Excerpts: Learn Torah with Prof. Jacob Milgrom, Parshat Behar

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 kingís 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  This time, however, they are not enslaved politically (except where colonial rulers have been replaced by their own), but shackled economically.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
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.