On my recent trip to Eretz Yisrael, I went to my yeshivah, Yeshivat Har Etzion, and purchased some of their recent publications. One of those which I acquired was a pamphlet called Shiurei Shevi`it, lessons on the topic of Shemittah, the Sabbatical year, given by one of the younger teachers in the yeshivah, R. Yosef Zvi Rimon. Having purchased it, I was honestly looking for an excuse to make sure that I read it. Since we often think of studying a topic as the next best thing to fulfilling it, I thought it would be worth our while to take a few weeks and summarize his most interesting points. Of course, there are some ramifications to Shemittah that affect even Jews living outside Israel, but we will leave those for after we gain some understanding of the issues that affect those who live there (and those who visit).

In a beautiful introduction, R. Rimon points out that many halakhic works do a disservice to their readers by not recording enough of the background of a topic to allow for deep understanding. Rather than just listing laws of Shemittah, then, he explicitly intends to put the laws into a framework that is meaningful, understandable, and hopefully therefore memorable.

His opening chapter, following this desire, deals with the reasons for Shemittah. He provides eight reasons suggested by earlier commentators, each of which have some resonance in the Torah’s verses that describe Shemittah. Some of these reasons might have halakhic ramifications, but for now we will simply review them, filing them away for later discussion. In addition, we should note (as R. Rimon does) that for most people today, who do not live agricultural lives, the reasons for Shemittah are certainly not achieved, regardless of whether we technically follow a valid process in dealing with these issues. It might behoove us to think about what we do to replace the result the Torah sought by mandating Shemittah, not just how we deal with the technical rules the Torah set up to achieve that (or those) result(s). This also, to my mind, justifies spending several weeks on a set of laws that currently apply only (forgive the term) rabbinically. Since these laws nevertheless encompass ideas and ideals mandated by the Torah, I wanted to spend time learning more about them.

Rambam, in the Guide for the Perplexed (in a chapter that we saw last year in the Moreh Nevukhim shiur that we have), suggests two reasons for Shemittah, that it helps the poor and that it helps the land rejuvenate. The Torah in fact makes reference to leaving the land for the poor and also refers to this year as a shenat Shabbaton, a Sabbatical, for the land.

Sefer haHinukh, the 13^th century listing of the Torah’s mitsvot arranged in order of the weekly portion, offers three other reasons for the law. He sees Shemittah as teaching us to cultivate the trait of vatranut, meaning that we are not overly attached to our property. By spending a year where our fields are open to whoever wishes to enter, we train ourselves not to place too much stock in ownership. That notion is reflected in the verses that require that the produce of this year be available to all people and animals to eat. In addition, the Hinukh says that this year reminds us of God’s ownership of the Earth and the fact that all of its produce is only as a result of His allowing it to be produced, as reflected in the verse stressing, "for the Land is Mine." Finally, he sees the year as reminding us of hiddush haOlam, Creation of the World, a notion that is central to the belief in God’s providence, His ability to affect events on Earth, and to perform miracles at Will.

In modern times, rabbis have stressed the spiritual rejuvenation aspect of a Shemittah. According to Rabbi Kalisher, Shemittah was to insure that we take time to involve ourselves in spiritual elements of life—by forcing a Sabbatical year (in the academic sense), God could insure that people would have time to study Torah and to refocus their energies on spiritual matters. Rav Kook had a similar idea, except that he expressed it on a national level. In his view, the weekly Shabbat provides the individual a chance for re-focusing on spiritual matters; Shemittah performs a similar function for the nation as a whole (and each of its individual members). Both views would stress the Torah’s reference to Shemittah as a Shabbat laShem, a rest period for God. The point of Shemittah, then, would be not only to refrain from certain activity, but to be free in order to involve oneself in more spiritual matters (as is often said regarding Shabbat itself).

R. Rimon suggests some halakhic aspects of Shemittah that depend on these reasons. For example, the notion of restricting our sense of ownership over the land and its produce explains two interesting halakhot about Shemittah, the prohibition of disposing of Shemittah produce in the same way that we dispose of regular fruit. As R. Rimon expresses it, the right to destroy something is perhaps the clearest expression of ownership possible. In refraining from that right, then, we amply demonstrate our awareness of our lack of ownership. Similarly, one of the most acceptable ways around Shemittah issues is called OtsarBeit Din. We will describe this further in future sheets, but basically, it makes it more feasible to gather a field’s produce and bring it to market, by officially assigning the field to the ownership of a court, rather than its usual owner. The original owner then becomes the messenger of the court (and can be paid some kind of salary by them) in gathering that field’s fruit. In that case, too, the notion that Shemittah is about stressing our lack of ownership explains why this legal fiction should have any effect.

Next week, we will begin discussing the kinds of agricultural labor that are or are not impermissible during Shemittah. Shabbat Shalom.