Difference between revisions of "Duration of the Pre-Shemittah Blessing of the Produce/2"
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<opinion>All Shemittah Years | <opinion>All Shemittah Years | ||
<p>Although Rabbinic law rules that the Sabbatical years begin in Tishrei, this is not explicit in the Torah, and some Karaites maintain that the agricultural years begin in Nisan, during the harvest season.  Accordingly, any crops planted in their sixth year cannot be harvested in the seventh year, and there is no harvest in the eight year as no crops can be planted in the seventh year. Thus, every Shemittah cycle results in two years without a harvest, and the harvest of the sixth year must sustain the nation for three full years.</p> | <p>Although Rabbinic law rules that the Sabbatical years begin in Tishrei, this is not explicit in the Torah, and some Karaites maintain that the agricultural years begin in Nisan, during the harvest season.  Accordingly, any crops planted in their sixth year cannot be harvested in the seventh year, and there is no harvest in the eight year as no crops can be planted in the seventh year. Thus, every Shemittah cycle results in two years without a harvest, and the harvest of the sixth year must sustain the nation for three full years.</p> | ||
− | <mekorot>Karaite opinion cited by <multilink><a href="IbnEzraVayikra25-20-22" data-aht="source">Ibn Ezra</a><a href="IbnEzraVayikra25-20-22" data-aht="source">Vayikra 25:20-22</a><a href="R. Avraham ibn Ezra" data-aht="parshan">About R. Avraham ibn Ezra</a></multilink><fn>Unfortunately, it is unclear to which Karaites Ibn Ezra refers.  It should be noted that many of the classical Karaite commentators do not take this position, but rather adopt the Rabbinic position that Tishrei serves as the beginning of the Shemittah year.</fn></mekorot> | + | <mekorot>Karaite opinion cited by <multilink><a href="IbnEzraVayikra25-20-22" data-aht="source">Ibn Ezra</a><a href="IbnEzraVayikra25-9" data-aht="source">Vayikra 25:9</a><a href="IbnEzraVayikra25-20-22" data-aht="source">Vayikra 25:20-22</a><a href="R. Avraham ibn Ezra" data-aht="parshan">About R. Avraham ibn Ezra</a></multilink><fn>Unfortunately, it is unclear to which Karaites Ibn Ezra refers.  It should be noted that many of the classical Karaite commentators do not take this position, but rather adopt the Rabbinic position that Tishrei serves as the beginning of the Shemittah year.</fn></mekorot> |
<point><b>Shemittah Year begins in Nisan</b> – According to these Karaites, there is only one New Year for all Torah laws,<fn>See <multilink><a href="MishnaRoshHaShanah1-1" data-aht="source">Mishna Rosh HaShanah</a><a href="MishnaRoshHaShanah1-1" data-aht="source">Rosh HaShanah 1:1</a></multilink> which, in emphasizing that there are four different new years, might be reacting to a similar position.  Indeed, much of Karaitic law has precedents in Sadducee and Qumran laws.  Unfortunately, regarding the question of how the Shemittah year was observed in Qumran (from Tishrei or Nisan), we have little information, as surprisingly very few Qumran texts relate to the laws of Shemittah and Yovel.  See יונתן בן דב, "מחזורי השמיטה והיובל בקומראן ויחסם אל השנה בת 364 ימים", מגילות ה'-ו' (תשס"ח): 53 who attempts to prove from fragmentary texts in 1Q22 and 11Q13 that the Shemittah year began in Tishrei.  In contrast, see D. Dimant, "Between Sectarian and Non-Sectarian : the Case of the <i>Apocryphon of Joshua</i>", in E. G. Chazon, D. Dimant & R. A. Clements (eds.), Reworking the Bible: Apocryphal and Related Texts at Qumran (STDJ 58), Leiden 2005: 111-112, who attempts to glean from 4Q379 that the Shemittah year began in Nisan.  At this point, it would appear that additional evidence is required.</fn> and it begins in Nisan, as stated in the verse "הַחֹדֶשׁ הַזֶּה לָכֶם רֹאשׁ חֳדָשִׁים רִאשׁוֹן הוּא לָכֶם לְחׇדְשֵׁי הַשָּׁנָה".  They note that it is difficult to find any evidence in Torah for the notion that the first of Tishrei is a Rosh HaShanah.<fn>See above for the discussion and notes regarding the Rabbinic approach.</fn>  As such, according to some Karaites, both Shemittah and Yovel begin in Nisan.  <multilink><a href="IbnEzraVayikra25-9" data-aht="source">Ibn Ezra</a><a href="IbnEzraVayikra25-9" data-aht="source">Vayikra 25:9</a><a href="R. Avraham ibn Ezra" data-aht="parshan">About R. Avraham ibn Ezra</a></multilink> rejects this approach from several verses:<br/> | <point><b>Shemittah Year begins in Nisan</b> – According to these Karaites, there is only one New Year for all Torah laws,<fn>See <multilink><a href="MishnaRoshHaShanah1-1" data-aht="source">Mishna Rosh HaShanah</a><a href="MishnaRoshHaShanah1-1" data-aht="source">Rosh HaShanah 1:1</a></multilink> which, in emphasizing that there are four different new years, might be reacting to a similar position.  Indeed, much of Karaitic law has precedents in Sadducee and Qumran laws.  Unfortunately, regarding the question of how the Shemittah year was observed in Qumran (from Tishrei or Nisan), we have little information, as surprisingly very few Qumran texts relate to the laws of Shemittah and Yovel.  See יונתן בן דב, "מחזורי השמיטה והיובל בקומראן ויחסם אל השנה בת 364 ימים", מגילות ה'-ו' (תשס"ח): 53 who attempts to prove from fragmentary texts in 1Q22 and 11Q13 that the Shemittah year began in Tishrei.  In contrast, see D. Dimant, "Between Sectarian and Non-Sectarian : the Case of the <i>Apocryphon of Joshua</i>", in E. G. Chazon, D. Dimant & R. A. Clements (eds.), Reworking the Bible: Apocryphal and Related Texts at Qumran (STDJ 58), Leiden 2005: 111-112, who attempts to glean from 4Q379 that the Shemittah year began in Nisan.  At this point, it would appear that additional evidence is required.</fn> and it begins in Nisan, as stated in the verse "הַחֹדֶשׁ הַזֶּה לָכֶם רֹאשׁ חֳדָשִׁים רִאשׁוֹן הוּא לָכֶם לְחׇדְשֵׁי הַשָּׁנָה".  They note that it is difficult to find any evidence in Torah for the notion that the first of Tishrei is a Rosh HaShanah.<fn>See above for the discussion and notes regarding the Rabbinic approach.</fn>  As such, according to some Karaites, both Shemittah and Yovel begin in Nisan.  <multilink><a href="IbnEzraVayikra25-9" data-aht="source">Ibn Ezra</a><a href="IbnEzraVayikra25-9" data-aht="source">Vayikra 25:9</a><a href="R. Avraham ibn Ezra" data-aht="parshan">About R. Avraham ibn Ezra</a></multilink> rejects this approach from several verses:<br/> | ||
<ul> | <ul> |
Version as of 22:39, 21 May 2017
Duration of the Pre-Shemittah Blessing of the Produce
Exegetical Approaches
Overview
Commentators differ in their understanding of the "three year" blessing promised by Hashem in anticipation of the Sabbatical year. Several sources maintain that Hashem is indeed promising that the harvest will provide sufficient food for three entire years. One opinion in the Sifra explains that this is necessary because the verses are speaking of the exceptional scenario of the seventh Shemittah cycle in which the Sabbatical year is followed by the Jubilee year and sowing is prohibited for two years in a row. A Karaite opinion, in contrast, asserts that even in a regular Sabbatical year, a full three year blessing is required. It claims that the Sabbatical year begins in Nisan with the reaping season, which results in two consecutive years without a harvest.
Others reinterpret the phrase "לִשְׁלֹשׁ הַשָּׁנִים" and claim that, in reality, Hashem is promising only two years' worth of food. Rashi explains that the produce will nourish the people during parts of three different years of the Shemittah cycle, i.e. the second half of the sixth year, the entire seventh year, and the first half of the eighth year. Alternatively, Rashbam posits that the sixth year's harvest will provide food for the sixth and seventh years, as well as the seeds needed to sow the land in the eighth year.
Three Full Years
Hashem is promising a blessing 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:
Only Shemittah Followed by Yovel
The verses are speaking exclusively about the unique case of the seventh Sabbatical Year which is immediately followed by the Jubilee Year. Since in this scenario there are two consecutive years in which sowing is prohibited, Hashem is reassuring the people that the harvest of the sixth year will sustain them for three full years.
