Halakhah zu Wajikra 25:4

A year of peace and quiet, where there are no tyrants or taskmasters; “he shall not oppress his fellow or kinsman, for the remission proclaimed is of the Lord”;²⁰Deut. 15:2. The verse quoted refers to the remission of debts in the shmita and prohibits creditors from exacting payment from debtors. a year of equality and relaxation in which the soul may expand toward the uprightness of God, who sustains all life with loving-kindness; a year when there is no private property and no standing on one’s rights, and a godly peace will pervade all that breathes. “It shall be a year of complete rest for the land, but you may eat whatever the land will produce during its Sabbath—you, your male and female slaves, the hired and bound laborers who live with you, and your cattle and the beasts on your land may eat all its yield.”²¹Lev. 25:5–7. Pernickety claims to private property will not profane the holiness of the produce of the land during this year, and the urge to get rich, which is stimulated by trade, will be forgotten; as it says, “for you to eat—but not for your trade.”²²Mishnah, Shevi’it 7:3. In this passage, Rav Kook draws on a series of halakhic midrashim based on a phrase from Lev. 25:6, “for you to eat,” which is inter-preted to exclude making use of food grown in the Land of Israel during the shmita for purposes other than eating. A spirit of generosity will rest on all; God will bless the fruit of the land “for you to eat and not your loss.” Human beings will return to a state of natural health, so that they will not need healing for sicknesses, which mostly befall us when the balance of life is destroyed and our lives are distanced from the rhythms of nature; “for you to eat” but not to make medicine and not to use as bandages.²³Talmud Bavli, Sukkah 40a. See the introduction to this volume for further discussion of Rav Kook’s astonishing claim that shmita will promote a natu-ral state of human health that will make medicine unnecessary. A holy spirit will be poured out upon all life; “it will be a year of complete rest for the land—a Sabbath of the Lord.”²⁴Lev. 25:4–5.

We also find written⁸³ Ibn Ezra now proceeds to show that for some matters the year begins with the month of Tishre. Here he seems to be countering the Karites, who did not accept the first of Tishre as Rosh haShana. The Karites argued that there is no Scriptural basis for the first of Tishre being anything other than a day when work is forbidden (Leviticus 23:23–25) and special sacrifices are offered (Numbers 29: 1–5). The Karites began the year for all religious matters with the first of Nisan. with regard to Tabernacles “at the turn of the year” (Exodus 34:22), and also “at the departure of the year” (ibid. 23:16). Now the same day when one year ends a new year begins. We also find that God instructed us in a law of Haqhel, when the entire Torah is read during the holiday of Tabernacles of a Sabbatical year (Deuteronomy 31:10–13). There it is written “in order that they may learn” (ibid. 31:12). It is not likely that this took place after half a year.⁸⁴ Thus, Haqhel certainly took place at the beginning of a Sabbatical year, indicating that a Sabbatical year began around the time of Tabernacles. Do not be perplexed by the word “At an end (miqqez) of seven years” (ibid. 31:10),⁸⁵ The verse concerning Haqhel reads: “At the end of seven years, in the time of the Sabbatical year, on the holiday of Tabernacles,” which seems to indicate that the celebration of Haqhel took place at the conclusion of the Sabbatical year and the beginning of the eighth year. for we similarly find “At an end (miqqez) of seven years you shall send forth, each man his brother” (Jeremiah 34:14).⁸⁶ We know that servants were set free after six years (Exodus 21:2). Thus “miqqez” must here refer to the beginning of the seventh year. Similarly for Haqhel, the word “miqqez” means “beginning” rather than “end.” For each thing has two edges, a front edge and a back edge. The Sabbatical year began with Tishre,⁸⁷ Here Ibn Ezra refutes the Karites who began the Sabbatical year with Nisan. (See Ibn Ezra’s commentary to Leviticus 25:20.) which is the seventh month, since then the half year of planting began. Thus it states regarding the Sabbatical year “do not plant” (Leviticus 25:4), and “You shall plant on the eighth year” (ibid. 25:22).

"And in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land…. you shall not sow your field, nor prune your vineyard" (Lev. 25:4). The commandment concerning the sabbatical year—shmittah— prescribes that land in Erez Yisra'el be allowed to lie fallow every seventh year. According to rabbinic exegesis, not only is it forbidden to till the soil, it is also forbidden to sell produce which grows of its own accord. "And the sabbath-produce of the land shall be for food for you …" (Lev. 25:6). The Torah grants permission for the produce which grows of its own accord to be used "for food, but not for merchandise" (Bekhorot 12b). The year 5733 was a shmittah year, and quite appropriately the fifteenth annual Torah She-be-'al Peh colloquium held in Jerusalem under the auspices of Mosad ha-Rav Kook was devoted to matters pertaining to the sabbatical year. A number of the papers presented at this gathering, all of which were subsequently published in the Torah She-be-'al Peh annual, dealt with the practice of selling farms and orchards to a non-Jew in order to circumvent the prohibition against tilling the land and the restriction against commercial dealings involving the produce of the sabbatical year.