| Mishnayot: | 89 |
| Chapters: | 10 |
| Talmudpages: | - |
| Talmudypages: | 31 |
| Tosefta: | 8 |
| Next: | Terumot |
Shevi'it (lit. "Seventh") is the fifth tractate of Seder Zeraim ("Order of Seeds") of the Mishnah, dealing with the laws of leaving the fields of the Land of Israel to lie fallow every seventh year; the laws concerning which produce may, or may not be eaten during the Sabbatical year; and the cancellation of debts and the rabbinical ordinance established to allow a creditor to reclaim a debt after the Sabbatical year (Prozbul).
The laws are derived from the Torah in Exodus 23:10-11, Leviticus 25:1-7 and Leviticus 25:20-22, and Deuteronomy 15:1-9.
This tractate comprises ten chapters in the Mishna and eight in the Tosefta and has thirty-one folio pages of Gemara in the Jerusalem Talmud. Like most tractates in the order of Zeraim, there is no Babylonian Talmud for this tractate.
The Jewish religious laws detailed in this tractate continue to apply in modern Israel, where the Sabbatical year, known as shmita, is still observed.
This tractate deals with the details of the laws concerning the three main commandments of the Sabbatical year – known as Shmita (Hebrew: respite or release) – the prohibition of cultivating the land, the law of the sanctity of the produce of the land and of the remission of all debts.[1] [2] [3]
As with most of the Torah's agricultural laws, the agricultural laws of the Sabbatical year apply only in the Land of Israel; however, by Rabbinic enactment, some were also applied to the adjoining land of Syria as well. The laws regarding loans, however, apply everywhere, both inside and outside of the Land of Israel.[2]
The Mishna establishes the rules for permissible and forbidden agricultural work during the seventh year and how the produce that grows during this year must be handled, in what the Mishna terms shmittat karka’in – respite of the Land – in accordance with the Torah’s requirements (Exodus 23:10-11, and Leviticus 25:2-7). Generally, farming activities are forbidden, such as planting in the fields, pruning vineyards and reaping grain or gathering produce. According to Torah law, four kinds of work are forbidden — sowing and reaping in the field and pruning trees and gathering their fruit. All other kinds of work which benefit the soil or trees are forbidden by Rabbinical law.[3] [4]
The tractate specifies the work that may or may not be performed, not only in the seventh year itself, but also thirty days before Rosh Hashanah. Only in cases of great loss was certain work allowed; and during periods of oppressive taxation by foreign rulers of the Land of Israel, was work allowed until the New Year itself, and even later. This prohibition is called "tosefet shevi'it", and applies only when the Temple of Jerusalem stands.[1] [3]
The Mishna also elaborates on how produce that grows during the Sabbatical year must be treated with a higher degree of sanctity than that which is grown during the six ordinary years.[1] Gathering and processing produce that grows of its own accord during the year is regulated but can be eaten by the owner of the land, servants, and guests, as well as the poor – the fields must be made accessible for anyone to take the produce, and once the produce is acquired, it is governed by special laws.[2] [4]
There are four specific commandments regarding the sanctity of the produce of the Sabbatical Year:[3]
At the end of the seventh year, the Torah requires every creditor to discharge any personal loan made to a fellow Israelite in what is termed shmittat kesafim – release of debts – in accordance with Deuteronomy 15:1-10.
This release of debts was conceived for an agricultural community, where a debt would be contracted only in a case of poverty or misfortune, and the loan was considered an act of charity rather than a business transaction. However, as economic life became more complex during the Second Temple period, debts incurred in business transactions belonged to a different category and could not fairly be cancelled. Thus, people became reluctant to lend money to one another for fear of forfeiting their claim to it with the arrival of the Sabbatical year. The Talmudic sage, Hillel, who lived in the first century before the Common Era, interpreted the biblical verses to exclude debts that had been secured by order of the court before the start of the Sabbatical Year from the operation of the law and enacted a legal instrument known as Prozbul, drawn up by a court to empower the collection of a debt due to a creditor.[1] [4] [5]
The biblical law (as prescribed in Deuteronomy 15:1-3) concerning the cancellation of debts was left unchanged by technically changing the status of individual private loans into the public administration, according to which the court, instead of the individual lender, reclaimed the loan. This allowed the poor to receive interest-free loans before the Sabbatical year, while protecting the investments of the lenders.[5]
The last chapter of tractate Shevi’it details this legal instrument and specifies how it is drawn up in a court when the loan is made.[1]
The tractate also contains aggadic material and the Jerusalem Talmud describes several occurrences in the lives of several Talmudic sages intended to convey messages of morals and principles:
One such story is that of Rabbi Abba bar Zemina, who was in Rome and was offered meat from an animal which had not been slaughtered in the kosher manner to eat and threatened with death should he refuse; when the rabbi remained steadfast, the Roman admitted that, in fact, he had wanted only to test his loyalty to Judaism, and, on the contrary, he would have killed him had he eaten it, stating, in the words of the Talmud 'if one is a Jew, one should be a true Jew, and faithfully observe the principles of his religion" (Jerusalem Talmud, 4:2, 35a-b).[1] [6]
The Talmud also relates a story that as a matter of piety (middat hasidut), Rav told his household that if they promised to give something to someone else, they should not withdraw the offer, even if the promise was not legally binding; he said this despite his known halakhic ruling that a withdrawal from an agreement that was not legally binding is not a formal breach of faith. Having mentioned that the sages are pleased with someone who repays a debt despite the Sabbatical year, the tractate concludes that the person who keeps their word and does not seek to evade a commitment, even though it was not legally binding, is honored.[1] [6]
The tractate consists of ten chapters and eighty-nine paragraphs (mishnayot). It has a Gemara – rabbinical analysis of and commentary on the Mishnah – only in the Jerusalem Talmud. There is a Tosefta of eight chapters for this tractate.[6]
There is no Gemara in the Babylonian Talmud for this tractate, or indeed for any of the tractates of this order of the Mishna, other than tractate Berakhot, as the laws related to agriculture that are mostly discussed in this order generally have no practical application outside of the Land of Israel.[1] [6]
An overview of the topics of the chapters is as follows:
The Tosefta describes how the produce of the Sabbatical year was stored in communal granaries, from which it was divided every Friday on the eve of the weekly Sabbath among all the families according to their need.[1] [6]
According to the Roman-Jewish historian, Josephus, the Greek ruler Alexander the Great and the Roman emperor Julius Caesar both cancelled the usual taxes from the Jews in the Land of Israel during the Sabbatical year out of consideration for the agricultural inactivity and associated lack of income.[1] Other Greek and Roman rulers of the Land of Israel were not as accommodating and the tractate therefore addresses these circumstances of hardship due to the demands of the ruling powers.
Many of the mishnayot discuss agricultural methods for field crops and fruit trees. Hence this tractate is an important source for understanding agriculture and horticulture in ancient Israel.
The major early commentaries on the Mishna are collected and printed along with the text of the Mishna in the standard Vilna editions of the Talmud, following the tractate Berakhot. New editions based on manuscripts differ significantly from the Vilna edition in many cases.[7]
Medieval commentaries on this tractate include the following:[7]
During the nineteenth century, with the renewal of Jewish agricultural communities in the Land of Israel, and the re-establishment of Jewish sovereignty in the land with the State of Israel in the twentieth century, the subject of the Sabbatical year generated a large number of works. The following are some of the commentaries that have been published:[7]
Works that are of assistance interpreting the many botanical references in the tractate include: