The Shemitah (also spelled Shmita or Sabbatical Year) refers to the biblical commandment for the Land of Israel to observe a sabbath rest every seven years. According to Exodus 23:10-11 and Leviticus 25:1-7, every seventh year was to be a time of rest for the land, when sowing and reaping, pruning and harvesting were prohibited. The Shemitah served to remind the Israelites that the land belongs to God and is entrusted to them.
The Shemitah was part of the larger system of Sabbath observance followed by ancient Israel. Just as each week culminated in the Sabbath day of rest on the seventh day, each cycle of seven Shemitah years culminated in a Sabbath year, the Jubilee year described in Leviticus 25. Shemitah literally means “release” and during this year all debts were to be canceled and Hebrew debt slaves were to be freed.
The Shemitah principles of resting the land and canceling debts highlights how God cares for the poor and vulnerable. By refraining from constant production and accumulation, the community was reminded to trust God, rest from their labor and be grateful for all God had provided. At a time when wealth tended to accumulate in the hands of a few, the Shemitah enforced the redistribution of resources.
Over time, the neglect of Sabbath years contributed to the exile of Israel and Judah as described in 2 Chronicles 36:20-21. The prophet Jeremiah also rebuked the people for failing to observe the Shemitah (Jeremiah 34:12-22). Thus, the Shemitah continued to be significant even after the end of Ancient Israelite society.
In modern times, some Jewish groups in Israel have worked to revive Shemitah observance on a voluntary basis, refraining from working the land during Shemitah years. Others follow the principle by donating 7th year produce to the poor. The Shemitah continues to hold meaning as a spiritual practice calling us to rest, trust God, care for others and remember that all we have comes from God.
Beyond its historical origins, the Shemitah has taken on additional meaning in modern times. Based on calculations of Sabbath cycles, some people speculate about whether the Shemitah impacts world events, economies, or markets.
For example, some point to financial crises that have occurred around the time of Shemitah years, such as the stock market crashes in 2001 and 2008. However, the evidence connecting these events to the Shemitah is inconclusive and disputed. There is no clear biblical or theological basis for expecting the Shemitah cycle to affect global economics today.
Others have proposed that the timing of historical events like the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, wars, natural disasters, or other calamities correlate to the Shemitah cycle. However, the evidence for this is also speculative. The Shemitah was intended as religious practice for ancient Israelite society, so it’s uncertain how or if it would affect world events thousands of years later.
Overall, while the Shemitah offers valuable spiritual lessons, attempts to use it predictively require lots of speculation and do not have clear biblical support. The Shemitah reminds us of God’s sovereignty and our call to care for the poor and rest in God’s provision. But the wisdom of the Bible suggests a balanced approach that applies its principles thoughtfully rather than dogmatically insisting on speculative theories about the Shemitah cycle.
Origins of the Shemitah in the Bible
The Shemitah was given as a commandment for Israel as part of the covenant God established with them after rescuing them from slavery in Egypt. In Exodus 23:10-11 God tells the Israelites:
For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the beasts of the field may eat. You shall do likewise with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard.
This command is repeated in greater detail in Leviticus 25. The Israelites were to sow and reap from the land for six years, but on the seventh year the land was to observe a Sabbath rest. Leviticus 25:3-5 states:
For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.
So the Shemitah was a year of rest from working the land. Farmers and landowners were not to plant, plow or harvest during the 7th year. They lived off what the land produced naturally.
Allowing the land to rest served several purposes:
- It allowed the land to rejuvenate itself and restore its fertility
- It forced the community to practice trust and gratitude in God’s provision
- It reminded them that God owns the land and they are temporary stewards
- Surplus crops redistributed through landowners leaving them for the poor
Shemitah was part of a larger system of Sabbath practice. The weekly Sabbath day each seventh day, and the Sabbath year every seventh year, served as rhythms to order life around honoring God.
Then after every cycle of seven Shemitahs, the 50th year was to be hallowed as the Jubilee. Lev 25:8-13 declares:
You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan. That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you. You may eat the produce of the field.
The Jubilee was a more intensive practice of Shemitah principles – returning land to original owners, freeing slaves, and canceling all debts. Together, the Sabbath day, Shemitah year, and Jubilee cycle created a system where remembering God and caring for the poor and vulnerable were woven into the social fabric.
Shemitah Regulations from Leviticus 25
Leviticus 25 lays out further specifications for how the Israelites were to observe the Shemitah. The main regulations include:
- No sowing or reaping – Neither farming nor harvesting crops was allowed during Shemitah years. The land was left alone to rest.
- Leave produce of land for poor – Landowners and farmers were not to harvest everything during the 6th year. Leftover produce was left in the fields for the poor to gather for themselves (Lev 25:6-7).
- Forgive debts – All debts between fellow Israelites were to be forgiven during the Shemitah year (Deut 15:1-11). However, len ding to and charging interest to foreigners was allowed (Deut 15:3,6).
