Duration of the Pre-Shemittah Blessing of the Produce/2

Pre-Shemittah Blessing of the Produce

Exegetical Approaches

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Three Full Years

Hashem promises that the produce from the sixth year will feed the nation for three full years.  This position subdivides regarding the situation spoken of in the verses:

Shemittah Followed by Yovel

The verses speak of a case in which Shemittah is followed by the Jubilee Year.  Since there are then two consecutive years in which sowing is prohibited, Hashem promises that the food planted in the sixth year will sustain the people for three entire years.

Sources:Sifra Vayikra #225:20-22About the Sifra Vayikra, Ibn EzraVayikra 25:20-22About R. Avraham ibn Ezra, R. Yosef Bekhor ShorVayikra 25:20-22About R. Yosef Bekhor Shor, RambanVayikra 25:20About R. Moshe b. Nachman, AbarbanelVayikra 25About R. Yitzchak Abarbanel, R. N"H Wessely in the BiurVayikra 25About the Biur (Netivot HaShalom)

Context – This reading is supported by the location of these verses after the discussion of the Jubilee year, rather than after the laws of Shemittah.

"וְעָשָׂת אֶת הַתְּבוּאָה לִשְׁלֹשׁ הַשָּׁנִים" – This position understands the phrase "לִשְׁלֹשׁ הַשָּׁנִים" simply, to mean a period of 36 months. In the sixth year enough produce will be harvested to nourish the people for three years.¹

"עַד הַשָּׁנָה הַתְּשִׁיעִת... תֹּאכְלוּ יָשָׁן" – According to these sources, this verse means that the old grain will be eaten until and within (עד ועד בכלל) the ninth year.²

"מַה נֹּאכַל בַּשָּׁנָה הַשְּׁבִיעִת" – This phrase is difficult since the nation should have sufficient food for the seventh year from the previous year's crops;³ it is only in the eighth year that food might be scarce.

• Ramban and Abarbanel suggests to rearrange the order of the verse so that it reads, "And if you say in the seventh year, "what shall we eat [in the eighth year]".
• Abarbanel alternatively suggests to repunctuate the verse, and to put a pause after the words, "מַה נֹּאכַל" rather than after "בַּשָּׁנָה הַשְּׁבִיעִת". As such, the verse reads, "If you say, 'What shall we eat? [After all] in the seventh year we may not sow or harvest!?'"

Exceptional Case – R. Hoffmann questions this position, claiming that it is odd that the Torah would be concerned only with the exceptional case of Shemittah followed by Yovel rather than the worries brought by every Shemittah year. Abarbanel, however, claims that is specifically the double-whammy that would cause people to worry. 

"וּזְרַעְתֶּם אֵת הַשָּׁנָה הַשְּׁמִינִת"

Every Shemittah

The Shemittah year begins in Nissan, during the harvest season.  As such, during every Shemittah cycle, no food is sown already in the second half of the sixth year, requiring the fifth year to make enough food to last for the entire sixth, seventh and eighth  years.

Sources:Karaite opinion brought in Ibn EzraVayikra 25:20-22About R. Avraham ibn Ezra

Parts of Three Years

Hashem blesses the nation that the crops planted in the beginning of the sixth year will suffice to nourish them across parts of three years of the shemittah cycle: during the second half of the sixth year, the entire seventh year, and the first half of the eighth year.

Sources:Sifra Vayikra #125:20-22About the Sifra Vayikra, RashiVayikra 25:20-22About R. Shelomo Yitzchaki, RalbagVayikra 25:20-22About R. Levi b. Gershom, ShadalVayikra 25:21-22About R. Shemuel David Luzzatto, Hoil MosheVayikra 25:21About R. Moshe Yitzchak Ashkenazi, R. David Zvi HoffmannVayikra 25:20-22About R. David Zvi Hoffmann

עַד הַשָּׁנָה הַתְּשִׁיעִת

Two Plus One

Hashem promises that the produce from the sixth year will provide food for two years and material to sow for the third year.

Sources:RashbamVayikra 25:20-22About R. Shemuel b. Meir, HaKetav VeHaKabbalahVayikra 25:21About R. Yaakov Mecklenburg

¹ This position could say that the three years of produce refers to that eaten in the second half of the sixth year, the entire seventh and eighth years, and the first half of the ninth.  This understanding does not account for the definite article in the phrase, "לִשְׁלֹשׁ הַשָּׁנִים", reading it as if written "for three years".  R. N"H Wessely, in contrast, understands the three years to refer to the entire seventh, eighth and ninth years, claiming that the food of the sixth year is first brought into the house around Sukkot time at the beginning of the seventh year, and thus, first eaten then.  He can then explain that the definite article in "לִשְׁלֹשׁ הַשָּׁנִים" means for the three years of the shemittah cycle.

² See note above that according R. Wesseley the old produce is eaten until the end of the ninth year, since the new grain will only be gathered indoors in Sukkot of the tenth year.  The others might suggest that already in Nissan of the ninth year, when the harvest begins, the people eat of the new grain.

³ Every year people eat of the previous years' harvest.