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"A Field of Dreams?"

05/24/2019 09:55:55 AM

May24

Rabbi Reuben Israel Abraham, CDR, CHC, USN (ret),

There is the story from Rabbi Paysach Diskind about the five-year-old boy and his father who were driving in the West Hollywood Mountains for the very first time.  As they were driving up a very steep hill, so steep that you could not see the road on the other side, the boy screamed out, "PLEASE STOP, DADDY!"  "Why?" asked his father.  "Because we are going to drive off the road!" came the Billy's frantic reply.  Billy's father tried to reassure his son, "Son, you may not be able to see it, but this road continues on and on.  There is absolutely nothing to worry about."  In spite of his father's reassurances, Billy continued, "But Daddy, this is our first time here.  How do you know the road continues?"  Billy's father continued, "Billy, I've traveled on enough roads to know that roads just don't end abruptly.  There is always another side.  Just hold on tight, and you will see what I mean."  With that, Billy took a deep breath, held on tight, and enjoyed the downward slope on the other side." 

In the world in which we live, all too often we think that we are in charge.  In fact, we often take this role far more seriously than we should.  We work harder and harder afraid that we will lose everything we have if we stop at any time.  We worry that that we if rest from our efforts we will hit the proverbial "dead end" and fall "off the cliff."  What we completely forget is that it is HaShem Who is in charge; it is HaShem Who provides for us.  We know this by way of this week's parashah, this week's Torah portion.

We read the following in Parashat Behar: "But the seventh year shall be a complete release for the land, a Shabbat for HaShem; your field you shall not sow, and your vineyard you shall not prune." (VaYikra 35:4)  Once in every seven years we are commanded by HaShem to stop working our fields for one year.  We are told to trust in HaShem in order that we will see there will be enough to eat in spite of our total lack of effort to provide for ourselves.  This mitzvah of sh'mittah, this mitzvah of allowing the land to lay fallow for one complete year at the end of every six years, allows us to step back, to take notice, and to realize that HaShem does indeed take care of us.  So when it seems that all hope is lost, when life appears to only be going uphill, when the situation in which you find yourself seems as if it is a "dead end," remember the "field of dreams," remember that field pf plenty that is provided for us by HaShem in its appointed time.  And when you remember this, sit back, take a deep breath, and enjoy the ride downhill on the other side.  Because He wills it, it will be.  

Fri, March 29 2024 19 Adar II 5784