Ask any farmer - agricultural labor is hard work. Plowing, planting, weeding, pruning, harvesting and so on. That, however, is not how it was supposed to be. The world was originally designed to be as life in the Garden of Eden. Agricultural labor was only cursed after Adam's sin - "By the sweat of your brow you will eat bread." (Genesis 3:19)
As mankind advances, however, the earth responds in like measure with sublime blessing. The Talmud foretells that cakes and fine clothing will in the future sprout directly from the ground. (Ketubot 111b) Even physical labor will take on a nobler, more refined character.
We are granted a glimpse of this future world through the mitzvah of Shmita, the Sabbatical year. During this year of cessation from all agricultural labor, we are content to partake of the land's natural produce. Like the tranquil world of the Garden of Eden, we may enjoy the earth's God-given bounty, without toil and labor.
Other aspects of that utopian world are temporarily restored during the Sabbatical year. Competition among people ceases. Furthermore, the heart is refined to recognize the brotherhood of all creatures: we may eat of the earth's produce only for as long as it is also available to the animals in the field.
The Sabbatical and Jubilee years are echoes of a future world. They herald the coming of sublime good, a new world that is the result of a more elevated spirituality.
Until then, it is our obligation to raise up agricultural labor from its lowly state. We accomplish this through the holy light in technology and science. In the future, the Sages tell us, all artisans will leave their crafts and work the land. (Yevamot 63a) This does not mean that they will no longer work in their respective professions; but that all crafts and sciences will be used to redeem the earth and its toil from its primordial curse.
This advancement is, however, only a preparatory stage in the world's complete redemption. In the true redemption, working the land will not be an obligation, but a privilege and a pleasure. We will tour in the Garden of Eden ("Eden" means pleasure), working and guarding it. Going past the garden to Eden itself, however, is beyond all prophetic vision; this is a realm transcending all work and guarding.
The ultimate redemption will reflect a drastic change in human nature. The current state of moral guidance is like a net of ropes, restraining the dangerous horns of oxen who have grown accustomed to goring. Our world is guided by a human morality, confined to narrow areas, based on foundations from which the soul seeks to free itself.
But in the future, divine morality will be like a dazzling crown on the head of the righteous. All of reality will be elevated, until the bravest, most powerful sense of self-identity of all things will be fortified in good and truth. "Therefore, in their land they shall possess double; they will have everlasting joy." (Isaiah 61:7)
[Based on Orot HaKodesh, vol. II, pp. 563-564]
As mankind advances, however, the earth responds in like measure with sublime blessing. The Talmud foretells that cakes and fine clothing will in the future sprout directly from the ground. (Ketubot 111b) Even physical labor will take on a nobler, more refined character.
We are granted a glimpse of this future world through the mitzvah of Shmita, the Sabbatical year. During this year of cessation from all agricultural labor, we are content to partake of the land's natural produce. Like the tranquil world of the Garden of Eden, we may enjoy the earth's God-given bounty, without toil and labor.
Other aspects of that utopian world are temporarily restored during the Sabbatical year. Competition among people ceases. Furthermore, the heart is refined to recognize the brotherhood of all creatures: we may eat of the earth's produce only for as long as it is also available to the animals in the field.
The Sabbatical and Jubilee years are echoes of a future world. They herald the coming of sublime good, a new world that is the result of a more elevated spirituality.
Until then, it is our obligation to raise up agricultural labor from its lowly state. We accomplish this through the holy light in technology and science. In the future, the Sages tell us, all artisans will leave their crafts and work the land. (Yevamot 63a) This does not mean that they will no longer work in their respective professions; but that all crafts and sciences will be used to redeem the earth and its toil from its primordial curse.
This advancement is, however, only a preparatory stage in the world's complete redemption. In the true redemption, working the land will not be an obligation, but a privilege and a pleasure. We will tour in the Garden of Eden ("Eden" means pleasure), working and guarding it. Going past the garden to Eden itself, however, is beyond all prophetic vision; this is a realm transcending all work and guarding.
The ultimate redemption will reflect a drastic change in human nature. The current state of moral guidance is like a net of ropes, restraining the dangerous horns of oxen who have grown accustomed to goring. Our world is guided by a human morality, confined to narrow areas, based on foundations from which the soul seeks to free itself.
But in the future, divine morality will be like a dazzling crown on the head of the righteous. All of reality will be elevated, until the bravest, most powerful sense of self-identity of all things will be fortified in good and truth. "Therefore, in their land they shall possess double; they will have everlasting joy." (Isaiah 61:7)
[Based on Orot HaKodesh, vol. II, pp. 563-564]