This Rosh Hashanah will mark the beginning of a Shmita or Sabbatical year. According to the Torah — as featured in this week’s Torah reading, Behar — every seven years the land must be allowed to rest “a Sabbath for YHVH.” Working the land is forbidden; so is harvesting more than what you immediately need. Property rights are suspended, an amnesty on debt is enacted, ownership is transcended — equal access to the land and all its bounty is the rule of the day for all, human beings and the beasts of the field alike.
