Live with Nature
By Moshe Katz
CEO
Israeli Krav International

October 26, 2014, Israel

This year is Shmittah year in Israel. That term surely does not mean much to anyone outside of the Jewish world. But the lesson is profound.

This is the Sabbatical year in accordance with Biblical law.

It is an ancient Biblical law that every seventh year the land must "get its rest", the land must lay fallow.

This year is the Sabbatical year. For us there are a myriad of complex laws to deal with this situation.

For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops.  But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards.  Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest. 

Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you—for yourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten. (Leviticus 25)

The basic idea is the same as the ancient system of crop rotation; just as a person needs rest so does the land. The land needs time to rejuvenate itself, replenish its energy. Otherwise our fruits and vegetables lose their quality, vitality and vitamins. They lose their life and we lose ours.

If the land dies so do we.

But what do we do? We add chemicals, fertilizers and all sorts of scientific crap to make things grow bigger and faster and without any rest. We want more and we want it now!

We feel nature is not doing a good enough job on its own so we chemically change it. We need to make nature work faster, harder. The result: Cancer and a thousand other disorders.

We are fighting against nature and we will ultimately lose.

So the Torah wisely tells us that just as ourselves must take a break every seven days so must the land take a break every seven years. This is what we need to function.

But modern man knows better; No break, no rest. Just keep pumping pills and chemicals, change the food, pollute the earth and all will be good. Only it will not be good.

So even among the most religious we look for "legal loopholes" as we can't possibly allow the land to take a year off.The land must work nonstop.

We are missing the point and still fighting nature.

Every night we need to sleep, every week we need to rejuvenate, that is the law of nature.

Daniel San with this wise teacher Mr. Miyagi. Fictional but true.  Find your own Balance, in life and in training.

Mr. Miyagi in the Karate Kid teaches Daniel about Balance. You need balance in karate, in life, in all things. We too need balance.

That is why our style of Krav Maga, IKI Krav Maga, is designed exactly in this way, to work with you and not against you.

There are styles that demand of you total devotion. You must sign up for a five year program. You must train 8 hours per day if you wish to be a master.

And in fact they are correct; for those styles you truly do need thousands of hours to master the basics. But we are different. Our style is designed to fit in with your life, not fight against it.

We do not demand that you quit your job or drop out of college. No. You can learn Krav Maga and maintain your skills as part of your regular lifestyle.

Yes, it does take time and devotion, but within reason. Coming to a Krav Maga seminar once a year and doing each technique three or four times is not enough.

We do not believe in extremes as this will not work for the vast majority of people, and we wish to reach the vast majority of people.

The people need Krav Maga, so we have a system that can fit in with their busy lifestyles.

We believe in working with nature. IKI Krav Maga works with your nature, not against it.

Anything that goes against nature will ultimately fail. The Torah is a guideline for healthy living with nature. We do not need legal tricks to get around the Torah, we need to accept Nature and learn to live with its rules.

With IKI Krav Maga we aim to implement this ancient wisdom. We aim to continue developing a system that incorporates the ancient martial wisdom with the wisdom of the Torah and the experience of our many qualified instructors.

Teacher and student, Balance.

IKI Instructors World Wide

Find a Krav Maga instructor near you.  List of instructors.

The Bible and Krav Maga
The Biblical Source of Krav Maga

"Israel; a Nation of Warriors" 250 pages,

The Biblical roots of Krav Maga from the first combat instructor to our present time. Must read for IKI Krav Maga instructors.

What was combat like in the days of the Bible?

How is that early spirit preserved in Israel today?

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