{ "language": "en", "title": "Shabbat HaAretz", "versionSource": "https://www.nli.org.il/he/books/NNL_ALEPH003779208/NLI", "versionTitle": "Rav Kook's Introduction to Shabbat Ha'aretz, trans. by Julian Sinclair Hazon, NY 2014", "status": "locked", "digitizedBySefaria": true, "shortVersionTitle": "Julian Sinclair, Hazon, 2014", "purchaseInformationImage": "https://hazon.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Shabbat-Haaretz-cover-front-image-uploadable.jpg", "purchaseInformationURL": "https://shop.hazon.org/product/shabbat-ha-aretz-rav-kook-s-introduction-with-forward-by-nigel-savage", "actualLanguage": "en", "languageFamilyName": "english", "isBaseText": false, "isSource": false, "direction": "ltr", "heTitle": "שבת הארץ", "categories": [ "Halakhah", "Acharonim" ], "text": { "Introduction": [ "A summary of the value of shmita and yovel in the life of the Jewish people generally and in the revival of the nation, the life, and the Torah, in the light of God, Life of the World", "Who is like Your people Israel, a unique nation on earth? (2 Sam. 7:23)", "“Who is like your people Israel, a unique nation on earth?” When they are united with the land, they are called a unique nation, but not when they are separate from it. (Zohar, Leviticus 93b) 1In choosing this quotation from the Zohar, the classic work of Jewish mysti-cism, as the epigram for his book about shmita, Rav Kook suggests that the uniqueness of the Jewish people is fully manifested only when they are living on their land and practicing the laws that regulate life in harmony with the earth—shmita foremost among them.", "The sabbatical and Jubilee years are interconnected in time,2In Leviticus 25, the primary biblical source for shmita, the sabbatical and Jubilee years are interconnected parts of a fifty-year cycle; see Lev. 25:2–10. like the sun and the moon in the universe, like Israel and humanity in the world of souls.3Rav Kook alludes here to the foundational kabbalistic notion of ashan, an acronym of olam, shana, nefesh, or world, time, and soul, the three dimensions that shape the finite world. The concept of ashan first appears in Sefer Yet-zirah, the oldest extant work of Jewish mysticism, references to which occur in texts from the first century (see Sefer Yetzirah 4:7–4:14, trans. Aryeh Ka-plan [York Beach, Me.: Samuel Weiser, 1990]). Rav Kook’s otherwise rather enigmatic reference to the sun and moon as instances of the particular and the universal appears to refer back to Sefer Yetzirah 4:7. See Orot hakodesh (Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook, 1938, 1985), 2:313, for an expanded expla-nation of Rav Kook’s understanding of the holiness inherent in these three basic dimensions of existence. The particular and the universal are profoundly interdependent in the most vital and spiritual sense; the particular needs the universal, and the universal needs the particular.4The interdependence of the particular and the universal is a major theme in Rav Kook’s writings. For an especially penetrating discussion of the relation-ship between these poles of Rav Kook’s thought, see Yehudah Mirsky, Rav Kook: Mystic in a Time of Revolution (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2014), 107–11. See also the introduction to this volume, p. 51.", "“For what great nation is there that has a God so close at hand?”5Deut. 4:7. Note that elsewhere, Rav Kook cites this biblical passage explicitly in the context of elaborating the goal of creating an exemplary and enlight-ened socioeconomic order in Israel. E.g., “In order to fulfill this aspiration, it is particularly necessary that this community possess a political and social state and national sovereignty at the peak of human culture—‘surely a wise and understanding people is this great nation’” (Deut. 4:6), Orot (Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook, 1993), 104. What is remarkable about the Jewish people is its ability to view existence through the lens of holiness;6Holiness is a central concept in Rav Kook’s thought. For an insightful discussion, see Norman Lamm, “Harmonism, Novelty and the Sacred,” in Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook and Jewish Spirituality, ed. Lawrence J. Ka-plan and David Schatz (New York: New York University Press, 1995), 159–77; see also the introduction to this volume, p.48. it knows, with the full force of its being, that life has the greatest value to the extent that it is infused by godliness and that a life without a touch of the divine is not worth anything. Even more than that, they know that a godly life is true life, and life without God is no life at all. This knowledge, lying deep within the people’s soul, gives it a unique character and impresses itself on each and every one of her individual members. The light and salvation of each person depends on the depth and force of this imprinting awareness that the value of life is in its godliness. “And you, who held fast to the Lord your God, are all alive today.”7Deut. 4:4.", "Life in its fullest, divine intensity is increasingly revealed to a person to the extent that he struggles to aspire with all his being to connect to the inner life of the people as a whole and to be illuminated by the light of its exalted spirit; the spirit lives through a pervasive inner awareness of the precious godliness in life.", "The essential quality of the Jewish people’s collective soul is its divine nature.8Rav Kook uses the word neshama here for “soul.” This is the highest of the three levels of soul that are commonly discussed by the kabbalists: nefesh, ruaḥ, and neshama. See the introduction to this volume, p. 53. The people did not gain this characteristic9The nature of the Jewish people’s difference from other nations is a classic issue in Jewish thought; the key medieval protagonists were Yehuda Halevi and Maimonides. See introduction to this volume for further discussion of Rav Kook’s relation to their views, p.52. through its choices, actions, righteousness, or good character. It is a core quality, both physical and spiritual, that gives the people divine force and strength. It was not acquired