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The Meaning of the Sabbatical Year

By Rabbi Avraham Arieh Trugman

According to the Jewish calendar every seventh year is a Sabbatical year, in which we give the land its due rest. Since the destruction of the Temple and the subsequent 2,000 year exile, the concept of the seventh year had become quite distant in theory as well as practice. Only in the last century of renewed Jewish settlement in the land of Israel has the need arisen to again observe and contemplate the practical and deeper levels of meaning of the seventh year.

In addition to allowing the land to rest during the seventh year, loans were cancelled and produce from the fields became ownerless, allowing virtually free access to everyone. At the end of seven Sabbatical years the Jubilee year was declared and the land would rest for an additional year; indentured servants were set free and property, fields, and houses would revert back to their original owners.

The essence of the seventh year teaches that all human striving and achievement must be in tune and in accordance with a Divine cycle and plan for mankind. Just as we are commanded to work six days and rest on the seventh day, so too, we are taught that we should work the land for six years and on the seventh allow the land its due rest. The natural tendency of man is to think “My power and the might of my hand has gotten me all this wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:17), therefore, through resting on the Shabbat and the Sabbatical year, we come to learn that it is really God who is directing and perpetuating the world and only through His grace do we have the strength to accomplish anything.

From the creation of the world in six days (or time periods) and the culminating Shabbat, the number seven has symbolized the cycle of time and the orderly purpose of creation. If time had no orderly cycles, we would be at a loss to structure our endeavors or have any point of reference in which to give our lives a meaningful perspective. Just as nature follows set patterns and laws based on cyclic rhythms, so too man needs to be connected to the spiritual source of these cycles. Therefore, Shabbat and the Sabbatical year give us not only a period of rest, but the proper perspective between the physical and spiritual.

The number seven repeats itself constantly when defining cycles. When we left Egypt we needed seven complete weeks to prepare to receive the Torah given on the fiftieth day. This period of time connecting the days between Pesach and Shavuot is repeated again in the concept of seven Sabbatical years, culminating in the fiftieth Jubilee year. Pesach itself is celebrated for seven days, as is Succot, and on Simchat Torah we dance in circles with the Torah seven times. Every Shabbat the portion of the Torah is divided into seven readings and the silent prayer on Shabbat consists of seven blessings.

There is another significant seven, revealing an even deeper understanding of what the Sabbatical year is meant to accomplish. According to tradition the world is founded on a cycle of six thousand years, to be followed by the seventh millennium, referred to as the great and continual Shabbat. It is no coincidence that as we approach the year 6,000, the Jewish people are returning to Israel. All the prophets prophesied that after a long and horrible exile, the ingathering of the Jewish people would occur at the “end of days.” The land of Israel would be replanted and flourish, Jerusalem would be rebuilt, the final wars guaranteeing Jewish sovereignty would be fought, culminating in the coming of the Messiah, the rebuilding of the Temple, the “resurrection of the dead,” and the establishment of world peace and harmony. This utopian vision is the hope Judaism holds out to the world and is in a sense the Shabbat of world history. Just as there exists a rhythm of the week and of years based on six days and years of work, followed by rest and the spiritual bliss of Shabbat, so too all of history is moving according to the same cycle, ultimately leading to a Sabbatical millennium for humanity, a “returning to the garden of Eden.”

Adam and Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit and their subsequent exile from the Garden of Eden set the pattern of all future exiles on a both national and personal level. More so, Adam’s curse had ramifications for all humanity: “cursed is the ground for your sake; in sorrow you shall eat of it all the days of your life… in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground: for dust you are and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:17-18). Instead of living in harmony with nature Adam now found that he would have to be both a slave to his toiling and a tyrant to get the now “accursed” earth to provide for him.

The Sabbatical year is meant to be a healing for both man and earth for the first sin and is a vital road sign to humanity as to how to “return to the Garden.” Just as in the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve lived off the abundance of the land, so too in the seventh year, through giving the land its rest and refraining from agricultural work, we too return to a situation of living off the land. Instead of working by the “sweat of our brow,” we become more in tune with the great bounty there is to be had naturally. Of course, one needs to prepare during the whole sixth year to be in a situation of having enough to sustain oneself and this level of faith is in itself an essential aspect of living in unison with nature and G-d.

Since the land rests during the Sabbatical year, the “soul” of the land is partially healed from the “curse” it received for Adam’s sin. Relating to the land of Israel as a holy entity returns us to a proper relationship to the land, in which we are neither slave to it, nor master over it, but instead temporary dwellers aware of the privilege to live in the Holy Land. Therefore, the Torah proclaims: “the land shall not be sold forever; for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me (Leviticus 25:23). In the Garden of Eden there was no concept of ownership or possession. During the Sabbatical year all the produce of the trees and fields became ownerless so that everyone could experience the earth as belonging to all. For someone who works six years to build up his land or estate, it is no easy task to admit that one does not really own his land at all, but it is on loan from the true Owner.

More than any other mitzvah the Sabbatical year serves as a bridge between the micro cycles of nature as represented by the weekly Shabbat and the macro cycle of human development, as a represented by the seven thousand year cycle. The very essence of the Sabbatical year expresses the proper balance between the physical world we live in and the spiritual foundations on which it rests. Learning about the seventh year is a valuable tool and model for understanding how we must live in harmony with the cycles of nature, the importance of giving the land its due rest and the respect and awe we should exhibit for the precious world G-d has given us.

Rabbi Trugman was a founding member of Moshav Meor Modiim where he served as the Director at the Moshav of the Center for Jewish Education. In 1995, he founded Ohr Chadash: New Horizons in Jewish Experience. The organization's events "reveal the richness, relevancy and inner meaning of Jewish identity, from the practical to the mystical." They offer a wide variety of classes, seminars, concerts, Shabbatons, home hospitality, holiday programs, leadership training, tours, counseling and social action projects throughout Israel and North America.

 

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