בהר / שבת הארץ

“Speak to the children of Israel … you shall let the land rest a Sabbath unto Hashem.” (Vayikra, 25:2)
Three subjects are discussed here: Shmitta, the seventh “release” year when the land lies fallow, freeing slaves, in the fiftieth year, the Yovel, and Ribit, the prohibition of lending at interest. In all three, God is warning Israel against putting their trust in anything in the world that, from man’s view, it is possible to rely upon. These three subjects—Shmitta, Yovel, and Ribit—each take a category of place, time, and person (olam, shana, nefesh). The acquisition of fields and vineyards is an acquisition of place and putting his trust in it. Concerning this the Blessed One commanded the Shmitta. That is to say, mankind cannot put his trust in places, but should rather see that they belong to God, for in the seventh (Shmitta) year there is no recognition of ownership in one’s acquisitions. Anyone can come and eat from his field. And thus he sees that the land is God’s.
Corresponding to placing one’s trust in time, meaning, relying on amassing wealth from selling time, which we call taking interest, the Torah says, “do not take interest from him.” The whole point of interest and the sale of time is discussed in the Gemara (Baba Metsia, 63b) which says, “all compensation of money for waiting [postponing paying a debt] is forbidden.”
As for man’s acquisition in people, where he trusts his ability to use servants for his needs, God commanded Israel to free slaves in the Yovel (the fiftieth year, the Jubilee). Thus he sees that he has no ownership of their bodies and must set them free. Even when they are slaves, God commanded “not to force him to serve with hard labor,” and to understand that the body of a servant is not his domain.
God commanded these three mitzvot to show man that he may not put his trust in anything connected to time, place, or person. Our trust is in God alone. This is why these three sections end with the statement, “I am Hashem your God who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan.” Man cannot assume that since these things are prohibited God’s influence towards us is in any way reduced. “I am Hashem your God who took you out of Mitsrayim (Egypt).” Mitsrayim comes from the word for narrowness, meitzar, meaning limitation. This is to show how pleasures of the world that do not come from Holiness are rooted in narrowness and constriction. “To give you the land of Canaan,” that the goodness that God gives will be that of Kedusha (holiness) and we can extend it into our surroundings, for the goodness of Kedusha that is our inheritance from God is “an inheritance without narrowness [limitations].”

“and you shall count seven Sabbaths of years … then proclaim with the call of the shofar… and each man shall return to his portion … in the Yovel year each man shall return to his possession.” (Vayikra, 25:8–10)
Shmitta and Yovel correspond to the behavior mentioned in the Pirkei Avot (Ch. 5:10), “[one who says] what is mine is yours, what is yours is yours [is a hasid].” Shmitta, the seventh rest year for the land, corresponds to the attribute of “what is mine is yours.” In one sense, “the land was given to mankind” (Tehilim, 115:16). One can acquire the land, bringing forth from it all the good things of the world. All manner of goodness in the world are included in the land, as it is written (Kohollet 3:20), “all was from the dust.” But still, in the seventh year he returns the land to God. At this time he voluntarily ceases from toil and working according to God’s will, keeping His ordinances. This is called “what is mine is yours.”
The Yovel, the fiftieth “jubilee” year, corresponds to the next mode kind of behavior mentioned in the Mishna in Avot, “what is yours is yours.” This is because the commandment of Yovel requires that everyone gets back his possessions and returns to his family. Truly, God was fair in how He placed man in the land, dividing up the inheritance to each one according to his level and based on the root of his particular soul. He upheld each one on his particular banner, saying to them, “they are My servants” (see Vayikra, 25:42). And yet, a progression of events caused mankind to demand so many accounts from each other. This one had the merit of ascending and extending into another one’s land, or to purchase a slave to serve him, and the other descended and had to sell his possessions until he eventually had to sell his very body into slavery.
Yet since the word of God endures forever and cannot change based on the actions of mankind, God’s temporary judgments that pass over man will not reach the depth of the root of his soul. This is because God created a time for everything to return to its initial portion. Thus He created the Yovel year so that each could return to his place and to the portion God gave him, as it is said, “the Yovel year shall be holy to you” (Vayikra, 25:12).
During the Yovel, the light of God’s Kedusha will one day be revealed to all by means of the blast of the shofar on Yom Kippur. Each one will then recognize that the portion of his fathers that was given to him by God and will remain with him. But what of that which came to him from the actions of man? Even thought there was a purchase and sale placing him under another’s domain up to this point still he does not belong to the other one at his roots! He must be returned to the place that was initially given to him. This is God’s illumination in the Yovel, that everyone can return to his place, that everything has its own place. This recognition and understanding can come only after fulfilling the mitzvah of Shmitta, that is, delivering everything over to God, and by means this reaching the attribute of “what is yours is yours.”
This is recognizing the place ascribed to everything at its root, as in the saying of the Midrash (Bereshit Rabba, 43:19), “all is in the possession of the blind until God comes and opens their eyes.” This means that even though the mortal eye will see that this servant belongs to this master, and this field to this one who bought it, still, whoever God shines His light into and opens his eyes will see that all the actions of man will not create even the slightest change in the depths of God’s will. In the Yovel this light will be revealed. This is the attribute of “what is yours is yours,” and is greater than the attribute of “what is mine is yours.”
By means of Shmitta and Yovel he sees that all the good and wealth he has amassed not according to God’s will, but by his own efforts, does not belong to him even though it is in his possession. Therefore this Parsha warns against theft, deception, and interest, to show that in the future it will be clear that anything that came by means of these methods is not his. This is to counter the one who says to himself, “if it is true that eventually a person will have only what was originally given him by God, then all efforts to gain wealth, to acquire things or expand borders, are in vain. Only what God gave him will remain his.” Concerning this Shlomo haMelech said (Kohollet, 10:1), “a little folly is more precious than honor or wisdom.”
Although a man would tend to refrain from toil and acquisition if he understands that nothing gained by his own efforts will remain with him, there is this “little folly” pushing him to gather wealth even though he knows it is only temporary. Just the same, he is rewarded with the merit of the energy he exerted to a certain degree. Even though the time will come for everyone return to his portion and everything to return to its place, he still profits, for he will return to the other only the physical measure of what is allotted him. Yet the limit and the border that God set to recognize between one man’s portion and another’s will be added to his border since at the beginning he extended his border into theirs. In his very efforts to extend, a little security in the value of his toil remains for him, even from the other’s portion that will be returned. Thus from all the efforts that one exerts in this world, this understanding will remain with him forever.