through choice, and no choices can negate it. Choices, however, can powerfully affect the state of this innate quality.10Rav Kook expresses here in brief his view that the holiness of Israel depends on two main elements: an innate segula, or soul force; and the choices to do good or bad that each of us makes. He believed that the segula force was the greater and that it would grow stronger still in the period of the “footsteps of the Messiah.” See Igerot hare’aya 2:186–88 (Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook, 2002), for an expanded discussion of this. For a good English summary, see Michael Z. Nehorai, “Halakhah, Meta-Halakhah, and the Redemption of Israel: Reflections on the Rabbinic Rulings of Rav Kook,” in Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook and Jewish Spirituality, ed. Kaplan and Schatz, 122–24. The people can decide to nurture, develop, and perfect it; alternatively, bad choices will darken its light, muddy its glow, and stupefy hearts so that they will no longer sense the spiritual riches hidden in the life of the soul. But darkness and stupefaction cannot continue indefinitely. Sooner or later, this inner soul treasure can be relied upon to arouse the nation to renewal.11The inevitability of spiritual renewal is a theme of Rav Kook’s book on re-pentance, Orot hateshuva (Jerusalem: Rabbi Kook Institute, 1994). See e.g., chap. 1, where repentance is described as a natural health-restoring impulse; 4:2, where the repentance of the individual is an expression of a movement toward teshuva active in the whole universe; and 16:10, where the individual’s teshuva is presented as a return to authentic selfhood.", "This national treasure that is imprinted deep within us, the image of a world that is good, upright, and godly— aligned with peace, justice, grace, and courage, all filled with a pervasive divine perspective that rests in the spirit of the people—cannot be actualized within a way of life that is purely secular. Such a life, full of frenetic action, veils the glory of our divine soul, and the soul’s clear light is blocked from shining through the overpowering, mundane reality. The impulse toward growth and self-realization needs space to come to fruition. We need to stop and shake off the bedlam of our daily lives.", "The individual shakes off mundane routine frequently— every week. “Shabbat comes and so does rest!”12Rashi on Gen. 2:2. Rashi’s full comment reads: “What was lacking [in Cre-ation]? Rest. Enter Sabbath, enter rest; and then the work of Creation was finished.” Creation was not complete until rest was made to complement and balance creative activity. The soul begins to shed her harsh chains. “The Lord has given you rest from your sorrow and trouble and from the hard service that you were made to serve.”13Isa. 14:3. The soul then seeks higher pathways of spiritual desire that are consonant with the nature of her source. “It is good to praise the Lord, to sing hymns to Your name, O Most High, to proclaim Your steadfast love at daybreak, Your faithfulness each night with a ten-stringed harp with voice and lyre together.”14Ps. 92:1–4. This is the “Psalm for the Sabbath Day.” “It shall be a sign for all time between me and the people of Israel.”15Exod. 31:17. This is a holy day when the innate inclination of the people for a godly life emerges from its hiddenness and is a sign for the people that its soul treasure contains within it the need and the ability to rejoice in God, in the delight of the divine. This is concentrated in the point of the extra soul16Rav Kook refers to the “extra soul” that, according to tradition, Jews possess on the Sabbath. The talmudic source is Beitza 16a, which in-terprets the words shavat vayinafash (Exod. 31:17) as Vay nefesh! (“Alas for the soul that is lost!”— at the end of Sabbath). Interpretations of this idea have ranged from the more rational, e.g., Ibn Ezra and Radak, who argue that the soul that “is given rest on this day from the affairs of the world can occupy itself with wisdom and the words of God” (commentary to Gen. 2:3), to the more mystical, e.g., Naḥmanides, who takes issue with Ibn Ezra and writes that “although his view of this is right to those who believe in it, for this is not something that can be tested by experience, … nonetheless you must understand that on the Sabbath, there is in truth an additional soul.” (See also Zohar II 204a–b.) Rav Kook draws on elements of both schools here in understanding the “extra soul” as something that is always within us that we are able to access on Sabbath when the rush of weekday activity is stilled. that dwells within each one of the people’s children.", "What Sabbath does for the individual, shmita does for the nation as a whole. The Jewish people, in whom the godly, creative force is planted eternally and distinctively, has a special need to periodically reveal the divine light within itself with full intensity. Our mundane lives, with their toil, anxiety, anger, and competition do not entirely suffocate this creative force. On the shmita, our pure, inner spirit may be revealed as it truly is. The forcefulness that is inevitably part of our regular, public lives lessens our moral refinement. There is always a tension between the ideal of listening to the voice inside us that calls us to be kind, truthful, and merciful, and the conflict, compulsion, and pressure to be unyielding that surround buying, selling, and acquiring things.17There is a note of suspicion about commerce in this passage. For a discussion of Rav Kook’s relationship to socialist thought, see Shalom Rosenberg, “Introduction to the Thought of Rav Kook,” in The World of Rav Kook’s Thought, ed. Benjamin Ish-Shalom and Shalom Rosenberg (Jerusalem: Avi Chai, 1991), 59–61. See also the introduction to this volume, p.49. These aspects of the world of action distance us from the divine light and prevent its being discerned in the public life of the nation. This distancing also permeates the morality of individuals like poison. Stilling the tumult of social life from time to time in certain predictable ways is meant to move this nation, when it is well-ordered, to rise toward an encounter with the heights of its other, inner moral and spiritual life.18Cf. Rav Kook’s idea of “the continuous prayer of the soul”: the soul is always praying (i.e., yearning to unite with God). When we consciously pray, we rise to an encounter with the soul that is praying constantly (Olat hare’aya, 1:1). They touch the divine qualities inside them that transcend all the stratagems of the social order and that cultivate and elevate our social arrangements, bringing them toward perfection.", "“Just as it was said about the Sabbath of creation, ‘it is a Sabbath for God,’ so, too, it was said about the Sabbath of shmita, ‘it is a Sabbath for God.’ ”19Rashi’s commentary on Lev. 25:2. The distinctive character of the people and the land dovetail with each other. Just as the people has a special aptitude for reaching spiritual heights from within the depths of everyday life, so, too, the land—God’s land—forms the people who dwell there as an everlasting inheritance that comes through a covenant and promise, with faith in the Eternal One of Israel, and is founded on the divine nature immovably infused in this wonderful country, which is married to the people whom God chose. The soul of the people and the land intertwine, working from the basis of their being to bring into existence the intricate patterns of inner holiness that lie within them during the sabbatical year. The people works with its soul force on the land, and the divine seed is revealed through its spiritual influence; the land, too, works on the people, refining their character in line with the divine desire for life inherent in their makeup.", "The people and the land both need a year of Sabbath!", "A year of peace and quiet, where there are no tyrants or taskmasters; “he shall not oppress his fellow or kinsman, for the remission proclaimed is of the Lord”;20Deut. 15:2. The verse quoted refers to the remission of debts in the shmita and prohibits creditors from exacting payment from debtors. a year of equality and relaxation in which the soul may expand toward the uprightness of God, who sustains all life with loving-kindness; a year when there is no private property and no standing on one’s rights, and a godly peace will pervade all that breathes. “It shall be a year of complete rest for the land, but you may eat whatever the land will produce during its Sabbath—you, your male and female slaves, the hired and bound laborers who live with you, and your cattle and the beasts on your land may eat all its yield.”21Lev. 25:5–7. Pernickety claims to private property will not profane the holiness of the produce of the land during this year, and the urge to get rich, which is stimulated by trade, will be forgotten; as it says, “for you to eat—but not for your trade.”22Mishnah, Shevi’it 7:3. In this passage, Rav Kook draws on a series of halakhic midrashim based on a phrase from Lev. 25:6, “for you to eat,” which is inter-preted to exclude making use of food grown in the Land of Israel during the shmita for purposes other than eating. A spirit of generosity will rest on all; God will bless the fruit of the land “for you to eat and not your loss.” Human beings will return to a state of natural health, so that they will not need healing for sicknesses, which mostly befall us when the balance of life is destroyed and our lives are distanced from the rhythms of nature; “for you to eat” but not to make medicine and not to use as bandages.23Talmud Bavli, Sukkah 40a. See the introduction to this volume for further discussion of Rav Kook’s astonishing claim that shmita will promote a natu-ral state of human health that will make medicine unnecessary. A holy spirit will be poured out upon all life; “it will be a year of complete rest for the land—a Sabbath of the Lord.”24Lev. 25:4–5.", "In this year, the divine character within the people will be revealed in its glory. This once-every-seven-year illumination carries an afterglow of divine ideals that will gradually shape our ethical characters so that the outlook that flows from them will become a deeper and more formative part of us, until a longer, significant period has elapsed—enough to raise up not merely individuals25As does the Sabbath.—or just the collective in a particular generation26As does the shmita. but all the generations that lived during that period. The Jubilee is a time of rebirth for the whole world, grounded in divine freedom.", "Life during the shmita year is guided by the natural, inner desire for goodness and justice, equality, and calm, which God has planted within the nation. The people did not become like this by imitating something external; it is part of its nature. When this inner life starts to reveal itself in all its purity, it does not stand still. It is expansive and generous, seeking the power to act and to influence its surroundings. Israel’s inner nature soaks up the elevating power of its good choices, which restore our lives and the pure penitence that reconnects us to the source of the Jewish people’s inner strength. Holiness grows throughout these spans of time: “Count the shmita years in order to sanctify the Jubilees,”27Talmud Bavli, Arakhin 32b. The Talmud describes here how the advent of the Jubilee was to be calculated. to prepare life for the Jubilee. “And you shall count off seven weeks of seven years—seven times seven years—so that the period of seven weeks of seven years gives you a total of forty-nine years.”28Lev. 25:8. Shmita will suckle from the life channels of the Jubilee, which will gradually rise and spread, until they give shape to the life of the people. From those sources will the shmita be filled with a wholesome and invigorating glow that will arise out of the yearning for a divine order that fills all existence and not merely its own inner being.", "The spirit of the Jubilee will gather great strength, until it has sufficient potency not only to reveal the goodness within the soul of the people and protect its form of life, as does the shmita, but also to fix the crookedness and brokenness of the past and to reestablish the people’s existence on its original