Behar-Bechukkotai

The final chapters of Leviticus concentrate on God’s requirements of Israel when they enter the land, namely, to treat the land and one another with care and respect. Living in partnership with God requires Israel recognise not only is the land a gift but that they have a solemn obligation to take care of the gift God is giving them.

Failure to do so will result in exile from the land and loss of the gifts the land affords the people to thrive in peace and prosperity. The land is not being given as a permanent inheritance but instead its possession is contingent on our willingness to fulfil our obligation to steward and care for it.

God requires that the land be fully rested every seventh year. It is to be the shmittah year, “a sabbath of complete rest” (25:4). Just as we observe a day of complete rest from work once every seven days, so too are we obliged to extend the same opportunity for restoration and renewal to the land.

Of the many painful and distressing restrictions we have borne over the last seven weeks of lockdown, the enforced reduction in our human footprint on the land, while perhaps uncomfortable for us, has nonetheless afforded nature the space to breathe.