כי תבאו אל הארץ אשר אני נותן לכם ושבתה הארץ שבת לד‘ (בהר כה:א-ב)

When you come into the land I give you, the land shall observe a Shabbos rest for Hashem.

When Maran Rebbe Aharon of Belz zt’’l came to live in his Tel Aviv home, there was a nice courtyard with several trees and flowers. At the beginning of the summer season, Reb Aharon requested his shamash to purchase gardening tools and a water hose to water and cultivate the garden daily.  Reb Aharon constantly inquired by the shamash over the garden’s well-being and its trees’ growth – admiring the greenery and details of each flower’s blooming patterns.

Chassidim wondered over the holy Rebbe’s interest in the garden, where he was so personally invested. When it came to Erev Rosh Hashanah of his first Shmittah year in Eretz Yisroel, Reb Aharon summoned his shamash and said: “As you cared for my garden to flourish, and obeyed my request, now I ask you that since the upcoming year is a Shmittah year, please collect all the gardening tools and store and lock them in a storage room, and don’t open it until the year is over!”

The Chassidim now understood their Rebbe’s holy intentions of the previous years in preparation for keeping Shmittah.