commentary: rabbi avi weiss

Shmita and spirtuality: A response to terrorism

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This Rosh Hashanah, 5775, will be different. It is a sabbatical year, a Shmita year.

According to Jewish law, every seventh year the land in Israel must remain fallow. I don’t wish to get caught up in the legal intricacies here and instead delve into the tradition’s deeper meaning, as it resonates powerfully in contemporary times.

The key to understanding Shmita is to reflect upon Shabbat. For author and translator Dayan Dr. Isidor Grunfeld, the essence of Shabbat is to remind us of G-d’s mastery over the world.

In our workaday world we engage in creative work. But the concern is that, if successful, we may come to believe our achievements derive from our might and our power. We can forget that our creative energies and successes in fact come from G-d. And so, for one day during the week, we withdraw from productive creativity to demonstrate that it is not we who are masters of the world, but G-d.

So, too, the Sabbatical year, Shmita. For six years we are mandated to work the land. Here again, we could become so successful in our endeavors that we forget to credit G-d’s hand in the result. And so, for one year, the land remains fallow: a reminder that the earth belongs to G-d. In the words of the Torah: the seventh year will be a “Sabbath to the L-rd.”

Philosopher and psychologist Erich Fromm considered Shabbat a day to take cognizance of—to celebrate—the ecological beauty of the world. “Menuchah,” argued Fromm, is the state of rest between human beings and nature. Work, or “melachah,” is any disturbance in this equilibrium. For this reason, on Shabbat we neither pluck an apple from a tree nor cut a blade of grass. In this, one day in seven, we promote perfect harmony with nature.

So, too, for Shmita. Like Shabbat, it teaches an important ecological lesson. For six years we plow, sow, harvest, and cultivate the land. Just as we can tire from our labors, the land too can grow weary. Thus, for the Sabbatical year, we step back, leave the land untouched, allow it to reinvigorate, and replenish its energy. As the Torah says of Shmita: it will be a Sabbath year “of solemn rest for the land.”

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