The Mitzva of Shemitat Kesafim
מצוות שמיטת כספים
It is a Torah commandment that at the end of the Shemita year all Jews release the debts that their fellow Jews owe them, and no longer demand them. As it is stated (Devarim 15:1-3): “Every seventh year you shall practice remission. This shall be the nature of the remission: every creditor shall remit the due that he claims from his fellow; he shall not dun his fellow or kinsman, for the remission proclaimed is of the Lord. You may dun the foreigner; but you must remit whatever is due you from your kinsman.” Anyone who demands a debt that should have been released at the end of the Shemita neglects a positive commandment, as it is stated, “every creditor shall remit,” and transgresses a negative commandment, as it is stated, “he shall not dun his fellow” (Rambam 9:1).
This mitzva is fulfilled at the end of the Shemita year: at the conclusion of the year in which all field owners released the produce in their fields, when the sun sets and the Shemita year ends, the loans too are released and annulled. As it is stated: “Every seventh year [literally, at the end of seven years] you shall practice remission.” Therefore, until the end of the Shemita year the lender may still demand his debt, and when the sun sets on the last day of the seventh year, the debts are released and it is forbidden to demand them (Rambam 9:4; SA ḤM 67:30).
The Torah-level fulfillment of the mitzva depends on the law of Yovel: only when all of Israel dwell properly on their land, each tribe in its inheritance, and all the fields that were sold return to their owners in the Yovel year – are loans released at the end of the seventh year. But now that the Yovel is not in force, the mitzva of shemitat kesafim (release of debts) has lapsed on the Torah level, and the Sages instituted that it continue to be observed as a remembrance of the mitzva, so that the Torah of shemitat kesafim not be forgotten from Israel (Rambam 9:2-3).
This mitzva extends also outside the Land, since it applies to money and not to something that grows from the land. The Sages also learned this from what is stated, “for the remission proclaimed is of the Lord” – the proclamation of the remission extends to every place (Kiddushin 38b).
In practice, in many countries Jews did not customarily observe the mitzva of shemitat kesafim; rather, they continued to collect debts even after the Shemita without writing a prozbul, which preserves the debt despite the Shemita (below, halakha 5). Some say that they relied on the individual views that hold that Shemita does not apply at all nowadays, or that shemitat kesafim does not apply outside the Land. Others say that their custom was based on the public consensus that loans are given on the condition that the Shemita will not apply to them (below, halakha 4). Nevertheless, the view of most poskim is that shemitat kesafim applies nowadays by rabbinic law throughout the world, and in order to collect debts after the Shemita one must write a prozbul document (Rambam 9:3; SA ḤM 67:1).¹
Notes (1)
- Some say that Shemita does not apply at all nowadays (Rav Natronai Gaon, Razah). Others say that it applies by rabbinic law in the Land but not outside the Land (R. Yehuda al-Bartzeloni). Some say that according to the Ramban, Shemita nowadays is from the Torah (the Tumim and the Gra). However, the view of the overwhelming majority of Rishonim is that shemitat kesafim applies by rabbinic law outside the Land as well (Rambam, Semag, Rashba, Rosh, Kaftor Va-feraḥ, SA ḤM 67:1; Shulḥan Arukh Ha-Rav, Hilkhot Halva’ah 34; Pe’at Ha-shulḥan 29:4, and many others). According to this, one must write a prozbul outside the Land so that the debts will not be released, and so wrote the Shulḥan Arukh. However, in many places they did not customarily write a prozbul and nevertheless collected debts. The Rosh was very puzzled by their custom and tried to abolish it, but he did not protest against those who collected debts, because perhaps, since everyone was accustomed to collecting debts, the loans were made with the understanding that they would not be released; and perhaps they relied on what they were accustomed to writing in the loan document, that it would be collected “by any means possible, whether by religious means or by non-religious means” (Responsa of the Rosh 77:2; 77:4; see below in halakha 4 in what manner the condition is effective). The Rema, ḤM 67:1, wrote based on the Rosh that although le-khatḥila one must take care to write a prozbul, one should not prevent the collection of debts without a prozbul. Thus far. And this was the prevalent custom in the communities outside the Land, that even when they did not write a prozbul they collected debts. In the responsa Ktav Sofer ḤM 9 he explained that the mitzva to repay a loan is from the Torah, whereas Shemita is rabbinic, and there is doubt whether it applies now. Thus, if they collect the debts after the Shemita, they enter into a doubt of a rabbinic prohibition, and if they do not collect, they will transgress a doubt of the Torah prohibition of theft.