This week’s parsha Behar begins with Sabbaticals. In addition to our weekly Sabbath, we also have a shabbat for the land every 7th year called Shmittah. Then every 50th year we have an additional sabbatical called Yovel (Jubilee), during which we not only let the land lie fallow, but all land is returned to its ancestral owner. What is the underlying meaning of these sabbaticals?
The first idea that comes to mind is the opportunity to refresh. After doing something repeatedly for an extended period of time, it’s natural to get bored and tired. So these sabbaticals force us to break out of our routine and look at what we’re doing with a fresh perspective.
But I think there might be a deeper meaning to these sabbaticals. The key to understanding it lies with Yovel.
The torah teaches that the Yovel is declared on Yom Kippur. The more intuitive time to declare this momentous repatriation of property would be Rosh Hashana (the new year) or one of the 3 major festivals, or perhaps Tu Bishvat (the anniversary for trees). But Yom Kippur serves only one unique purpose – repentance. What possible connection can it have with Yovel.
The answer, I think, is that Yovel and the sabbaticals are more than opportunities to refresh. They are opportunities to “reset”, to leave all of our mistakes and missteps behind and start fresh — which is exactly what we do on Yom Kippur.
Sabbatical = Reset, a fresh start.
We all need a reset from time to time. A fresh start. Judaism gives us different opportunities to to that — weekly on shabbat, on the festivals, on Yom Kippur, and on a national level – on Shemittah and Yovel.
Everyone occasionally get tired, bored, makes mistakes, bad choices.
Let’s take these opportunities that Judaism has given us, as individuals and as a nation, to reset and start off fresh.
