This Shabbat we study the Parshah Behar, meaning “on Mount [Sinai]”, found in Leviticus 25:21. On the mountain of Sinai, G-d communicates to Moses the laws of the Sabbatical year: every seventh year, all work on the land should cease, and its produce becomes free for the taking for all, man and beast.

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Seven Sabbatical cycles are followed by a fiftieth year—the Jubilee year, on which work on the land ceases, all indentured servants are set free, and all ancestral estates in the Holy Land that have been sold revert to their original owners. Behar also contains additional laws governing the sale of lands, and the prohibitions against fraud and usury.

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Chabad.org

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What is Judaism’s economic system? Is there one? I would describe it as “capitalism with a conscience.” In promoting free enterprise, the Torah is clearly capitalistic. But it is a conditional capitalism, and certainly a compassionate capitalism. Winston Churchill once said, “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent vice of communism is the equal sharing of miseries.” So Judaism introduced an open market system, where the sharing of blessings was not left to chance or wishful thinking, but was made mandatory. Our Parshah gives us a classic example.

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Shemittah, the Sabbatical year, was designed to allow the land to rest and regenerate. Six years the land would be worked, but in the seventh year it would rest and lie fallow. The agricultural cycle in the Holy Land imposed strict rules and regulations on the owner of the land. No planting, no pruning, no agricultural work whatsoever in the seventh year—and whatever grew by itself would be “ownerless” and there for the taking for all. The owner could take some, but so could his workers, friends and neighbors. The landowner, in his own land, would have no more right than the stranger. For six years you own the property, but in the seventh you enjoy no special claims.

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This is but one of many examples of Judaism’s “capitalism with a conscience.” There are many other legislated obligations to the poor—not optional extras, not even pious recommendations, but clear mandatory contributions to the less fortunate. The ten percent tithes, as well as the obligation to leave to the poor the unharvested corners of one’s field, the gleanings, and the forgotten sheaves are all part of the system of compassionate capitalism.

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From an article by Rabbi Yossy Goldman

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Sometimes you see that things have been taken out of your hands and are following a supernatural order. At this point, let go of the steering wheel. Just do your best at what you have to do —and stay out of Gd’s way.

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Relax. Trust Him. He runs an entire universe.

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Rabbi Tzvi Freeman

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The time appointed by Gd for the Messianic redemption is a closely guarded secret. Nonetheless, we are offered many hints to recognize its proximity: when certain conditions come about, await the imminent coming of Moshiach. Most of these conditions are quite disturbing, clearly displaying a situation of the very “bottom of the pit.” These troubles, however, are not unavoidable: “What is man to do to be spared the pangs of Mashiach? Let him engage in Torah and acts of loving-kindness!”

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Moreover, there are also good and happy signs indicating the imminent coming of Mashiach: a good measure of prosperity; a renewal of Torah-study; and opening of the “gates of wisdom above and the wellsprings of wisdom below,” evidenced also by scientific and technological discoveries and advances; a manifestation and propagation of the mystical teachings of the Torah; and also “In the time that Mashiach will awaken, many signs and miracles will occur in the world.”

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From the article “The Time Immediately Before Mashiach”, Chabad.org

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In redeeming us from Egypt the Almighty made us subject to Him alone, and thus inherently and eternally free: no force or law on earth has any jurisdiction over the Jew.  - Rabbi Yehudah Lowe of Prague (the 'Maharal')

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The mikveh (ritual bathhouse) in Primishlan, home to Rabbi Meir'l Primishlaner, was located at the foot of a steep hill. Even under the best of conditions it was a precarious climb down to the bathhouse and back up to town; but during the winter months, when the hill was covered with ice, the slope was completely impassable: also the most agile and daring of the young men were forced to give up after the first few steps. From the first freeze to spring thaw, the townspeople were forced to take a long, roundabout route to the mikveh.

All but one. The elderly Rebbe of Primishlan would walk down the icy slope every morning to immerse himself before praying. Straight as a rod, he would make his unfaltering way to the bathhouse and back.

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One day, two young skeptics set out to prove that there was nothing extraordinary about Rabbi Meir's daily trip. But their attempt met with dismal failure: bruised, bloodied, and with half a dozen broken bones between them, they walked nowhere for a good few weeks. Later, one of them asked Rabbi Meir'l: "How do you do it?" Said the Primishlaner: "When one is connected above, one does not fall below. Meir'l is connected above, so he does not fall below."

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Rabbi Yanki Tauber

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