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VAYIKRA

Parshas Behar-Bechukosai

How Will We Eat in the Seventh Year?

Part of Vayikra

A vort on Parshas Behar-Bechukosai exploring Hashem's promise of a special sixth-year blessing to sustain the Jewish people through the Shemittah year.

Audio Transcript
Introduction to Shemittah and the Seventh Year Question

וואָרט from the Rebbe on this week's parsha, פרשת בהר בחקתי, we will be talking about something in פרשת בהר. פרשת בהר, it talks about the mitzvah of shemittah, that six years you work in the field, you gather the תבואה, you gather the grain or whatever grows, and then the seventh year, you're not allowed to work in the field, etc., it is shemittah. And the pasuk says like this: וכי תאמרו מה נאכל בשנה השביעית, but you might ask, what will we eat in the seventh year? הן לא נזרע ולא נאסף את תבואתנו, we didn't plant and we didn't gather our תבואה. So the Eibershter answers, וצויתי את ברכתי לכם בשנה הששית, I will command my berachah to you on the sixth year, ועשת את התבואה לשלש השנים, and the תבואה will grow enough for three years. That means that the sixth year will have the berachah that it will give enough for the seventh year too. Now, the Rebbe explains this according to חסידות, על פי רמז, על פי דרוש, etc., etc. We know what it says in the mefarshim, in the Ibn Ezra, and the Ramban, and the Abarbanel, etc., based on the Gemara in Sanhedrin, that the six years and the seventh year represent the six thousand years, and then the seventh thousand. Because we know it says that this world is going to stand for 6,000 years, and then the year after, the time after that, is considered the time of the geulah, time of Mashiach. That's like Shabbos. Like we say in bentshen, that it's יום שכולו שבת, משיח will come, it will be completely Shabbos. So the seventh is the time of the geulah. So what the pasuk is talking about in דרך הרמז, we're talking about the six years, which means the time when we work in zman before the coming of Mashiach, and then when we speak about the seventh year, that is the time of the geulah. And

Our Low Generation Facing the Seventh Year

here comes up the same question as the pasuk says. We might ask, מה נאכל בשנה השביעית? Which means what will we eat in the seventh year? Which means like this: since we are now the אלף הששי, we're in the year 5,000 into the 6,000th year, and as time passes, there is ירידת הדורות, the generations go lower and lower. So we, who are in middle and closer to the end of the year 5,000, the sixth millennium, so we are, so to speak, in the lowest madreigah. And the question we ask is, how is it possible that we, in such a low madreigah, are going to bring the 7,000th year, which means the coming of Mashiach, the geulah, when we are so low? Which is parallel to the way as בגשמיות. The sixth year was the time when the field was the weakest. As years pass by and every year you plant and it grows, it gets weaker and weaker. So too we are the weakest. So we have the question, מה נאכל, how could we eat בשנה השביעית, which means how could we be the ones to accomplish to bring Mashiach when we are so low? So the

Eibershter's Answer: Blessing in the Sixth Millennium

answer the Eibershter gives is, וצויתי את ברכתי לכם בשנה הששית, I will give you a special berachah in the sixth millennium. Sometimes it says the answer that even though we're the lowest, but we are כננסים על גבי ענק, we are like midgets on the shoulders of a giant. Just like a midget is small and he can't see too far, but if he's standing on the shoulders of a giant, he could see further than the giant. We too, we are coming after all the avodah that was done throughout all the years, and even though we're the lowest, but everything on top of them, even though we are the lowest, we are able to accomplish the coming of Mashiach. But here the Rebbe says the Eibershter gives a special berachah. He answers the question: what can we do, or how is it possible for us to do to bring Mashiach when we are so low? So the Eibershter says, וצויתי את ברכתי לכם בשנה הששית, I will give you the berachah on the sixth year, which means as long as we do whatever we are able to do to the best of our ability and we do our mission by giving ourselves over to the Eibershter and doing what we are able to do to the best of our ability, Hashem will give us the berachah that this small avodah that we do will reach the goal and bring the geulah. And

Call to Action and Hope for Mashiach

that's what the pasuk says: if you will say, מה נאכל בשנה השביעית, we ask that question, the answer is that בשנה הששית, we are in הששית, in the lowest, the Eibershter will give a berachah that we are able to accomplish and bring Mashiach, and we hope and pray it's going to be very, very soon, bekarov mamash.

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