Showing posts with label Shemitah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shemitah. Show all posts

Sunday, September 7, 2014

The meaning of the number 7

Hi,

"Just as the miraculous act performed by Gd in Creation was done in six days, halting on the seventh day, so, too - to demonstrate to the nations and leaders that the conquest of Jericho was a Divine act, meaning marvelous and miraculous, like initial Creation - He commanded that they make seven circuits of Jericho in seven days, with seven kohanim and seven shofarot, to hint that this deed would be of the same type as that first Divine deed.


"This was also the purpose and reason for the mitzvah of Shabbat and of shemitah, regarding which the Torah also says 'a Shabbat for Gd', hinting at Shabbat of Creation."

(Abarbanel to Yehoshua 6)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

The goal of shemitah: Eliminate brutality

Hi,

"That which Shabbat accomplishes for each individual, shemitah accomplishes for the nation as a whole… And if that brutality which must accompany the structure of on-going communal life reduces the gentle character of ethical life… then halting the social order in specific ways, from time to time, brings this nation – when it is established on its foundation – to powerful elevation to the heights of the inner traits of ethical, spiritual life…"

את אותה הפעולה שהשבת פועלת על כל יחיד, פועלת היא השמטה על האומה בכללה... ואם אותה האביריות המוכרחת להתלוות עם כל סדר של חיי-צבור קבועים גורמת להקטין את עדינות־החיים המוסרית... הנה הפסקת הסדר החברתי בצדדים ידועים מתקופה לתקופה, מביאה לאומה זו, כשהיא מסודרת על מכונה, לידי עליתה העצמית למרומי התכונות הפנימיות שבחיים המוסריים והרוחנים...

(Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook, Shabbat haAretz, Introduction)

חג עצמאות שמח,
Mordechai