Super-rational trust

B"H

Vayikra (Leviticus) Ch. 25:20-21 reads:

וכי תאמרו מה נאכל בשנה השביעת הן לא נזרע ולא נאסף את תבואתנו
וצויתי את ברכתי לכם בשנה הששית ועשת את התבואה לשלש השנים

Loosely translated:
And should you say "what will we eat on the seventh year, since we will not seed nor shall we harvest our crops?" And I shall command upon you My blessing on the sixth year, and [the land] shall produce its crop for three years.

In the previous post it was pointed out that the whole shmitah-cycle and associated laws fit nicely with emunah (=trust in G-d.)

Further analysis reveals how super-rational emunah is:
The nature of things is that the more they're used, the more wear and tear they're exposed to, and the weaker they become. Take a car, as an example: typically it's in a much better condition when the odometer reads 1,000, than when it reads 218,000.

Since a Jewish person is expected to "work the land" for 6 years before letting it rest on the seventh, one might expect that on the first year of the cycle the land is fresh and revived and by the time the 6th year rolls around the fields are overworked and depleted of nutrients. Not so, says Hashem! The natural order of things and rationality not withstanding, on the 6th year when the land should really be depleted that's when fields produce three-fold. All is required of us is to have emunah that indeed that's what going to happen.

When it comes to matters of trust and our connection to the Almighty, rationality can (and often will) get in the way.

Normally a person will refrain from operating a complex device before reading the manufacturer's instructions. Who knows better than the manufacturer of the device to tell you how to make proper use of it. On a incomparably greater scale, who knows better than the Manufacturer of the universe to tell us how to make proper use of the land. All we need to do is read the instruction manual (i.e., Torah).


At a higher level this matter also relates to the situation the Jewish people are in nowadays: as generations pass, we descend further and further spiritually. One might rationally conclude that by the time the sixth millennium ends and the seventh one rolls around the Jewish people will be completely spiritually-depleted, G-d forbid. To say noting about the pogroms, expulsions, forced conversions, mobbings, executions, evil decrees, wars, mayhem and the rest of what the Jewish people gone through, also left deep and painful marks. (This is another meaning for "working the land" -- being involved in lowliest of things.)

In reality it's quite wondrous that we're even here, at this day and age. Rationality cannot explain us. We need to go beyond the rational: in this 6th millennium, Hashem provides us with spiritual strength and stamina -- three-fold -- to overcome all obstacles and succeed in the face of adversity and to arrive into the 7th millennium which is likened to Shabbos (יום שכולו שבת). We can all go from strength to strength (לעלות מחייל לחייל). It's all in the instruction manual: וצויתי את ברכתי לכם בשנה הששית which can now be understood as "and I shall command upon you my blessing on the sixth millennium."

Good Shabbos!