By Szilvi Somlai
Is shmita an ancient and outdated mitzva, incompatible with modern, often completely secular, Jewish diaspora life in the 21st century? Or is it a gift to the world, and an exceptional opportunity to make our Judaism relevant at any time and any place, both on the personal and professional level?
At first blush it looks as if shmita has nothing to do with those of us who are not farmers.
… וּבַשָּׁנָ֣ה הַשְּׁבִיעִ֗ת שַׁבַּ֤ת שַׁבָּתוֹן֙ יִהְיֶ֣ה לָאָ֔רֶץ שַׁבָּ֖ת לה’ שָֽׂדְךָ֙ לֹ֣א תִזְרָ֔ע וְכַרְמְךָ֖ לֹ֥א תִזְמֹֽר׃
… In the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath of complete rest, a sabbath of the Lord: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.
Leviticus 25:4
The mitzva of shmita, a sabbatical year for the land, is the 326th mitzva in the Tora, and one that applies to the Land of Israel. The literal translation of the word shmita is release, referring to the release of debts. During ancient times, the land in the Land of Israel would be left unsown for a whole year every seventh year in order to revive itself. People would use the time they had because they were not working to learn Torah and engage in other projects. This is where it became more relevant for me.
As Jewish community professionals, our work is often also our passion and sometimes it seems that we work around the clock. Between office hours, Shabbat dinners, Sunday school and summer camp, there is little – if any – time for personal and professional renewal. While sabbaticals might be popular and encouraged among academics, they are certainly not common among Jewish community professionals.
When my youngest daughter was born, I had been working full-time in the same position for three years. I loved my job, but couldn’t remember a single day without at least a bit of work. Five hours before giving birth I was lying in bed at home with heavy contractions when my phone rang. A father had a couple of questions about our Sunday school. When I told him that I was practically in labour, he said he would keep it short – and went on to speak for fifteen minutes!
Those fifteen painful minutes were soon followed by fifteen months of parental leave, a personal shmita. Fifteen months dedicated to two completely distant and still very related things:
- As a private person, I was discovering three new lives: a) that of my baby daughter, b) my own new life as a mother of two, and c) our new family life where all of us, our eldest daughter, my husband (suddenly a dad of two girls) and I also had to learn new roles and accomodate to the new reality.
- As a Jewish community professional on parental leave, I took a step back from my everyday work and placed my personal interests first. A goal I had set before my parental leave was to re-read as much of the Tanach (bible) as I can. I made it until Samuel, an accomplishment I am completely satisfied with, and that will take me far in my everyday work in Jewish education.
As it says in Pirkei Avot 1:4, יְהִי בֵיתְךָ בֵית וַעַד לַחֲכָמִים – Let your home be a meeting place for sages – and during these fifteen months, our home became a place filled with names, thought and quotations from the Tanach. Just like my ancestors who used their break from farming to study.
וַיְבָ֤רֶךְ אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶת־י֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י וַיְקַדֵּ֖שׁ אֹת֑וֹ כִּ֣י ב֤וֹ שָׁבַת֙ מִכׇּל־מְלַאכְתּ֔וֹ אֲשֶׁר־בָּרָ֥א אֱלֹהִ֖ים לַעֲשֽׂוֹת׃
And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because on it God ceased from all the work of creation that He had done. – Genesis 2:3
Shabbat is the day that God blessed and made holy, a day to take a break from the exciting chaos of our everyday pursuits in order to take a deep breath and do something different. To learn something new, challenge ourselves in another way, and chase our dreams. Similarly, the seventh, shmita year, just like the seventh day, shabbat, is a year of rest both for the land and for humans.
For Jewish community professionals, this is an opportunity to ask ourselves what we can do to grow within and to give back to our community. Not to stop, but to change direction for a short while in order to give ourselves a much-needed mental and physical vacation from our everyday activities.
I was lucky enough to be able to use my parental leave as my shmita. This will not work for everybody but a personal shmita can also be a long-awaited vacation, a two-week break, a morning walk alone. Anything that helps us leave the day-to-day behind us and start growing.
As we head into the new Jewish year, let’s take the time to reflect and commit to our personal and professional shmita.
Wishing all a shnat shmita tova, happy 5782!