Behar-Bechukotai
Reflection by Ben Bernstein, Or HaLev Teacher
What happens when we give ourselves a break from the hardened sense of self?
“Parshat Behar introduces the concept of the sabbatical year, shmita. Every seventh year, the Israelites are to cease from the sowing, pruning, and reaping of their fields: `Six years you shall sow your fields…and in the seventh year there shall be an absolute sabbath for the land, a sabbath to the Lord.` (Lev 25:3-4). In that seventh-year land and its produce, the main forms of possession and wealth in ancient times, become ownerless. Society’s ordinary routines, structures, and hierarchies are suspended.
What emerges when we step away from the hustle of everyday life?
Rav Kook, in his introduction to Shabbat HaAretz, draws attention to the connection between shmita and Shabbat. Each week, the individual has an opportunity for renewal and reconnection to the soul’s divine nature. In shmita, the nation as a whole can pause and rise toward an encounter with the heights of its inner moral and spiritual life. When the collective gets a break from the hardened sense of self that surrounds buying, selling, and acquiring things, society has an opportunity to develop towards deeper wholeness and perfection.
In reality, we can’t give everyone a year off of work. But we can attempt to broaden the Shabbat spirit that we cultivate on an individual level out to the communal, or Shmita level.
Perhaps this week, when we interact with our circles of community—with a friend, family member, or acquaintance—we can stop to ask: Am I connected to my heart and body right now? Am I fully present with the person I’m interacting with? Does what I’m saying resonate with a deeper sense of self and truth?
May this be a Shabbat of deeper communal connection, of looking past structure and routine towards relational aliveness and collective elevation.”