Adam Min HaAdamah
- The Land._.4.110
The release of monies (Shemitat Kesafim) is mentioned in the covenant of the Plains of Moav. It completes the picture that emerges from the release of land from the covenant of the exodus from Egypt. We will relate to its significance in the larger context of Shemitah with great brevity. 53Our essay focuses on the connections between man and the earth, such that the release of monies is not part of these connections. We also did not deal with this in the chapter on the seventh year. During the course of six years, a person exerts his ownership over the private property of his field. But it is not only upon his field that he exerts ownership but also over the people around him. Due to the power of his financial means, a person becomes a taskmaster over people of lesser means beneath him, who require his financial assistance. The inability of the poor to pay back their debts causes their subservience to him.
- The Land._.4.111
“At the end of seven years, you are to make a Release!” — the release of monies occurs once in seven years and loosens this ownership consciousness. ”Now this is the matter of the Release; he shall release, every possessor of a loan of his hand” — the demand is for the person’s release of debts that have amassed up until the seventh year. There is an even more extreme procedure with this demand than that of the release of lands. For the land returns to its owner after the Shemitah, whereas the debt is released forever. The release of monies demands that a person not be a taskmaster over his brothers during the whole course of the seventh year, to remember that the poor person is not a stranger to him, but rather his brother. In this way, the ownership consciousness does not seal him away from his indignant brother. The powers of the taskmaster may be turned towards the foreigner, the stranger who is not his brother.
- Yovel._.11.27
This is perhaps the key to understanding the meaning of the fiftieth year. The Jubilee is not part of the cycle of seven groups of seven, but rather something that rises above it. It is different from everything that preceded it. The Jubilee is not part of the cycle of nature’s completion. It is man who creates the fiftieth year. The event that establishes the Juiblee is the sanctification and the call of man (and you shall sanctify… and you shall call…). On a simple level, if man does not come and sanctify the Jubilee, the Jubilee does not happen. This is in contrast to the sabbatical year, which exists as a part of a fixed system of existence that is independent of the actions of man (as is fitting for a system embedded in nature).
- Yovel._.11.28
It is specifically the human call that brings about the breakthrough into a new dimension: A change on the social plain, beyond the change in the relationship to the land, which also happens on the sabbatical year. The Jubilee calls out for freedom in the land and initiates liberty which brings the slaves back home and the holdings to their original masters. On the Jubilee, it is revealed that it is not just that the earth as nature that rises to God, but also that the earth as the plain of human life is God’s – The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is Mine, for you are foreigners and resident aliens before Me (Leviticus 25:23).
- Yovel._.11.29
On the sabbatical year, the land surely rests and opens man up to the environment and to the natural realm. In human terms, however, it remains under man’s control.(169) During the Jubilee, the land is freed from man’s grasp. It returns to God. And from there, it returns to its original owners. From the revelation that all of the earth is God’s, everyone receives his place anew; everything returns to its place. It is like the sages, may their memory be blessed, expounded, “For you are foreigners and resident aliens before Me – it is enough for the servant that he be like his master. When I get Mine, behold it is yours.” (Torat Kohanim, Behar 3)
- Yovel._.11.30
We will conclude by saying that the sabbatical year begins in the natural world and changes man’s relationship to the land. God’s ownership of the land brings it its rest, a Shabbat to the Lord. In contrast to this, the Jubilee begins in the human realm and does not only change man’s relationship to the land but rather also to his property and to the people that are bound to him. The process from the sabbatical year to the Jubilee is the breakthrough from the natural world to the world that is beyond nature, a world in which man is the one who brings change and expands it in his relationship to society as a whole. This is a change to the awareness that the land belongs to God and that it is He who gives possession to it.
Sefaria Community Translation. Via Sefaria (sefaria.org), Sefaria-Export. Version source: https://www.sefaria.org Licence: CC0. Source.