equinoxes, and we
reach the Sabbatical Year, the year of Shabbat. The year when all debts were to be forgiven and the
land was to lie fallow.
Only then, in the year following the seventh seventh year, in the fiftieth year, could the rhythm whirl
up the final spiral to the Jubilee.
In each Shabbat, a whiff of the Jubilee to come. In every Jubilee, the delight of a deeper Shabbat.
And how does the cycle feel when the Jubilee itself comes round at last? There stands the land
untilled as it stood the year before, the seventh seventh year. Two years in a row untilled! Picture a
farming society where twice in a row the land had gone unsown, the trees and vines unpruned.
Where the free growth of the soil was for every family to pluck, not for the owners to harvest
systematically.
Imagine how strange the land would look: more than a touch of wilderness, a fifth "season" of the
year. Nature itself would be transformed along with the society; everyone would have a sense that
doing something so basic as sharing the wealth could change something so basic as how the plants
grew.
Everyone would learn that the "biggest" action of all was to not act.
Not acting! — How fearful the farmers who tried to live by this teaching! The farmer might fear that
waiting two years in a row would bring ruin. But the Torah asserts, and modern science confirms,
that letting the land lie fallow is a crucial part of its restoration. What looks like a famine in the short
run is necessary to prosperity in the long run.
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Perhaps it was shepherds who taught this lesson to farmers. Shepherds knew they must move their
flocks from pasture to pasture, to allow each field to recover its nutrient power. Farmers could not
move from place to place; for them, rotation in time would take the place of rotation in space. From
the wisdom of restfulness in the technological era before us, can we learn the wisdom of restfulness
for our own generation?
Let us imagine the farmer who stands on his family plot of land, thinking: Here, right here, is where
my grandparents stood fifty years ago, and here, right here, is where my grandchildren will stand
fifty years hence. Come what may, in fifty years here my seed will stand, knowing this hill and this
wellspring, this rock and this olive tree.
Between the renewed health of my small family and the renewed health of my whole country, land
and people, there is a clear unity. For it is only by restoring each family that our country is restored:
no king, no priest can accomplish this renewal. Only my family—and every other family.
All this we do not learn from modern secular politics. Today conservatives who demand that the
family be strengthened turn furious at the idea of abolishing all wealth and privilege. Radicals who
demand that the rich be expropriated are baffled at the ideas that the land be left unproductive or the
"regressive" institution of the family be celebrated.
The Jubilee stands beyond the politics of guilt and rage. It does not ask for the rich to give their land
away in fear or guilt; it does not ask the wretched of the earth and the prisoners of starvation to rise
in rage to take back the land from the swollen rich.
Instead, the Jubilee proclaims a "release," a Shabbat, for everyone. A release for the rich as well as
the poor. The rich are released from working, bossing, increasing production—and from others' envy
of them. The poor are released from working, from hunger, from humiliation and despair — and
from others’ pity of them. Both the rich and the poor are seen as fully human, as counterparts to be
encountered—not as enemies or victims to be feared or hated.
So the Jubilee Year begins not at Rosh Hashanah when the fiftieth year itself begins, but ten days
later—on Yom Kippur, when the community has already purged itself of guilt and rage. Only when
the Days of Awe and Turning have already accomplished atonement can the Jubilee be proclaimed.
Thus it is both the final healing gift of the people to God to complete the old cycle, and God's first
blessing to the people in the new cycle.
But the Jubilee was not based only on recognizing God's image in every human being. It may have
appealed to the class interests of a large group of independent small farmers who wanted to prevent
the emergence of a permanent, ever fattening class of large landholders who could lord it over them,
on the one hand, and a class of permanent slaves or debtors who would undercut their income, on the
other.
Toward a Techno-jubilee
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So let us imagine that the Jubilee could be for us not quite a model but a pointer, a hint. A pointer to
what the middling classes of America could say in the search for a decent society— beyond their
own greed, beyond their own guilt.
Imagine applying the Jubilee approach to the despair, violence, anomie, alienation of our cities. To
drug abuse, the disintegration of families, violence not only on the streets but within families, the
abuse of children, the abandonment of old people. What would it say?
That everyone must know for sure that neither poverty nor charity, neither despair nor greed, neither
envy nor largesse, will last forever; that economic independence and responsibility are coming to
everyone.
That there must be hope—not the hope of fantasy, but the hope of sure knowledge.
That in one's own family, neighborhood, community is where cultural roots and economic
independence begin.
That individual rest is not enough; whole communities must take their rest together, for that rest to
be truly refreshing.
That just as communal rest is necessary for the renewal of work, a rhythm of communal return to the
songs, stories, crafts, and foods of communal roots is necessary to healthy cultural growth.
That a rhythmical communal celebration of earth and air and water, plants and animals, is necessary
for a healthy return to contact with other human beings.
That we must recreate the rhythms of rest, roots, and nature—to recreate these rhythms in the very
midst of the cities where they are now abandoned.
How would we translate such wistful statements into policy and program? When people in 1976
began to "think Jubilee," economic sharing felt most important. When I read the Jubilee passage in
1992 with a group of people at a national convention of Jewish Federations and United Jewish
Appeals, the Jubilee’s implications for the healing of the earth leaped out at us. We noticed a darker
side of the Jubilee tradition (Lev. 26:34-35) that in the more optimistic ‘70s we had not even noticed:
If the community does not let the land rest in the Sabbatical and Jubilee years, "Then shall the land
make up for its Shabbat years through time that it is desolate. . . Through the time that it is desolate,
it shall observe the restfulness that it did not rest in the restful-Shabbat years while you were
dwelling on it."
