Page 4 - HaMizrachi Tu BiShvat 5782 - USA

Human ‘Havings’

or Human Beings

THE SABBATH AND SABBATICAL YEAR

Rabbi Doron Perez

emarkably, since the turn – an all-consuming ailment and “a year, all agricultural land owned by
of the twenty-first century, painful, contagious, socially transmit- Jews is rendered ownerless, allowing
shopping malls in the West- ted condition of overload, debt, anxiety everyone to partake of its produce.
Rern world occupy more real and waste resulting from the dogged And at the end of the Shemitta
estate than schools. pursuit of more.” 1 year, all money that we have lent to
others is relinquished and the debts
G.K. Chesterton once said that “educa- Incredibly, there is no Hebrew are wiped away. An even stronger
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tion is the soul of a society as it passes word for the English word “have”;
from one generation to the next.” Our the closest equivalent is י ִל ׁשֵי, liter- limitation on property ownership
is implemented during the Yovel
privileged and affluent generation ally translated as “there is to me.”
invests more time and resources in Why is Hebrew missing such an year, when all land acquired from
others is returned to its original
the myriad tastes and preferences of elemental word? It seems that
the body than it does in the needs and Judaism has a radically different owners, ץ ֶר ָא ָה ל ָּכ י ִל י ִּכ, “For the
whole world belongs to Me.”
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aspirations of the soul. Before our eyes, attitude toward the things we
material gratification has trumped own. The word “have” implies Shemitta and Yovel underscore the
spiritual meaning; consumerism has that what I own is part of me, that need to regulate private wealth
superseded education. it is mine. But in the Torah’s view, and consumerism and to ensure
we must never be defined by what they do not become the dominant
Human ‘havings’ we own, for what we have is not values in a Jewish society. We must
truly ours. Ultimately, everything never be defined by what we have.
In recent years, shopping malls have in the world belongs to G-d – ’ה ַל We are merely the custodians of
been supplanted by internet consum- ּ ה ָאֹול ְמּו ץ ֶר ָא ָה – “The entire world and our possessions, transient caretak-
erism, a shift speeded by the pandemic. all in it belongs to Hashem.” 2 ers called upon to use our posses-
In the comfort of our home and with sions for G-dly causes greater than
the click of a button on Amazon, Ali- G-d, of course, has bestowed upon ourselves.
Express and the like, we can order us the right to property – to legally
any product from almost anywhere in own property and possessions Human ‘doings’
the world and have it delivered to our as part of the course of norma-
doorstep within a few days. We have tive human interaction. This As we have all too often become
become human “havings,” as what we right, however, comes with terms human “havings,” caught up in a
have and possess becomes ever more and limits. The Torah cites two culture of consumerism, we have
central to our core identities. Some powerful examples of these limits also allowed ourselves to become
social commentators have termed our – the Shemitta year and the Yovel human “doings.” In our market
current state of affairs as “affluenza” (Jubilee) year. During the Shemitta and industry-driven economy,

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