Shabbat Table Topics – Parashat Behar/0/en

Shabbat Table Topics – Parashat Behar

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Shemittah: Between Man and God or Man and Man?

What is the Purpose of Shemittah?  While Ramban focuses on how the year helps an individual's spiritual growth and increases their recognition of Hashem, Shadal emphasizes how the year inculcates social equality and concern for the less fortunate.  Rambam, in contrast, suggests that Shemittah serves a practical function in keeping the land healthy and capable of bearing fruit.

• Is it possible that certain commandments were instituted only for utilitarian purposes? What other mitzvot be understood in similar fashion?  For one example, see Ralbag on Tzara'at.
• Does the Torah promote capitalism or socialism?  What do the laws of Shemittah suggest?¹
• How are Shemittah and Shabbat similar?  What benefits are gained from an enforced resting and refraining from work?  

A Test of Faith?

Is Shemittah really one of the most difficult commandments to observe?

In an almost completely agrarian based society, it would seem that Shemittah, which prohibits sowing or harvesting fields for an entire year, would be an extremely daunting commandment to keep, requiring tremendous trust in Hashem. Cognizant of this fact, Hashem reassures the nation that the crops of the sixth year will sustain them for three years. However, if the people received a three-fold blessing of grain even before the seventh year began, why did the mitzvah prove so hard to fulfill that it is singled out as the root cause of the ultimate exile?²  How was it a test of faith at all?  See Nature of the Pre-Shemittah Blessing of the Produce.

Does Tishrei Really Mark the New Year?

To facilitate the observance of Shemittah, Hashem promises a three year blessing of the produce.  However, if farming is prohibited for only one year, should not a two year blessing have sufficed? Some Karaites point to this question to prove that the year (and hence, the laws of Shemittah) start in Nisan, at harvest time.  As such, any crops planted in their sixth year cannot be harvested in the seventh year, and since nothing is sown the following year, there are two harvest-free years, requiring a three year blessing. 

• Does the rest of Torah support or negate the claim that it is Nisan, rather than Tishrei, which marks the turn of the year? Perhaps surprisingly, no where in Torah does it designate the first of Tishrei as Rosh HaShanah!  If so, where does that designation come from?  What evidence can you bring to counter the Karaite claims and support the position that Shemittah starts in the fall?
• Finally, how else might one explain why a three year blessing was necessary? See Duration of the Pre-Shemittah Blessing of the Produce.

¹ Ze'ev Jabotinsky notes that the seven year Shemittah cycle and the Jubilee Year combine elements of both capitalism and socialism, allowing for checks and balances between the two systems. For six years a free market economy allows for growth and competition, while the seventh year tries to ensure that the pitfalls of such a system, i.e. big gaps between the rich and poor, are avoided.

² In fact, according to Rashbam, all of the blessings and curses of Vayikra 26 relate to only Shemittah and Yovel! See Blessings and Curses – Over Which Commandments?for elaboration on his approach.