Suddenly these Jewish leaders saw encoded in this ancient teaching what they had thought an
ultramodern ecological assertion: "It’s like the law of gravity. The earth will rest, and if we don’t get
it, if we don’t let it rest, and even celebrate by resting too, then the entire planet will "rest" all right -upon our heads. Sounds like what my eighteen-year-old daughter keeps telling me."
Recently, I have been asking scientists, business-people, rabbis, economists with whom I study the
Jubilee texts to suspend for a moment their own skepticism over what would be possible to get
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society to do, and instead just imagine what would be a modern way of carrying out the sabbatical
year or the Jubilee. Some interesting ideas have emerged:
From a businessman: "I could set aside one year of every seven when I kept selling my old products
but didn’t produce any new ones. That would give the whole company a chance to pause and think
about where we’re going. And it would reduce the strain on the earth a little."
From an engineer: "Suppose every seventh year we stopped all technological research and
development, except maybe R & D on mortal diseases. (After all, just as Torah teaches, we’re
supposed to violate the Shabbat rules in order to save a life.) Suppose the whole society gave us a
year off at some reasonable salary, to think and talk about what technology is good for anyway.
What we do now is the exact opposite of Shabbat: we’re figuring out how to make the earth work
harder. Produce more. With a year off, the earth would get to rest a little right away, and we could
seek a kind of technology that in the long run would let the earth and human beings rest more
deeply."
From a rabbi: "Suppose we brought the idea of Shabbat or even a week-long festival like Sukkot to
the public at large: a week-long celebration of communal roots, neighborhood, and playfulness.
Maybe the week of the Fourth of July. We would close down not just factories and offices, but gas
stations, airplanes, and trains. Even newspapers and TV. Instead of using vacation time to get as far
away from our neighbors as possible, we visit. We have street fairs, with music and stories and food
and crafts. And neighborhood town meetings where people talk about public issues, protecting the
earth, making our neighborhoods alive again, what work is like, why jobs are so hard to get, and
what to do about it."
An environmental biologist: "Nowadays we insist on ‘environmental impact’ assessments before
making any major changes in land use. But we don’t do this when a corporation is about to introduce
a major new product. What if any corporation or agency that was planning to invest more than one
billion dollars in producing a new automobile, say, or a new computer, a new weapon -- were
required to wait for a "sabbatical" year while its impact on the earth was assessed by independent
examiners?"
An economist: "Suppose we had a pool of loan money in every state. Money we could lend to
businesses that were owned and run by face-to-face communities: Family businesses where at least
80% of the workers were in the family. Co-op grocery stores housed in a synagogue. Bike factories
owned by a couple of dozen workers. PTA’s, unions, a chapter of the NAACP -- they could all start
businesses."
"Where would you get the startup capital?"
"Well, if we took the Jubilee seriously, the way they divide up the land every fifty years -- for us, I
guess we’d put a special tax on, say, any corporation worth more than one billion dollars that has
been around more than forty-nine years." He laughs. "Wouldn’t be so easy to pass that tax. No
wonder it was hard for them to actually do the Jubilee."
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A Catholic nun from an urban ministry: "What I like is very earthy," she laughs; "I mean literally.
We could work in my neighborhood to develop vegetable gardens and fisheries, maybe even chicken
farms. Make us less dependent on the supermarkets. Even canneries, food stores, restaurants."
The Pulsating Society
From all these responses and my own wrestling, I realize that the Torah is envisioning an economy
profoundly different from the one we’re used to. Ours is based on constant explosive economic
growth. But now it’s not so clear that the world economy can keep on "growing" in the way we’re
used to. Put as many Chinese, per capita, in automobiles as there are Americans, and the whole
planet would suffocate.
What is the Torah’s economic vision? We might call it a "pulsating" rather than an expanding or
exploding system. And it may be relevant to us in ways we would not have foreseen, one generation
ago. Today, economists are beginning to talk about "sustainable" economies, which can meet their
peoples’ needs year after year, generation after generation, by restoring the earth to the same degree
that they deplete it. Not the same as economic growth.
And the Torah’s vision of social justice also differs from our modern notion. At its heart is not
equality but "resting," not only from the physical work of tilling the land, but from the political and
social work of building institutions and concentrating capital. Even very useful institutions must be
periodically dissolved. That way the whole rigid pattern of society — some on top, some on the
bottom, some assigned to this role, some to that —all dissolves. People are freed up, the imagination
is freed up. How could we win the benefits of that, without bringing on a time of social chaos?
How would we deal with spiritual hunger? We have often encouraged people to buy more goodies,
gobble up the world, as a substitute for spiritual nourishment. Our churches, synagogues, schools,
families, even our psychotherapists, have gotten sloppy and ineffective in helping us to grow in
spiritual depth. If buying new material goods has its limits, will demands for spirituality get
stronger? Or, to think of it the other way round, if we need to restrain our material consumption for
the planet’s sake, do we need to create more spiritual sustenance?
How would we deal with healing the earth? Most official "environmental" programs have focused on
cleanup and recycling. There has been very little reexamination of the production end of the process
-- where destruction is actually likely to begin. The Sabbatical/Jubilee cycle teaches that we must
face issues of production if the earth is to be protected.
