After the holiday of Sukkos, I planted several willow branches in a small pot. At first, I did not even know if they would survive. Day after day I watered them, added fresh soil, and tried to care for them properly. Slowly they began to grow. They even survived the cold front in January. I was grateful simply to see signs of life. But despite all the care I gave them, their growth remained limited. They stayed small and constrained. The pot that once protected them had now become too restrictive for their roots to continue expanding.

Everything changed when I transferred them into a larger pot. Almost immediately, I noticed fuller leaves, taller branches, and stronger growth. The potential had always been there. The willows simply needed more room — more space for their roots to spread, develop, and thrive.

The Torah in this week’s portion commands us to work the land for six years, but in the seventh year the land must rest – the mitzvah of Shmita.  “ושבתה הארץ שבת לה׳ – And the land shall rest, a Shabbos for Hashem”. And in a similar way, every week we work for six days, but the seventh day becomes Shabbos — a day devoted to Hashem. The pattern repeats itself in both time and land: six days and one day, six years and one year. Although the entire world belongs to Hashem and He controls and sustains everything, He still gives us space within creation to grow, develop, struggle, and become. It is specifically within the six-day cycle of work and the six-year cycle of labor that human beings build themselves. We learn, create, fail, recover, and mature. Hashem could run the world without us entirely, yet He allows us the dignity of participation and development.

People grow best the same way plants do: when they are given support, respect, patience, and the space to become what they were always capable of becoming.