Dvar Torah on Parshat Behar

This week, the Parsha, Behar (which means "On the mountain", referring to the fact that the laws contained here were given on Mount Sinai), begins with the laws of Shmita and Yovel, the Sabbatical and Jubilee years, during which we are forbidden by the Torah to do any agricultural work, debts are forgiven, slaves are freed, and in the 50th, Jubilee Year, all land which has been sold returns to its original, tribal owners. In the opening verses of the parsha the Torah calls these years a Shabbat, and gives us a number of different reasons for observing it;"But in the seventh year there shall be a Shabbat rest for the land, a Shabbat for God, your field you are not to sow and your vineyard you are not to prune." A bit further on it says "And the Shabbat of the land shall be for you, to eat, you and your servant and maidservant, and your employee and those who live with you."I want to focus here on the fact that these special, sanctified years, are designated as being "for" three different things - the land, God, and you, the recipient of and adherent to these laws. It seems to me that the multi-directional nature of the Sabbatical year, the three things for which we observe it, matches the way we, in fact experience not only these specific laws, but the laws of the Torah in general. The laws of Shmita have been explained in ways which refer to all three of the directions to which we are pointed here. The Sabbatical year is "for" the land in that it allows the land to rest, a wise agricultural strategy, designed to prevent over-farming which would rob the land of all its nutrients, making it barren. More broadly, the Sabbatical year may well also be "for" the land in that it teaches us the proper relationship we should have with it, a relationship which respects it and its essential autonomy. The prohibitions of the Sabbatical year teach us that, in our interaction with the land, we are not absolute lords and masters of an inanimate thing, but that it, as we are, is one of God's creations, and, as such, we must respect it as something which is ultimately not ours, but God's. The Sabbatical year is "for" us in that we are given a year to rest, to study (at the beginning of every Shmita year my kids, when they were younger, would come home from school with wonderful drawings of farmers hanging up their tools and taking the year off to study Torah in an anachronistic Eastern-European looking Yeshiva), to take a Sabbatical from the drudgery of labor. This truly revolutionary notion, if applied, would transform human society; can you imagine everyone getting a Sabbatical once every seven years? The year is also for the collective "you", in that in this year produce is owned communally; anyone can go into anyone else's field and take food. During the last Shmita year an Arab came to my door and asked if he could pick the olives from our olive tree, and I, incorrigible Jewish educator that I am, took the time to explain to him that I had to let him take the olives, they were his by right, as it was a Sabbatical year. I'm sure that, like all my students, he appreciated the lesson tremendously. The brotherhood and equality engendered by this law is a fantastic gift the Torah gives to us. The commentaries explain how this year is also "for" God. Rashi explains simply that it is in the name of God, for his sake, that we are bidden to take the year off. Like the weekly Shabbat, the Sabbatical year is a reminder of the creator of the universe, we turn aside from our usual tasks in order to remember and focus on Him. The Sforno says that this year is to be set aside for serving him, through prayer and Torah study. One could also say, I imagine, that the year is "for" God in that it is observed in accordance to His will, His vision, His plan for the world and humanity. By resting, and reaffirming both our essential humanity and spirituality, as well as our healthy, respectful relationship with the earth, we are acting in accordance to the will of the Creator of the earth.It would be interesting to use this tri-partite understanding of the Sabbatical year for everything we do; to try and make sure that our actions are always "for" the world around us, as well as "for" our own health, growth, sanity, and sense of community, and, ultimately, "for" the sake of serving the highest possible conceptions of right and wrong, of good and evil, the will of God. Shabbat Shalom,Shimon Felix