The Shemittah, or Sabbatical Year, is commanded in several places in the Torah. It is part of a fifty year cycle, that includes a Sabbatical year every seven, which includes a cessation from most agricultural work in the Land of Israel, as well as the cancellation of debts, and a fiftieth year Yovel (Jubilee) which besides the above, also requires the freeing of Hebrew slaves, and the return of most real estate to its original owner. The fifty year cycle also has implications for tithing of produce. Besides the gifts required to be given to a Kohen (Priest) and a Levite, which were required every year, there were additional tithes to be given to the poor in certain years, and another which the person who grew the crops was obligated to eat a "second tithe" in Jerusalem in other years.
A problem arises with Jubilee because of the Biblical command to observe it "when you come into the Land"; interpreted to mean when you come as a Nations, dwelling according to your tribes". This situation ceased to be with the Exile of the Northern Ten Tribes in 723 BCE. Therefore, without Jubilee being operative, the entire cycle was thrown into kilter. Here, we have several views. The first view says that at this point, Sabbatical years became rabbinic rather than Biblical. After the seventh Sabbatical Year, the fiftieth year was supposed to be Jubilee, with the following year counted as year one of the new cycle. Without a Jubilee, the year following the seventh Sabbath (year forty-nine) became the first year of the new cycle. This was not Biblical, and the cycle was only preserved either as rabbinic law, or, as suggested by some, as a custom of remembrance, so that these laws will still be not be forgotten when G-d gathers the exiled tribes to the Holy Land. A second view holds that Jubilee and Sabbatical Years are independent, so in the absence of Jubilee, the Sabbatical year still remains Biblical. This view is held by a small, but distinguished, minority.A third view is that of Maimonides. He states that as long as there was a Sanhedrin, even when Jubilee was not possible to observe, they still proclaimed the fiftieth year as sacred, thereby maintaining the fifty year cycle, the Biblical nature of the Sabbatical year, as well as the order of tithes. But with the demise of the Sanhedrin during the fourth century CE, this ceased, and Sabbatical year and tithes became rabbinical only. The Torah states that the years must be proclaimed. The Oral Torah explains that this was proclamation by the Sanhedrin. What's more, Maimonides calculates when Sabbatical year will fall. He noted that his calculation is different from that which is observed by Jews dwelling in the Land. He concludes, "I withdraw my opinion before the custom of the Land of Israel". Many understand this to mean that our entire observance of Shemittah today is, essentially, custom. This view was picked up and advocated by MEIRI (1249-1310).
The result is that there are widely differing views as to the degree of stringency with which these laws need to be observed today. Ideological questions come up as well. With the return of large numbers of Jews to the Holy Land, should the observance of Shemittah, no matter what its status, be enforced as much as possible so that we will be made aware of the fact that it IS the Holy Land? Or, given the economic hardship of a struggling economy, should legal fictions come into play, justified by the fact that these laws may be not only rabbinical today, but only custom? These topics have been the center of major debates since the late nineteenth century. Several different methods of dealing with Shemittah are in force in different communities. Each method has its advocates and detractors. I shall discuss these views in coming posts.