The Sabbatical Year: Six Reasons

Would you enjoy taking a full sabbatical every seven years? You could relax, travel, study and spend quality time with your family. How would you like it if your entire country took a sabbatical every seventh year? Would you think that a good idea?

Farmers in Israel are required by Jewish law to keep shemitah, letting their fields lie fallow for a full year, once every seven years.1 Why is this sabbatical ordered?

1) The Soil

The early philosophers saw shemitah as an opportunity to rest and refresh the soil. 2 However, this theory alone is insufficient because the soil requires more frequent rests than once in seven years to be fully refreshed.3

2) A Macro-Shabbat

Others saw shemitah as a larger-scale Shabbat. We rest on Shabbat to demonstrate that G-d created the universe in six days and rested on the seventh. We similarly let the field lie fallow on the seventh year to demonstrate that G-d rested on the seventh day.4

Later commentators rejected this theory, arguing that if shemitah is intended to instill an awareness of G-d as the creator, its purpose is defeated by the long interval between the rest periods. The weekly Shabbat already serves this purpose and with much shorter intervals. What does the shemitah contribute that Shabbat does not accomplish?

3) Making Up for Six Years of Shabbats

In response, some argued that shemitah enables the field to rest on Shabbat. It is true that we rest on Shabbat, but even as we rest, our fields continue to work. We plant on Friday and the seeds germinate on Shabbat. During shemitah our fields make up for the lost Shabbats and festivals of the previous six years.5

There are fifty-two Shabbats in a solar calendar year. The total number of Shabbats over six years is 312. Seven festival days per year raise the total by another 42 (6x7) to 354, which is the precise number of days in the shemitah, a lunar calendar year. Observing shemitah for three hundred and fifty-four days, a full lunar calendar year, enables the field to "balance its accounts" and catch up with its owner in observing the full allotment of Shabbats over six years. 6

4) A Lesson in Faith and Humility

This argument notwithstanding, a new theory was later proposed. The laws of shemitah were only binding upon our ancestors after they settled in Israel. When we toil and labor over crops that we grow, or other forms of income that we generate, we can grow proud of our achievements and take personal credit for them.7

We are liable to forget that G-d's blessing is the sole reason for our success. We are liable to forget that G-d gave us our land and our seed, that he made the rain fall, the sun shine and the crops grow. Shemitah reinforces our faith in G-d's providence over our affairs.

We work the land for six consecutive years although conventional wisdom dictates that this is unhealthy for the soil.8 In fact, the soil retains its strength and actually provides a larger crop in the sixth year to provide for the shemitah year.9 Then we rest in the shemitah year despite natural misgivings and concerns about providing for our families.

This kind of behavior is a formula for disaster. Farmers who undertake this kind of work ethic should prepare for bankruptcy. Yet for Jews in Israel it produces tremendous results. This reinforces our faith that the land belongs to G-d, that our success flows directly from his blessing and that we must be grateful to him for everything we have.10

5) Unity

It is easy to share with others when we can afford to share, when we have a steady income and when we know how we will pay for tomorrow's expenses. It is much more difficult to be charitable when we are unsure of what tomorrow holds. Landowners had no income during shemitah, yet they would routinely abandon to the public all crops that grew spontaneously during shemitah. In this way shemitah enhanced Jewish unity.11

Outside of Israel this phenomenon is evidenced in charitable contributions. Conventional wisdom dictates that the more we give, the less we retain. From G-d's perspective, however, the more we give, the more he blesses us. This is especially true when we give more than we can afford to give. Charity thus also strengthens our faith and our unity.

6) Liberation

The belief that the world belongs to G-d and that our success depends on him is a liberating notion. It enables us to release the burdens that we carry. We still toil, but we breath easier. We still labor, but we sleep easier We know that G-d guides our footsteps and that everything happens for a good reason. We learn to see G-d's hand in everything we do and his presence in everything we see.

This leads us to the final reason for shemitah proposed by biblical commentators. 12The Talmud informs us that in the Holy Temple the Levites sang G-d's praises every day. On Shabbat, the seventh day, they sang about the day of eternal rest, the messianic age.

The Talmud teaches that our world will last for six millennia. The first two were devoted to creation. The second two were devoted to Torah. The last two are devoted to Moshiach.13 Indeed, the Talmud tells us that in the seventh millennium, the world as we know it will cease to exist. It will become a world of freedom and of G-dliness.14

Shemitah, the seventh year, like Shabbat, the seventh day, represents the messianic age. Our faith in G-d is strengthened during shemitah, just as it will be in the messianic age. Our unity is strengthened during shemitah, just as Moshiach will usher in an age of peace. The sixth year is a year of plenty just as Moshiach will usher in an age of prosperity.

The messianic age is most notably known for freedom. Indeed, the shemitah is a year of emancipation. Slaves are liberated and all debts are cleared. May we soon merit the freedom of the messianic age.