What are the people to eat during the year of Shemittah and the one that follows? During Shemittah, the sabbatical year, one may not sow, or reap, or gather. This question the Jewish people will surely ask. But it does not indicate a lack of faith. Rather, when they ask it, then the response will come from Above: I will command My blessing upon you. We ask the same question regarding Moshiach: when we are at the last stage of exile, when we have no strength to sow mitzvahs, how shall we sustain ourselves spiritually? G-d promises, I will command my blessing and bring the Redemption.
This week’s Torah reading begins with the laws of Shemittah, the seventh or sabbatical year when the land lay fallow. During Shemittah, the sabbatical year, one may not sow, or reap, or gather. This raises the question, what are the people to eat? The Torah apparently anticipates the question, for it states: “When you will ask, what shall we eat in the seventh year? We may not sow, nor gather in our increase. Then I will command My blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth produce for the three years.” That is, when G-d commands His blessing, the land will produce enough for the sixth, seventh and eighth years. The harvest will be sufficient for the normal crop, the year when the land lies fallow, and into the eighth year, until the new crop can be harvested.
Of course, this also alludes to Moshiach. As is well known, the “six years” refer to the six thousand years of the world, and the seventh or Shemittah year refers to the seven thousandth, or Sabbatical, millennium – the era of Moshiach. So the question, “what shall we eat in the seventh year?” refers not just to the past, to the times of the first Two Temples, but to the future, the time of the Third Temple, as well.
The Rebbe points out that the passage is phrased in an unusual manner. It assumes that at some point the Jewish people will question G-d. The phrase reads, “When you will ask.” The question is not conditional; the emphasis is on when, not if. The Jewish people will surely ask, “What shall we eat in the seventh year?”
This seems to indicate a lack of faith. After all, if G-d has commanded us to observe a Sabbatical year, to let the land lie fallow every seventh year, surely G-d knows we still must eat. Our faith in G-d demands we assume that he will find a means to provide for our needs.
Also, the question has already been answered, even before it was asked! In the preceding verse, G-d promises that the land will yield its fruit and there will be enough to eat. The Torah states, “You shall perform My statutes and My ordinances you will observe and do them; and you will dwell in the land in safety. The land will yield her fruit and you will eat until satisfied and dwell securely on it. And when you will ask, what shall we eat in the seventh year . . .”
G-d has just promised that observance of the laws of Shemittah produces security and an abundant harvest, yet the Torah says, “When you will ask...” Clearly, the difficulty lies with the definitive when. That word assumes and guarantees the question will be asked. Yet the passage seems to indicate there’s no need to ask it, since G-d has already promised us and assured us what will happen: “I will command My blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth produce for three years.”
But why should there be a need to ask “what shall we eat in the seventh year” when we’ve just been told “The land will yield her fruit and you will eat until satisfied and dwell securely on it?”
