This Shabbat we read the double parsha – Behar (on the mountain) and Bechukotai (in my laws), which will conclude the third book of Torah, Vayikra (or Leviticus). The Israelites are physically at Mt. Sinai where Moses receives instructions from God, yet the focus is on the future, once the people enter Israel – how will we tend the land, and what are the ethics and consequences of our collective behaviors.

Vayikra, as a book focuses on holiness, ritual purity and the sacrificial system. Absent from the book is the dramatic narrative found in Beresheet and Shemot, and the book ends with a vision of responsibility. The Torah is telling us revelation isn’t just about the moment on the mountain; it’s about how those ideals translate into everyday living.

In Behar we find rules for letting the land rest – shemitah (sabbatical year) every seven years, then after the forty-ninth year, a jubilee year in year fifty. How does this idea of resting the land translate to our everyday living? Just as we rest the land, Shabbat is our opportunity, a weekly one, in fact, where we get to rest.

Mordechai Kaplan, a prominent Jewish philosopher taught, “An artist cannot be continually wielding his brush. He must stop at times in his painting to freshen his vision of the object, the meaning of which he wishes to express on his canvas. Living is also an art….The Sabbath represents those moments when we pause in our brushwork to renew our vision of the object. Having done so we take ourselves to our painting with clarified vision and renewed energy.” Shabbat is our opportunity for rest, reflection, renewal and reconnecting with ourselves and others.

As we move into Shabbat, I invite you to take advantage of the weekly gift that is Shabbat.