- Release Hebrew slaves – Hebrew debt slaves were to be freed during the 7th year (Ex 21:2-6, Deut 15:12-18). Permanent slaves from other nations could continue in bondage.
- Proclaim Liberty – On the Day of Atonement during the Shemitah year, Israelite leaders were to proclaim liberty through the land, emphasizing the principles of debt forgiveness and freeing slaves (Lev 25:10).
These regulations emphasized Israel’s dependence on God, care for the poor, and principles of rest and liberty in contrast to endless labor and accumulation. The Shemitah continually relativized material possessions, social status, and inequality.
Prophets Rebuke Neglect of the Shemitah
Over generations, the Israelites drifted from faithfully observing the Shemitah and Jubilee. Greed, power dynamics, and lack of concern for the poor led to these practices being neglected.
The prophets rebuked Israel and warned of judgment for forsaking the Sabbath years. Jeremiah 25:11-12 states:
This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste.
2 Chronicles 36:20-21 further explains this period in exile was the direct result of not observing Sabbath rests:
He [Nebuchadnezzer] took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.
So God judged Israel’s faithlessness by sending the people into captivity in Babylon for 70 years – representing all the neglected Shemitahs over generations where the land was not rested.
Even after their return from exile, the prophet Nehemiah rebuked the Israelites for continuing to neglect Sabbath years along with collecting interest and excessive taxes from other Jews who were poor (Nehemiah 5). The spiritual rhythms of the Shemitah continued to be significant for Israel long after the specific agricultural regulations ceased to apply.
Modern Shemitah Observance and Theories
Today, the nation of Israel continues to connect to the Shemitah in various ways even though most are not engaged in the ancient agrarian economy. In Israel’s early years, some Jewish settlers made efforts to voluntarilyobserve Shemitah agricultural and financial principles to revive it.
Currently, many religious Jews in Israel make a point to symbolically honor the Shemitah, such as by not cultivating the land of Israel during the 7th year and gathering for a ceremony to cancel debts. However, Shemitah observance remains voluntary and only binding according to Jewish law for those who consider themselves obligated.
Beyond this, the Shemitah has captured attention in modern times as some speculate about its potential connections to global events. For example:
- Some connect Shemitah years to financial collapses in 1973, 1980, 1987, 1994, 2001, 2008 and 2015, suggesting the 7-year cycle impacts global economics. However, the evidence is disputed.
- Writers like Johnathan Cahn tie the timing of events like the September 11 attacks, stock market crashes, wars, Supreme Court decisions over marriage and abortion, and other events to Shemitah years as part of his theories about “The Harbinger.”
- Some predict calamity and economic collapse around every Shemitah year, though often these theories prove inaccurate.
While imaginative and thought-provoking, most of these Shemitah theories lack real substantive evidence. The Shemitah was given for Israel to shape their ancient agrarian society, not as a deterministic cycle governing world affairs thousands of years later. Extracting obscure patterns from dates often relies more on selective perception and confirmation bias than actual causation.
At best, the Shemitah serves as a loose symbol of how God oversees the rise and fall of nations and can bring judgment. But it was not designed as a precise prophetic timetable or tool for predicting future events. Wisdom suggests appreciating the Shemitah’s core spiritual meaning while avoiding dogmatic insistence on any speculative theories about its modern application.
Lessons and Meaning of Shemitah
At its heart, the biblical principles behind the Shemitah remain relevant today as wisdom forour relationship to possessions, work, and concern for the poor. It offers several key lessons:
- The land belongs to God – Just as God’s people were sojourners in Egypt, we are all temporary stewards here, called to manage God’s world responsibly.
- We must observe seasons of rest – Constant production is unsustainable. Rest reminds us life is more than business output and reconnects us to God.
- Forgive debts and free others – Accumulating endless profits while others struggle is unjust. Shemitah regulates disparities.
- Generosity for the poor – Leaving leftovers in fields allowed the poor to provide for themselves in dignity.
- Trust God – Refraining from constant labor called Israel to gratefully trust God would provide enough.
The themes behind Shemitah remain quite countercultural today: rest instead of grinding hustle, liberation instead of profit maximization, compassion instead of judgment of the poor. It challenges unbalanced systems. It calls us to a holistic view of God’s world we are stewards of rather than have capacity as the apex predators seen for profit alone.
Of course, the details of implementing Shemitah agriculturally do not apply literally today. But its themes still hold wisdom for ordering our lives and societies with justice, compassion, and concern for the voiceless. The principles behind Sabbath practices remain indispensable.
At the same time, wisdom is still required in how we apply the intentions and values of the Shemitah to our modern societies. Dogmatic or legalistic approaches often backfire. And speculative theories that overreach what the Bible says should be viewed with caution. But taken on its own terms, the Shemitah still offers us much to ponder in learning to walk with God justly.