It is time to make preparations to give back the land of Israel.


Israel's leadership has failed in their role as guardians of this land. The people of Israel have lost their credibility as its tenants by allowing Israel's leadership to continue in that failure. Diaspora Jewry failed due to their ever-increasing disassociation from this land.

The people of Israel have lost their credibility as its tenants.

Torah Jewry was tested. as well, and stood by in silence as the land was violated and its citizens expelled.


Even the good and valiant Jews who continue to spare no effort and to pay any price to retain a faithfulness to God's gift may find that their efforts have proven to be too little and too late. This land has seen young and old marching through forests and rivers to try to sneak into Gush Katif to help stop the expulsion. It has seen people being arrested and attacked as they stood at street corners protesting what they believed to be blind and misdirected policies. It has seen young people being battered by a police force intent on forcing these young people to release their desperate hold on this land. This land was witness to prayer gatherings of tens of thousands in the city square and the heart-wrenching prayer of young girls in a doomed Gush Katif synagogue. It has seen all this and waited. Waited for its Shabbat. Waiting for the true owner of this Biblical land to regain ownership and restore some type of order.


So, the people of Israel are about to hand the land of Israel to its rightful owner, to our Master in Heaven.


"When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a Sabbath unto HaShem." (VaYikra [Leviticus] 25:2)


Just as the Shabbat becomes the palace in time for each Jew to welcome G-d's Presence into our very home, it is in this upcoming Sh'mittah year that we welcome G-d's Presence back into His land. Just as that Presence, which exists everywhere at all times, is more tangibly felt on Shabbat, so will His Presence be more tangibly felt in this embattled land in the coming year.


The Sabbatical year will begin and it is then that we will be reminded that it is not our land to divide, carve up or relinquish. If we are sensitive to G-d's subtle touch, then we will

His Presence [will] be more tangibly felt in this embattled land in the coming year.

merit to see Divine inspiration and aid coming to uphold those who have been faithful to the destiny and purpose of G-d's gift. If we only learn to open our eyes, then we will truly see Divine providence in each fruit tree and in each bushel of wheat.


That is the reason that partaking in the mitzvah of Sh'mittah becomes so critical. There will be some in the Torah-observant community who will prefer to buy produce grown outside the land of Israel to avoid all the special strictures concerning the fruits and vegetables grown in this holy year. Worse than that are those who will prefer the produce grown in the terrorist enclaves of the Gaza Strip and Jenin. By so doing, they again miss a great opportunity to be part of the process of Destiny being unveiled. They miss the opportunity to partake of holy fruit that actually comes right from the table of the Divine on this Sabbatical year.


In this land, everything becomes a metaphor and a symbol, and no act can be seen as petty and unimportant. As a result, even the choices you make in purchasing fruit carry great symbolic significance. This may not be happenstance, as it was these very fruits that heralded the beginning of our present redemption.


"But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to My people Israel; for they are at hand to come. For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown; and I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited, and the waste places shall be builded." (Ezekiel 36:8-10)


The days of struggle are far from over; yet, there is a sense that the struggle will take a clear and successful turn as G-d's hand in history will be made even more revealed in this Sabbatical year. Every year, on Rosh Hashanah, we experience the rebirth of mankind and of the world. This year, though, we will be experiencing a rebirth into a new reality; a reality in which the Jewish people are living in the land that has been returned to its rightful owner, Avinu SheBashamayim, our Father in Heaven.