The Sabbatical Year / Shmittah
Yehovah spoke to Moshe on Mount Sinai, saying: Speak to the children of Isra’el and say to them: When you come into the land which I give you, the land shall keep a Shabbat to Yehovah. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather its fruit. But in the seventh year there shall be a Shabbat of solemn rest for the land, a Shabbat to Yehovah; you shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. What grows of its own accord from your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your unpruned vine; it shall be a year of rest for the land. Yet the Shabbat of the land shall provide food for you—for you, your servant, your maidservant, your hired worker, and the stranger who dwells with you, and for your livestock and the beasts in your land—all its produce shall be for food.
—Leviticus 25:1–7
There are two foundational elements in the Torah that are essential for understanding the broader context of Scripture: agriculture and time—its conception and the ability to live according to it. These two are closely connected. Agricultural cycles on the earth occur as a result of the earth’s movement around the sun, which in turn defines our concept of time.
From the very beginning in Genesis, time markers appear in the days of Creation. On the fourth day, the sun and moon were created specifically to “serve as signs for seasons, and for days and years” (Gen. 1:14). Later, with the giving of the Torah, a cycle of annual appointed times was revealed to Isra’el (Ex. 23; Lev. 23), emphasizing that they were to be observed at their proper times. These “appointed times” (mo’adim in Hebrew) are intrinsically tied to agricultural cycles, which, as noted, are linked to time itself through the earth’s orbit around the sun, marking the seasons (spring and fall equinoxes) and establishing the year beginning in the spring (Ex. 12:2).
The first and perhaps most significant appointed time is the Shabbat. It is listed first in Leviticus 23 and occurs 52 times a year (52 × 7 = 364), unlike the other appointed times, which occur once annually. Revealed from the very week of creation, the Shabbat defines the weekly cycle. The sun, together with the testimony of harvests, marks the years. Yet there are greater cycles beyond the year, and this is what the concept of shmittah reveals in this portion.
Interwoven with the theme of the biblical festivals and Israel’s worship is the concept of sacrifices and offerings. While animal sacrifices were central in the service of the Tabernacle and Temple, offering the fruits of the land was also common and required by the Torah (see Firstfruits, Shavuot, Sukkot). The people of ancient Isra’el were to recognize that everything that grew and was harvested came from the Creator of the land, and they expressed gratitude year after year for this provision.
While each week men, women, children, and even animals rest on the weekly Shabbat, the land itself continues producing. For this reason, six years were appointed for cultivation, but in the seventh year nothing was to be planted—the land itself was given rest.
This was a time of economic “reset.” A kind of great reset—not orchestrated by human institutions, but established by the Creator Himself, repeating every seven years. Refraining from working the land had significant economic impact, but that was not all. Servants were released (as less labor was needed), debts were forgiven, and financial pressure was eased. Additionally, “the poor of the people” were allowed to eat whatever grew naturally from the land (Ex. 23:11).
This cycle allowed people to pause and reevaluate life from a different perspective. It also shaped how they lived during the other six years, knowing that in the seventh year they could not depend on normal patterns.
There are many testimonies in Jewish sources regarding specific years identified as Shmittah years. Today in Isra’el, this cycle has been reestablished, and there is ongoing discussion about future Jubilee years. However, the purpose here is not to analyze dates, but to understand the meaning of this cycle and its impact on the people of Isra’el.
Beyond aligning with the Creator’s cycles, another key element in observing the sabbatical year is faith. Just as a person must accept working only six days a week—earning less materially than those who work every day—consider the level of trust required to leave the land unworked for an entire year. The strengthening of that faith, renewed every seven years, is one of the reasons this cycle was established.
“You shall therefore carry out My statutes and keep My judgments, so as to do them; and you will live securely in the land. Then the land will yield its produce, and you will eat your fill and live securely in it. But if you say, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?’ then I will command My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce for three years. When you are sowing the eighth year, you can still eat old things from the crop, eating the old until the ninth year when its crop comes in.”
—Leviticus 25:18–22