pattern. It can restore a pristine freshness to our lives, not only through what is already present, albeit hidden in our souls, but also through what is being prepared to reveal itself and illuminate us by the power of our free choice to do what is good—which must awaken in the exalted Jubilee year.", "In these years, when its inner character is being revealed, the nation gives a sign that it is preparing itself for an even higher level; one that can lead to a keen awareness of the godliness in life. The awakening of such awareness heralds a new spirit that announces great things: “Then you shall sound the horn loud; in the seventh month on the tenth day of the month—the Day of Atonement— you shall have the horn sounded throughout your land,”29Lev. 25:9. and a godly spirit of general forgiveness, such as the individual experiences on Yom Kippur, will arise through the holiness of the Jubilee and spread throughout the entire society, clothing the whole people in a spirit of repentance and acquittal that will straighten out the injustices of the preceding period: “You shall proclaim release throughout the land for all its inhabitants.”30Lev. 25:10. From Rosh Hashanah until Yom Kippur, slaves would neither become free to go home, nor would they remain slaves to their masters, but they would eat, drink, and rejoice with crowns on their heads. When Yom Kippur would arrive, the beit din would sound the shofar, slaves would be free to go home, and fields would return to their original owners.31Talmud Bavli, Rosh Hashanah 8b. See the introduction to this volume for a discussion of Rav Kook’s original reading of this talmudic passage. This freedom does not erupt like some volcano; it emerges gradually from the higher holiness. It is not a radical exception to the regular social order but flows from within it, nurtured by the life of the shorter, preceding periods until, reinforced by the revelation of our choices for good, it has the power to repair past injustices.", "If individuals fall from the status of free men and women and, forgetting their inherent nobility, are made into servants—“the ear that heard the words at Sinai, ‘the children of Israel are My servants’32Lev. 25:55.—My servants, and not the servants of My servants”—and yet in spite of this he went and acquired a human master for himself33Talmud Bavli, Kiddushin 22b. The Talmud here censures the Hebrew slave referred to in Exod. 21:6, who elects to remain a slave beyond the mandatory period. His choice shows that he has not internalized the innate freedom and dignity that attaches to being a servant of God, not of man. Rav Kook understands the return of each person to his ancestral land as the remedy for the indignity of selling oneself as a slave.—now his freedom and self-respect are returned to him. Holiness flows into our lives from the highest source, the place from which the nation’s soul suckles light and “freedom is proclaimed throughout the land to all its inhabitants.”34Lev. 25:10. Inequality in landed property, which resulted from bodily and spiritual weakness and error, sapped his strength, until he was forced to sell his ancestral patrimony. Now, however, restitution comes, corresponding to the people’s status at the beginning of its journey. The original property returns to those who have suffered from the vicissitudes of life, distorting their sense of their true value: “In this Jubilee, everyone shall return to his original holdings.”35Lev. 25:13.", "Such life-affirming flights of possibility will raise the people up to bind its life together with that of all humanity through those special people, the gerim toshavim—non-Jews who stand fully in the mainstream of universal humanity and who also feel a special connection to the reinvigorated spiritual aspirations of the Jewish people; then there will arise an inner urge in the people to rein in the separatist element within itself so as to properly highlight the brilliant illumination of the universal: “The law of a Hebrew servant and the law of the ger toshav operate only when the Jubilee operates.”36Talmud Bavli, Arakhin 29a. See the introduction to this volume for a short discussion of how Rav Kook reads this talmudic passage and the universal aspects of the Jubilee.", "All these are signs of a spiritual vitality that this people will manifest when a divine sense of morality is alive within them. They will emerge from the complexity of the nation’s political situation in its full richness, “when all its inhabitants are living there.”37Talmud Bavli, Arakhin 32b. The Talmud sets “when all its inhabitants are liv-ing there” as a condition for the observance of the Jubilee year. This is inferred from the verse referring to the Jubilee “freedom is proclaimed throughout the land to all its inhabitants” (Lev. 25:10), i.e., the Jubilee’s proclamation of freedom may occur only when all the land’s inhabitants are living on it. Rav Kook understands that the fulfillment of this condition effects a qualitative change in the people’s political situation. Thus will the people find a way to reveal an awareness of the godly integrity that stands above its innate quality, that is already within it, and that protects the people’s purposes so that they do not decline or disappear entirely.", "When corrupted choice darkens the light of the life of “broad spaces by the river,”38Hebrew, reḥovot hanahar: a kabbalistic term based on Gen. 36:37, meaning the broadening of wisdom. Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of Chabad, characterizes reḥovot hanahar as the spreading of the kabbalistic sefi-ra of ḥokhma (wisdom), which he likens to a wellspring, into the sefira of bina (intellect), which he compares to a river (Likutei Torah, Shir hashirim 39b). which grows and overspills the borders of Israel, such choice mars the foundation of Israel’s natural excellence—though it cannot destroy it. But it can plunge that treasure deep, deep down into the depths, until it disappears for a long time, eons and eons. The people will long for light, when there is none, until the time of the End.", "The Torah, with its ideas, statutes, and laws, for the life of the individual and the community, is a clear glass, in which all the spiritual qualities of the people are reflected—whether the natural, intrinsic impulses that are expressed in observance of shmita, or the higher, divine spirit of the Jubilee, which is manifested through the people’s choices. So long as the Torah is observed, both in letter and in spirit, in the people, the land, and in the way society is ordered, it gives strength to the nation. The reenergizing closeness to God will then thrill the life soul of the people and bring joy to the heart of each individual. The light of faith will stream through the consciousness of the people from its natural, distinctive spirit; the refinements of this spirit that take place generation by generation will adorn the people, dedicated, as they are, to salvation from time immemorial, and these refinements will train the people’s unique, divine consciousness according to its individual character. This distinctive awareness will continually do its work, and will in turn be worked upon by the universal good of divine light. This light sharpens our awareness and stamps upon it its particular form, enabling it to fill up all the recesses of spirit and soul with pure feelings and upright joy, which are founded eternally on divine delight, which saves one from all despair and raises up everlasting salvation.39The second half of this paragraph is especially unclear.", "The people rises to these levels when it knows its own particular spirit. This self-knowledge allows the people to be crowned with the divine Torah that stands at the summit of the world. However inhospitable, or even hostile, the surroundings are to the godly heights for which Israel yearns, she will not be caught in their snares but will go confidently on her way. Then her natural inner character and the splendor of her power of moral choice will be awakened. The shmita and the Jubilee will adorn her, and the land will respond to the people, with all the spiritual goodness that is within her, attuned to the joy of shmita and the Jubilee. “I will ordain my blessing for you in the sixth year so that it shall yield a crop sufficient for three years.”40Lev. 25:21. The verse promises God’s blessing on the sixth year so that the shmita will not cause shortage or hardship. “The pasturelands distill it; the hills are girded with joy. The meadows are clothed with flocks, the valleys mantled with grain; they raise a shout, they break into song.”41Ps. 65:13–14. The antecedent of “it” in the previous verse (65:12) is “God’s bounty.” Rav Kook cites this verse as an image of blessing and plenty.", "When Israel’s awareness of its own spirit became foggy—“Israel rejects what is good”42Hosea 8:3. See also Orot hakodesh, 3:140, where Rav Kook cites the same biblical verse to connote the spurning—by the individual or community—of one’s unique, divine source of being.—the people forgot its strength and pride. Looking superficially at their undeveloped and wild environment made them forget their inner greatness. The yearning for a refined, godly life slipped from their hearts, as did the sense of joyful strength that one has when life is clothed in deeds. Clear, simple, pure-hearted understanding ceased, and the light of justice was dimmed. In its place came the coarse imagination of a lawless society, and the dumb, evil delusions of idolatry, with all its attendant abominations. Under their burden, the sublime, divine character of the people was smothered, and there were no more pure, upright, and serene hearts. This moral collapse in the nation was matched by a decline in the spiritual character of the land, which had always been intertwined with the moral life of the people. As the people became spiritually weaker, the special qualities of the land could no longer find fulfillment. The spirit of the precious land, full of holy song and godly gladness, plummeted. “Thus the land became defiled; and I called it to account for its iniquity, and the land spewed out its inhabitants.”43Lev. 18:25. The people absorbed bad influences, which coarsened its pure nature.", "“In that their mother has played the harlot, she that conceived them has acted shamelessly.”44Hosea 2:7. The prophet compares Israel’s pursuit of idolatry to an adulterous woman’s pursuit of lovers. Even the most holy images engraved on the face of the people became toxic: “Your new moons and fixed seasons fill me with loathing. They have become a burden to me, and I cannot endure them.”45Isa. 1:7. In this passage, God rejects the people’s ritual worship when their moral life is full of oppression and cruelty. When national life became defiled, the power of ethics increased,46This statement might appear paradoxical in the context of a passage about the moral collapse of the people. The meaning appears to be that, with the decline of the national, political life of the Jewish people, there were outbursts of moral intensity, but these were unsustainable in the absence of supporting political institutions. Rav Kook may have been thinking of a phenomenon analogous to the proliferation of ascetic Jewish sects toward the end of the Second Temple period. but with the surrounding political turmoil, the result was simply inner anguish and confusion. These two elements—the people and the land, which, when healthy, had given each other so much grace and power for good—made each other sicker and more corrupt. Finally, they had to take the cruel-kind medicine, the dreadful surgical operation of separating the people from the land—“Because of our sins, we were exiled from our country and distanced from our land.”47Taken from the musaf prayer for the new moon and festivals.", "From deep within the people’s terrible troubles, after their turbulent national life with all its destructive turmoil had been taken away from them, their spiritual light and strength began gradually to return to the levels from which it had declined. The people’s spirit began to soar again, the longer they were separated from politics and statecraft—which are poisonous to a broken society. “I stipulated with her: in return, you will go a long time