In פרשת קדושים, the Torah talks about the din of ערלה and נטע רבעי. The din is that when you plant a tree, the first three years, the fruit that grows on the tree is called ערלה, and it is אסור בהנאה. You're not allowed to eat that fruit, and not only not to eat it, but you're also not allowed to have any use from it, any benefit of the fruit. Then the fourth year is called נטע רבעי, which means, and if this happening in Eretz Yisrael, so then the fruit of the fourth year is holy. And you're not allowed to eat the fruit outside of Yerushalayim. You must take that fruit that grew in the fourth year to Yerushalayim, and you must eat it with a special kedushah, and it has the same דינים as מעשר שני. Then the Torah says that the reward a Yid will get for keeping the mitzvah of ערלה and the mitzvah of נטע רבעי is that ובשנה החמישית, on the fifth year, etc., the pasuk says, להוסיף לכם תבואתה. This will be in order to add to your תבואה, to your grain. Which means in pshat pshat that the Torah is saying that if you will keep the mitzvah of ערלה the first three years, and then the mitzvah of נטע רבעי in the fourth year, so then Hashem will reward you that on the fifth year and on, you will have a lot of תבואה, a lot of grain. But Lichorah, when we look at the expression of the pasuk, the pasuk doesn't say that ובשנה החמישית, in the fifth year, אוסיף לכם תבואתה, I will add to your תבואה, which is an expression of reward. But the pasuk says להוסיף לכם תבואתה, in order to add to your תבואה on the fifth year. It says with a ל before the word הוסיף: להוסיף לכם תבואתה, in order for you to have more תבואה. When we say להוסיף, it seems to be saying that the purpose of the mitzvah of ערלה and the mitzvah of נטע רבעי is in order that the fifth year you should have more תבואה. As if we're saying that the whole purpose of the mitzvah of ערלה and the mitzvah of נטע רבעי is because of the fifth year. Lichorah, it is not so. The fifth year, there is no kedushah, there is no mitzvah, there is nothing special about the fruit. The mitzvah is only in the first three years, the mitzvah of ערלה. Then the fourth year there's a mitzvah of נטע רבעי. The fifth year is secular fruit, regular fruit which has no kedushah, but Hashem promises that on the fifth year, He will reward the person for keeping the mitzvot the first four years. But from the לשון of the פסוק is משמע that the goal, the purpose of the mitzvah of ערלה, נטע רבעי is in order that in the fifth year you should have more תבואה. Lichorah, what's so special about the fifth year? From the לשון is משמע that the fifth year is even greater, there is something special in the תבואה of the fifth year and on over the תבואה of the first three years and over the תבואה which was in the fourth year, which is נטע רבעי. But Lichorah, the first three years it was ערלה, so there was a special mitzvah that you had to keep concerning the fruit of those three years. The fourth year certainly, being that it was נטע רבעי, certainly there was a special mitzvah, as the פסוק says, קודש הילולים לה', that the fruit is holy. But on the fifth year there is no mitzvah in connection to the fruit, there is nothing special about the fruit. So how can the פסוק say that the mitzvah of the first four years is in order for the fifth year to have more תבואה, as if there is something special in the fifth year, and the first four years is only to lead up to what's going to happen in the fifth year?

To answer that, we have to bring in a question that's asked in another parashah. In Parashat Behar, it speaks about the mitzvah of Shemitah, which is that the seventh year, you're not allowed to plant or plow, etc., etc. You're not allowed to do any melachah in the field. The seventh year, the field is supposed to rest. So six years you work on the field, and the seventh year the field is supposed to rest. But when we look in Parshat Behar, the way the Torah puts it, in the beginning of the parshah it says: דבר אל בני ישראל ואמרת אליהם, speak to the בני ישראל, tell them, כי תבואו אל הארץ אשר אני נותן לכם, that when they will come to the land that I give them, ושבתה הארץ שבת לה', let the land rest as a Shabbos for Hashem. Then the pasuk continues: שש שנים תזרע שדך ושש שנים תזמור כרמך ואספת את תבואתה, six years you should plant, six years you will work on the field, ובשנה השביעית שבת שבתון יהיה לארץ שבת לה', the seventh year there should be a resting to the land, a resting to השם, שדך לא תזרע וכרמך לא תזמור, your field you shouldn't plow, plant, etc., etc., etc. So the mefarshim ask a kashya, That lichorah, what does the Torah mean when it starts off by saying that when you will come to the land, the land should rest? And then the pasuk continues, six years you should work and the seventh year it should rest. By the Torah starting off that when you come to the land, the land should rest, as if the Torah says that as soon as you come into Eretz Yisrael you have to have shemittah, and after shemittah comes the six years. It is not so. The shemittah comes after the six years. You have six years of working and then you have shemittah. You have six years of working, then you have shemittah. From the Torah's mashma that first comes shemittah and then comes the six years. And some mefarshim answer that that's exactly what the Torah is trying to tell us. That there are two inyanim in shemittah. One thing in shemittah is that it comes after the six years, and then there's another thing in shemittah, that shemittah is the beginning of the six years afterwards, which is similar to Shabbos. By Shabbos we find the same thing. We find that Shabbos comes after the six days of the week. On the other hand, we find that Shabbos is the beginning of the six days afterwards, as it says in the Zohar that שבת מיניה מתברכין כולה יומין. All days of the week get their berachah, their blessing from Shabbos, which means Shabbos is before the six days of the week. And the explanation is that what is the idea of Shabbos? Shabbos is a day that we're not allowed to work. When we don't work on Shabbos, we express our emunah in Hashem that everything that we have comes from Hashem. By not working, we show that