Shemittah Before, Shemittah After

14 Iyar 5782

“For alma d’itkasya, the ‘hidden world,’ is on a higher plane than alma d’itgalya, the ‘revealed world.’” (Lessons in Tanya, Likutei Amarim, middle of Chapter 48)

We should never forget that the hidden is greater than the revealed, the spiritual takes precedence over the material, and what we see is only a very limited subset of the influence Hashem exerts on the world.

“When you come into the land which I give you, the land shall rest a sabbath unto G‑d” (Vayikra 25:2)

“Taken on its own, this verse seems to imply that ‘a sabbath unto G‑d’ is to be observed immediately upon entering the Land. But in practice, when the Jewish people entered the Land of Israel they first worked the land for six years, and only then observed the seventh year as the Shemittah (sabbatical year)—as, indeed, the Torah clearly instructs in the following verses.

The Torah is telling us that a Shemittah is to both precede and follow our six years of labor: to follow it on the calendar, but to also precede it—if not in actuality, then conceptually.

We find a similar duality in regard to the weekly seven-day cycle. The weekly Shabbat has a twofold role: a) It is the day ‘from which all successive days are blessed’—the source of material and spiritual sustenance for the week to follow. b) It is the ‘culmination’ of the week—the day on which the week’s labors and efforts are harvested and sublimated, and their inner spiritual significance is realized and brought to light.

But if every week must have a Shabbat to ‘bless’ it, what about the week of creation itself? In actuality, G‑d began His creation of existence—including the creation of time—on Sunday, which is therefore called the ‘First Day.’ But our sages tell us that there was a primordial Shabbat which preceded creation—a Shabbat existing not in time but in the mind of G‑d, as a vision of a completed and perfected world.” (Lubavitcher Rebbe)

“They have no part in the toil of men, nor are they afflicted like other mortals; therefore they wear pride as a necklace; their bodies are enwrapped in violence.” (Tehillim 73:5-6)

This verse in Tehillim cautions us that without a clear spiritual focus in our lives we may begin to see the material blessing we receive as our primary form of validation; not merely as a means to an end, but an end in and of itself, one that may even begin to justify all means necessary to acquire it.

As the Rebbe continues from above, “Therein lies an important lesson in how we are to approach the mundane involvements of life. True, we begin with the material, for in a world governed by cause and effect, the means inevitably precede the end. But what is first in actuality need not be first in mind. In mind and consciousness, the end must precede the means, for without a clear vision of their purpose to guide them, the means may begin to see themselves as the end.

The spiritual harvest of a Shabbat or Shemittah can be achieved only after a ‘work-week’ of dealing with the material world and developing its resources. But it must be preceded and predicated upon ‘a sabbath unto G‑d’ that occupies the fore of our consciousness and pervades our every deed.” (Lubavitcher Rebbe)