Shmita Sourcebook Section II: Recalling Ancient Memory

(2) When did they begin to count the jubilees? Fourteen years after they had entered Eretz Yisrael. This is derived from Leviticus 25:3: “Six years shall you sow your field and six years shall you trim your vineyard.” (Implied is that each person must recognize that a specific portion of the land is theirs [which would require a division of the land to take place before the count starts.]) The people took seven years to conquer the land and seven years to divide it. Hence you may say [that they began to count] in the year 2503 after the Creation, from the new year following the birth of the first man, being the second year of Creation. And they declared the 2510th year after the creation, which was the 21st year [14 years to conquer and settle, 7 years of counting] after the entry into Eretz Yisrael], as the Sabbatical year. They counted seven Sabbatical years and then sanctified the fiftieth year which was the 64th year after they entered Eretz Yisrael.

(3) The Israelites counted seventeen jubilees from the time they entered the land until they left. The year in which they left, when the First Temple was destroyed, happened to be the year following the sabbatical year and the thirty-sixth year of the jubilee, since the First Temple lasted four hundred and ten years. As soon as the Temple was destroyed, this counting ceased. When it ceased, the land remained desolate for seventy years, and then the Second Temple was built. It lasted four hundred and twenty years. Ezra came up [from Babylonia to Judea] in the seventh year of its erection. This was the second coming [to the land]. From that year on, they began to use a different counting. They made the thirteenth year of the construction of the Second Temple to serve as shemittah (year of release), and counted seven shemittoth and hallowed the fiftieth year. Although no jubilee was observed during the period of the Second Temple, they counted its years in conjunction with the shemittoth which they did hallow.

(1) The court would examine the witnesses in capital cases with seven interrogations, i.e., interrogatory questions, and they are: In which seven-year period, that is, in which cycle of seven years within a jubilee did the event occur; in which year of the Sabbatical cycle did the event occur; in which month did the event occur; on which day of the month did the event occur; on which day of the week did the event occur; at which hour did the event occur; and in what place did the event occur.

We are commanded to count the years and the Shmita-years, seven times seven years, up until the Jubilee year... And this mitzva of counting Shmita years is the responsibility of the Beit Din, i.e., the Great Sanhedrin [Jewish Court of Law]; it is they who count each year of the fifty in the same way that each individual counts the days of the Omer… and it involves counting the years [of the Jubilee cycle] separately, as well as counting the Shmita cycles together with it.

(20) Those (of Judah) who survived the sword he exiled to Babylon (by Nubuchadnezzar), and they became his and his sons’ servants until the rise of the Persian kingdom, (21) in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah - until the land paid back its Sabbaths [it's Shmita years which the people of Judah neglected]; as long as it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, until seventy years were completed.

(29) “And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all who separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to [follow] the Teaching of God, their wives, sons and daughters, all who know enough to understand, (30) join with their noble brothers, and take an oath with sanctions to follow the Teaching of God, given through Moses the servant of God, and to observe carefully all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, His rules and laws... (32) “The peoples of the land who bring their wares and all sorts of foodstuff for sale on the sabbath day—we will not buy from them on the sabbath or a holy day. We will forgo [the produce of] the seventh year, and every outstanding debt."

The Gemara answers: That which Rabbi Shimon ben Elyakim says in the name of Rabbi Elazar ben Pedat, who says in the name of Rabbi Elazar ben Shammua, escaped the attention of Yehuda: Many cities were conquered by those who ascended from Egypt to Eretz Yisrael, led by Joshua, son of Nun, and were not conquered by those who ascended from Babylonia to Eretz Yisrael in the return to Zion led by Ezra. Among those cities was Beit She’an. And Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi holds: The initial consecration with which Eretz Yisrael was sanctified during the era of Joshua, son of Nun, in terms of the obligation to fulfill land-based mitzvot, sanctified Eretz Yisrael for its time but did not sanctify it forever. Rather, the obligation lapsed with the exile to Babylonia. When those who ascended from Babylonia returned to Eretz Yisrael and sanctified the land, they left certain places unsanctified, so that the poor would rely upon them for sustenance during the Sabbatical Year, when produce is not plentiful. Since these areas were not sanctified, it is permitted to sow crops there during the Sabbatical Year, and the poor will not go hungry.

