Behar-Bechukotai

Shabbat for the Earth

Rabbi Laura Duhan Kaplan

Behar-Bechukotai teaches: If the Israelites observe a year-long Shabbat with the land every seventh year, they will receive blessings of abundance. How does one lead to the other?

Traditional positive Shabbat practices include: gathering with friends and family; reading, discussing, and studying interesting things; napping; enjoying good meals; praying, singing, meditating; and taking a beautiful walk. These practices give us a framework for letting go of the worries that often occupy us. Without Shabbat time, anxiety can accumulate. With Shabbat, we create space for inner peace.

Traditional Shabbat restrictions include avoiding: burning a fire; using electricity; cooking, sewing, building; writing on any surface; fishing; cultivated crop and garden maintenance. If you think in contemporary language, these restrictions are carbon-footprint reducing practices. If one day a week we create no fumes, use no fossil fuels, use nothing harvested from the earth in production, kill no creatures, remake no patch of land - on that day we are giving the earth a Shabbat: a day of rest and healing.  If we do this consistently, we bring upon ourselves abundance.

Wisely, Torah recognizes that one day of Shabbat per week isn't actually sufficient for complex ecological healing processes. Thus, Torah asks us to create an enduring foundation for ecological change. This Shabbat's Omer count -- netzach she'b'Yesod, an enduring foundation -- invites us to reflect on how we might do just that.

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