Page 14 - HaMizrachi Tu BiShvat 5782 - USA

Shifting Our Perspective

Rabbi Reuven Taragin

Making Shemitta meaningful world. Still, if we already commemorate appreciate the importance of personal
Hashem’s creation every seventh day, development and aims to allow us to
ost of us are not farmers why is it necessary to refrain from work- devote our time and energy to it. The
and do not work in agri- ing the land for an entire year? Shemitta year is a time to focus on
culture, and so we can our service of and relationship with
Measily miss the oppor- Hashem not only created the world but Hashem. This may be why the Torah
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tunity to learn and internalize the also continues to maintain and direct schedules the hakhel Torah gathering
messages of Shemitta. This would be it. We rest every Shabbat not only to
very unfortunate, as the Torah teaches remind ourselves of Hashem’s role in the right after the Shemitta year. The best
that the violation of Shemitta laws will past but also in recognition of His con- time to reenact the receiving of the
ultimately cause our people to be exiled tinuous role in the present. By following Torah is after a Shemitta year, during
from the Land of Israel. Our continued Hashem’s lead in limiting our work to which we can focus on Torah learning. 4
presence in Eretz Yisrael hinges on six days and resting on the seventh we Like Shabbat – which has both prohibi-
understanding Shemitta’s significance demonstrate that even with all of our tions and positive mitzvot – the Shem-
and appreciating its lessons. efforts, we still require His assistance. itta Shabbat Lashem is also observed not
The Chinuch and Kli Yakar explain that merely through prohibitions but proac-
Letting go Shemitta extends the lessons of Shab- tively as well. When we cease work for
Shemitta is a time of letting go. When bat to the land we use to create. When Shabbat and Shemitta, we are meant to
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the Shemitta year arrives, we are com- a farmer plants and reaps he can easily focus on the deeper meaning of our lives
manded to let go of the land and its reach the mistaken conclusion that he and recalibrate how we will live in the
fruits as well as monetary debts owed alone is responsible for the produce he coming days and years.
to us. 2 reaps. By not working the land in the Like the modern academic sabbatical
seventh year and by relying on Hash-
The Torah explains that the release of em’s promise to provide for the farmers year (a notion derived from Shemitta),
debts and the free access to crops are during Shemitta, the farmer expresses the Shemitta year is a time to refocus
meant to help the poor and give them a his recognition of Hashem’s critical role the energies we normally use to develop
fresh financial start. But why are we also in the growth process. The land not only the world towards developing ourselves.
commanded to stop working the land? If belongs to Hashem but is also managed Irrespective of whether we own a farm
anything, working the land would make by Him, bringing forth its bounty only or a garden, let’s do our best to inter-
more crops available for the poor. Why to the degree that He dictates. nalize the teachings of Shemitta and
is cultivating it prohibited? maximize this year for personal growth.
Shemitta is to land what Shabbat is And in this merit, may Hashem continue
Scan here to join Why we let the Land go to work. We cease work every seventh to bless our efforts here in the Land of
Rabbi Taragin’s day to demonstrate that the success Israel!
daily Divrei Torah The Rambam explains that we must of our efforts require Hashem’s assis-
WhatsApp group stop working the soil in order to restore tance. We stop working the land in the
the balance of essential nutrients in seventh year to demonstrate that the 1 This is how most commentators translate the
the soil. However, most commentators land’s production depends on that same word ‘Shemitta’ (Shemot 23:11, Devarim 15:1–2).
explain that the Torah’s phrase Shabbat assistance. 2
Lashem, “a Sabbath for G-d,” and the See Gittin 36a, where Rebbe links between the two.
severe punishments associated with The Akeidat Yitzchak sees the cessation 3 See Ibn Ezra (Shemot 20:8), who understands this
this law’s violation indicate that this of work as having an additional goal – to as the goal of Shabbat. See Tanna D’vei Eliyahu (1)
and the Tur (Orach Chayim 290), who speak about
mitzvah also possesses deep spiritual put our work into perspective. People how Shabbat is a time meant for learning Torah.
significance. can easily come to see work as life’s goal See also Zohar (3:171b) for its powerful description
and essence. By taking off each seventh of the spiritual level of life in Gan Eden during the
The Ibn Ezra and Ramban explain year from work, we remember that we Shemitta year.
that Shemitta, like Shabbat, is meant must maintain a healthy balance of 4
This can help explain why the Torah stresses that
to remind us of Hashem’s role as the work and personal development. the laws of Shemitta were given at Sinai.
A member of world’s Creator. We live in a world that
the Mizrachi superficially appears to have always Proactive Shemitta
Speakers Bureau existed on its own. By not working the Rabbi Reuven Taragin is Educational Director
mizrachi.org/ land during Shemitta, we remind our- The Sforno learns from the term Shab- of Mizrachi and Dean of the Yeshivat Hakotel
speakers selves that Hashem created us and our bat Lashem that Shemitta helps us Overseas Program.

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