Rabbi Howard Morrison

The commandments to celebrate Shabbat appear all over the Torah. In Genesis chapter 1, God rests on Shabbat after creating the world. In Exodus chapter 20 and Deuteronomy chapter 5, the two versions of the Ten Commandments have us "remember" and "safeguard" Shabbat. In Parshat Ki Tisa in Exodus, the famous V'Shamru passage links Shabbat to the everlasting covenant with God and Israel.

In Parshat B'Har, the portion begins and ends with Shabbat. First, Shabbat is for the land - the Land of Israel shall observe its own year of rest every seventh year, lie fallow, and no Jew shall work the land. This Mitzvah of Shemita, Sabbatical, has us show reverence for the earth; teach us that the earth belongs to God and not to us, and that the land of Israel in its very self has sanctity.

The Mitzvah of Shemitta was certainly operative when Jews were sovereign in the land of Israel with its holy Temple until the Temple's destruction in the year 70CE. For nearly 2000 years, our people were not sovereign in the land of Israel. Since our modern indepence in 1948 and even moreso since the unficiation of Jerusalem in 1967, which is being celebrated next Thursday, the Mitzvah of Shemitta is back on the radar.

Can Shemitta be observed without the Temple being re-established? Should Shemitta be observed in its fullness as a Toraitic or Rabbinic commandment? Should Shemitta be observed in part or full as a pious gesture? Answers abound depending on your ideology. Nevertheless, the concept of Shemitta with or without its ritual fulfillment has everlasting relevance for the reasons stated above.

The end of the Parsha transitions the notion of Shabbat from the land back to the people, in the way that Shabbat is treated throughout the Torah: "Et Shabtotai Tishmoru - You shall safeguard my Sabbaths," referring to every week.

In as much as we are commanded to rest physcially and spiritually every seventh day, does the land deserve no less every seventh year?

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Howard Morrison