The more I absorb all this, the more I feel both exhilarated and exhausted. What a task! And what a
possibility! Pursuing such changes would renew our roots, redirect our history, and release our
creativity. No doubt it would take a great political struggle -- since those who hold power rarely
give it up or share it without a struggle.
I ask myself, how could we begin?
Suppose that in a particular city for nine days, from a Jewish Shabbat through a Christian Sabbath
(from Friday night through Sunday), a group of synagogues and churches held a Jubilee Festival.
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Such a Jubilee Festival would address the economic renewal of the city and its neighborhoods by
inviting co-ops and worker-managed firms, innovative small businesses, etc., to explain their work;
by demonstrating equipment for energy conservation and the local generation of solar/renewable
energy; by turning empty lots or part of the church or synagogue grounds into communal vegetable
gardens; by holding workshops on how tenants can buy apartment houses and turn them into co-ops;
by setting up a temporary food co-op and helping people organize a more permanent one.
It would address the spiritual and cultural renewal of the neighborhood through song, dance,
storytelling, sharing food.
It would address the political empowerment of the neighborhood by gathering people to discuss in
open town meetings some of the major issues of our society -- energy, jobs, environment, prices,
families.
Where do we find the energy to start?
The Jubilee passages in the Torah teach us: The most effective politics has a powerful ritual element
in it, engaging not only material interests but deep emotional, intellectual, and spiritual energies.
And when ritual is made fully communal and focused on reality, it becomes precisely politics: Black
churches in the South. Soviet Jews dancing and singing, carrying the Torah into the public streets.
Gandhi, fasting.
When I began my journey into Spirit, what erupted in me was a fusion of "ritual" and "politics." The
Jubilee is both. The volcano is still alive.
________
Rabbi Arthur Waskow is director of The Shalom Center (www.shalomctr.org); author of Seasons of
Our Joy, Down-to-Earth Judaism and Godwrestling -- Round 2, ; co-editor of Trees, Earth, &
Torah: A Tu B'Shvat Anthology; editor of Torah of the Earth: Exploring 4,000 Years of Ecology in
Jewish Thought; co-author of Tales of Tikkun: New Jewish Stories to Heal the Wounded World; and
co-author with Phyllis Berman of A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven.
_______________________________
These comments flow from the work of The Shalom Center. It is a division of ALEPH: Alliance for
Jewish Renewal, but these thoughts do not necessarily reflect those of ALEPH as a whole.
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Justice during the Holidays
The Jewish calendar has multiple holidays that easily lend themselves to a concentration
on ethical questions and provide a time to strive toward greater justice in our global
community. The holidays of Passover, Sukkot, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur are
fitting times for remembrance of and thoughts on bringing justice to those whom are
currently less fortunate than ourselves. Those in the Global South are engaged in a type
of slavery to the Global North through the economic injustice of the chains of debt. What
follows are examples of sermon materials and further text study reflection. There are
multiple Haggadah supplements for Passover and modern commentary or sermon
suggestions for these holidays. In addition to the introductory materials found in this
binder, please see the section entitled “Links for Further Learning and Information”
found on our main Jewish Resources page.
Passover
“Let my people go!”
What phrase could be more compelling in a struggle for freedom? These words, which
Moses spoke to Pharaoh as he led the Israelites from slavery in Egypt still rings true
today to millions of people across the world. Men, women and children each created
b’tselem Elohim, in the image of God, are held in bondage by the chains of international
debts.
Overwhelming foreign debts impoverish nations, diverting resources from nutrition,
health care, education and sustainable development. Credited with noble intentions, these
loans were supposed to help poor nations build infrastructure, develop financial
resources, and increase economic growth. But politics, recession and, in some cases,
corruption intervened. Now countries are caught in a cycle of indebtedness that they can
never get out from under.
Jewish texts, commentary and tradition are aware of the necessity of providing relief for
those in need. Because of this we often donate time and money to ameliorate hunger and
poverty. But these donations only alleviate symptoms of what is a much deeper issue.
The great scholar Maimonides wrote that it is the greatest mitzvah to provide a means of
self-sufficiency to those who are in times of suffering or discord. Working for debt
cancellation is a way to help impoverished nations break free from dependence on
foreign nations and help them provide for themselves.
As Jews, we must embrace the tradition of Moses and our ancestors by breaking the
chains of debt and crying out “let these nations go.” Debt relief is hunger relief. Debt
cancellation is money for health care, schools and clean water. Money saved from debt
repayments fuels the battle against HIV/AIDS. Release from debt is release from
bondage.
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Every year during the Passover Seder, we recall the day when we left Egypt. Today we
must not turn our backs on people who are still enslaved by the weight of unpayable
debts. Support Jubilee USA in our Biblically inspired work towards the elimination of
debt, of slavery, in impoverished nations around the world.
Comments from Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center
for Reform Judaism, April 2000
My Friends, nine days from now we Jews will sit at Seder tables, as we have from
generation to generation to tell the story of our freedom from bondage and our passage
into the Promised Land. The story of Passover reminds every Jew in every time and every
place, what it is to be enslaved. It fuels our passion for justice, our love of freedom and
our disdain for oppression — and it is why millions of Jews join all of us here today in
asking Congress and the international community to cancel the international debt of some
of the poorest nations on the globe.
