Q&A: Maimonides, Laws of Shemitta and Jubilee
Maimonides, Laws of Shemitta and Jubilee
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Maimonides writes in Laws of Shemitta and Jubilee, chapter 1, law 1:
It is a positive commandment to cease from working the land and from working the trees in the seventh year, as it says (Leviticus 25:2), “And the land shall observe a Sabbath to the Lord,” and it also says (Exodus 23): “In plowing and in harvest you shall rest.” Anyone who performs labor involving the land or the trees in this year has neglected a positive commandment and violated a prohibition, as it says (Leviticus 25:4): “You shall not sow your field, nor prune your vineyard.”
As you can see, Maimonides chose, in the middle of the law, to cite the verse “In plowing and in harvest you shall rest.” But this verse is subject to a dispute brought in tractate Moed Katan (3): whether the verse refers to the extension of the Sabbatical year or to the matter of the omer harvest, which overrides the Sabbath. Rabbi Akiva derives from the inclusion of “harvest” that it is speaking about the extension, while Rabbi Ishmael holds the second view.
Maimonides holds that the extension of the Sabbatical year is a law given to Moses at Sinai, so it must be that plowing and harvesting are learned with respect to shemitta itself—plowing is forbidden (apparently by virtue of the positive commandment of “and the land shall observe a Sabbath”) and harvesting is forbidden.
The question is: how does Maimonides interpret the verse neither like Rabbi Akiva nor like Rabbi Ishmael? Isn’t he required to follow one of them?
Answer
One of the principles regarding Maimonides is that his choice of verses is made based on considerations of convenience and fit with his thesis, and not necessarily according to the interpretation that appears in the Sages. There are many examples of this.
Many writers on Maimonidean interpretive principles have noted this. For a contemporary article, see for example here: http://www.ybm.org.il/Admin/uploaddata/LessonsFiles/Pdf/10144.pdf
Discussion on Answer
So?
So perforce he interprets the plain meaning of the verse literally, that plowing too is forbidden by Torah law. Therefore it is a bit difficult to say that the verse was written for reasons of convenience; rather, Maimonides really derived it from there.
No connection at all. The principle I mentioned does not mean that this is not a Torah-level law. It is a Torah-level law, but when Maimonides brings a source for it, that is not necessarily the rabbinic source or the correct source. It is the source that best expresses it or highlights it.
But in chapter 3, law 5, Maimonides wrote as follows: If there were ten trees within an area of a beit se’ah or more, whether they produce fruit or not, one may plow the entire beit se’ah for their sake. If there were ten saplings scattered within a beit se’ah, one may plow the entire beit se’ah for their sake until Rosh Hashanah, and this matter is a law given to Moses at Sinai. End quote. Here, ostensibly, it is explicit that plowing is Torah-level law, because if the Torah had not forbidden it—why would a law given to Moses at Sinai come and permit it? Rather, it must be that it was forbidden by the Torah, and the law given to Moses at Sinai came to permit plowing around saplings until Rosh Hashanah. So it is proven that plowing is forbidden by Torah law!