In the yovel year, the enslaved go free; the Hebrew word d’ror refers to this release, and to liberty itself.
Perhaps the most famous use of Leviticus 25:10 is on Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell, on which is enscribed: “Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof”. The iconic bell was created for the jubilee year (the word “jubilee” derives from the Hebrew “yovel”) of Pennsylvania’s Charter of Privileges, which granted religious liberty to its inhabitants; only later did the bell come to be an icon for abolitionists and called the Liberty Bell, because of its inscription’s connection to freeing slaves. A copy of the Liberty Bell hangs in Jerusalem’s Gan haPa’amon, Liberty Bell Park.
The commandment to release slaves during the yovel year awakens to the fundamental problem with human slavery–the degradation of human beings and of our purpose in the world. Leviticus 25 concludes with the enduring understanding that we are meant to derive from the notion of d’ror:
For it is to Me that the Israelites are servants: they are My servants, whom I freed from the land of Egypt, I the Lord your God.
As you study the sources below, consider what “release” could mean in our own time and in contemporary terms. Who deserves release and why? Who has the obligation to call for it? How might it happen?