BeHar/BeChukotai

Here's a thought from me on Behar.
Here's a thought I wrote on Bechukotai.
And here's another one.

And here's what I have to say at this moment about BeHar.

Who are you? Who am I? After our name, we tend to answer the question of who we are by saying what we do. A doctor is a doctor, a teacher a teacher, a student a student. This seems simple, but the question of who a person is can not be answered by stating what a person does. If we were drinking coffee and someone approached and asked us what we do we would not say that we are coffee drinkers because we recognize that although we eat and drink these acts do not define who we are. Similarly, while work takes up a great amount of time in our lives, our occupation does not fully define us.

The world was once filled with societies that were agrarian in nature. When G-d commanded that all land lay fallow for a year, He was telling everyone in Israel to refrain from doing his or her job for a year. The idea was to place people in a situation in which they had to define themselves in a way that did not include pointing to what they did for a living.

The seventh year is Shabbat LaHashem. Every seventh year we remind ourselves of our innate self worth by virtue of being created in the image of G-d. We take a year to remind ourselves that we are each unique, just as G-d is unique. Even though there are many doctors or teachers or students there is only one of each of us. We remind ourselves that being alive is meant to be a holy experience even if we are not earning money or grade points as the weeks and months go by.

Shemittah is an intensification of our weekly Shabbat LaHashem. Every week we step back and remind ourselves that we are primarily creations of G-d. Even though we spend most days being creators ourselves once a week we hold back from defining ourselves by what we do and look inside to see who we are. Some people are only comfortable if they’re doing some action and thus have a hard time with Shabbat. We need to ask ourselves if we really believe in our hearts that we are a “tzelem elokim” if we are uncomfortable sitting alone with ourselves. We need to work on recognizing our spiritual value. And this is the point of Shemittah and Shabbat.

At this point in the year, as Shabbat is longer those of us who still live within the school calander are also are approaching summer break. Some people get down on long Shabbat days. And some students and teachers struggle as the summer hits and they may be faced with months without a being defined by their title. The challenge of any break we take is to accept and refine who we are. May we be so blessed.