בס"ד
לשכנו תדרשו
Seeking the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land
"ששת ימים תעבד וביום שביעי תשבות, בחריש ובקציר תשבות"
"Come in peace, her Husband's crown of pride, with song and good cheer. Among the faithful of the people so dear, enter O Bride, enter O Bride; O Bride, Shabbat Queen, enter, come here!" Every week, at the advent of Shabbat we say these words, greeting the Shabbat Queen, greeting the Holy Presence into our lives.
This concept of "greeting" Shabbat is deeply rooted in our sources. In a halachic sense, "greeting" Shabbat is rooted to the concept of the obligation to "add holiness from the mundane (weekday) unto the holiness (Shabbat)", that is, to voluntarily 'greet' or initiate Shabbat upon ourselves at least a moment before it 'dawns' upon us involuntarily.
This concept is learned by our Sages from the verse in regard to Yom Kippur, the tenth of Tishrei, which begins according to the Written Torah "at the ninth of the month at evening", an expression that highlights the obligation to initiate Yom Kippur upon ourselves at least a moment before it begins. According to many poskim this rule applies not only to Yom Kippur, but also to Shabbat and Holidays.
In our title quote of this week's parsha, this concept of 'initiation of holiness' is taken to another level (see Rashi on verse). According to our Sages, the explanation of the latter part of the verse, "in the plowing and harvesting you shall rest", refers to adding on to the Shemitta/SeventhYear the last month of the sixth year before it to rest from 'plowing' and agricultural work, and also the beginning of the eighth year afterwards to rest from 'harvesting' produce that grew during Shmita. The reasoning in this explanation is that the verse does not need to tell us that plowing and harvesting are forbidden on Shmita year, since all agricultural work is already forbidden in the Torah.
Therefore, the verse teaches us that even in the permissible sixth and eighth years there are times that are forbidden from work. However, it should be noted that according to our Oral Tradition this law applies only when the Bais HaMikdash is standing.
This idea gains even greater meaning in context of our title quote which juxtaposes the Sabbath of the week to the Sabbath of the Land. Just as we 'greet' the Holy Presence of the weekly Shabbos, so may we 'greet' this year, the sixth year before Shmita, the Holy Presence inherent in our Holy Land with the building of the Bait HaMikdash. By 'greeting' the Holy Presence, we unite with the Holy Presence in a greater way, for we express with our initiative an 'awakening from below' and the Holy Presence comes to us from an 'awakening from above', thus awakening a great holy union in all the spiritual worlds.
This ideal is especially poignant in Hebron, the City of Unity (hibur) of our Holy Land, which unites us with the Holy Presence of the past, present, and future to 'greet' the Messianic era at the end of the sixth millennium before the seventh Shabbat millennium when "HaShem 'recreates' His World" into a world of far-greater holiness.
Real Stroies from the Holy Land #57: "One day, our oven, which had been working for many years, stopped working, so we called a technician to check it. While working, the technician 'happened' to notice a smell of released gas from the stove, and he advised us to call a gas technician. When the gas technician examined the stove, he alarmed us that the whole stove was open to release gas, and that we must cease immediately all use of the stove to not endanger the lives of our family..."
Sources: Yoma 81b, Rambam Shvitat Asor 1, 6 and Shmita vYovel 3, 1, Orah Haim 261,2 Ex. 34, 21 and Rashi, Sanhedrin 97b
