Rabbi Howard Morrison

Dear Congregational Family,

Parshat Bhar begins with the significance of the number seven. We all value this number. We celebrate Shabbat, sanctifying the seventh day of the week. We are now enumerating the seven weeks which connect Pesach to Shavuot.

In the weekly Parsha, the land of Israel lies fallow and rests every seventh year. In addition, seven cycles of seven years are counted. The fiftieth year becomes a "Yovel-Jubilee," during which time all land reverts to original ownership.

While Yovel has been inoperative for many centuries, the observance of Shemita, the land resting every seventh year, was revitalized soon after Israel became a modern State. Depending on one's religious view, the Mitzvah of Shemita is seen as being of Torahitic status, rabbinic status, or a measure of piety.

From these lessons and others in Bhar, we ultimately learn the lesson that we are tenants on this earth. The land does not belong to us. It belongs to God. One of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel's most acclaimed books is entitled, "The Earth is the Lord's."

During this time of the pandemic, we are humbly reminded that the land is not ours. The land breathes its own way. We as tenants and caretakers contribute to the health and vitality of the land as well as to the illness and vulnerability of the land.

The Torah's instruction to be responsible tenants of the earth is perhaps more relevant now than ever before.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Howard Morrison