For this debt is a form of bondage, impoverishing nations, diverting resources from
nutrition, health care, education and sustainable development — depriving children and
families the most basic of human needs. Yet, it is an especially bitter bondage, for today’s
heavy chains of debt were yesterday’s supposed ladders of development.
Made in good faith, often with noble intentions, these debts were supposed to help these
nations build infrastructure, develop financial resources, and get a leg up in international
trade. But, politics, recession and in some cases corruption intervened. And, now these
tools of development have become the shackles of endless unpayable debt. It is time, my
friends, to do as Moses demanded of Pharaoh and let these nations go.
For every child denied an education because of unending debt service to us, let these
nations go. For every family bereft of health care because our debt payments must be
made, let these nations go. For every unit of GNP consumed by unpayable debt to us, let
these nations go. For every drop of sweat shed by Africans during more than four
hundred years of enslaved labor and centuries of colonial rule, let these nations go. And
finally, my friends, for the moral fiber of this great nation a nation that wishes to help, not
harm, to aid, not to assault, to develop, not to destroy, let these nations go. Let them go
from debt burdens they cannot hope to repay, burdens that creditors never intended to
become so unbearable.
At our best, Americans of all faiths are great people. We joined together to rebuild
Europe after the war. We respond in amazing numbers to humanitarian crises around the
globe. We help without being asked wherever and whenever natural disasters strike.
International debt is a humanitarian crisis and a man-made disaster. We can relieve it by
the simple, compassionate, decent act of cancellation.
Let us come together as a nation, as a people, as the wealthiest most affluent country in
the history of the world and forgive this debt in the Jubilee year. Let us work with our
brothers and sisters in debtor nations to develop economies that do not return to debt —
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educational systems that prepare for the future and health care systems that save lives.
The name of this movement is biblical in its origins. And, while scholars may debate
whether the Jubilee was ever observed in ancient times, together we can make sure it is
observed in our times, for our reasons and on behalf of our brothers and sisters.
The Passover Seder instructs “Let all who are hungry, come eat.” Today let us declare
that all who suffer from the poverty and the burdens of debt shall be welcome at our table
as we work together to break these chains of oppression.
Sukkot
When celebrating the harvest, we can think, pray and act on behalf of those without
bounty
Shemini Atzeret
Commentary by Rabbi Melissa Crespy
Full article at Jewish Theological Seminary of America website (www.jtsa.edu).
It is remarkable that on one of our most joyous festivals - Shemini Atzeret - in some ways
the ultimate day of Sukkot - we are instructed to read from Deuteronomy 14 and 15. Just
as we are feasting on the bounty of the earth, and celebrating with song and food and
wine, we are repeatedly reminded not to neglect the poor, the needy and the Levite, and
to cancel debts and set free indentured servants every seventh year. Deuteronomy 15:7
and 8 strike a particularly strong note: "If, however, there is a needy person among you,
one of your kinsmen in any of your settlements in the land that the Lord you God is
giving you, do not harden your heart and shut your hand against your needy kinsman.
Rather, you must open your hand and lend him sufficient for whatever he needs."
Don't harden your hearts, we are told. Give your needy kinsman sufficient for whatever
he needs. Don't let the joy and festivities of the holiday be marred by your insensitivity to
those who most need your help. The Talmud (Ketubot 67b) records just how far we might
go in providing for our kinsman: "Our masters taught: If an orphan applies for assistance
to marry, a house must be rented for him and a bed laid out for him, as well as all the
household effects he would need, and then he is to be wed to his bride, as is said:
'Sufficient for whatever he needs.'"
This passage may seem like a stretch, but its message is clear: we who are the
beneficiaries of God's bounty, of the food, drink, clothing, furnishings and homes with
which God has blessed us - cannot enjoy those blessings unless we make sure that the
needy among us have at least the bare minimum for their needs. A bridegroom needs a
home into which to bring his bride, and household effects to begin a new life. That's the
bare minimum - and by reading this section of Torah on our joyous holiday we are being
reminded that we can't fully celebrate until we have provided for the needy. This has
never been a theoretical issue for our people, and it certainly is not theoretical today.
When I think about the thousands of our people in Israel who have been traumatized and
maimed by terrorists, or about the thousands in Argentina who can't put food on their
tables, I can't help but think of these passages in the Torah. I know that my celebration of
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Shemini Atzeret will not be right, will not be just, will not be full, unless I do what I can
to better their situation. I pray that we can all think deeply about these verses on our
joyous holiday of Shemini Atzeret, and open our hearts to our brothers and sisters in need
- wherever they are.
The High Holy Days
In celebrating Rosh Hashanah, the start of a new year, one can celebrate many aspects
that they feel fortunate for in their daily lives. Especially when we are aware of those in
the world that are suffering, we are able to feel fortunate in a different way. When we
individually and collectively repent for our sins during Yom Kippur, we can
acknowledge the part that we as individuals or as a nation may have had in causing or
enabling the perpetuation of the suffering of others or of our environment in the global
community.
Rosh Hashanah: Creating the world, Repairing the world
By Jonathan Spira-Savett
www.socialaction.com
In Jewish tradition, Rosh Hashanah is considered the anniversary of the creation of the
world. In all cultures, stories and celebrations of creation embody a group's
understanding of the moral and spiritual order-what is certain and uncertain in the world,
what human nature is like, what kind of partnership there is or should be between people
and their God or gods. So it is with Judaism.
