Kommentar zu Wajikra 25:20

ולא נאסף [AND IF YE SHALL SAY,… BEHOLD WE SHALL NOT SOW] NOR GATHER IN — into the house.

AND IF YE SHALL SAY: ‘WHAT SHALL WE EAT THE SEVENTH YEAR?’ The verse is, as it were, inverted, meaning: “and if you shall say in the seventh year, ‘What shall we eat [in the eighth year]?’ for their worry would be about the eighth year. For since the beginning of the Sabbatical year and the Jubilee is in Tishri, then they would eat of the produce of the sixth year during the seventh year, as is the normal way in all other years to eat [of the old produce] until after the reaping [of the new], which is at the time of the Festival of Weeks, and even afterwards until the work of fanning and sifting the produce is finished. Therefore the correct interpretation of the verse, and it shall bring forth produce for the three years¹⁸⁰Verse 21. is that on account of the year of Jubilee [which always follows a Sabbatical year, G-d will command His blessing in the sixth year,¹⁸⁰Verse 21. meaning] that the sixth year will bring forth [sufficient produce] for the whole of the Sabbatical year, the Jubilee and the year after the Jubilee, and during all these [three years] they will eat of the old crop. Thus Scripture is assuring them that should they fear in the seventh year saying, “What shall we eat?” then I will command My blessing in the sixth year that it shall bring forth produce for the three years following after [the sixth year], this being an additional blessing [to that of every Sabbatical year, when the sixth year brings forth sufficient produce for the seventh and eighth years; and when in addition there is a Jubilee year, it will bring forth enough for three years] so that it should suffice also for the Sabbatical year and the Jubilee. He states, And ye shall sow the eighth year,¹⁸¹Verse 22. meaning to say that you should sow in the eighth year in the customary manner of every year, and you should not hurry to plow and sow, or to reap, for until her produce come in into the house at the time that the harvest [usually] takes place every year, at the Festival of Tabernacles, ye shall eat the old crop. And in the Torath Kohanim [it is stated]:¹⁸²Torath Kohanim, Behar 4:6. “For the three years¹⁸⁰Verse 21. — for the sixth, the seventh, and the year after the seventh. Another interpretation: For the three years — for the Seventh year, the Jubilee, and the year after the Jubilee.”

וכי תאמרו מה נאכל, when you raise doubts about this promise which I have made you, asking that you would not have enough to eat because you cannot believe that the quality of such food would compensate for its lack of quantity.

וכי תאמרו מה נאכל בשנה השביעית, "When you will say: 'what shall we eat in the seventh year?'" The plain meaning of the verse is as follows: "When you will say (in the seventh year) 'what shall we eat?'" The question posed by the Torah as being asked by the Israelites in this verse could be read in one of two different ways 1) the Torah reveals a motive for the Israelites' reluctance to observe the commandment not to seed the land during the seventh year, i.e. "if we do not seed what shall we eat?" 2) The question centers on the result of observing the commandment not to seed in the seventh year. The Israelites will ask that seeing they have observed G'd's directives "what shall we eat?" In order to make sure we understand the question as the second alternative we mentioned, the Torah adds הן לא נזרע, "behold we may not seed?" The question is one posed by the son to the father who wants to know where his sustenance is to come from seeing it is not available by natural means. The Torah answers that in that case, i.e. that you have fulfilled G'd's command, He will command the earth to provide a more than usually bountiful harvest in the sixth year so that you will not experience any shortfall. This blessing will occur only if your question was not intended to excuse your failure to observe My command. If you were asking to excuse your non-observance, the promise of a bountiful harvest in the sixth year will not materialise.

וכי תאמרו מה נאכל בשנה השביעית?, “and if you were to ask: ‘what are we going to it during the seventh year?” According to Nachmanides this is a verse that has been truncated, and the correct wording should have been וכי תאמרו בשנה השביעית מה נאכל, “if you were to ask during the seventh year: ‘what are we going to eat?’” The question refers to where the people’s food supply during the eight’s year will come from. The people were not concerned about their food supply during the seventh year as they had the harvest of the sixth year to depend on which would last them until the harvest time of that year. It was accepted that the basic food supply consisted of the previous year’s harvest. Their concern was centred on the year after the sh’mittah, or the Jubilee year. The Torah therefore lays such concerns to rest by writing:

מה נאכל בשנה השביעית, “what are we to eat in the seventh year?” The question seems unfounded as the people would naturally eat the harvest of the sixth year of the cycle in the following year, i.e. the seventh year! We must therefore understand the words בשנה השביעית as linked to the words “here we have not sown and we will not gather in,” at the end of our verse. The question is voiced in the seventh year and refers to the eighth year.

Into the house. And it is an expression of bringing [produce] into the house. You cannot say it means we did not gather [the produce] into a pile in the field, and that it means to gather to one place, because what does it help if the produce is gathered in a pile in the field and not brought into the house?

וכי תאמרו, “if you were to say, etc.;” this sounds peculiar as to why would people worry in the sixth year about what they would have to eat in the seventh year, seeing that they ploughed, seeded and harvested in that year so that they would have food for a year? We must understand this verse as having been abbreviated; the Torah meant to quote them as saying in the seventh year: “what will we have to eat in the eighth year?”

If you shall say. In truth all this is nothing but miraculous — in a year without any planting, the grain and fruit of the trees will grow enough to satiate the entire population of people and animals. It is known that path of miracles is only appropriate to the extent that one prepares for it, and this is what it says previously in Scripture: “You shall fulfill My statutes, etc.” This means they should increase their continuous study of Torah and its sharp give and take in those years. They should believe and completely give themselves over to this lofty manner of conducting themselves … Thus, one might think the main mitzvah of the Sabbatical and Jubilee year was only given to those who conduct themselves with this extra high level. However, this is not true, for the Torah can be kept completely even by people who are not on this level. This is why Scripture explains, “If you will say …” — if you will not be on this level, then “I will command” — this is personal Hashgachah in the way of nature.

את תבואתנו OUR INCREASE — as, e. g., the wine and the fruits of trees and the aftergrowth of the fields, which grow of their own accord (Pesachim 51b).

Which grow on their own. Because once it is written “we have not planted,” why write the obvious fact that “we have not gathered our produce.”? Therefore, when it says “We have not gathered our produce,” it must refer to things like wine, fruit, and crops that do not need to be sown.