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Shmita: The Holiness of Working and the Holiness of Not Working 

The jubilee — yovel in Hebrew — is a year observed once in 50 years, following seven cycles of seven-year shmita, or sabbatical, years. Like the shmita year, the jubilee is one in which no agricultural work is to be done and the land is to lie fallow

In Parshas Kedoshim we learn the holiness of the person; then, in Emor, we learn about the holiness of the High Priest. Then we learn of the holiness and specialness of each Yom Tov. 

This Shabbos, Behar, we are learning of the holiness of the Holy Land, but we learn it in a very special way. Here we are talking about what takes place once in seven years and once in fifty years, Shmita and Yovel. You know what G-d is teaching us during those years?

Let me share this with you: There is a holiness we can learn while we are working the land, which is very high. Then there is a kind of holiness which we can only learn when we are not working the land. 

The Gemara says that G-d does not pay you for your good deeds in this world; but everybody knows that on Shabbos, G-d pays us for what we did. So how could this be? The answer is simply because Shabbos is out of this world.

Now imagine the Torah would tell you what you get for every good deed, it would be like a store. I buy apples for twenty-five cents, so I get two apples. I'm going to G-d saying "Listen, I'm putting on my tefillin, I should get this. I'm keeping Shabbos, I should be getting that." Friends, it would be the end.

How do you think G-d pays me for a good deed? You think G-d looks up in the yellow pages and checks to see how much I get? It is the most individual thing in the world; it cannot be written down. Every Jew has to keep kosher and every Jew has to keep Shabbos, but the paying... you know what the paying is? The paying is the utmost G-d revelation which just has to do with you, just you. This utmost revelation is on Shabbos when I don't do anything specific.

This is what takes place on the seventh and fiftieth year in the Holy Land. I get a taste of something so personal and private which is just between me and G-d.

Good Shabbos!