we have the bitachon that Hashem will provide us with everything that we need. During the week, we have to work. The reason we have to work is because Hashem wants us to work. Otherwise, really we wouldn't be able to work in the middle of the week either, because if we believe that Hashem gives us everything, so what difference does it make whether we work or not? If Hashem wants to give us, he'll give us anyway. So the reason we do work is because the pasuk says, וברכך השם אלוקיך בכל אשר תעשה. Hashem will bless you in everything that you do. So Hashem wants us to do, as it says in Sifri. On the first half of the pasuk where it says וברכך השם אלוקיך, השם will bless you, the Sifri says יכול יהא יושב ובטל, so I would think maybe a person should sit and do nothing, not work, because Hashem will give you the blessing anyway, it comes from Hashem. And the Sifri says no, תלמוד לומר בכל אשר תעשה. The pasuk says in everything that you do, Hashem wants us to work. So during the week we have to work in order to make a parnasah. We have to keep in mind that even though we work, all we're doing is making a keli, a vessel in which Hashem's berachah should be able to come. So really it's Hashem's berachah that gives us everything that we need. But we have to work to make a keli to receive it. But being that we work during the week, it is possible for a person to forget that be'emet he is only making a keli, and the berachah comes from Hashem, which means the parnasah really comes from Hashem. Because after all, he works and he sees how after he works, this brings results, this brings the parnasah. So he's able to forget. When Shabbos comes and you don't work, so then you see with your own eyes how Hashem provides for you. You express physically, not only in your mind, but you express physically how you rely on Hashem. During the week, you're supposed to keep that in your mind while you work, but physically you don't behave that way because physically you work. Shabbos, even physically, we behave in a way that expresses our emunah. And the same is with shemitah. Six years we work, and we have to have in mind that even though we work on the field, but really who gives us the parnasah? It's Hashem. But it's possible for a person to forget because after all, he is involved in work. So Hashem said, after the six years, I want you to have the mitzvah of shemitah. By keeping Shemitah, we show that we completely rely on Hashem. We express our complete emunah and bitachon in Hashem, that for a whole year we don't work, and nevertheless, we believe Hashem will provide us. So what we're supposed to feel in our mind during the six years, during the year of Shemitah we actually live that way. But the truth is, the purpose of Shemitah is not only that after the six years when we work and we forget chas veshalom, we could forget chas veshalom that everything comes from Hashem, so Hashem wants to remind us that we should at least one day of the week or one year of the cycle live physically, behave physically in a way that expresses our bitachon, but the purpose is that afterwards, when we go back to our work, we should keep in mind what Shabbos and Shemitah taught us, that the six years afterwards, we should keep in mind that Hashem is the one that provides us. And that's the reason why we have the cycle of six and then Shemitah again and then six again, and Shemitah again. When Shemitah comes, we are completely absorbed in this idea that we believe in Hashem and we have the complete emunah and bitachon in Hashem. So then afterwards, when we start working, we work with this feeling. This feeling penetrates our whole being, that even while we're working, we keep in mind and we feel that everything comes from Hashem. But as time passes, it wears off. And therefore, when six years pass, chas veshalom it could really wear off. So therefore, Hashem said, \"Now you have Shemitah again, so it will bring that thought into your mind again. So then afterwards, you'll be able to work again with the proper feeling.\" And the same is with Shabbos. That when Shabbos comes, this gives us, so to speak, the injection that afterwards, for the days afterwards, we should be able to work with the proper feeling. And even though by the end of the week, it could wear off, so Hashem says, \"Okay, so we have a Shabbos again.\" So then again, you have this feeling, and afterwards, when you work, you again will be able to work with this feeling. So it comes out that Shabbos and Shemitah are not only a rest from the six days or six years before that, but the main purpose of Shabbos and Shemitah is for the future, for the six days after Shabbos and for the six years after Shemitah, that Shabbos gives us the proper feeling that afterwards we should be able to work properly. And that, be'emet, is the whole tachlit. The whole tachlit, the whole goal is not that the day that we don't work, that's the day we feel everything comes from Hashem, but the tachlit is that while we work, and superficially it seems as if our work brings us our parnasah, we are supposed to at that time feel that it comes from Hashem. That's much harder, and that's the tachlit. We know what that Hashem wants is, as it says in the famous מדרש, לעשות לו יתברך דירה בתחתונים. Hashem created the world in order for us Yidden to make a dwelling place for Hashem in this low world. In this low world means in the low physical world, in the physical inyanim of this world. And therefore, at the time when we stay away from physical behavior, like Shabbos and Shemittah, that is not the tachlis yet. At that time, takeh, we show our emunah, but the tachlis is to bring Hashem within the תחתונים, into the low things, into the work, the time when we do work, the time when we are involved in physical matters, that's when we should feel Hashem. That's what Hashem wants, that's the goal. So really, the purpose of Shabbos is for the six days afterward. As the Zohar says, שבת מיניה מתברכין כולהו יומין, from Shabbos, all the days get the blessing, because the inyan of Shabbos is to bring the proper feeling into the six days when we do work, and the same is with Shemittah.

