Agriculture brings upon trust?

B"H

Vaikra (Leviticus) Ch. 25:3-4 reads as follows:
שש שנים תזרע שדך ושש שנים תזמר כרמך ואספת את תבואתה
ובשנה השביעת שבת שבתון יהיה לארץ שבת להשם

Loosely translated:
Six years you shall seed your fields, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and you shall collect its harvest. And on the seventh year shall be a sabbatical of the land, a sabbatical to the L-rd.

The Torah here speaks of a seven-year cycle wherein the Jewish farmers would work the land for six years and then abstain from any cultivation on the seventh year, giving the land a good shabbos.

Rashi (on Ch. 25:1) explain that the reason the laws dealing specifically with working the land (known as "Shmita laws") are given in this Torah portion (i.e., Behar) is to teach us that just as shmitah laws were given in their entirety, all other laws were given in their entirety right there at the Mountain (=Behar) Sinai.

The obvious question is: "Why did he Torah single out specifically shmitah laws and not some other ones for Rashi to make his comment about?"

An explanation:
This cycle of six years that a person cultivates and harvests the land and rests on the seventh comes to teach simple wholesome אמונה (pron. emunah = belief & trust) in the Almighty:

There is a level of emunah that a person experiences when he/she plants the field that stems from their awareness that the Almighty created nature and instilled in it a certain behavior: if you plant a seed, give it water and protect it from the elements, it will grow and flourish and you can expect to harvest and benefit from your effort.

A much higher level of emunah is that a person experiences knowing that the Almighty expects us to
plant the field (שש שנים תזרע שדך) and do other type of effort, but ultimately it is the Almighty is the one that provides the harvest by actively being involved in the produce-growing.

These two levels of emunah both relate to working within the framework of nature: In the first level of emunah a person places his/her trust in Hashem that nature will continue to function "naturally", the way it always does because Hashem made it so. So by planting the seed, nature will take its course, with G-d's help, there will be produce. In the second level of emunah a person places their entire trust in G-d, however there must still be some activity within the framework of nature -- namely plating the seed, but in reality Hashem takes a proactive role.

Comes the seven-year cycle and teaches yet a higher form of emunah, one which does not even require a person to take action within the framework of nature. In fact, shmitah laws state that any such activity on the seventh year is strictly prohibited. (It is said that the First-Temple 70-year exile occurred partly because the Jewish farmers neglected to let the land rest every seventh year!)

This type of total and complete rest required the Jewish farmers to produce on the sixth year of the cycle enough produce to have enough food on the sixth and seventh years of the cycle, plus on the first year of the following 7-year cycle -- a total of 3 years!

So a farmer may say: "I cannot! It's unreasonable! How can it be?!?! Surely the land cannot produce enough crop to feed us for 3 whole years!" (See Ch. 25:20) To which the answer is "emunah!" Trust the the One who instituted the laws of nature and set it in motion, and indeed keeps it functioning each and every-day is also able to sustain you and your beloved for three whole years -- without any action on you own. (See Ch. 25:21) In other words, the One who created the laws of nature also created shmitah laws and they surely complement each-other, and certainly there's no conflict.

Jewish mysticism attaches a significance to the number 7. Seven days of creation. 7 year shmitah cycle, etc... The number 7 signifies the working of nature, natural progression etc. So, in a sense Torah is expecting the Jew to work within the framework of nature, by planting, pruning and harvesting the natural way and yet it expects a Jewish farmer to go beyond nature and having trust in Hashem that plentifulness will come from a level that's above nature.

We can also note that the original verse can be understood to mean that the purpose of the six years on which person works the land is indeed to arrive at the seventh year on which he/she shall exhibit total emunah.

This is a general motif in performance of all 613 mitzvot (=commandments): a person should act within the boundaries of nature (and indeed utilize nature), but at the very same time be aware that he/she is connection to- and tapping into G-dliness that goes beyong (and indeed transcends) nature. Indeed the performance of the 613 mitzvot is suppose to cultivate within us total and complete trust in G-d Almightly.

This motif, then, is the connection between the laws of shmita and their appearance specifically here at Mt. Sinai (Behar) as they exemplify our performance of mitzvot.


In a wider sense the laws of shmitah also teach more about our daily conduct:
Just as working for six years is a means to get to the seventh year of rest, so too working for six days in the office (שש שנים תזרע) is a means to get to Shabbos (ובשנה השביעת שבת).

Moreover, a soul comes down to this earth (i.e, gets born) to live and toil (שש שנים תזרע) but ultimately it prepares for itself a nice nest in heaven once a person passes on (ובשנה השביעת שבת).

