Shmitta as Social Legislation

You may plant your land for six years and gather its crops. But during the seventh year, you must leave it alone  and withdraw from it . The needy among you will then be able to eat (from your fields) just as you do, and whatever is left over can be eaten by wild animals. This also applies to your vineyard and your olive grove.                                                               Exodus 23:10-11

            Thus the Torah introduces the laws of shemitta, the Sabbatical year.

            Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon writes that Israel’s wise men throughout the generations have suggested that the laws of shemitta convey a variety of aspects:

                        Between man and God (bein adam laMakom)

                        Between man and fellow-man (bein adam l’ḥavero)

                        Between man and himself

                        Between man and his Land.

            Maimonides, in the Guide for the Perplexed [3:39] expounds upon the bein adam l’ḥavero aspect, and writes:

Among the commandments we have listed in the laws of shemitta and yovel (the jubilee year) some are intended to convey sympathy with our fellow-men and to promote the well-being of all mankind, as is stated “That the poor of thy people may eat" [Exodus 23:11]

However, if the intent of the sabbatical year is to provide the needs of the weaker social strata, it apparently would suffice to declare the year’s produce ownerless, and we may ask why the Torah forbade working the fields.

Rabbi Rimon quotes Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, who explains that through the combination of declaring the produce ownerless and the prohibition of working fields during shemitta, the Torah creates a situation which provides for the needs of the poor while preventing the provider from feeling superior to the recipient. In essence, the farmer is not the one who provides for the needs of the poor, rather everything comes from the generous hand of the Creator, Who is the true owner of the fields.

Rabbi Yitzḥak Nissenbaum (1869 – 1943) wrote in a similar vein:

There exists the potential for developing two classes: the wealthy property owners and the poor who own no land, and this situation can lead to feelings of mastery and tyranny for the first group and feelings of inferiority and servility for the latter. Shemitta comes in order to ensure the psychological equality of the Hebrew nation. During shemitta, once every seven years, there is no ownership of fields … throughout this year the fields are free for everyone. Thus, the wealthy ones appreciate that their wealth is not durable and the poor ones that their poverty is not permanent.

            Rabbi Rimon adds a comment of Sefat Emet: “the mitzva of shemitta conveys unity … the hand of the wealthy and of the poor are equal during this year.”  Through the equality created by the laws of shemitta, the donor cannot feel superiority over the recipient.   Following this line of reasoning, Sefat Emet explains the dependence of the laws of shemitta upon the presence within the Land of “all its residents” [Babylonian Talmud, Arachin 32b]. The mitzva of shemitta is not a mitzva of individuals, rather there is a direct correlation between Israel’s unity and the ability to fulfill the mitzva, and it is through the unity of the People of Israel that shemitta can be observed.

            Based upon the is elucidation, it is clear why the Torah presents shemitta in Parashat Mishpatim, a Parasha which deals largely with laws of bein adam l’ḥavero.