without either fornicating or marrying; even I shall not cohabit with you. For the Israelites shall go a long time without king and without officials, without sacrifice and without cult pillars and without ephod and teraphim.”48Hosea 3:2. In this passage, the betrayed husband takes back his previously unfaithful wife, giving her merely “fifteen pieces of silver, a ḥomer of barley, and a letekh of barley.” Similarly, God resumes his intimacy with the Jewish people but removes from them the trappings of national sovereignty, which had aided their betrayal. “In that day, I will destroy the horses in your midst and wreck your chariots. I will destroy the cities of your land and demolish all your fortresses. I will destroy the sorcery you practice, and you shall have no more soothsayers. I will destroy your idols and the sacred pillars in your midst; and no more shall you bow down to the work of your hands.”49Mic. 5:9–12.", "“I will make the land desolate, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled by it. And you, I will scatter among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword against you. Your land shall become a desolation and your cities a ruin. Then shall the land make up for its Sabbath years, throughout the time that it is desolate and you are in the land of your enemies; then shall the land rest and make up for its Sabbath years. Throughout the time that it is desolate, it shall observe the rest that it did not observe in your Sabbath years while you were dwelling upon it.”50Lev. 26:32–35. These verses imply that exile was the punishment for not ob-serving shmita; during the years of dispersion, the land will make up for the sabbaticals that were not properly kept while the Jewish people dwelled in the land.", "“For the land shall be forsaken of them, making up for its Sabbath years by being desolate of them, while they atone for their iniquity; for the abundant reason that they rejected My rules and spurned My laws.”51Lev. 26:43.", "In exile, Israel abandoned its preoccupation with secular matters that concerned the people as a whole, and turned its eyes and hearts toward heaven. It stopped trying to amass power, chariots, and horses like every other people on earth, and the nation as a collective ceased all materialist pursuits. It no longer desired the debaucheries of the surrounding peoples. The spirit of God began to beat within the people once again and to awaken them to know the true heights of the human soul. So, too, they became aware once more of the Jewish people’s spiritual potential. The Torah became more precious to them “than gold, than much fine gold,”52Ps. 19:11. as it had been in the good times of the people’s youth. They were willing to accept death joyfully for the sake of their holy faith and commandments. Their eyes and hearts, which were habitually cast heavenward, began to recuperate53See Jer. 8:22. from the backslidings and sins of their national life. From the time they were separated from the land, they turned toward it—not with the greedy gaze of one who sits in his house and desires to reacquire the land that he had sold because it supplied him with bread and other physical needs, but rather with a look of holy love for its inner character, befitting the godly desire that had begun to return to the people.", "So the land will shake off the impurity of the “drunkards of Ephraim”54Isa. 28:1. The full verse reads: “Ah, the proud crowns of the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is but wilted flowers on the heads of men bloated with rich food, who are overcome with wine.”—the rebellious rulers and gangs of thieves who love bribery and pursue only their own gain, kicking against God out of their abundance of good things. They will melt away, along with all their power and glory. After a long time, scattered individuals gradually began returning to the land, drawn there by God’s hand and by the holiness of the land rather than by any concern with material well-being or with reestablishing national government.55Rav Kook refers to the trickle of pious individual Jews who found their way to the Land of Israel from the thirteenth century onward. In the early nine-teenth century, the numbers of such immigrants increased, motivated by the messianic expectations directed to the 600th year of the sixth millennium (1840), based on prophecies of the Zohar. Between 1808 and 1840, the Jew-ish community in the Land of Israel more than doubled in size. The most notable group consisted of more than 500 disciples of the Gaon of Vilna, who arrived around 1813. See Arie Morgenstern, Hastening Redemption: Messianism and the Resettlement of the Land of Israel (Oxford: Oxford Univer-sity Press, 2006), for an account of the fascinating and little-known episode of pre-Zionist Jewish immigration to Israel.", "“The appointed time of salvation is concealed.”56This appears to be a reference to Rashi’s comment on Gen. 49:1: Jacob “wished to reveal the messianic end, but the divine presence was re-moved from him.” See also Rashi’s source, Genesis Raba 98:2. “What is in the heart is not revealed to the mouth.”57Kohelet Raba 12:10. Who can know God’s secrets and say precisely when the impurity of the land and the people will be lifted, when the spirit, hidden in its essence but revealed in its actions, will return once again in response to improvements in the outward situation that enable its reappearance in strength and purity upon the people and the land? When will the time of lovers come again, when the people and the land will reunite and mutual goodness and blessing will flow from their relationship—not like in the days of darkness? No one knows. So we raise our eyes to see the signs that are hidden in plain sight. In their vision of the messianic era, the sages said that “there is no messianic portent more obvious than this”:58Talmud Bavli, Sanhedrin 98a. See also Rashi ad loc. “When the Land of Israel generously gives of her fruits, then redemption is drawing near; there is no more obvious sign of the messianic end than this.” Rav Kook urges paying attention to the renewed flourishing of agriculture in the Land