Shmitta, and the Spiritual Work of Learning / 5775/2015 R. Finkelstein

The commercial opens with a trim man, Eran, in pajamas stretching and preparing for a run. Throughout the entire commercial in Hebrew, Eran is running.

Meet Eran the sprinter. For years now, Eran has begun every day at the starting line of the ‘race of life.’ Eran is an exceptional family man, every morning with his sprinter wife Shmrit, Eran prepares a bag lunch for their three small children.

(Eran is running from backpack to backpack.)

Eran hurries the little one and drops him off at the preschool just before they close the gate.

(Eran is running and literally hands off a child like a football.)

This is how every morning Eran manages to be only a little late to work. Eran works and works, and somehow manages to to grab something along the way for lunch and continues to rush ahead. Twice a year Eran is called up for army reserve duty, (we see ​ Israeli soldiers playing backgammon as Eran runs by) but he does not forget to call ​ home to say that is all is well (one of the soldiers passes him a phone) and to try to ​ ​ appease his boss, who is tired of the fact that only Eran ever seems to get called up for army reserve duty. Eran runs home to collect the kids from their after­school activities because enrichment is important, to quickly kiss his wife because love is important, to take out the recycling because the environment is important, and to work out because the essence of course health is important.

For Eran the sprinter, there is no time off, no moment to take in air, he has not one moment to stop and breathe…(at this point Eran is panting and crouched down on the ​ street), maybe, Eran will realize that there is another way, at least once every seven ​ years.

The commercial closes with Eran crossing the finish line and stopping. He embraces his wife and children and everyone is cheering. What is this a commercial for?

A rabbi, appearing in the foreground, makes it clear for us, “The year is an opportunity for all of us to stop and choose anew our family, our community and our environment.”

Yes, this was a commercial for Shmita, the Sabbatical year that has been observed in ​ ​ Israel since last September. For farmers in Israel, like Rony Rosensweig of Kibbutz Lavi near Tiberias, this poses a significant challenge (from “TheBlaze” magazine):

“Shmita offers us a lot of challenges that we have to face...Don’t plant crops, don’t lay ​ ​ new grass, just take care of what exists, don’t add anything new.”

For Kibbutz Lavi, like other farming communities, the challenge has been how to abide by the biblical mandate while at the same time support themselves. To do so, the community divides its fields — which grow wheat, corn, barley, chickpeas and hold citrus orchards — into three categories.

“With some of our fields, we leave them as is, that is, full sabbatical to completely free the land. For the entire year, we have fields we won’t touch according to Jewish law,” Rosenzweig said.

For the second set of fields, the kibbutz has been planting wheat vigorously over the month before the start of the new Jewish year, in order to “plant the land now so we won’t do forbidden tasks during the sabbatical.”

Then, he said, “We wait for the grace of heaven.”

The third category of land management over the next 12 months involves temporarily selling the fields to or letting non­Jewish laborers work certain fields, as is allowed under the provision.

But Shmita means more than just letting the land rest. ​ ​ “As religious , during the year, we learn more Torah, we free our farmers to learn more about our faith. Our religion says: leave work and work on your spirit. Our ​ ​ decision on the kibbutz is to allow our members to grow their spiritual side, and that’s also a sabbatical,” Rosenzweig said.

“Leave work and work on your spirit.” It’s this idea that I want to explore this ​ ​ ​ morning: what do we do during our sacred time of rest and how we can work on our spirit. Our parsha this morning discusses the laws around Shmita and it’s impossible to ignore the many parallels between Shmita and Shabbat. Listen closely to the biblical verses and count the number of times the word “rest” or “”:

When you enter the land that I assign to you, the land shall rest for a sabbath of the ​ ​ ​ ​ Lord, six years you may sow your field and six years you may prune your vineyard and gather in the yield, But in the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath of complete ​ ​ rest, a sabbath of the Lord...you shall not reap...or gather grapes; it shall be a year of ​ ​ ​ complete rest for the land. But you may eat whatever the land during its sabbath will ​ ​ ​ ​ produce…

The root of Shabbat appears 7 times in this passage. Both our regular Shabbat and Shmita are called “Shabbat L’shem” a sabbath for God.

