Thinking Torah Blog

I love the way our Torah speaks about the land. As someone who needs to be in the wilderness at least a few times a year—smelling the decay of leaves, feeling the cool wind against my face, the warmth of the sun on my skin, and experiencing the stillness of a summer night surrounded by only trees—it is clear that our tradition understands the nature of the land. In our Western culture, we usually think of land as a commodity, something to be bought and sold, an investment for the future, or an object that will produce for us. Judaism sees land differently.

Near the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, B’har, God tells the Israelites that when they enter land, “the land shall observe a sabbath for God.” (Lev. 25:2) In this way, the land itself becomes a character in the narrative. It is not that we let the land rest. The land itself observes the sabbath for God. Thinking of the land as a companion in this life-journey rather than an inanimate object to be used for our benefit might be a way to get ourselves out of the mess we’ve created with our climate catastrophe. What is your relationship with the land?