The 222nd prohibition is that we are forbidden from harvesting in the normal way crops which the ground produces on its own during the seventh year [shemittah]. This means as follows: we are forbidden from working the land and cultivating trees during the shemittah year, as mentioned above. Food that was planted in the sixth year and grows in the seventh year — called safiach — may be eaten during the seventh year.1 However, it may not be harvested unless one makes a variation in the normal harvesting process.
The source of this prohibition is G‑d's statement,2 "Do not harvest crops that grow on their own." This does not mean that one may not harvest them at all, as is evident from the verse3 "[What grows while] the land is resting may be eaten by you." The intention of the verse is that one may not harvest in the same way one harvests grain during other years. One may only gather it as if it were ownerless, without preparation or arrangement, as we shall explain.4
