Between Pharaohs and Nomads | 133that of the real and direct rule of God; which would necessarily have led to the
postulate that God owns all land.” The Sabbatical is one expression of this convic-
tion; Moses “conceived the idea of overcoming the continually-expanding social
harm forever by ensuring the restoration, in each ensuing Sabbatical year, ‘of
the normal situation of the national community of Israel after all the deviations
and wrong developments of the preceding six years.’”^36 God’s ultimate ownership
of the land facilitates the redistribution of that land after seven years of private
accumulation, thus preventing any permanent class structure from developing.
This harks back to the discussion in Kingship of God, where Buber argued against
the claim that Leviticus 25:23 (“Mine is the land, for you are only guests and
sojourners with Me”) had to be a late text and a “theological utopia” rather than
reflecting an actual ancient view that could have become manifest in political
practice. The ultimate consequence of this view is that “private property is feudal
tenure”—there is ultimately no right to hold property that cannot be undone af-
ter a number of years by redistribution, since the true owner of the land has stated
that this is how he wishes to dispose of it.^37 Indeed, Buber sees the Sabbatical year,
whose purpose it was “to lead to a renewal of the organization of the society, in
order to start afresh,” as having the status of “a renewal of the Covenant” itself.
For Moses, social law and religious vision are inseparable:
Above all this there hovers the consecration to YHVH, to whom the earth be-
longs and who, by means of that earth, nourishes His dwellers and sojourners.
They ought not to thrust one another aside, they ought not to impoverish one
another permanently or enslave one another; they must again and ever again
become equal to one another in their freedom of person and free relation to
the soil; they must rest together and enjoy the usufruct together; the times
dedicated to God make them free and equal again and again, as they were at
the beginning. The land is given to them in common in order that in it and
from it they may become a true national Community, a “Holy People”... in
order that they might become a berakah, a blessing power.^38The gift of the land is a reminder to the Israelites not simply of the author of their
prosperity, to whom they owe gratitude, but also of the purposes for which the
giver of the land intends it to be used. If they honor these purposes, their activ-
ity will serve as a “blessing power” to all the other peoples of the earth, who will
have the opportunity to observe justice in action. If they fail, they will desecrate
the name of God and dishonor the mission for which they were brought into
existence as a people.
Just as the civilizational contrast between Israel and Egypt is illustrated
through concrete social practices, so is it illustrated by contrasting ideas and
concepts. The concept of miracle stands out here as exemplary. In his chapter
“The Wonder on the Sea,” Buber discusses the miracle of the splitting of the wa-
ters and the drowning of Pharaoh’s army. The discussion is almost self-parody