What does this commandment require?

Exodus 23:11: in the seventh year, whatever grows on the land by itself cannot be claimed by the owner — it becomes common property open to the poor, the stranger, and the animals.

How is it different from Shemitah itself?

Shemitah commands the land to rest from cultivation; this law governs what happens to the produce that grows anyway — it cannot be hoarded or sold as private harvest.

How did Isaiah use this law as a sign to Hezekiah?

2 Kings 19:29: the sign of deliverance from Assyria was framed as Jerusalem eating "such things as grow of themselves" — the very produce this commandment makes common to all.

What did Nehemiah's generation do about it?

Nehemiah 10:31: the returning exiles bound themselves by oath to "leave the seventh year" — relearning, after losing the land for ignoring it, the release this commandment requires.

Why does 2 Chronicles connect this law to the exile?

2 Chronicles 36:21: the exile lasted until the land had enjoyed all the Sabbatical rests it had been denied — a law about produce access shaping the nation's history.

Commandment #80 · Positive · Agricultural Laws

Permit All to Eat the Sabbatical Year’s Produce

הֶפְקֵר פֵּרוֹת שְׁבִיעִית

Source: Exodus 23:11 · Maimonides, Sefer HaMitzvot, Positive #80

In the Sabbatical year the produce that grew on its own could not be claimed as private property — it reverted to common access for the poor, the stranger, the servant, and the wild animals alike, exactly as it had been before anyone owned the field.

וְהַשְּׁבִיעִת תִּשְׁמְטֶנָּה וּנְטַשְׁתָּהּ וְאָכְלוּ אֶבְיֹנֵי עַמֶּךָ

"But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat."

Exodus 23:11 — Open in Torah Reader

Not Resting the Land — Releasing the Field

Shemitah commanded the land to rest. This commandment governs what happens to whatever grows anyway: the owner cannot fence it off, harvest it for sale, or store it as private produce. Whatever the seventh year brings up on its own becomes hefker — ownerless, common property — equally available to the landowner, his servant, the poor, the stranger, and even the wild animals. For one year in seven, the entire agricultural system reverted to what it looked like before anyone owned anything.

This is a different commandment than resting the land itself. A man could theoretically let his field lie fallow and still treat its volunteer growth as his own harvest. This law forecloses that option: what grows in the Sabbatical year cannot become anyone's private stockpile. The release of the land becomes, automatically, the release of its produce to everyone.

Hezekiah's Sign: Eating What Grows of Itself

וְזֶה לְּךָ הָאוֹת אָכוֹל הַשָּׁנָה סָפִיחַ וּבַשָּׁנָה הַשֵּׁנִית סָחִישׁ

"And this shall be a sign unto thee: Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same."

2 Kings 19:29

When Sennacherib's army surrounded Jerusalem and the fields lay devastated, Isaiah gave Hezekiah a sign rooted in exactly this commandment's language — that the city would eat 'such things as grow of themselves' for two years running before normal sowing resumed. The sign of national deliverance was framed in the vocabulary of the Sabbatical produce law: God could feed His people from what the land gave on its own, the same provision the poor depended on every seventh year.

Nehemiah and the Generation That Relearned Release

Centuries of neglecting the Sabbatical year was named among the reasons for the exile (2 Chronicles 36:21 — the land finally enjoyed its rests). When the exiles returned, Nehemiah's generation bound themselves by oath to "leave the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt" (Nehemiah 10:31) — explicitly tying debt release to the Sabbatical produce principle. A nation that had lost its land for ignoring this law relearned, on the way back into it, that the field was never fully theirs to hoard.

Key Figures

Hezekiah — Receiving the Sign of Open Fields

Isaiah handed the besieged king a sign drawn directly from the Sabbatical produce law: deliverance would look like a land that fed everyone from what grew on its own.

Nehemiah's Generation — Relearning Release After Exile

Having lost the land partly for ignoring its rest, the returning exiles bound themselves by oath to honor the very release this commandment requires.

Study Questions

For reflection and group study

The seventh year's produce could not be hoarded, sold, or fenced off — it belonged to everyone equally. What does removing ownership for one year in seven say about how the Torah views property?

See Ex 23:11; Lev 25:6–7

Isaiah used the imagery of this very law — eating what grows of itself — as the sign of national deliverance to Hezekiah. Why would deliverance be described in the language of release rather than abundance?

See 2 Kgs 19:29; Isa 37:30

2 Chronicles ties the exile directly to neglected Sabbatical years — the land finally got the rest it had been owed. What does it mean that a law about produce access could shape the nation's history at that scale?

See 2 Chr 36:21; Lev 26:34–35

Nehemiah's generation bound itself by oath to the Sabbatical release after returning from exile. What does relearning a forgotten law under oath suggest about how communities recover covenant memory?

See Neh 10:31; 9:36–38

The poor, the stranger, the servant, and the wild animals all had equal claim to the Sabbatical year's growth. What does this leveling, even if only temporary, reveal about the kind of community the commandment was designed to produce?

See Ex 23:11; Lev 25:6–7; Deut 15:1–2

Read this commandment in the original Hebrew.

Open Exodus 23:11 in Torah Reader

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