The Torah begins, of course, with a creation story. The rabbis of the midrashim and the
kabbalah (the Jewish mystical tradition) have not only commented on the Torah's story,
but sometimes written what amount to new Jewish creation stories. It is a hallmark of the
richness and strength of Jewish tradition that there is room for creation stories that seem
to contradict Genesis. Indeed, some say that the Torah itself has two creation stories-the
orderly and perfect creation of Genesis 1, and the more ambiguous story of the Garden of
Eden. No single story or set of answers can be complete.
Here are parts of two Jewish creation stories. One is the familiar story from Genesis. The
other comes from the mystical teachings of Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the "Ari" of sixteenthcentury Tzfat. The Lurianic creation story is at the core of Chasidism, and has influenced
modern Jews of all philosophies. Bear in mind that the Ari speaks entirely in symbols and
metaphors--for instance, the light of Genesis is physical light, while in the Lurianic
kabbalah "light" is a metaphor or a hint.
Genesis 1:1-5, 31; 2:1-3
At the beginning of God's creating of the heavens and the earth--when the earth was wild
and waste, darkness over the face of Ocean, rushing-spirit of God hovering over the face
of the watersGod said, "Let there be light!" and there was light.
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God saw the light: that it was good. God separated the light from the darkness. God
called the light "Day", and the darkness he called "Night."
There was setting, there was dawning: one day. . . .
Now God saw all that he had made, and here: it was exceedingly good!
There was setting, there was dawning: the sixth day.
Thus were finished the heavens and the earth, with all of their array.
God had finished, on the seventh day, his work that he had made, and then he ceased, on
the seventh day, from all his work that he had made.
God gave the seventh day his blessing, and he hallowed it, for on it he ceased from all his
work, that by creating, God had made.
To paraphrase based on the teachings of the Ari:
Originally, there was only Ayn Sof, the Infinite--all of reality was God. In order for the
universe to exist, God had to withdraw from some part of that reality. This metaphorical
withdrawal (tzimtzum) left a "place" devoid of God's presence, where the cosmos could
come into being.
God did not abandon this empty space, but projected a beam of light, which became a
mass without form inside that space. From that mass, all levels of reality came into
existence. God at that point injected another ray of light, which began to create "vessels";
these represent facets of God's activity and God's qualities, and each contains a portion of
that light from Ayn Sof. This process was interrupted, however, before it was complete.
Some of the vessels were not strong enough to contain the divine light. The vessels
shattered into bits (shvirat hakelim).
The ray of light returned to Ayn Sof, while the vessels fell and became the world of
reality, including the material word. Some of the divine light adhered to the shattered
vessels, much as oil remains on an earthen vessel even after it is poured out. Thus there
are sparks of God's light trapped in every piece of reality. God is unwhole, separated
from some of God's own light. Through prayer and action, a person can liberate and raise
these sparks and repair God's unity. That process is known as tikkun--repair of God,
repair of the world, repair of the universe.
As you read the creation stories, think about these questions:
· What attitude does each story express toward the world?
· According to each story, is the world good? Is it complete? Why do evil or suffering
remain?
· What is the significance of human beings in each story? What role do we have in
making things good or complete?
· When Jews use the term tikkun olam today, we are using a term taken from the Ari's
story. Why do you think the Ari's account of creation has become such a popular way
among Jews today for thinking about creation?
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· What can you take from both of these stories for your own theology, your own view of
the world and your role in it?
A Yom Kippur Sermon
www.coejl.org
Yom Kippur presents us with a thesis and an antithesis, both of which are transmitted to
us by some of our texts.
First, the thesis. It is conveyed to us most eloquently in the words of Resh Lakish, a third
century talmudic sage, as found in the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Yoma 86b: "Great is
repentance, for the deliberate sins of one who repents become as inadvertent ones."
Undoubtedly, this was meant quite literally. For when a person has a change of heart, is
filled with remorse, and resolves truly to move in a new direction, it indicates that the
actions or inactions of the past were born of a state of mind and a set of values that were
not the person's real choice. We learn, retroactively, who the real person is, and always
was, by the act of teshuvah (return). And inadvertent sins, of course, produce no moral
censure.
It is a lovely theology. (Legend even has it that Resh Lakish had a personal stake in this
theology of clean, new beginnings, for he, too, was said to be a wayward son who found
his way back into the rabbinic circle.) But it is more than a lovely and optimistic
theology. We consider it to be the most central theme of Yom Kippur. This day is
celebrated because of the power of return, of teshuvah, to clear the slate, and to create a
clean record. The power of return is a miraculous power, and it is the discovery and the
legacy of our latter prophets. They taught the doctrine, and the Rabbis--Resh Lakish and
so many others--ran with it. And so Yom Kippur has a spellbinding hold on us. For it
brings the good news that renewal is possible, it promotes optimism and self-confidence,
and it counteracts guilt and despair by releasing us from enslavement to our bad choices,
and by assuring us that correct intentions for the future redeem and atone for the past.
And thus each Jew can begin again on this day, by resolving to do another act of hesed in
the coming year, to study a traditional text in translation, to learn Hebrew, and to repair
interpersonal relations that have soured.
That is the thesis about Yom Kippur. Viewed in this traditional way, this holy day has all
of the wonderful charms of baseball. It is never too late, and errors can always be
redeemed; indeed, in the final reckoning, errors can, for all practical purposes, be erased.
