The Sabbath is named after the creation of the world, in which the cycle of six days of work and the seventh day - Sabbath, a day of holiness - was also established. Just as this exists in the cycle of the days of the week, it also exists in the years - six years of agricultural work and a seventh year of Shemitah, a Sabbath to Hashem. This is this year, 5782.
Usually, the reference to the Shemitah year focuses on what is forbidden - prohibitions on working the land and the meaning of these prohibitions on the way fruits and vegetables are marketed.
However, the prohibitions are only one aspect of the Sabbatical year, and we must discover its inner meaning.
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The positive content
One can find many similarities between the Sabbath and the year of sabbath. On the Sabbath, too, one can focus on the prohibitions of work, and then the Sabbath is perceived as a day full of prohibitions, a day on which it is forbidden to do this or that. It is clear that such an approach misses the positive side of the Sabbath, the spiritual-moral content of the holy Sabbath.
Shabbat is intended to be a day of holiness, which takes the Jew out of the mundane atmosphere of everyday life and elevates him to a world that is full of spirituality, purity, and holiness. This is also the purpose of the Shemitah year. For six years we are busy with ordinary mundane life. Although we dedicate time to Torah study and stop the flow of mundane things on Shabbat and holidays, the mundane routine can still take over us.
Therefore, the Torah states that once every six years a Jew is required to ascend even further, and go on a 'Sabbatical year'.
Originally, the 'Sabbatical Year' was intended primarily for those who worked the land, but the ethical content of the Sabbatical Year is intended for the entire Jewish people. This year we must be more 'Sabbatical', more spiritual. It is appropriate to devote more time this year to studying Torah and matters of the soul. Because this is the true and inner content of the Sabbatical Year.
Most of us do not have the practical option of taking a sabbatical from work, and yet this year should be a more spiritual year. We should devote more time and attention to spiritual matters. Perhaps we will find that we can dedicate Friday to Torah study? Perhaps we can schedule another Torah lesson each day?
The key is to set priorities. If we decide that it is important for us to devote more time and energy to Torah study and spiritual life, we will find the time and energy. If it is truly important to us, we will push aside less important things.
We are tired of the controversy.
And perhaps it's time for us to have a little bit of a Shabbat atmosphere in public life as well. Just as the boiling fire of politics calms down on Shabbat and the internal polemic subsides, so it is fitting that we all take a 'sabbatical year', a period of peace and rest. We are all tired of the constant debate and the noisy headlines that clutter our lives. It's time for some peace and quiet.
Even if we cannot escape the debate about the fateful problems that surround us, it is still possible to conduct it with greater mutual respect and without clouding the atmosphere with fratricidal hatred, God forbid.
You don't have to stop life completely. Just give it a more relaxed character, the calm of Shabbat.
