Page 22 - HaMizrachi Tu BiShvat 5782 - USA
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The
Revolution
of Rest
Rabbi Binyamin Zimmerman
In this feature article, the head of World Mizrachi’s Musmachim Semicha
program and author of The Shemitta Sensation explains how Shemitta holds
the power to rejuvenate our lives, and alter the future of Jewish history
ot too long ago, a five-day they are given a “year off.” But what is back. The Torah promises Divine
workweek was unheard of. this rest all about? blessings for shevi’it observers, includ-
The idea of refraining from ing a blessing during the sixth year,
Nwork on Shabbat was novel. For a farmer, this means a year with- which assures at a minimum basic
out production. Another meaning of
Struggling immigrant Jews in Amer- the word shevitah in Modern Hebrew food sustenance during the years
ica faced heart-wrenching decisions is a strike. It almost seems as if one is directly affected by shevi’it. When an
weekly, as observing Shabbat often “striking” from performing agricultural entire nation takes that break at once,
meant there would be no job to return work for an entire year! How is that Hashem, the “hidden partner” in our
to on Sunday. Even in contemporary possible? This question is multiplied economy, promises to pick up the slack.
society, many face similar dilemmas when one recognizes that unlike in our Moreover, although a year of resting
in the winter, when Shabbat begins times when only two percent of the from normal production might seem
earlier on Friday (although, at least Israeli population works in agriculture, like financial suicide in the short run,
on paper, laws are more protective of in the past, this was the primary line there is good reason to believe that it
religious needs). of work. Imagine a year with no farm might actually herald economic bene-
The seventh year of the agricultural production. Could the Jewish nation fits. In what might seem paradoxical,
cycle in Israel, often called Shemitta possibly support itself financially? taking a break can help us take a fresh
but more often referred to in the Torah What were the implications of refrain- look at our activities and thus breeds
as Shabbat haAretz, multiplies this rest- ing from work for an entire year? What success.
ing from work considerably. Shabbat did they do with their time? How did We live in an age where rest is often
they cope?
haAretz, literally “the Sabbath of the denigrated: “You snooze, you lose.”
Land,” calls for far more than a year Studies show that a quarter of office
of letting the land rest, as it requires The power of rest workers never leave their desks except
all agricultural workers to rest from The seventh year of the agricultural for lunch. After all, the more time
planting and harvesting for an entire cycle, known as shevi’it, is much more people spend doing, the more they
year. With little to tend to in the fields, than a year of resting and holding achieve. But is that true?
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