And that's why the Torah by Shemittah says first, ושבתה הארץ שבת לה', then it says, שש שנים תזרע שדך. First comes the Shemittah, and then comes the six years of work, and then the Torah says, ובשנה השביעית שבת שבתון, and on the seventh year should be Shemittah, to tell us that Shemittah is for the sake of the six years afterwards, and after the six years, we have Shemittah again. So Shemittah is not only the end of the cycle, but Shemittah is also the beginning. It is supposed to give the proper feeling into the person for the next six years. The same is concerning the mitzvah of ערלה and נטע רבעי. The reason why Hashem gave us the mitzvah of ערלה, נטע רבעי is to feel that everything comes from Hashem. And therefore, when we plant a tree, we have to realize that we can't just have hana'ah from the tree as soon as the fruit grows. If it would be my thing, my work is what brought the fruit, and my work is which accomplished and succeeded, then as soon as I see a success from my work, then I'm supposed to, I'm able to have hana'ah from it. The Torah says, \"No, hold it. It's not you.\" There are certain mitzvot of Hashem that you have to keep because it's really Hashem. And when fruit grows, it's Hashem that makes it grow. And therefore, you have to listen to what He tells you to do. And He said that you have to hold yourself back for three years, and then you have to prepare yourself by eating it in a holy way, the fourth year is נטע רבעי, it is holy, you have to eat it in a special way. Then if you have this feeling during the first four years, when you are not the baal habayit, you are not the owner, so to speak, over the tree because Hashem tells you what to do with your fruit, so then when the fifth year comes, etc., etc., the other years afterwards, you will have the proper feeling towards the fruit and towards everything Hashem gives you. And that's what the pasuk means when it says that you have to keep the mitzvah of ערלה, and you have to keep the mitzvah of נטע רבעי. And the Torah says, ובשנה החמישית, the fifth year, what's going to happen? להוסיף לכם תבואתה. All this was in order to add to your תבואה, as if saying the purpose of ערלה, נטע רבעי is for the fifth year. And the question we asked in the beginning was: לכאורה, ערלה is a mitzvah, נטע רבעי is a mitzvah, the fifth year and on, there's no mitzvah, there's nothing special about the fruit, so how can we say that the third, three years and the fourth year, they're all for the sake of sake of the fifth year. But yes, it is. The reason for the mitzvah of ערלה, נטע רבעי is that for the fifth year, and the sixth year, the seventh year, on and on and on, we should have the proper feeling. That when we see the fruit grow, when we see להוסיף לכם תבואתו, that the fruit multiplies, we should keep in mind that all this comes from Hashem. How do we have this feeling? Because in the beginning we started off by realizing that it comes from Hashem and listening to Hashem what He wants us to do with the fruit, by doing that, later on, when we could have hana'ah from the fruit, we could eat the fruit, we have the proper understanding and feeling. Just like by Shabbos and shemitah, this gives you the proper understanding and feeling when you do work the six days later and the six years later, the same is concerning ערלה and נטע רבעי, that the whole purpose is להוסיף לכם תבואתו, that when we do eat from the fruit, when we do get involved in the physical part of it, that we do use it for our physical needs, we will make a דירה לו יתברך בתחתונים, in that low act of eating the fruit and having hana'ah from the fruit, we will bring Hashem into it because it started off with keeping the mitzvot of Hashem through keeping the mitzvah of ערלה and the mitzvah of נטע רבעי.