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Why does the land become depleted when we don't keep Shmitah, yet the sixth year produces three times as much? The spiritual foundation lies in Adam's role to connect adamah back to Hashem (ה׳). When we keep Shmitah, Eretz Yisrael operates by spiritual natural order where Hashem serves us directly, but when we don't, our spiritual disconnect causes physical depletion.
Rabbi Yeshaya Greenberg ZT"L analyzes the tochacha (rebuke) in Parshas Bechukosai, focusing on the pasuk "Az tirtzeh ha'aretz es shabsosehah" - that the land will be appeased for its Shabbosos during the seventy years of galus corresponding to the seventy Shmitas not kept. He examines different explanations of Shmitah from the Ramban (comparing it to Shabbos (שבת) as a hint to Olam Haba), the Kli Yakar (teaching that the land belongs to Hashem (ה׳)), and the Rambam (רמב"ם) and Maharal (allowing the soil to be replenished from nutrient depletion). The Kli Yakar raises several difficulties with the Rambam's approach: Why is galus the punishment for not keeping Shmitah if the issue is merely agricultural? How is Shmitah specifically "laHashem" if it's just for soil health? How can the land be "appeased" during galus if other nations continue working it? Most significantly, why does the sixth year produce three times as much if the land should be most depleted by then?
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Parshas Bechukosai
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