The Ibn Ezra writing in 12th century Spain intuits a surprising message from the many similarities between Shabbat and Shmita (Shmot 20:8):

ראינו כי שנת השמטה דומה לשבת, כי גם היא שביעית בשניה.

We see that the sabbatical year is similar to Shabbat, because it is the seventh of years. This much we know already. The Ibn Ezra goes on to explain that at the beginning of each Shmita year, the Jewish people would gather and hear the Torah, observing the special of .

וצוה השם שיקראו התורה בתחלת השנה נגד האנשים והנשים והטף,

And why would they do this? Why would the Jewish people begin the Shmita year by reading the Torah aloud in front of the whole community, women and children.

למען ישמעו ולמען ילמדו ושמרו. So that they will hear, they will learn and observe. Shmita, says the Ibn Ezra was ​ this Torah study ­ כל השנה ,ushered in through Torah study. And elsewhere, he says was to continue throughout the entire year. According to the Ibn Ezra the purpose of Shmitta was “the suspension of work to facilitate the study of Torah.”

Now, recall that we set up a very clear parallel between Shmita and Shabbat. What is true for Shmita is true for Shabbat as well, as the Ibn Ezra concludes, והנה השבת נתנה להבין מעשה השם ולהגות בתורתו. Behold, Shabbat (too) was given to us in order to understand the creations of the Divine and to engage with Torah.

Shabbat is the time for us to learn, for us to work on our spirits. And the commentator ​ ​ Abarbanel adds that this isn’t just on Shabbat but also for holidays. In fact, every time we count to 7, like Shabbat, or the omer or Shmitta, it is to remind us to make the most of our time and set aside time for learning and spiritual growth.

Shabbat and holidays are not just times where we stop and rest, although of course rest is a critical element of these days. Like Rony Rosensweig said, these are the moments for us to work on our spirit. And yes, it is work to an extent; it’s can also be incredibly ​ ​ empowering and inspiring.

This morning, I want to offer three concrete ways we can do this.

Next weekend, we will celebrate Shavuot, which literally means “weeks”. We celebrate it at the end of the counting of the Omer, after we count 7 weeks of 7 days. Our sages identified this to be the holiday where we received the Torah and to celebrate it, we stay up all night immersed in study. Together with West End Synagogue, the Temple and Micah, we are having a community­wide Shavuot tikkun, an all night evening of learning. There are family programs and adult learning at West End, a midnight BBQ here at Sherith followed by learning into the wee hours of the night. We have put together a packed schedule of interesting and unusual topics so please join us, next Motzei Shabbat for this once a year opportunity.

A second way we can incorporate Torah into our Shabbat and holiday experience is at our meals. A few weeks ago, Julie and I were at a Shabbat meal where our insisted that we bring nothing but a brief idea to share related to the parsha. Some guests read the parsha and shared an idea; others printed out a dvar Torah that they found online. While many of the guests might have gladly brought flowers instead, our hosts’ small request engendered an evening of where both our bodies and our minds were nourished. Whenever we gather for a shabbat meal, we can engage in small acts of Torah study together.

And finally, I want to encourage each one of us to use the time when we are at sitting in ​ ​ shul as well. A month or so ago someone came up to me after davening and asked me about corn in the Torah, explaining that corn is a new world crop, so how could it appear in the Torah. Together we looked at various translations and figured out why the translator had made such a choice. I’m also excited to announce that next Shabbas we will be starting an ongoing morning class to explore the meaning behind our weekly tefilot. Let’s utilize these opportunities and our time inside this building to deepen our knowledge through study.

I want to close with a brief memory: The most inspiring tikkun, study session for Shavuot that I’ve ever been to wasn’t in Israel, or in Yeshiva. It wasn’t even when I was a rabbi. The most inspiring and memorable tikkun leil shavuot was around my parents’ yuntif table. It was just the five of our, years before either I or my sister were married. Each one of us shared something we’d been thinking about and how it connected to . It was personal, thoughtful and meaningful.

