Parashat Behar 5768

In this week's Torah Portion, Parashat Behar, we hear a new commandment, "When you come to the land that I give to you, there will be a Shabbat-ceasing of the land-a Shabbat for God." That's right, you read it correctly: Leviticus is commanding the land to rest, just as God commands us to rest.

This week's parashah teaches us that every seven years the land of Israel must lie fallow so that it can be rejuvenated. Just as we are commanded to rest every seven days, the land is commanded to rest every seven years.

Torah teaches us: Neither we nor the land can be worked and worked and worked endlessly and tirelessly. Notice, though, that in today's society, neither we nor the land often have many opportunities to rest-even if it is for God's sake. Society often sends us messages that tell us to push and push forward, to always look ahead. In the work world, as well as in school, we may feel that we need to keep moving in order to get ahead. We skip vacations because "there is just too much to do; we just can't get away."

This mentality, our Jewish value system tells us, is flawed. Am Yisrael, our people, are commanded to live by a different calendar. We are commanded to rest every seven days, to cycle back. We are told to rest and to be refreshed. We are told to take a day of menucha, a day of rest, for time at home, for prayer, for study, for reading, for family, and for personal reflection. On Shabbat, we are meant to stop.

This week, our understanding of what Shabbat means is deepened. This week, we are taught that our Earth, as well, is a complex, strong and fragile living, breathing being who must rest. Many of the conversations we are having about our environment and our responsibility to it stem from this basic belief. In spiritual terms: Our earth is no longer being left to observe her natural rhythm and is no longer being given the chance to lie fallow-even for a second. Just as our perfectly created bodies, if pushed too hard for too long, will take revenge on us, so too will our ever-caring, perfectly created and balanced earth rebel if she is not given her proper Shabbat.

Shabbat is a counter-cultural concept.

On this Shabbat, let us reflect on the connection between our bodies and our land. From this reflection, may we discover a relevant ordering of the world-a guide that we can use to inform our 21st century concepts of both Western Culture and time-management, as well as environmental and personal well-being.