I love Summer! It’s a time when life slows down. The longer days, the warmer weather, the
break from school, makes it a less stressful couple of months. There’s a bit more time to relax, to travel,
to read a good book. It’s truly a time
to renew ourselves from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the year.
In this week’s Torah portion, we
learn about the ultimate summer… the sabbatical! The Torah teaches that every seven years,
every single person in the community: man, woman, and child, the hired hand,
and even the slave, were freed from all work and responsibility. How unbelievable! One year in every seven, EVERYONE was able to
rest and relax.
Now, I assume that most of us don’t
have the luxury of taking a full year off from school or work or home
responsibilities! Perhaps we can get
away for a week or two or maybe a month, but usually not for much more. Imagine all of the things that you’d be able
to achieve during a year away from your normal responsibilities? What would you attempt to accomplish? What goals would you hope to achieve? What new skills would you like to learn?
We might not have the luxury of a
year-long sabbatical like our ancestors, but we do have the ability to mark
time differently. Memorial Day Weekend
is the Summer kick-off. I’ve done the
homework for you… There’s 102 days until
the arrival of Labor Day! Think about
that, over 100 days, almost 1/3 of a year until the end of summer. Yet, when Labor Day arrives, we’ll say how
quickly time flew by. What I encourage
you to do is to mark time differently.
How can we make each day a meaningful one, a significant one?
It’s so easy to just let time float
bye, to let our days and months fill up with responsibilities and obligations. I encourage you to take a few moments to
think about your hopes for the months ahead and make a plan for a meaningful
summer!
Don’t get me wrong… it’s not all
about Fun! As I said before, it’s truly
about renewal. Yes, our ancestors had
the year free from the back-backing labor in the field. However, the Torah didn’t stop there! Not only did human beings rest, but the Torah
teaches that even the animals and land rested!
The core theme of the sabbatical year IS RENEWAL! The land lay fallow to allow the soil to regenerate,
so that the bounty of nature can be replenished in the years to come!
Yes, this sabbatical year was a year
of renewal: for the people, the animals, the land, but WHY? The rabbis teach us about the significant
work of Tikkun Middot, the healing of our souls. The sabbatical year was an opportunity to
renew our lives, after six years of stress, of being overworked, overwhelmed, with
too much on our plate. Why this year of
renewal? We need to feel whole before we
can do the hard work of Tikkun Olam, of healing our world! We start with ourselves, so that we can begin
to fix our world!
It is seemingly a coincidence that
this week’s Torah portion falls on the start of summer, but it serves as the
ultimate reminder of what the next few months should become: Marking Our Days and
taking time to renew ourselves, so we can renew our world. May we savor these precious summer days, so
that we can be energized for the year ahead!
