The Sabbatical Year and the Other Six

The opening verses of the Parasha are:

And the Lord spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai saying: Speak unto the Children of Israel and say to them: when you come into the land which I give you, the earth shall rest Sabbath to the Lord. Six years shall you plant your field, etc. [Leviticus 25:1-3]

The order seems a bit unusual. Seemingly, it would be more appropriate to first state “six years shall you plant” and then “the earth shall rest,” which refers to the Sabbatical year.

My father explained that the Torah teaches that it is the Sabbatical year which brings blessing to the six years of working the fields. If the Israelites observe the Sabbatical year properly, then the work of the remaining years will be blessed.

Just as Shabbat, rather than deriving its strength from the days of the week, gives vitality to the entire week, so it is with the Sabbatical year. This is perhaps one reason that the shmitta year is called Shabbat haAretz, the Sabbath of the Land. In both cases, the “Shabbat,” when properly observed, brings sanctity to those who observe.