A certain teacher was suspected concerning Sabbatical year produce [growing and then selling the ‘ownerless’ harvest]. He was brought before Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi. R. Yehudah Hanassi said to the accusers: ‘‘What can this poor man do? He did it for the sake of his life.’’

Once the tax collectors grew abundant it was permitted to gather the produce of the Sabbatical Year. And what tax did they collect? Arnona, which was a heavy tax on property collected both during the Sabbatical Year and in other years, placing pressure on those observing the Sabbatical Year. As Rabbi Yannai proclaimed: Go out and sow the fields during the Sabbatical Year due to the arnona that you must pay.

Once Rabbi [Yehudah Hanassi] wanted to annul the Sabbatical Year. Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair went to him. Rabbi asked Pinchas, “How are your grains doing?” Pinchas said to him, “The endives [wild] are growing fine.” Rabbi once again said to him: “How are your grains doing?” Pinchas replied to him, again, “The endives are growing fine.” And by this, Rabbi understood that Pinchas did not agree with him about annulling the Sabbatical year.

The Gemara asks: Who are the Sages referred to here as the Rabbis? It is Rabbi Yehuda, as in Rabbi Yehuda’s locale they considered produce of the Sabbatical Year an especially stringent prohibition. Therefore, if a resident of that place was suspect with regard to the Sabbatical Year, he was certainly not trusted with regard to tithes. As in that locale, if a certain person would call another: A convert, son of a female convert, wishing to insult him, that person would say to him in reply: I have a blessing coming to me, as I do not eat produce of the Sabbatical Year like you do. This indicates that the accusation of eating produce of the Sabbatical Year was a great insult, since they treated the Sabbatical Year stringently.

(3) And these on the following list are the ones who are disqualified by the Sages from bearing witness due to their unseemly behavior, as they are considered wicked individuals guilty of monetary transgressions: One who plays with dice [bekubbiyya] for money, and one who lends money with interest, and those who fly pigeons, and merchants who trade in the produce of the Sabbatical Year, which may be eaten but may not be sold as an object of commerce.

R. Abbahu opened his discourse with the text, They that sit in the gate talk of me (Ps. 69.13): This refers to the nations of the world who sit in theatres and circuses. ‘And I am the song of the drunkards’: after they have sat eating and drinking and become intoxicated, they sit and talk of me, scoffing at me and saying, ‘We have no need to eat carobs like the Jews ‘! They ask one another, ‘How long do you wish to live?’
To which they reply, ‘As long as the shirt of a Jew which is worn on the Sabbath’! They then take a camel into their theatres, put their shirts upon it, and ask one another, ‘Why is it in mourning?’ To which they reply, ‘The Jews observe the law of the Sabbatical year and they have no vegetables, so they eat this camel’s thorns, and that is why it is in mourning’!

Initially, agents of the court would sit at the gates of the city. Everyone who brought fruits in his hand would have the fruits removed and be given enough food for three meals in exchange. The rest would be entered into the storehouse.
When it came time for dates, the agents of the court would hire workers to gather them together, make them into pressed cakes and enter them into the storehouse of the city. When it came time for grapes, agents of the court would hire workers, squeeze the grapes, press them, enter them into jugs and place them in the city storehouse. When it came time for olives, agents of the court would hire workers to prepare and press them in the oil press and enter the oil into jugs and place them in the city storehouses. These products would be distributed on the eve of Shabbat, every person according to the needs of his household.
Someone who has fruit from shevi’it (Shmita) when the hour for biur arrived distributes the fruits to neighbors and relatives and people he knows. He then goes out and places the fruits on his doorstep and says, “My brothers from the house of Israel, anyone who needs may come and take.” He then returns and enters back into his house and eats until they are gone.