Sometime, when I have more time, or a more mystical understanding of Hebrew grammar, I need to study a word/phrase which appears at least twice in the very first aliyah of this week's new parasha, Behar: "grow on its own," or sifeach.
How does something just "grow on its own"? And to be more specific, perhaps we could see how a weed, or a tree, or some other plant could just grow on its own, but how about in the specific context of this parasha - a domesticated crop for eating? As far as my limited mind knows, those kind of crops need serious tending and attention and care to grow.
Or do they? Of course they don't. While there are natural laws, including those of agriculture, G-d has the power and ability to break laws which were placed into the natural universe - to do whatever G-d wants.
Our efforts, our intention, our actions, and the breaking down of our ego to fulfill our true purpose - that can have an "inertic" effect (I just made up that word but it feels right - something having inertia - moving just because it is a natural law to move forward once force is applied until it is stopped). On one hand, we should never stop trying to accomplish all of the above. At a certain point, what this parasha feels like it's coming to teach us, is that with enough effort - here, six years of it - that effort will have a cumulative effect and things will just happen, speaking in our own language, as the Torah does, "on their own."
May it be a blessed week for all of us. May our good deeds from the prior week, and our rest and spiritual attention on Shabbat, propel us forward, and may we look at events this week - positive, wonderful events - with wonder and exclaim that they must have happened "on their own," knowing that it just may have had something to do with our prior thoughts, emotions, and actions and the blessings and divine Energy and presence brought down as a result.
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