And finally, for nearly six thousand years we're been toiling to repair this פארשטינקינע גלות (=unbearable exile, שש שנים תזרע) and with every additional mitzvah we do, with every act of kindness, and every coin we place in the charity box, we are getting this much closer to the ultimate redemption (ובשנה השביעת שבת) also know as יום שכולו שבת.


May we all merit ובשנה השביעת שבת this very week!

Which Shabbos?!?!

B"H

Vaikra (Leviticus) Ch. 23:15 reads:
וספרתם לכם ממחרת השׁבּת

Loosely translated:
And you shall count for yourself, on the day following the שׁבּת (Sabbath).

This verse refers to the mitzvah of counting the Omer. More specifically it instructs us when to start counting.

The tzdokim (Sadducees) have misinterpreted this verse to mean that the counting should start on the day following the Shabbos literally, that is on Motzei-Shabbos or Sunday. Rashi answers them by stating that if that was the case we would not know which specific shabbos in the year we should start from.

Side note: some further confuse matters by answering the above with: "שבת בראשית" referring to the Holy Shabbos -- the 7th day of creation. This answer also leads to yet another misunderstanding, because שבת בראשית can also mean the Shabbos on which we read the Torah portion of Bereshit.

Be it as it may, the halacha is that שׁבּת in the original verse's context means Pesach (Passover). It would seem that it has nothing to do with שבת בראשית (as the Sadducees claim) and certainly it has nothing to do with the Shabbos we read Bereshit on (which would place Shavuot something around Chanukah).

But there must still be a connection between שׁבּת literally and Pesach -- for otherwise the Torah should have chosen different wording. What's the connection?

Explanation:
Upon exiting Egypt, the Jewish people were confronted with a dilemma: one one hand they need to go and receive the Torah at Mt. Sinai, on the other hand they have sunk into the 49th portal of tumah (=spiritual impurity.) How can one receive the holiest of the holiest while being at the depths of impurity.

To help-out Hashem did a marvelous thing: Hashem in his infinite kindness has elevated the Jewish people by revealing himself in Egypt (אני ולא מלאך, אני ולא שרף) and at the Sea of Reeds (Red sea) whereby a lowly servant could phonetically see more than a bona fide Prophet.

Essentially the great giluy (=revelation) at Mitzrayim (=Egypt) was a gift bestowed upon the Jews, from above. The Jews did not have to work and toil for it at all, and in fact it was out of their control -- this giluy was a pure eetorerut (=awakening) from Above that temporarily removed the jews from the 49 portal of tumah. In fact, it was a model and prototype for all subsequent awakenings.

However, after that event Hashem concealed Himself again, causing the Jews to go back to tumah. At their very essence, the giluy did not change them -- this giluy was an external force that extracted them out of the tumah of Egypt. When external stimulus was gone the Jewish people descended back to their old self.

So Hashem, with His infinite mercy, gave them a recipe for successfully attaining Torah (viz. purity): for the following 49 days leading to the reception of the Torah on Shavuos, the Jewish people should work on their midos (character traits). Each day they shall remove themselves from one of the portals of Tumah, and place themselves into a portal of holiness. Then after the 49th day, they will be free of tumah and in the 49 portal of Holiness, ready to receive the Torah. Essentially where they were (spiritually) at the time of the exodus from Egypt.

However, unlike at the exodus where the giluy was an eetorerut from Above, at the time they arrive at Mt. Sinai to receive the Torah they have refined themselves with their own effort and hard-work. Their self refinement is an "eetorerut from below".

So, to summarize: the eetorerut from above brought upon by Hashem (without any impetus from the Jewish nation, and indeed out of their control) and then the return to normal-reality has brought upon a period in which the Jewish people can reach the the same level of holiness they experienced at the exodus, on their own, through their toil to refine their character traits (viz. eetorerut from below)

This is essentially the same idea as Shabbos, which is an eetorerut from above. We see this in the prayers: "מקדש השבת וישראל והזמנים" (="He who sanctifies the Shabbos, the Jewish nation and [through them] the holidays.") The text does not read: "מקדש ישראל והשבת והזמנים" (="He who sanctifies the Jewish nation, and [through them] the Shabbos and the holidays.") In other words, the sanctity of the Shabbat is something that's not in the hands of the Jewish nation. (Not so for the holidays which are subject to when Beit Din determines when months start and end.)

That's where the parallel between Shabbos and Pesach is seen. Both are outside the control of the Jewish nation. Both are awkaning from Above. Both are gifted to us by Hashem with no connection to our spiritual standing, out desire, or even our deeds.

So, now the original verse וספרתם לכם ממחרת השׁבּת can be understood to mean: and you shall count for yourselves from the day following the שׁבּת, the great proto-awakening from above -- Pesach.

Any cyber-Sadducees out there who are still unclear about this, should feel free to comment.

Good Shabbos with a lot of eetorerut.