This is what we expect to hear on Yom Kippur. It is the "official ideology", if you will.
But, as the young lovers in The Fantasticks had to learn, "despite what pretty poets say,
the night is only half the day." And the romantic thesis of teshuvah as a rebirth, and as an
amnesty, must be joined by the searching light of a somewhat harsher, but equally real,
antithesis. Nothing can be so simple as a neat clearing of the slate. And it isn't.
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There should be an urgency, and not just a romanticism about Yom Kippur. Why an
urgency? Because it is a terrible mistake to imagine that all things can be made new
again. So, to borrow once more from that record-breaking musical, "we must be burned a
bit and burnished by the sun" of the consequences that our actions have.
So here is a second text. Nearly twenty years ago, a minor flap broke out among the
liturgists in the Episcopalian Church, because of a decision to eliminate a long-standing
hymn that contained the following key line: "Once to every man and nation comes the
moment to decide, in the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side." That
hymn attempted to affirm the significance of choices that may come our way once, or
only briefly, but not linger forever. It asserted that we have to take responsibility for
those choices because choosing poorly may not fully rectifiable. But the decision was
made to eliminate it because it implied that we are given only one chance to turn to God.
The prophets would, perhaps, have nodded their assent that we can always turn to God.
But a deeper question lurks here. Should our thesis, that is the doctrine of teshuvah, lead
us to imagine that all of our mistakes are revocable?
The truth is that the world operates according to laws. That is the true meaning of the
second paragraph of the Sh’ma ("if you obey the commandments.... I will grant the rain
for your land"). Consequences follow upon certain acts, and those consequences can be
enduring. Teshuvah is powerful, but it is not omnipotent. It may change intentional sins
into inadvertent ones. But it may not erase the effects of those sins, those failings.
This is our antithesis, this seemingly un-Yom Kippurdig message that we don't much like
to hear: Repentance cannot be made into a substitute for responsibility.
Our tradition understood this well. Here is a third text, from one of the most profoundly
ethical passages in all of religious literature. It comes from the Babylonian Talmud,
Tractate Bava Metzia 58b: the talmudic discussion here speaks of the specially
devastating power of angry and slanderous words. It notes that these are worse than
stealing another person's belongings outright. And why is that? "One is rectifiable, and
one is not". Words are not dollars. They cannot simply be returned, or transferred. The
mischief is done. And, although it goes without saying, we are reminded that there are
other such irrevocable crimes as well, including, of course, such things as sexual
violations and murder.
This antithesis shouldn't be surprising. As Ecclesiastes says, the crooked sometimes
cannot be made straight. Unlike baseball, life is not unlimited in time. And certain
decisions, by their very nature, do come by only once, or for a brief period.
Environmental issues are surely among these, and they have not only the most enduring,
but also the most global of consequences. Sins against the earth also go to the very heart
of what it means to rebel against the Creator by threatening unrectifiable damage to
creation.
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A fourth text, from the Midrash Rabbah on Ecclesiastes 7:13, describes God taking Adam
around the Garden of Eden for an orientation, as it were, to the realm of nature. "See how
beautiful all My creations are," says God in this legend, adding that "all has been created
for your sake. So reflect on this, and take care not to foul or destroy my world. For if you
do, there will be none to repair it after you. And what is worse, you will bring death even
to righteous people in the future."
How rich and how wise this ancient legend is. Consider its essential message: Human
beings are the crown of creation, able to improve upon, or else reverse and destroy
creation, and thus our license to exploit nature is limited by the terms of our tenancy, and
our ultimate responsibility to the landlord. Above all, it tells us, as God told Adam, that
some intrusions into the natural world have irreversible effects, and can, in the aggregate,
doom even innocent future generations. What generation ever needed this Midrash more
than ours, in which the human power to create, and permanently to destroy, have reached
unprecedented heights?
"You will bring death even to righteous people in the future", says our text. It goes on to
give the following analogy: A woman committed a crime and went to prison, and bore a
child there. The child grew up there, and one day petitioned the king, asking why he was
there, since he had not committed any crime. The king, however, responded matter-offactly that he was there not because of his own crime, but because of his mother's. So it is
that the sins of earlier generations doom those that come after, if we don't heed the
warning not to foul creation.
We rail against this notion, that the sins of the parents are visited on the children.
Although the Torah states this rather forcefully, we meticulously excise it from our
liturgy. All day on Yom Kippur, we recite, over and over, the list of divine attributes
from Exodus 34: "God is gracious, compassionate, long-suffering, abundant in kindness,
etc." But the doctrine of intergenerational retribution at the end of that verse does not
appear in our Mahzor. We prefer the thesis of repentance creating a clean slate to the
antithesis of inexorable consequences and intergenerational justice. But we cannot avoid
it.
Is it just for God to proclaim that the sins of the parents will be visited on the children?
