The sabbath of the land
The Torah commands: 'In the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of rest to the land, a sabbath to the Lord; your field you shall not sow, and your vineyard you shall not prune' (Vayikra 25:4). In the seventh year of the cycle, all agricultural work in the Land of Israel ceases. The land is not sown, not pruned, not harvested. The produce that grows on its own is released to all - owner and stranger alike may eat from it.
Release and renewal
The shemitah year includes two additional commandments: shemitat kesafim - the remission of all debts, and shemitat karka'ot - the release of the land. The Sages taught that the remission of debts is a separate commandment, and one who lends money before the shemitah is considered as if he performed a mitzvah.
The shemitah is not a year of loss but of renewal. The land rests and regenerates, society is rebalanced as debts are remitted, and the poor and the stranger have free access to the produce of the land. It is a year of faith - the farmer trusts that the sixth year will yield enough for three years, and that the land will provide even without labor.
The holiness of the land in time
Shemitah is one of the seven mitzvot that apply specifically in the Land of Israel. It is a mitzvah of time - it comes once in seven years - but it is also a mitzvah of place, for it applies only in the Land. The holiness of the land is expressed not only in the mitzvot of the harvest but in the mitzvah of rest.
Not bound to a single month
Unlike the other land-dependent mitzvot that follow the monthly agricultural cycle, shemitah is a mitzvah of the entire year. It does not belong to any single month - it encompasses all of them, transforming the seventh year into a year of rest, release, and faith.
Partnership in shemitah
A Diaspora Jew who cannot observe the shemitah in his own body can participate through partnership. The emissaries in the field who observe the shemitah - who rest from the work of the land, who release the produce to all, who remit every debt - act on behalf of all who partner with them. Through the principle of 'one's agent is as oneself' and partnership through money, the mitzvah of shemitah is credited to the partner as if he performed it himself.
And so the Sages taught (Sotah 14a): 'Whoever assists those who perform a mitzvah, Scripture considers it as if he performed it.'
The fiftieth year
After seven cycles of seven years comes the yovel - the Jubilee year, the fiftieth year. In the yovel, the land returns to its original owners, slaves are freed, and the land rests as in the shemitah. The yovel is the pinnacle of the cycle of rest and renewal, expressing the principle that the land belongs to God and that we are but its stewards.