פירוש על ויקרא 25:22

עד השנה התשיעית UNTIL THE NINTH YEAR — i. e. until the Feast of Tabernacles of the ninth year which is the time when the crop of the eighth year comes ‎(בא תבואתה) into the house (the granaries). For during the whole summer-time (the fruits) remained in the fields inthe barns, and in Tishri was the time for gathering them into the house. Sometimes indeed it th)e soil) had to bring forth fruits for four years, viz., during the sixth year preceding the seventh “Shemittah” (i. e. in the forty-eighth year of the Jubilee-period) when they had to refrain from agricultural work two successive years, viz., the Sabbatical year and the Jubilee immediately following it. This verse, however, (which mentions only an increase sufficient for three years) is said (written) with reference to all other (i. e. ordinary) Sabbatical years.

וזרעתם את השנה השמינית, "And you will seed the eighth year, etc." The Torah had to spell this out on account of having written that the harvest of the sixth year would last for three years. We might have thought that if the harvest of the sixth year lasts into the ninth year why sow in the eighth year? Surely G'd would not perform an unnecessary miracle! The Torah provides the reason by writing that the people were to enjoy the harvest brought in during the sixth year until the harvest of what was planted in the eighth year was at hand. The lesson of the verse is that a harvest which is three years old is superior to grain from the new harvest. (Baba Batra 91 confirms this).

וזרעתם את השנה השמינית, ”you will seed in the eighth year, etc.” Here the Torah reverts to the natural state of affairs, planting a crop that will develop without miraculous input by G’d, as did the one in the sixth year. You will not have to extend yourselves especially, as what the land had provided in the sixth year is sufficient until the crop planted in the eighth year had matured in the normal way. Rashi does not explain our verse in this manner.

עד בא תבואתה, “until its harvest will arrive.” The suffix ה at the end of the word תבואת-ה, refers to the eighth year, not the ninth year mentioned in our verse. The meaning of the whole verse is as follows: “you will sow in the eighth year and you will eat from the old harvest until its harvest (the one which you planted) comes in; this will be sufficient for you until the ninth year.” When the Torah adds the words לשלוש השנים, “for these three years,” the reference is not to three whole calendar years but the words: ‘the sixth year’ in verse 21 refer to the second half of that year, the year which G’d blessed with a bumper harvest; the entire seventh year when you did not plough, seed, etc., you will eat of that harvest, plus the first half of the eighth year until the harvest of that year’s planting comes in. This is the commentary by Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra.

Tishrei is the season of gathering into the house. This implies that they did not eat from the produce until Sukkos. But above Rashi explained:, “’For three years,’ for part of the sixth, from Nisan until Rosh Hashanah and the seventh and eighth [years], since they would sow in the eighth during Marcheshvon, and harvest in [the following] Nisan.” This implies that they ate immediately in Nissan, which is an apparent contradiction. The answer is: Above (verse 20) it is written “If you shall say (ask).” I.e., “If you shall say (ask), ’What will we eat in the seventh year, for lo! we have not planted nor gathered our produce?’” The Holy One answers them, “I shall command (direct) My blessing to you... and it will produce [enough] for three years.” And as Rashi explains, “They would sow in the eighth during Marcheshvon, and harvest in [the following] Nisan.” [Thus, by Nissan their question regarding what they will eat will no longer apply]. But they actually did not eat [that produce] until the ninth year on Sukkos. So when it is written, “You will still be eating... until the ninth year,” it is saying even more. That the old produce will be enough not only for three years from Nissan of the sixth year until Nissan of the eighth year, but will even be enough until the end of the eighth year and the beginning of the ninth year. You will eat from it as you do every year when you eat from the old produce until Sukkos of the following year. Re’m

[However,] this verse was said regarding all other sabbatical cycles. (Gur Aryeh) You might ask, why does Scripture not write more, that it will produce for four years. The answer is that the verse is answering the people’s’ question regarding what they will eat. This question does not apply to the jubileeJubilee as they will not ask about one year [that only comes once every fifty years], as for one year people can make an effort to get produce. But for every sabbatical year it would be impossible.