Shmitta, the Omer, Shavuot and Shabbat are dedicated holy time for us to work on on our spirit. So let’s join together and get to work.

Shabbat Shalom.

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1. Intro: Israeli commercial ­ “Eran the sprinter” 2. Shmita now ­ In Israel ­ at Kibbutz Lavi a. “Leave work and work on your spirit” 3. Shmita in our parsha, and close connection to Shabbat: a. Vayikra 25:2­6: When you come into the land which I give you, then shall ​ the land keep a Shabbat to the Lord i. count the number of times. appears 7 times in this passage שבת b. the Root כי טוב ,i. Cassuto: similar to Breishit, which is divided into 7 passages appears 7 times; the 7th passage, dealing with the 7th day, contains 3 verses with 7 words each ­ this is our kiddush. section about Shabbat has 35 words c. Only Shabbat and Shmita are called “Shabbat L’shem” (see ) d. We don’t celebrate Shmita, but maybe we can learn something from it that will help us in our own celebration of Shabbat i. This is a really a question about: what do we (and should we be doing) with our time “off”, time to take a break? e. (Maybe need a story or transition to keep people’s attention?) 4. Share a novel and somewhat unconventional approach about Shmitta: The Ibn Ezra a. Ibn on Shmita: Interpretations of Shmita as a time to learn and reflect b. First thing you do in Shmita is the mitzvah of Hakhel c. Ibn Ezra’s interpretation of Hakhel: d. שמות כ:ח זכור ­ ראינו כי שנת השמטה דומה לשבת, כי גם היא שביעית בשניה. וצוה ​ ​ ​ השם שיקראו התורה בתחלת השנה נגד האנשים והנשים והטף, ואמר הטעם: למען ישמעו ולמען ילמדו ושמרו. והנה השבת נתנה להבין מעשה השם ולהגות בתורתו. e. דברים לא:יב ­ למען ילמדו ­ כל השנה, ג"כ השבת. ​ ​ 5. The Abarbanel’s approach: the power of the number 7 a. the abarabanel ­ we count things in 7 to remind us that a life span is 70 years or so and our days are numbered. ​ ​ i. holidays, counting of the omer, shabba and shmitta are all in multiples of 7. to remind us to make the most of our time and learn. 6. Challenge/message: Shabbat and holidays are not just a time to stop. It’s a time to refocus and specifically to learn. 3 opportunities/challenges to do so: a. Shavuot Tikkun ­ Community wide b. Shavuot/ ­ family tikkun c. Shabbat Meals i. Julie ii. Moshe d. Women’s / Torah reading and Davening e. Learner’s service? 7. Ultimately, the question posed by Shabbat and Shmitta is: what are we working for? The Torah’s answer: the time is for God. a. our challenge is to cultivate it as such, through learning together.

Brain dump:

● Parallels/Linguistic connection between shmitta and Shabbat ● Learn from Shmitta about Shabbat ● Most commentators say that Shmitta is about...the land, debts, etc. ● Shmitta according to the Ibn Ezra: a time for reflection and learning ● the abarabanel ­ we count things in 7 to remind us that a life span is 70 years or so and our days are numbered. ​ ​ ○ holidays, counting of the omer, shabba and shmitta are all in multiples of 7. to remind us to make the most of our time and learn. ● what do we do with “time off” ● Rav Kook ● anecdote about family tikkun a few years ago ● israeli declaration of shmtita ● message about learning on shabbat and holidays: ○ shabbat learners service ○ tikkun ○ davening/learning ■ when i learn, god is talking to me vs. davening, I am talking to God ■ shabbat mevarchim ■ musaf ­ retzei b’mnuchateinu ­ ○ torah reading ­ Martin and Marcia, with the corn.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/09/24/how­farmers­in­israel­are­preparing­for­a­r are­biblical­event­that­starts­this­week/