Wyjścia 34:21 Halacha: Mishneh Torah, Sabbatical Year and the Jubilee, Mishneh Torah, Sabbath, Sefer HaChinukh & Mishneh Torah, Positive Mitzvot

It is a positive commandment to refrain from working the land and caring for trees in the seventh year, as it says, "and the land shall rest a Sabbath for the Lord" (Leviticus 25:2), and it says "in plowing and in harvesting you shall rest" (Exodus 34:21). Anyone who performs one of the forbidden labors from the working of the land or caring for trees in this year has abrogated a positive commandment and transgressed a negative commandment, as it says, "you shall not plant your field, nor shall you prune your vineyard" (Leviticus 25:4).

In the Torah, it states (Exodus 23:12, et. al.), "you shall rest." [Hence] one is obligated to rest even from things that are not constructive labor (melakha). And there are many things that were forbidden by the Sages and deemed a shevut (a restriction decreed by the Sages regarding Shabbat). Some of them are things forbidden because they are similar to constructive labors, and some of them are things forbidden as a decree lest one go from them to [doing] that which is forbidden [and would result in the punishment] of stoning. And these are them:

The commandment of the releasing (shmitat) of lands: To make ownerless everything that the earth put out in the seventh year, which is called the shemittah (release) year, because of this process in which we are obligated; and that all who want to [take] its fruits may do so — as it is stated (Exodus 23:11), “But in the seventh you shall release it and abandon it, and the needy among your people will eat of it, and what they leave the beasts will eat; you shall do the same with your vineyards and your olive groves.” And the language of Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon bar Yochai 23:11: “And were the vineyard and the olive groves not included?” [This] means to say that the beginning of the verse that stated, “release it and abandon it” includes everything that grows in the earth, whether they are fruits of the tree or fruits of the ground. And [so] why did Scripture specify these two? “To compare the other types of trees to the vineyard, to teach that like there is a positive commandment and a negative commandment with the vineyard — as behold, it is written explicitly about it (Leviticus 25:5), “and the grapes that you set aside, do not reap” — so too, is there a positive commandment and a negative commandment in all of the other trees.” And hence, it specified vineyard and olive grove, to teach about this matter. As the intention of the verse was not specifically about the vineyard and olive grove alone, but rather it is the same with all the other fruits of the tree. Rather, it mentioned one of them and it teaches about all of them, as this is one of the devices through which the Torah is expounded. And this commandment to make all of the fruits ownerless and the other commandment that God commanded us to rest in it — as it is stated (Exodus 34:21), “and rest from plowing and reaping” — are [both] connected.