Rebbe on this week's פרשה, פרשת בהר. In פרשת בהר it talks about the mitzvah of shemitah, that six years you work in the field and the seventh year is a holy year and you're not allowed to work in the field, it's שבת להשם. And then the pasuk says: וכי תאמרו מה נאכל בשנה השביעית? You will ask: \"So what will we eat in the seventh year? הן לא נזרע ולא נאסוף את תבואתנו - we didn't plant, we didn't gather our produce.\" So Hashem says: וצויתי את ברכתי לכם בשנה הששית, \"I will command, I will bring a special blessing to you in the sixth year, ועשת את התבואה לשלש השנים, and it's going to give produce enough for three years.\" Now we know that everything that is written has many meanings. There's פשט, רמז, דרוש, סוד, there are secrets, there are deeper parts, deeper explanations in the pesukim. So one of the deeper explanations in this pasuk, in these two pesukim, the Rebbe explains as follows. The Gemara says in Sanhedrin that the six years of shemitah, when you're allowed to work in the field, and then the year of shemitah, the seventh year, they are parallel to the 6,000 years before Mashiach and the time of Mashiach. Just like benoge'a the

seven days of the week, we know the six days of the week are considered regular days, not holy days, that represents the years before Mashiach, and then the seventh, the Shabbos which is holy, represents the time of Mashiach, as we say in bentshing: הרחמן ינחילנו ליום שכולו שבת ומנוחה לחיי העולמים, that we ask Hashem He should make us inherit, give us the time when it'll be כולו שבת, completely Shabbos, which is the time of Mashiach. So, too, the six years leading up to shemitah and the year of shemitah also represent, the Gemara says, the six the years before the time of Mashiach and the time of Mashiach itself. And the question that's asked here: מה נאכל בשנה השביעית, what will we eat in the seventh year, which means according to this, how are we going to accomplish the seventh year, has a deeper meaning. It means like this: just like when the question is asked in the simple sense, how will we have food for the seventh year if we don't plant and plow? The fact that food will grow, produce will grow in the sixth year is not going to be enough for the seventh year. Not only won't it be enough because it's only a one year's worth, but the sixth year is the weakest year. We know that as the

years pass and the field gives fruit every year, it gets weaker and weaker. That's by the way, one of the reasons, says in Moreh Nevuchim, why there is a mitzvah of shemitah, to have one year that the field doesn't work, you don't plant and you don't plow, is because since six years pass, the field the earth gets weaker and weaker, so you have to give it a year of rest and then it'll get gain back its energy and it'll be better. So as the years pass, the first, the second, it gets weaker and weaker, the sixth year is the weakest year. So, therefore, the question is very strong: not only is the sixth year enough only for that year, not enough for two years, but it's the weakest year! If it's the weakest year, how do we expect that the food from that year should be enough for also the seventh year? And Hashem says, \"I will give a berachah that the sixth year will give a lot of produce, and you have nothing to worry about.\" The same applies to the inyan of the six years being the six years, the 6,000 years before Mashiach, and the shemitah year represents the time of Mashiach. We could ask the same question: how is it possible that we, who live in the sixth year, which means in the fight the year the sixth millennium, which is the last one that is before Mashiach, that means that we will be the ones to bring Mashiach, we are the weakest one! We know as the generations go, it gets lower and lower, weaker and weaker. It says there is yeridat hadorot, the dorot, the generations get weaker and weaker. If the generations before didn't bring Mashiach, so how is it possible that we, the sixth year, which is the weakest, we should be the one to bring Mashiach, to accomplish the seventh year? Just like in the simple sense the question is, how could the food from the sixth year, which is the weakest, should give so much that it should help for the seventh year, so, too, how is it possible that we, who are the weakest generation in the sixth year, we should be able to accomplish to bring Mashiach? And that's where the Eibershter answers: וצויתי את ברכתי לכם בשנה הששית.

Hashem says, \"I will give a berachah in the sixth year,\" which means our years, the sixth millennium, which is the closest to Mashiach, \"I will give a berachah that, as low as you are, nevertheless your avodah will be so important, and that will\" make that this will be the one, the avodah that'll bring Mashiach. וצויתי את ברכתי לכם בשנה הששית is I will give in the sixth year, which means in the years before Mashiach, the last years, in the אלף הששי, Hashem will give a berachah that our avodah will be so strong, ועשת את התבואה לשלש השנים. It will do the tevuah, it'll give tevuah for the three years, and as the Rebbe says, the three years represents the pasuk where it says concerning the time of משיח, יחיינו מיומיים וביום השלישי יקימנו ונחיה לפניו, that it refers to three years as it says in sefarim why it's considered three years. So the time of Mashiach is called the שלש השנים. This is what the pasuk says, that Hashem gives the berachah to us when we are in the שנה הששית, that the tevuah, the gain that we have, what we accomplish will be strong enough לשלש השנים, to the three years which represents the time of Mashiach, that our avodah means a lot. And we hope and pray that the accomplishment of our avodah, the bringing of Mashiach, will be very, very soon, that Mashiach will come very, very soon, במהרה בימינו ממש.