of Israel as a portent of impending redemption. “But you, O mountains of Israel, shall yield your produce and bear your fruit for My people Israel, for their return is near. For I will care for you: I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown. I will settle a large population on you, the whole house of Israel; the towns shall be resettled and the ruined sites rebuilt. I will multiply men and beasts upon you, and they shall increase and be fertile, and I will resettle you as you were formerly, and will make you more prosperous than you were at first. And you shall know that I am the Lord.”59Ezek. 36:8–11. This is the prooftext cited in Sanhedrin 98a (see n. 59 above).", "So long as the anger has not been assuaged, and so long as the sickness in the depths of the people’s soul has not been fully cured, there was every reason for them to turn only to heaven for support. Because of the extent of the land’s destruction, people were not interested in trying to live a life closely tied to the earth; if dreams of restoring political sovereignty had occurred to them then, their confusions and ancient corruptions would likely have been to return and reawaken. So their spiritual vision was blocked, and most people forgot about the land, and the scattered individuals who were concerned with it related to it as a spiritual ideal rather than as a physical reality.", "But with the fulfillment of the whole measure of God’s rebuke (which refines not just individuals, who began to return from the early days of the exile, but also the spirit of the nation as a whole, which lifts up with it the degraded spirit of the land), the mourning for Zion began to seek outlets in action. The people that felt itself abandoned by Zion began to conceive the desire to return to its city and its land, to find there a life that would be more whole, in which the spiritual and physical could be healed simultaneously. Then the spirit began secretly to beat again, imperceptibly to most people—“Even those close to Him cannot foresee His actions.”60Job 24:1. Even if this initial growth was apparent to those with seeing hearts and holy souls, they saw it yet did not recognize its strength and substance, until they turned around and there it was—revealing itself. Those tendrils of new life that were closest to material urges were the first to show perceptible traces. The desire for land, for physical work, for social organization were not strange to the most exalted spirits of this long-suffering people that had generally forgotten the ways of physical existence and that was indebted for its material support to others.", "Now we need dauntless people to step forward. They must strengthen the weak of spirit, raise up the despairing, support the falling, and declare loudly, “Zion: do not give up!” The spirit of the living, hidden God, concealed throughout the exile is being revealed. It can fully appear only in a people living a holistic life on its own land. Just as with individuals, the divine presence rests only on one who is strong, self-sufficient, and dignified, as well as possessing spiritual qualities of wisdom and humility, so, too, the divine presence rests only on the people collectively when they are strong, materially self-sufficient, and upright (these qualities, however, find their true value when they serve as a basis for the flourishing of a godly spirit, filled with the light of righteous humility).", "Dumbfounded of spirit, knees quaking from the oppression of enemies and humiliating wanderings, devoid of hope or consolation in the lands of strangers, scattered exiles started to arrive in the land. Bleary-eyed from all the darkness of exile after exile, it was hard for them to absorb the great light that they found sown in the land. Their stature is still not upright and their spirits not yet revived, and the spirit of God is not yet revealed in full force. But scattered shafts of spiritual life suggest that the revealed end is coming closer. All in whom the divine spirit resonates feel themselves to be among the pioneering builders who are constructing the nation’s home in its beloved, eternal land.", "The reestablishment of the people in its holy land is still young, and what has been built until now is minuscule compared to the grandeur of our hope, which is mantled in godly power—“I, who planted the skies and made firm the earth, have said to Zion, you are My people!”61Isa. 51:16. So, too, the spiritual revival within us that is starting to raise up our precious country is small and weak. The glory that will appear when shmita and yovel are observed on the holy land still seem far away. Nonetheless, our spirits are lifted by what we can fulfill of the mitzvot that are connected to the land, even though what we have is still only partial. Now is the time to revive those aspects of the Torah that speak precisely to the revival of the land: learning about the special mitzvot of the land is becoming more and more significant for all those of God’s people who are focusing on what is happening in the land to which God’s spirit has returned—where a special holiness must be reflected and revealed by those who are living here, above and beyond the demands that the rest of the Torah makes on us wherever we are.", "“Learning leads to action.”62Talmud Bavli, Kiddushin 40b. “Learning is greater [than action] because learning leads to action.” This is Rabbi Akiva’s opinion, cited in the talmudic debate about whether study is greater than deeds. Through citing this source, Rav Kook expresses the hope that the study of shmita will lead to its fuller observance. Studying the halakhot to gain clarity and breadth of understanding, writing books, and expanding research all increase awareness and love of the mitzvot connected to the land, which were forgotten by most of the people for many centuries. The divine light that suffuses every letter of every detail of the Torah awakens in us a desire to carefully observe these commandments in their entirety. Consciousness of their justice and importance will grow as the study of the Torah concerning them becomes greater and more