AND IF YE SHALL SAY: ‘WHAT SHALL WE EAT THE SEVENTH YEAR?’ The verse is, as it were, inverted, meaning: “and if you shall say in the seventh year, ‘What shall we eat [in the eighth year]?’ for their worry would be about the eighth year. For since the beginning of the Sabbatical year and the Jubilee is in Tishri, then they would eat of the produce of the sixth year during the seventh year, as is the normal way in all other years to eat [of the old produce] until after the reaping [of the new], which is at the time of the Festival of Weeks, and even afterwards until the work of fanning and sifting the produce is finished. Therefore the correct interpretation of the verse, and it shall bring forth produce for the three years is that on account of the year of Jubilee [which always follows a Sabbatical year, G-d will command His blessing in the sixth year, meaning] that the sixth year will bring forth [sufficient produce] for the whole of the Sabbatical year, the Jubilee and the year after the Jubilee, and during all these [three years] they will eat of the old crop. Thus Scripture is assuring them that should they fear in the seventh year saying, “What shall we eat?” then I will command My blessing in the sixth year that it shall bring forth produce for the three years following after [the sixth year], this being an additional blessing [to that of every Sabbatical year, when the sixth year brings forth sufficient produce for the seventh and eighth years; and when in addition there is a Jubilee year, it will bring forth enough for three years] so that it should suffice also for the Sabbatical year and the Jubilee. He states, And ye shall sow the eighth year, meaning to say that you should sow in the eighth year in the customary manner of every year, and you should not hurry to plow and sow, or to reap, for until her produce come in into the house at the time that the harvest [usually] takes place every year, at the Festival of Tabernacles, ye shall eat the old crop. And in the Torath Kohanim [it is stated]: “For the three years — for the sixth, the seventh, and the year after the seventh. Another interpretation: For the three years — for the Seventh year, the Jubilee, and the year after the Jubilee.”

AND THE LAND SHALL NOT BE SOLD IN PERPETUITY. “This is to declare a negative commandment affecting [one who refuses] to return fields to their [original] owners in the Jubilee, so that the purchaser should not retain it.” This is Rashi’s language. But if so, why does He warn about “selling” [saying, the Land shall not be ‘sold’ in perpetuity], when it should rather have said: “Thou shalt not buy in perpetuity”? Perhaps [the meaning of the verse is as if] it said, “and the Land shall not be sold to you in perpetuity” [and thus the prohibition refers to the buyer]. Similarly, they shall not be sold as bondmen is an admonition to the purchaser, that he must send forth to freedom [a Hebrew servant] in the Jubilee year, according to the plain meaning of the verse.
It is, [however], possible that the Land shall not be sold in perpetuity is a negative commandment referring to the seller, that he is not to sell it permanently by saying: “I am selling it to you forever, even for after the Jubilee.” For although the Jubilee [in fact] takes it out of his possession [despite his intention of buying it permanently], Scripture nonetheless admonishes the seller or both of them that they should not [attempt to] make their transaction in perpetuity, and if they did so stipulate, they transgress this negative commandment, and [additionally] it will be of no avail to them, for the land will return in the Jubilee. And so did Rabbi Moshe [ben Maimon] explain it. And the reason for this prohibition [of stipulating a permanent sale, although such a stipulation is completely ineffective], is because it is well-known in human thought that if people take into account from the beginning of the transaction the number of years until the Jubilee, it will [in the end] be easier for them [i.e., for the purchasers, to return it in the Jubilee], but if one [intends to] buy it in perpetuity, one will find it very difficult to return. This prohibition, then, is similar to what the Sages have said: “That which the Merciful One said one may not do, if one does do, has no legal effect, but the transgressor is liable to the punishment of whipping because he violated the Royal decree.”
The correct opinion appears to me to be that this is not a negative commandment [for the transgression of which] one is liable to whipping. Rather, [the verse merely states] a reason [for the Jubilee], saying: “Observe between you [the law of] the Jubilee, and be not resentful about it, for the Land is Mine, and I do not want that it should be sold in perpetuity as [in the case of] other transactions.” This is the meaning [of the Rabbis’ interpretation] in the Torath Kohanim: “And the Land shall not be sold ‘litzmithuth’ — permanently. For the Land is Mine — [therefore] be not resentful about it. For ye are strangers and settlers — do not consider yourselves the main [proprietors]. Ye are with Me — it is enough for the servant to be as his Master. When it is Mine it is yours.”
By way of the Truth, [the mystic teachings of the Cabala], the meaning of the expression for the Land is Mine [literally: “for ‘unto Me’ is the Land”] is like and they take ‘unto Me’ an offering. It is this which the Rabbis have alluded to here [by saying in the Torath Kohanim]: “It is enough for the servant to be as his Master,” for the Jubilee will be applying [even] in the world. The person learned [in the mysteries of the Cabala] will understand.