Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk quotes his brother Zusha’s short and profound insight on the Portion of Behar in his book Noam Elimelech.
“If you ask, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year? After all, we must not sow nor gather in our produce.’ I will then command my blessing for you in the sixth year, and the land will yield produce for the three years’ use” (Devarim 25:20-21)...
Zusha tells us that the Torah is not saying “if you ask,” but rather “when you ask,” to teach us that when we let the thought “I won’t have enough!” enter our mind, we will cause an immediate interruption in the flow of abundance that G‑d created for us since the beginning of creation.
Yes, Reb Zusha explains, G‑d creates every person with a pipeline of abundance drawing down from Heaven. This flow is continuous and uninterrupted, except in the event that the person loses trust in G‑d.
At that moment, explains Zusha, G‑d has to put a backup plan in effect and make a new command for our abundance to flow once again. G‑d’s answer to our question, “I will then command my blessing for you in the sixth year, and the land will yield produce for the three years’ use” is the backup plan—a command elicited by our lack of trust. Ideally, we would have accepted the mitzvah of shmittah and never doubted the blessing that G‑d had bestowed upon us in the first place!
Rather than asking questions like “what will we eat?” says Zusha, “trust G‑d with all your heart, and thus abundance will always flow to you and you will have no lack.
I will punish you, I too (26:28)
When a father punishes his child, the suffering he inflicts on himself is greater than anything experienced by the child. So it is with G‑d: His pain is greater than our pain.
(Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov
Chabad.org
