Releasing the Produce

There is a mitzva to release and abandon the produce of the field in the seventh year, as it is stated: “Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce. But the seventh year you shall release it and let it lie, so that the poor of your people may eat, and what they leave the beast of the field shall eat; so shall you do with your vineyard and your olive grove” (Shemot 23:10-11).

Since the mitzva is to release the produce, it is ownerless for everyone – for the poor and the rich, for Jews and non-Jews, for people and animals (below section 9). The reason it is stated “so that the poor of your people may eat” is that this is the main innovation: in the Shemita year, the poor too can enjoy the produce just like the field owners. And so it was in practice: most of the Shevi’it produce was eaten by the poor. For apart from the field owners, who lived near their fields and would gather from them for their household needs, it was not worthwhile for the rich to go through all the fields to gather for themselves, but for the poor this effort was worthwhile (Mekhilta de-Rashbi, Shemot 23:11).

The mitzva of Shemita applies only to the produce and not to the land and the trees. Therefore, those who come to eat of the produce are forbidden to cut branches of the tree, and they are likewise forbidden to stay there without the permission of the field owner, since they were permitted to enter the field only for the purpose of picking the produce.

The essence of the mitzva is to declare the produce ownerless, and there is no mitzva to eat it; rather, it is permitted to leave it on the trees as food for the animals and birds. There is one who holds that there is a mitzva in eating Shemita produce, and although the overwhelming majority of poskim do not agree with him, those who are meticulous make an effort to eat Shevi’it produce.^¹

The produce that one is commanded to declare ownerless is the produce that grew in Shevi’it. And since we have already learned (in the previous chapter) that there is a mitzva to rest in Shevi’it from work in the field and on the trees, the field yield in Shevi’it would be reduced to about twenty percent of the normal yield. For generally most of the field yield comes from annual crops of grain, legumes and vegetables, and since one does not sow or plant in Shevi’it, about seventy percent of the yield is consequently not available. Admittedly, by Torah law sefiḥim (aftergrowths) that grew by themselves are permitted to be eaten; however, the Sages decreed that they not be eaten, because of transgressors who would sow during Shemita and claim that these were sefiḥim that grew by themselves (below section 4). The only field crops that have the status of Shevi’it are vegetables that began to grow on the eve of Shevi’it and are picked in Shevi’it; these must be released (below section 6). It follows that the main yield of Shevi’it was tree fruit, but this too was reduced during Shemita, since it is forbidden to perform labors that benefit the growth of the tree and the fruit (above 2:3). Thus, when speaking of Shevi’it produce, we are speaking of approximately twenty percent of the total yield that would grow in other years.