(Leviticus25:6)
Iyar 18, 5778/May 3, 2018
This week's Torah reading, Behar, (here in the land of Israel), takes a sharp turn. Up until this point the entire book of Leviticus has been focused on the work of the kohanim (Temple priests) and related issues of ritual purity. Suddenly, in parashat Behar, Israel is presented with a set of commandments devoted to the land of Israel. These are the commandments concerning the sabbatical (shemittah) years and the Jubilee (Yovel) year. There are two reasons for this new focus, one thematic and one historical. Thematically, Torah has been stressing that Israel is a holy nation, and it will remain a holy nation as long as it remains true to G-d's commandments. Now that concept of holiness is being applied to the land of Israel, the land that the children of Israel are about to enter into. And that is the second, historical reason for the introduction of the far away land of Israel at this juncture: it is not far away at all!
We are nearing the conclusion of the book of Leviticus. Moshe has transmitted to Israel the vast majority of the commandments that they need to know up to this point, and now they are ready to enter the land of Israel, the final stopping point on their journey out of Egypt. They have spent their year in the wilderness receiving Torah, building the Tabernacle, instructing the kohanim and inaugurating the Divine service in the Tabernacle. Soon they will be forming an army. Moshe and Israel are ready to enter the land promised their forefathers, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, and therefore Torah's attention focuses on the land of Israel. Had it not been for the sin of the spies, which has not happened yet, Israel would have, indeed, been entering the land soon after receiving these latest commandments.
But what G-d shares with Israel concerning the land of Israel is nothing less than a bombshell. By declaring that the land of Israel, no less than the children of Israel, requires a sabbatical year of rest and an additional Jubilee year of rest and liberation transforms our understanding of the land of Israel as being a resting place, an inheritance and a resource for the children of Israel, into being a living, breathing, equal partner of Israel, a holy force unto itself which demands respect and care, love and nourishment. The children of Israel, the nation, is not the only player in Israel's relationship with G-d. The land is also a player and a partner.
We have already been told that the land of Israel is a land flowing with milk and honey. We know that it was promised to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov as an eternal inheritance. We know that it will be the place where Israel's crops and grains are sown and harvested and where her sheep and cattle will graze. So what is so revolutionary about the commandments of shemittah and Yovel(sabbatical and Jubilee years)? By investing the dimension of time (shemittahand Yovel) into the dimension of space (the land of Israel), G-d is turning both time and space into intimate partners creating a whole new reality, transforming what had been the land of Canaan into the living land of Israel. By insuring a sabbatical cycle G-d is giving the land of Israel a heartbeat and a pulse. He is breathing time into the nostrils of space and space into the nostrils of time, just as He had breathed life into the nostrils of man. And to Israel He has delegated the responsibility to see to it that these shemittah and Yovel years are faithfully observed, not just for the life of the land, but also for the life of the nation on the land: "You shall perform My statutes, keep My ordinances and perform them then you will live on the land securely." (Leviticus 25:18)
The commandments of shemittah and Yovel likewise transforms the children of Israel into an intimate and eternal partner of the land of Israel. Israel is not merely the best place for the performance of G-d's commands and the perfection of Torah life, it is the only place. This is also revealed in the dual description of the three pilgrimage festivals, Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot. Each of these festivals celebrates a milestone in the journey of Israel from Egypt and slavery to the land of Israel and freedom (the dimension of time), and at the same time, each of the three pilgrimages are deeply rooted in agriculture (the dimension of place), in the blessing of the land of Israel. And now this yearly life cycle is woven into the fabric of the seven year sabbatical cycle and the fiftieth year of the Jubilee.
The land of Israel is alive and like all living things responds to the tender caress of its one true love, the children of Israel. This is why when Israel was in exile the land withheld its charms and blessings from all its inhabitants, transforming itself into a barren and desolate land, and only after Israel returned over the last century did the land again begin to return to life, like a princess under a spell, awaiting the kiss of the intended prince, the children of Israel. At the heart of this living land, this awakened princess, sits the Holy Temple, and within the Holy Temple, the Shechinah - the Presence of G-d. This is the promise, first made to Avraham, and first brought to life with the commandment of shemittah, which the children of Israel are charged with today, to tend to and protect. To make the dream a living, breathing reality.
-The Temple Institute
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