In this week’s parsha we learn of the laws of the Shemittah year which were given on Har Sinai. The pasuk (Vayikra 25:1) tells us this explicitly, which is unusual. We know that all the laws of the Torah were given on Har Sinai, so it seems unnecessary for the Torah to single out the laws of Shemittah.
One possible explanation that Rashi finds in the Midrash is that all of the general principles were received at Har Sinai; however, many of the specifics were taught by Moshe in the land of Moav immediately before the crossing of the Yarden. The laws of Shemittah are not discussed in Sefer Devarim where Moshe elucidates many of the details of the mitzvot. From this Rashi concludes that all of the laws of Shemittah were taught to Moshe in detail on Har Sinai. They were reviewed again along with the other mitzvot in the fields of Moav, but nothing new was taught there because all the relevant laws of that mitzvah were received and taught on Har Sinai. This casts some light on the great importance of Shemittah in the Torah.
The Shemittah year is referred to as “Shabbos” – Shabbos of the land. The Torah teaches that it is a Shabbos for Hashem (Vayikra 25:4) just as it says about the Shabbos of the week in Bereishis. However, Hashem doesn’t actually rest on this Shabbos, because He doesn’t plow, sow, and reap in the other six years. Shabbos is for the People of Israel in our land, but it is also for the land. When we keep the laws and precepts of Hashem, then we dwell secure forever in our land (ibid. 25:18). From this, Rashi learns that Israel suffers exile as a result of the desecration of Shemittah. Since Israel is guaranteed security as long as Shemittah is observed, Rashi understands that this security guarantee is abrogated along with the laws of Shemittah.
In fact, Rashi briefly mentions here what he will elucidate later on: that each of the seventy years of exile in Bavel stood for one of seventy Yovel years which were violated. This is remarkable because it suggests that Israel pretty much never successfully observed a Yovel cycle in the entire era of the First Commonwealth. Yet Hashem took hundreds of years to hold us to account for that abrogation, and even then, He only took one year for every 50.
Still, in Parshat Bechukotai, the second parsha we read this week, we hear a good deal of unpleasantness around things that might happen if we don’t obey the Divine Will. At a climax in the narrative, while we are being chased among the nations and suffering from famine, the Torah mentions that at least the land is getting to rest. That is, the land wanted its Shabbos and now it will have it – because Israel is no longer on the land to cultivate it during Shemittah years.
The Maharal, though, says it is nonsensical to speak of the land having wants and needs, as the land is inanimate. Rather, he says, Hashem is being appeased for all of the missed Shemittah years that had elicited the punishment of exile in the first place. As such, after all of the violations of Shemittah have been expiated, Hashem at last returns us to our land so that we can observe His Shemittah.