That "the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge"? A
remarkably pointed fable (apparently, but not conclusively, the work of Rav Hai Gaon)
gives us the disquieting answer:
There once was a hungry lion who was eyeing a fox with desire. The fox said to him:
"What do you want with a scrawny little fox like me? Standing yonder is a well-rounded
gentleman, who will make a much more satisfying dinner for you." The lion replied:
"Don't you know that animals are forbidden to kill and eat human beings? I could be
severely punished for that!" Said the fox: "Not to worry--the punishment will not
overtake you, but rather your children; as you know, 'the fathers eat sour grapes and the
children's teeth are set on edge.'" The lion was seduced by this argument and ran towards
the man to tear and eat him. As he was running, however, he was caught by a trap and
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found himself at the bottom of a deep pit. The fox gleefully ran over and looked into the
pit. The lion cried from the bottom: "Liar! You said that only my children would be
punished for my sin!" The fox then said: "Fool! This punishment is not for what you just
did, but rather for that which your father did. He once ate a human being himself." The
lion cried out: "But that's not fair! Why should I have to suffer from my father's sins?"
The fox answered with a sardonic laugh: "You yourself were just prepared to sin even
though you knew that your children would suffer for it. How, then, do you dare to
complain about what's fair!"
Translate this fable as follows: those who wish to complain in the divine court of equity
about their lot in life may find that they lack standing in that court, if their own actions
make it clear that they are willing to make their children suffer for their sins. The more
that we show ourselves to be insensitive to the fate of our children and grandchildren, the
less right we have to protest the unforgiving nature of reality.
So how have we done? We are a society that is much more readily distressed by an
affront to the nation's flag than by an offense against its rivers. We know what the record
is: Unrenewable resources wasted and depleted; forests that support whole life systems
destroyed or removed in order to make possible everything from development to the
raising of beef; species which for all we know were long ago painstakingly and lovingly
spared by God from the Flood have finally been made to disappear; waterways and air
have been fouled; and critical elements of the atmosphere have been destroyed. The
second paragraph of the Sh’ma has a new meaning to us: "If you obey the rules of
tenancy in this world, then you will have life-giving rain; if you do not obey those rules,
but behave as if you were the creators and landlords, then the rain will turn acidic and no
longer give life."
It is easy to condemn the large corporations that cut forests and create oil spins. It is
much harder to face the fact--the incontrovertible fact--that so much of this unrectifiable
damage to God's world goes on because all of us have imbibed the poisonous delusion of
mastery, and because we have all, to one extent or another, bought into a lifestyle that
inexorably leads to exploitation.
Is there a synthesis that binds our thesis to our antithesis? It is, perhaps, this: we must
believe in the power of repentance, and find the courage to change precisely in the hope
that it is never too late. But we must also understand that one of God's greatest gifts to us
is the very law-like quality of the world, for it makes us into true moral agents, able to
anticipate consequences, and make free and responsible choices.
Yom Kippur is a day on which every moment is high noon. We wear the Tallit at night,
as if it were day. Each tefillah contains the Kedushah of Musaf--the Kedushah of midday. This is the day in which we stand in the light of scrutiny, and we cannot avoid the
irrevocable consequences of what we do with God's most basic gifts. This, too – this,
above all – is a Jewish issue. And if we cannot see the justice in paring for the wonders of
nature, let us at least do it for our children and grandchildren, who may otherwise be born
into a prison they cannot escape.
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Jewish Justice Prayer and Story Selections
There was once a musician who, with great care, practiced her trumpet many hours each
day. Every evening, she dressed, drove down to the concert hall, took her place on the
stage, arranged her music on the stand, and set her instrument carefully upon her knees.
But as the rest of the orchestra played, she would sit motionless. The violins carried the
melody through the hall; the oboes, flutes, and horns gave depth to the rich composition,
and the drums gave it rhythm. But this woman sat with her trumpet on her lap and played
nothing. Suddenly, the moment for which she had prepared arrived. She straightened
herself, placed the instrument to her lips, and when the conductor brought her in, clear
and true, the trumpet note rang out – just one note, and no more. Then she relaxed. Her
contribution had been made. She’d rendered her one note – in time and in tone. When the
conductor had called on her, she had been ready.
Adonai Eloheinu, our melodies are never just melodies, and our songs are never just
songs. A time will arrive—it always does—when You will call upon us to sound our note
… to do the work You have asked us to perform. Keep open our eyes, our ears, and our
hearts… that we might always know when that moment has come … the moment for us
to reach out to another…to feed, to clothe, or to shelter…to bring warmth, understanding,
or love … to dry a tear or draw a smile. These are the notes that bring endless harmony
and glory to Your creation. May we be worthy of singing Your song.
***
A rabbi and a soap-maker once went for a walk together. The soap-maker said to the
rabbi: “What good is Judaism? After thousands of years of teaching about goodness,
truth, justice, and peace, after all the study of Torah, and all the fine ideals of the
Prophets, look at all the trouble and misery in the world! If Judaism is so wonderful and
true, why should all this be so?”
The rabbi said nothing. They continued walking, until he noticed a child playing in the
gutter. The child was filthy with soot and grime. “Look at that child,” said the rabbi.
“You say that soap makes people clean, but see the dirt on that youngster. What good is
soap? With all the soap in the world, that child is still filthy. I wonder if soap is of any
use at all.”
The soap-maker protested, and said, “But Rabbi, soap can’t do any good unless it is
used!”
“Exactly!” cried the Rabbi. “So it is with Judaism. It isn’t effective unless it is applied in
daily life and used!”
***
A story is told about a pious Jew who boasts to his rabbi that he saved another Jew’s soul.
A beggar had asked him for a meal and he agreed, but insisted that first they must pray
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the afternoon minchah prayers. And before serving him a meal, he ordered the beggar to
wash his hands and recite the appropriate blessing, and thereafter to recite the motzi
prayer over the bread.
