פרשת בהר

(2) Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When you enter the land that I assign to you, the land shall observe a sabbath of the LORD. (3) Six years you may sow your field and six years you may prune your vineyard and gather in the yield. (4) But in the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath of complete rest, a sabbath of the LORD: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. (5) You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your untrimmed vines; it shall be a year of complete rest for the land. (6) But you may eat whatever the land during its sabbath will produce—you, your male and female slaves, the hired and bound laborers who live with you, (7) and your cattle and the beasts in your land may eat all its yield.

(11) That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you: you shall not sow, neither shall you reap the aftergrowth or harvest the untrimmed vines, (12) for it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you: you may only eat the growth direct from the field.

(18) You shall observe My laws and faithfully keep My rules, that you may live upon the land in security; (19) the land shall yield its fruit and you shall eat your fill, and you shall live upon it in security. (20) And should you ask, “What are we to eat in the seventh year, if we may neither sow nor gather in our crops?” (21) I will ordain My blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it shall yield a crop sufficient for three years. (22) When you sow in the eighth year, you will still be eating old grain of that crop; you will be eating the old until the ninth year, until its crops come in.

In order to resolve a number of fine details in the language of this parshah I would say that the reason for this mitzvah is to implant the character traits of faith and trust in Hashem in the people of Israel. Hashem was concerned that perhaps when they would come to the land they would work the soil in the natural way, and when they would be successful they would forget Hashem and remove their trust from Him. They would think that ‘their might and the power of their hand have made them this wealth,’ and the world goes along in its natural way. They would think that the land belongs to them; they are the masters and no one else. Therefore, Hashem took them out of the natural way altogether, for within six years the nations of the world plant their fields for two years and let one year lie fallow, so the land will not be weakened. However, Hashem said, “For six years you shall plant your field,” year after year, and I promise you that it will be more and more fertile and will not weaken. Also, there will be a miracle within a miracle. After having sown the fields for six years, if the sixth year would not be weaker, at least it would not be more fertile. But Hashem declares: On the contrary, in the sixth year it will be much more fertile, to the point where it says (v. 21): “I shall command My blessing to you in the sixth year and it will produce [enough] for three years”.

According to the plain meaning of the text the meaning of this “sanctity” is that the land lie fallow, untouched by human hands for the entire seventh year. Man should not plough it, sow it, reap it, etc. This is the meaning of verses 3-4: “you shall sow the land for six years, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop; but the seventh year shall be a complete rest for the land, a Sabbath for the Lord. Your field you shall not sow and your vineyard you shall not prune.” You are not even to harvest (in the regular way) what grows by itself during that year. This is the meaning of verse 5: “the aftergrowth (that which grows without ploughing and sowing) of your harvest you shall not reap and the untrimmed grapes of your vineyard you shall not pick.” The word ספיח in verse 5 is similar to the word ונספחו in Isaiah 14,1 “and they will join the house of Yaakov” (the proselytes). Similarly, the vineyard which has not been worked or hoed and not pruned is called נזיר, (like the Nazirite who does not trim his hair) as one abstains from working it a if it did not belong to you. The general principle governing the rules of conduct during the Shemittah year is that all the activities which suggest ownership of the field or vineyard in question have to be avoided. Any fruit of produce which grows on the field or vineyard during that year is ownerless, available on a “first come first served” basis. The legislation is meant to remind us that even during the years when we treat the land as ours, protected by all kinds of laws against infringement by people who do not own it, the land is really only on loan to us from G’d.

Another reason why the apparent duplication of דבר ואמרת is justified is the dual nature of the "Sabbath" i.e. rest, of the land. One aspect of this legislation is that the King commanded us to let the land lie fallow, ergo we carry out this command. 2) Although the practical performance of this commandment involves the relationship between man and man rather than the relationship between man and G'd, our obligation to comply is anchored in our relationship with G'd, i.e. the fact that the gift of the land to the Jewish people had been made conditional on our observing the Torah. When G'd did not say: "I have given you the land," but "I am giving you the land," He made it plain that the condition which is attached to that gift is an ongoing one, i.e. the land never became ours irrevocably. The word דבר therefore alludes to G'd's right to legislate; the word ואמרת on the other hand, refers to the social element of this legislation which also is the prerogative of the King to legislate. The Torah is under no obligation to furnish us with the reasons which motivated G'd the legislator, when He commanded us to perform these statutes.