Friday, 15 May 2020

You shall neither sow nor prune

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"But in the seventh year is to be a Shabbat of complete rest for the land, a Shabbat for ADONAI; you will neither sow your field nor prune your grapevines." (Leviticus 25:4, CJB)

We are reading about what the poeple of Israel were to do when they entered The Land; one of the things they had to do was give the land a rest every seventh year. They were not to sow, reap or harvest the land. People could work, study, buy, sell and carry on with their lives ... But certain activities were banned.

Does this sound familiar? The year of rest for the land was a regular occurance commanded and ordained by G-d, so it wasn't an unknown disaster that came out of a blue sky, as it were! But it required trust. They must have wondered where their food was to come from, whether the previous year be a good harvest so they had enough food to see them through or if something would happen to the land while they weren't looking after it.

Do we trust G-d today? We face unknowns, we are worried about our jobs, about the safety of our loved ones, if there will be enough money to survive in the coming months. G-d doesn't promise an easy life, but He does promise to walk through all of this with us. Let us have faith and remember what the Haftarah portion says:

"Look, I am ADONAI, the God of every living creature; is there anything too hard for me?" (Jeremiah 32:27)