When you come into the land which I give you, the land shall rest a Sabbath unto G‑d (25:2)
Taken on its own, this verse seems to imply that “a Sabbath unto G‑d” is to be observed immediately upon entering the Land. But in practice, when the Jewish people entered the Land of Israel they first worked the land for six years, and only then observed the seventh year as the Shemittah (sabbatical year)—as, indeed, the Torah clearly instructs in the following verses.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains: “The Torah is telling us that a Shemittah is to both precede and follow our six years of labor: to follow it on the calendar, but to also precede it—if not in actuality, then conceptually. We find a similar duality in regard to the weekly seven-day cycle. The weekly Shabbat has a twofold role: a) It is the day “from which all successive days are blessed”—the source of material and spiritual sustenance for the week to follow. b) It is the “culmination” of the week—the day on which the week’s labors and efforts are harvested and sublimated, and their inner spiritual significance is realized and brought to light. But if every week must have a Shabbat to “bless” it, what about the week of creation itself? In actuality, G‑d began His creation of existence—including the creation of time—on Sunday, which is therefore called the “First Day.” But our sages tell us that there was a primordial Shabbat which preceded creation—a Shabbat existing not in time but in the mind of G‑d, as a vision of a completed and perfected world. Therein lies an important lesson in how we are to approach the mundane involvements of life. True, we begin with the material, for in a world governed by cause and effect, the means inevitably precede the end. But what is first in actuality need not be first in mind. In mind and consciousness, the end must precede the means, for without a clear vision of their purpose to guide them, the means may begin to see themselves as the end. The spiritual harvest of a Shabbat or Shemittah can be achieved only after a “work-week” of dealing with the material world and developing its resources. But it must be preceded and predicated upon “a sabbath unto G‑d” that occupies the fore of our consciousness and pervades our every deed.
“Do not make for yourselves idols…” (26:1) According to the Chovot Levovot the first cause of not recognizing G-d is that we focus on what we don’t have and take what we have for granted. We fail to see that our lives are a twenty-four-hour-a-day gift. In this week’s Torah portion the Torah seems to write a random list of laws: Shemita, laws of sale of moveable objects, laws of sale of land, sale of one’s house, laws of interest, the redeeming of a Hebrew slave and the redeeming of a Jew sold as a slave to a non-Jew. Rashi explains that the Torah is warning us of an inevitable progression.
What stops a person from keeping Shemita properly? Greed. Rabbi Asher Sinclair explains: “If we don’t keep Shemita properly we won’t profit from the sale of Shemita products. Quite the reverse. We will find ourselves short of money to the extent that we will have to sell our moveable property. If that doesn’t wake us up, the next step is we will be forced to sell our real estate. Then the house we live in. If that doesn’t bring us back, then we will commit the sin of lending money to Jews for interest. If we don’t stop there and repent, the next step is that we will have to sell ourselves to a fellow Jew as a servant, and if that doesn’t bring us to our senses, eventually we will be sold to a heathen and end up indulging in immorality, worshipping idols and breaking Shabbat. The main idol of the modern world is conspicuous consumption and material success.”
Prepared by Devorah Abenhaim