magnificent.", "Now the shmita year has arrived (according to the reckoning that we have). Owing to the poor situation of our settlements in the land, we will have to make do with the temporary expedient that was endorsed some time ago by the greatest authorities of the generation, who understood deeply the situation of the new settlement in our holy land.63Rav Kook refers here to the heter mekhira device of selling the land for the duration of the shmita. They had a penetrating sense of what it could become in the future and knew not to belittle its smallness because they understood that plowing these first furrows on our land could be a “gateway of hope”64Hosea 2:17. Rav Kook quotes from the passage that likens Israel’s turn to idolatry to a woman’s adultery, which he has previously cited in his introduction. This verse describes the lovers’ reconciliation. In Hebrew, the phrase is petaḥ tikva, which was the name given to one of the first modern agricultural settlements in Israel (founded in 1878) for similar reasons. for our people and portend the growth of a salvation that “came from the Lord.”65Ps. 118:23. They realized their historical obligation to smooth the path of the new settlements and, as much as possible, not to let the mitzvot that are connected to the land be obstacles. God does not make tyrannical and unreasonable demands of His creatures. The circumstances that allow us to be lenient regarding mitzvot pertaining to the whole community when there is the likelihood of significant financial loss, or in a temporary situation of acute need, are all compounded in this case to an extent unparalleled in the annals of legal questions that have arisen throughout our lengthy exile. Despite the suspension of the mitzvah (of shmita) that is entailed by this temporary edict, there are still some halakhot pertaining to shmita that we are required to observe. And those who are especially God-fearing, whose holy love of the mitzvot connected to the land that we have long yearned to observe is so great, are not deterred by the trouble and loss they may incur through fully observing shmita as it should be—and they shall be blessed!", "In addition, learning itself leads to action. Studying the halakhot will engrave them on our hearts. From one shmita year to the next, more and more people will be caught up with enthusiasm. With godly boldness in their hearts, they will broaden the fulfillment of the mitzvah in all its details. The fierce joy that will be generated by Israel observing the shmita on the holy mountain66Jerusalem. See, e.g., Isa. 56:7. will lead, in the future, to its complete and all-encompassing fulfillment.", "The holiness of shmita will emanate from the spirit of God that hovers over His people and land and spread to all life—to all God’s people and especially to those who live in the holy shelter of this precious land, in the sweet companionship of its loving refuge. The spirit of the Jubilee, which lies latent, will appear from within the storehouse of holiness that is in the shmita, and the sound of the shofar will herald salvation, rousing the sleepy and encouraging the recently redeemed.", "That is why I felt obliged to write this book laying out the halakhot of shmita, with God’s help.", "I hope to God that through it, the Torah will be made great and glorious; that I and all those who yearn to learn of God’s ways, especially my brothers, whom I call upon in pleasantness, the great Torah scholars of the Land of Israel, will merit to expand our teaching about the mitzvot that concern the land, and especially shmita. And alongside our involvement in the practical halakhot, may our hearts be strengthened with wisdom and discernment to know, with a spirit that is filled with counsel and strength, the light of divine knowledge that is being granted to our holy land, which we have been fortunate to inherit; and may this spirit of this knowledge fill and strengthen us with sound understanding and save us from errors for the sake of His name and inheritance.", "May God’s word to the prophets be soon fulfilled:", "“I will take you from among the nations and gather you from all countries, and I will bring you back to your land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean: I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness and all your fetishes. And I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit into you: I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh; and I will put My spirit into you. Thus I will cause you to follow My laws and faithfully to observe My rules. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your father, and you shall be My people and I will be your God. And when I have delivered you from all your uncleanness, I will summon the grain and make it abundant, and I will not bring famine upon you. I will make the fruit of your trees and the crops of your fields abundant, so that you shall never again be humiliated before the nations because of the famine.”67Ezek. 36:24–30.", "“Thus said the Lord, God: when I have cleansed you of all your iniquities, I will people your settlements, and the ruined places shall be rebuilt; and the desolate land, after laying waste in the sight of every passerby, shall again be tilled. And men shall say, ‘That land, once desolate, has now become like the garden of Eden; and the cities, once ruined, desolate, and ravaged, are now populated and fortified.’ And the nations that are left around you shall know that I the Lord have rebuilt the ravaged places and replanted the desolate land. I the Lord have spoken and will act.”68Ezek. 36:33–36.", "The holy city of Jaffa, may it be built and established, 1909." ], "Clarification": [], "Preface": [], "Laws of Shemitah": [], "Kuntres Acharon": [] }, "schema": { "heTitle": "שבת הארץ", "enTitle": "Shabbat HaAretz", "key": "Shabbat HaAretz", "nodes": [ { "heTitle": "הקדמה", "enTitle": "Introduction" }, { "heTitle": "וזאת למודעי", "enTitle": "Clarification" }, { "heTitle": "פתח דבר", "enTitle": "Preface" }, { "heTitle": "הלכות שמיטה", "enTitle": "Laws of Shemitah" }, { "heTitle": "קונטרס אחרון", "enTitle": "Kuntres Acharon" } ] } }