The rabbi showed his annoyance with his pious disciple. “There are times, my son, when
you must act as if there were no God.”
The disciple, taken aback by this counsel, protested, “How could I, a man of faith, act as
if no God existed?”
The rabbi replied, “When someone comes to you in need, as this beggar came, act as if
there were no God in the universe, as if you alone are in the world and that there is no
one to help him, except yourself.”
The disciple asked aloud, “And have I no responsibility for his soul?” The rabbi replied,
“Take care of your soul and his body, not visa versa.”
***
Pray as if everything depended on God;
Act as if everything depended on you.
Who rise from prayer better persons,
Their prayer is answered.
(Gates of Prayer)
***
We cannot merely pray to you, O God, to end starvation; for You have already given us
the resources with which to feed the entire world, if we would only use them wisely.
We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to root out prejudice; for You have already given
us eyes with which to see the good in all people, if we would only use them rightly.
We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to end despair; for You have already given us the
power to clear away slums and to give hope, if only we would use our power justly.
We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to end disease; for You have already given us
great minds with which to search out cures and healings, if we would only use them
constructively.
Therefore, we pray to You instead, O God, for strength, determination, and willpower ─
to do as well as to pray, to become as well as to wish..
(Rabbi Jack Riemer, quoted in Likrat Shabbat, by Sidney Greenberg [Bridgeport: Media Judaica, 1985], p.
123)
***
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There was a young man walking down a deserted beach just before dawn. In the distance,
he saw a frail old man. As he approached the old man, he saw him picking up stranded
starfish and throwing them back into the sea. The young man gazed in wonder as the old
man again and again threw the small starfish from the sand to the water.
He asked, “Old man, why do you spend so much energy doing what seems to be a waste
of time?”
The old man explained that the stranded starfish would die if left in the morning sun.
“But there must be thousands of beaches and millions of starfish!” exclaimed the young
man. “How can you make any difference?”
The old man looked down at the small starfish in his hand and as he threw it to the safety
of the sea, he said, “I made a difference to this one.”
(Lauren Eiseley)
***
Emperor Hadrian saw an old man cutting down shrubs in order to plant saplings. He said
to him, “Old man! What is your age?” He answered, “One hundred.” “You are 100 years
old and you stand here cutting down trees in order to plant saplings? Do you think you
will eat any of their fruits?” He replied, “If I am worthy, I shall eat. If not, just as my
parents toiled for me, so shall I toil for my children.”
(Kohelet Rabbah)
***
Baruch ata Adonai, Eloheinu, melech ha-olam, Asher kidshanu bmitzvotav vitzivanu
lirdof tzedakah.
Blessed are you, Eternal our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has hallowed us with
miztvot and commanded us to pursue justice.
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Suggested Books, Articles and Links for Further Learning and
Information
The books are more general sources on the relationship between Judaism and Social
Justice whereas the website links are a wide variety including those with Torah, Pirke
Avot, Mishnah, and Talmud commentary as well as those of leading Jewish social justice
organizations. Key links on infusing Jewish holidays with justice themes have also been
added. The debt links are provided as a tool to answer further questions you may have
regarding debt and global justice.
Books
Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, Abraham Joshua Heschel
Judaism and Global Responsibility, Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D.
The Tikkun Anthology, Michael Lerner
Godwrestling, Arthur Waskow
Jewish Dimensions of Social Justice: Tough Moral Choices of Our Time, Albert Vorspan
and David Saperstein
Tikkun Olam: Social Responsibility in Jewish Thought and Law, David Shatz (ed.)
Rambam’s Ladder: A Meditation on Generosity and Why It Is Necessary to Give, Julie
Salamon
Higher and Higher: Making Jewish Prayer a Part of Us, Steven M. Brown, Edited by
Stephen Garfunkel (Disseminated by the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism,
Department of Youth Activities)
Sacred Seasons: A Sourcebook for the Jewish Holidays, Rabbi Donald H. Isaacs
Issues of Conscience: There Shall Be No Poor, Richard G. Hirsch
Searching the Prophets for Values, Balfour Brickner and Albert Vorspan (esp. Ch IV,
Justice)
Web Resources
AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps: www.avodah.net
American Jewish World Service: www.ajws.org
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Jewish Coalition for Service: www.jewishservice.org
Jewish Funds for Justice: www.jewishjustice.org
Jewish Organizing Initiative: www.jewishorganizing.org
Jews for Racial and Economic Justice: www.jfrej.org
Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism: www.rac.org
SocialAction: www.SocialAction.com
Aish: www.aish.com
Tzedek: Jewish Action for a Just World: www.tzedek.org.uk
Tikkun Magazine: www.tikkun.org
Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life: www.coejl.org
Holiday Sources
Religious Action Center: http://rac.org/pubs/holidayguides/
The Shalom Center: www.shalomctr.org
Rabbis for Human Rights: http://www.rhr-na.org/resources/pesach.html
Jewish Social Justice Network: Passover Guide:
http://www.jsjn.org/1157_PassoverGuide_c.pdf
Sacred Seasons: A Sourcebook for the Jewish Holidays, Rabbi Donald H. Isaacs
Web Resources on Debt
World Development Movement: www.wdm.org.uk
Jubilee Research: www.jubileeresearch.org
Jubilee USA: www.jubileeusa.org
Jubilee Debt Campaign: www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk
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