Halakhah sobre Levítico 25:2

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.

Here are honest witnesses that the day begins with dusk. Similarly for all the holidays and the Sabbath, for all are “appointed seasons of God, holy gatherings” (ibid. 23:4). Only the Sabbath is called “a Sabbath for God” (Exodus 20:10, Deuteronomy 5:14), for God rested during Creation. Since both the year and the day are dependent on the sun, for both motions are similar one to another, therefore the seventh year is comparable to the Sabbath day. Hence it is also written with regard to the seventh year “a Sabbath for God” (Leviticus 25:2). Therefore, just as the Sabbatical year begins with the autumn season, so the beginning of the Sabbath day is in that period of the day corresponding to autumn, which begins with dusk.

“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.