• Planning for the Sabbatical year

    Planning for the Sabbatical year

    This is our first article in a series about how we are to go about preparing for the Sabbatical year. This coming sabbatical year will be our first and we plan to share our journey with you in order for you to glean from what we learn. In this series we will look at ways to preserve food, perennial vegetables and herbs and many interesting subjects. Even if you do not share our understanding regarding the Sabbatical year, you will enjoy the content.

  • Growing a vegetable garden in the Sabbatical year?

    Growing a vegetable garden in the Sabbatical year?

    We are in the process of preparing for the Sabbatical year which will start in the spring (Aviv) of 2016. As we get closer to the time, we get questions and comments from others who plan to keep, or oppose the keeping of the Sabbatical year. One comment we received was that a family sized vegetable garden would be exempt from the Sabbatical year commandments due to the following reasons. Vegetables tend not to self seed, have a broad growing season and are not harvested in a bulk way. I value these comments even if they oppose our understanding, because it gives us an opportunity to dig deeper and learn more. In this case I actually want them to be correct seeing that vegetables are more difficult to store and we use so much of it. However, I will remain objective and I believe YHVH will help us find the truth. So, is our own family-sized vegetable garden exempt from the requirements of the Sabbatical year or are we required to keep these instructions?

  • The sixth year, a year of preparation

    The sixth year, a year of preparation

    This sixth year of the Sabbatical cycle is a year of preparation. Just like we have the weekly Sabbath with the sixth day as the preparation day, we have the Sabbatical year, the seventh year, with the sixth year as a year of preparation. So this year when the barley is found aviv and the new moon has been sighted, we will start to prepare for the Sabbatical year which starts 1 Aviv 2016. The purpose of this article is to be a practical guide as to what we are to have in place before the beginning of the next Sabbatical year.

  • Disobedience is not a game, it could change the course of your life

    Disobedience is not a game, it could change the course of your life

    What if your next act of disobedience changes the course of your life? Have you ever considered this? I am not talking about losing a blessing as a result of being disobedient; I am talking about a profound change. YHVH is very patient with us; I don’t think we realize just how much. Will He always be? Or will His patience with us run out? In this study, we look at the lives of different people in the Bible to find answers to these questions.

  • The Sabbatical year, a “reset” every seven years

    The Sabbatical year, a “reset” every seven years

    The next Sabbatical year is in 2016, from the first day of Aviv. We plan to keep this commandment. This commandment, to keep the Sabbatical year, is seen by some as quite controversial and one of those commandments which is said not to pertain to us who don’t live in the land. As a result of this mindset, it is pushed aside and not really studied. However, when you start studying this commandment and its significance, you would be amazed at how carefully YHVH has planned this.

  • Are fruit trees excluded from the Sabbatical year command?

    Are fruit trees excluded from the Sabbatical year command?

    After our previous article about preparing for the Sabbatical year, a very thought and study provoking question was asked by a friend. The question prompted us to want to investigate if fruit trees were included in the Sabbatical year commandment, specifically regarding pruning and harvesting. The answer to this would also affect if we could buy fruit during this time. We understand, after this study that fruit trees are included in the sense that we are not to prune our fruit trees or harvest fruit during the Sabbatical year. Let us present you our findings.