“We Can All Use Some Rest”-

This coming Shmita year comes after the most trying year in my life – and I risk the generalization, for most of the population of this world as well. The pandemic challenged, and continues to challenge, our resiliency, creativity, determination and our ability to adapt in ways we never dreamed of. Here in my Kibbutz farming community where for over 70 years our members lives have been intimately entwined with the rhythms and whims of nature the Covid reality unexpectedly dealt us another set of challenges that we were unprepared to handle. Supply chains were impacted, world markets closed down, consumer buying habits changed, members took ill, work force was quarantined for several months, and yet for the farmer who had already planted his fields, stocked his fish ponds etc., we were now faced with a very different reality than we had planned for and often with no plan B.Now as we enter our second year of the pandemic and hopefully the last, we are uncertain how to plan for the new “future”, what risks we can absorb, and how we will dig ourselves out of the current difficulties. Most of my fellow members are visibly emotionally exhausted, yet as all farmers, use to tough times, we continue to press on as best we can.How poetic that the coming Shmita year comes at a time when not only the land needs a “rest” but the entire kibbutz community and much of the greater world needs a respite and a time to heal and reboot as well. The attached piece is a literal reflection of my personal need, as well as the kibbutz and global communities need for a well-deserved emotional and physical rejuvenating experience in the coming Shmita year.