A few weeks
ago, I had a conversation with my granddaughter and it went something like
this: “Sasha, what do you mean you have
to pay the bank for your house? You built it. How can a bank expect you to pay
money to them for a house you built?”
That led to
a discussion of banks, mortgages, loans, and financing. Imagine if the conversation had dealt instead
with one of today’s Torah portions, Behar, which deals with the practice of
Shemitah, the sabbatical year, which allows the land to lie fallow for every 7th
year. Can you imagine the questions that would follow?
“ What do
you mean you can’t cultivate your own fields?
Why do you have to relinquish ownership of your fields? Why does the produce grown in your fields
become communal property that is free for anyone to take?”
"While the laws of shmita for Jews living in Israel are quite
numerous and complex, there are four main commandments:
·
The first commandment is that the land should rest, as the Torah says,
“and the land shall rest a Sabbath to Hashem.”[4] This occurs by people refraining
from planting, pruning, plowing, harvesting or engaging in any other form of
working the land.
·
The second commandment is that all seventh-year produce is hefker—ownerless
and free.
·
The third commandment is for Jews to cancel outstanding debt obligations
between each other.
· The fourth
commandment is to sanctify all seventh-year produce. We do this by handling it
respectfully, consuming it completely, and not doing any business with it."(Rabbi Noam Yehuda Sendor)
Unless one
understands the concepts behind shmittah, the sabbatical year which takes place
only in the Land of Israel, any discussion about it could be baffling. Shmittah is about the release of the
land. It acknowledges that use of the
land by humans is a gift granted to us by G-d, the only true owner of the Land.
It requires great collective trust to
follow the laws of shemittah, a sense that there will be enough food provided
to cover one’s needs even though planting is not occurring, and that one can
focus on “why we are needed, rather than on what we need.” In other words, the focus
during shmittah is on our spiritual mission in life, rather than on our
physical endeavors.
If you were
to go to Israel and want to plant a tree during this Jewish year of 5775, you
would find that JNF would not have you venture out into the countryside with a
seedling to be planted into the ground.
Instead, you would find yourself heading to Neot Kedumim, a Biblical
nature preserve, that observes the laws of Shmittah. Instead of planting a seedling in the ground,
you would be planting seeds of Biblical plants in pots to be grown in a
greenhouse for a period of one year.
This concept
of shmittah, according to Rav Kook, is related to the concept of bringing
holiness into our lives similar to the idea of bringing kedusha into our lives
via Shabbat. Shabbat allows individuals
an opportunity to return to their “intrinsic nature” by spending time with
family and one’s immediate environment. Since
Shmittah is actually the Shabbat for the land, it is designed to allow the
entire nation to “return to its natural state.”
The focus during shmittah is on becoming one with the resting land,
using our available free time to “redirect our national conscience toward the
spirit.”
So the practical question might be asked, how does one
feed a nation of 8,345,000 individuals and still allow the land to lie
fallow? An Israeli innovation to get
around this problem is to grow food in greenhouses in pots on tables, rather
than in the land itself or to grow hydroponic plants. Even though there are
those who during shmittah continue to grow plants in greenhouses, “ it is
estimated that some 5,000 Israeli farmers obey the commandment of shmittah, and
the state sets aside around USD $28.5 million to support them during a year
without crops to sell." (Israel Today)
The largest and oldest Israeli environmental organization, the
Jewish National Fund, also strictly adheres to the shmita, and
will not prepare any land for new forestation efforts during the fallow year.
At the same time, many Israeli Jewish farmers fearing a significant
loss of income circumvent the rules of the shmita, which are encoded in Israeli religious law, by “selling” their
land to a non-Jew for a token amount of money. Once the land is in non-Jewish
hands, the farmer is free to work it as usual.” (Israel Today, Sept. 29, 2014)
Since Israel is no longer primarily a country whose residents
are involved in agriculture, various sectors within Israeli society are
instituting programs during this shmittah year which are designed to relate to other
values embodied in shmittah. Since debt
forgiveness is part of the shmittah concept as well as letting the land lie
fallow, this year in Israel the Shmittah Fund was established. Working with other nonprofits, the Shmita
Fund is designed to take up to 5,000 debt-ridden families and work with banks
and creditors to restructure loans and provide debt relief, so that those
families can eventually live in the “green.” The fund trains families to manage
their finances and achieve independence, with private philanthropies worldwide
chipping in to pay off the difficult debt.
There has
been a recommitment in many sectors of Israeli society to use this year’s
shmittah period to return to the values that shmittah promotes…..an
understanding that there must be a period of time for rejuvenation for all who
work to focus on their inner selves and reconnect with HaShem through Jewish
learning and for society to allow a fresh start for individuals who have
acquired debts that they cannot repay.
Personally, I admire a religion/society that continues to understand that the
land is not ours, it is a gift from G-d and that all individuals have a need
for a fresh start.
Shabbat
Shalom.
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