Page 3 - HaMizrachi Tu BiShvat 5782 - USA

FROM THE
Editor

’m going to be honest. For the gardener to remove the overgrown understand the depth of their own holiness…
first 40 years of my life, I rarely bushes taking over our yard? When (Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen
thought about Shemitta. Living will zucchinis have Shemitta status? Kook, Iggrot HaRa’ayah, #208)
Iin America, the day-to-day prac- But as we’ve struggled to keep track of
ticalities of Shemitta – the rules of the the ins and outs of Shemitta grocery For the first time in 2,000 years, the
kitchen and garden, the dizzying array people of Israel had not only returned
of halachic views regarding fruits and shopping, I keep thinking of the words to live in the land, but also to work
of the late American jazz singer, Peggy
vegetables – seemed foreign and irrel- the land. As Rabbi Binyamin Zimmer-
evant. As a pulpit rabbi in America, I Lee: “Is that all there is?” man explains in his book, The Shem-
thought about Shemitta. once each Even as we begin to grasp the laws itta Sensation, Rav Kook perceived the
year as I prepared my speeches for of Shemitta, the deeper purpose of people’s desire to resettle the land as
Parashat Behar, the Torah portion most this extraordinary mitzvah remains a an expression of the “exalted spirits
dedicated to the mitzvah of Shemitta. mystery. of this long-suffering people that had
But even then, Shemitta was merely What is Shemitta meant to accomplish generally forgotten the ways of phys-
an interesting idea; it remained theo- in a society that is no longer agrarian, ical existence.” The renewal of agri-
retical, like the many mitzvot we hope culture in Israel, the precondition for
to fulfill one day when the Temple is where only a small percentage of Jews observing Shemitta, was a sign that the
work the land? Is it possible to fulfill
rebuilt. Jewish people were awakening from
the higher purpose of Shemitta when
Looking back, I believe there is another we continue to work at our white-collar their long slumber, that the collective
reason why I avoided thinking and jobs, like any other year? What mean- Jewish heart had begun, once again, to
learning about Shemitta while we lived ing does Shemitta have for Jews living beat on its own.
in America. Like other “Israel-only” outside the Land of Israel? And most of In this edition of HaMizrachi, we are
mitzvot, Shemitta was yet another all, how is the renewal of Shemitta in honored to feature Rabbi Yosef Zvi
reminder that I was living a “second modern Israel bound up with redemp- Rimon and Rabbi Binyamin Zimmer-
class” Jewish life in exile, another tion and miracles of our time? man, two leading thinkers working to
reason to feel guilty for not living in elucidate the depth and meaning of
Israel. And so I studiously avoided In 1909, as Rav Kook experienced his Shemitta in our generation. May we
learning about Shemitta; there were first Shemitta year in the Holy Land, soon see the day when all of Israel will
plenty of other mitzvot I could study he sensed that the resurrection of our celebrate this year of holiness, together
together with my community! people’s observance of Shemitta was a
sign of national rebirth: in our land!
When we arrived in Israel on Aliyah
this past August, only weeks before the ׁשֹוד ָק ם ַע ְל ה ָ ּׁ ש ֻד ְק י ֵ ׁש ֲח ַר ְו ,ה ָא ָּ ב ׁש ֶדֹ ּ ק ַה ת ַנ ְ ׁש ה ֵּנ ִה
beginning of the new Shemitta year, ם ַּג ,יא ַ ׁש ֲח ַּ ב םי ִמ ְּ ק ַר ְת ִמּו םי ִכ ְלֹוה ׁש ֶדֹ ּ ק ַה ת ַמ ְד ַא ל ַע
.ן ָמ ְצ ַע י ֵּ ק ַמ ֲע ַמ ת ֶא ּוע ְדָי אֹל ר ֶ ׁש ֲא תֹומ ָ ׁשְּנ ַּ ב
my years of Shemitta-avoidance meant Elie Mischel
that our family faced a steep The holy year [of Shemitta] has arrived,
learning curve. Could and stirrings of holiness are secretly form-
we hire a ing among the holy nation in the holy land, Rabbi Elie Mischel
even in the souls of those who do not yet Editor

(PHOTO: RABBI ALEX ISRAEL) | 3