10Vekidashetem et shenat hachamishim shanah ukratem deror ba'aretz lekhol yoshveha yovel hi tihyeh lakhem veshavtem ish el achuzato ve'ish el mishpachto tashuvu
At the opening of Parashat Behar, the Torah states explicitly: “Vayedaber Adonai el Moshe beHar Sinai” (verse 1). Mentioning the place is unusual, since many commandments were given without specifying where. Rashi (on verse 1) asks: What does Shemitah have to do with Mount Sinai? And he answers from Torat Kohanim: Just as Shemitah’s general rules, specifics, and fine details were stated at Sinai, so too all the commandments were stated with their rules and details from Sinai.
The Shemitah year - rest for the land.“Ki tavo’u el ha’aretz… veshavetah ha’aretz Shabbat lAdonai” (verse 2). For six years you sow and prune, and in the seventh year “Shabbat shabbaton yihyeh la’aretz” (verse 4). No sowing, no pruning, no harvesting, no grape-gathering. The Torah defines the Shemitah not as a technical agricultural break, but as “Shabbat lAdonai” - a year in which a person practices letting go, relinquishing, and trusting that sustenance comes from a higher place.
The sanctity of ownerlessness - Shemitah as a moral challenge. During the Shemitah year, the field’s produce is open to all: to you, your servant, your maidservant, your hired worker, your resident, and even to the animals and wildlife. There is no exclusive ownership. The land belongs to everyone, and a person learns that the earth is not permanent property but a trust. Every seven years the Torah forces you to release your grip.
Jubilee - a year of freedom and return. After seven Shemitah cycles comes the fiftieth year. It opens with the sounding of the shofar on Yom Kippur (verse 9), the holiest day of the year. “Ukratem deror ba’aretz lekhol yoshveha” (verse 10). No more servitude, no more alienation. Every person returns to their ancestral holding and to their family, fields return to their original owners, and the entire society undergoes a profound internal restoration.
The pinnacle of the Jubilee is the return. Return to identity, to roots, to home. In a world where property and possessions occupy center stage, the Torah sets a different rhythm: Shabbat, Shemitah, Jubilee. Each layer reminds us that the land is not yours, servants are not your property, and time itself is sacred. Whoever internalizes this rhythm lives differently - not as a captive of wealth, but as someone who knows that everything is held in trust.