- R"Y Bekhor Shor and R. Wessely4 claim that, in reality, the verses are addressing both the regular scenario and the more exceptional Yovel year. Accordingly, the phrase "וּזְרַעְתֶּם אֵת הַשָּׁנָה הַשְּׁמִינִת" switches to speak of a normal cycle in which sowing is permitted in the eighth year.5 However, the obvious difficulty with this reading is that the verses betray no hint of any such abrupt switch in subject.
- Abarbanel, instead, suggests that the phrase is attached to the previous verse and means that, due to the blessing, it will be as if you planted in the eighth year.
- Alternatively, this position might assert that the Jubilee year is not counted among the years of the Shemittah cycle, and thus, the "eighth year" of the verse refers to the year after Yovel.
- Ramban7 suggests to interpret the verse as if its order was rearranged (מקרא מסורס) so that it reads: "And if you will say in the seventh year:8 'What shall we eat [in subsequent years]'."
- R. Bachya and Abarbanel propose to repunctuate the verse, placing a pause after the words, "מַה נֹּאכַל" rather than after "בַּשָּׁנָה הַשְּׁבִיעִת".9 As such, the verse reads: "If you say: 'What shall we eat [in subsequent years]? [After all] in the seventh year we will neither sow nor harvest!?'"10
- R. Wessely posits that the people are asking: "How will we eat [with peace of mind] in the seventh year, knowing that we will neither sow nor gather [in the seventh year for subsequent years]?
While this may come as no surprise to the modern reader for whom it is ingrained that "Rosh HaShanah" is celebrated at the beginning of Tishrei, it is noteworthy that nowhere does the Torah state explicitly that the first of Tishrei should be considered a New Year.13 Tishrei is always referred to as the "seventh month", and not the first month. Indeed, it is possible that what compelled the Rabbinic bestowing of the title of "ראש השנה" upon the first of Tishrei was, not any of the verses which discuss the character of the first of Tishrei itself, but rather these very laws of Shemittah and Yovel.
All Shemittah Years
Although Rabbinic law rules that the Sabbatical years begin in Tishrei, this is not explicit in the Torah, and some Karaites maintain that the agricultural years begin in Nisan, during the harvest season. Accordingly, any crops planted in their sixth year cannot be harvested in the seventh year, and there is no harvest in the eight year as no crops can be planted in the seventh year. Thus, every Shemittah cycle results in two years without a harvest, and the harvest of the sixth year must sustain the nation for three full years.
- He points out that Sukkot is referred to as arriving "בְּצֵאת הַשָּׁנָה",17 suggesting that Tishrei (and not Nisan) marks the change from one year to the next. The Karaites, however, might respond that the verse refers to the end of an agricultural year, but not a ritual one.
- Ibn Ezra further notes that the shofar blast that marks the Jubilee year is blown on Yom HaKippurim, suggesting that the year begins in Tishrei.
- Finally, Ibn Ezra points to the order of the nation's words "הֵן לֹא נִזְרָע וְלֹא נֶאֱסֹף" to prove that, in the Sabbatical year, planting precedes sowing, in contrast to the claims of the Karaites.
Parts of Three Years
Hashem is reassuring the nation that the crops planted in the beginning of the sixth year will suffice to nourish them for a two year period, or one more year than usual. This twenty-four month period extends across parts of three different years of the Shemittah cycle and thus overlaps with the second half of the sixth year, the entire seventh year, and the first half of the eighth year.
- Rashi explains that even though some crops can be eaten earlier, there is some produce that is not yet been brought into the house until Sukkot of the ninth year.27 According to him, "עַד בּוֹא תְּבוּאָתָהּ" refers not to the harvest (קציר) of the eighth year but to its gathering (אסיף) into the home.
- Netziv, instead, suggests that the verse is simply saying that even though it is unnecessary, the harvest will be abundant enough to last until the ninth year.28
- Ralbag, in contrast, claims that this part of the verse refers to a year in which Yovel follows Shemittah, in which case the old grains must sustain the nation through the ninth year.29 In contrast to Rashi and Netziv, he understands "עַד בּוֹא תְּבוּאָתָהּ" to refer to the crops of the ninth year and not the eighth. Abarbanel questions this splitting apart of the verses, writing: "איך יפרשהו לשעורין חלק לשמטה וחלק ביובל?"
Two Plus One
Hashem is promising that the produce from the sixth year will provide not only food for two full years but also the seeds needed to sow the land for the third year.