Shmita

Called The Sabbath year, even Schmittah ( שמיטה ), is in the Torah ( Bible ) a year of rest for the farmland. After 6 years of development, the country - in analogy to the Sabbath as a day of rest - one year left to lie fallow (Ex 23.10-11 EU; Lev 25.1 to 7 EU):

" Six years you may sow 10 in your country and bring in the harvest; 11 in the seventh thou shalt leave it broke and not order. The poor of thy people shall eat of it, the rest may eat the beasts of the field. The same thou shalt redeem with your vineyard and your olive trees do. "

More widely there in Deuteronomy also the determination to cancel the debts in the Sabbatical year and release the slaves:

" 1 in every seventh year you shall comply with the fallow land. 2 And so is a provision for the fallow: Every creditor should let lie fallow the part of his fortune, which he has given to another under Personal liability of a loan. It is against the other, if this is his brother, do not exercise compulsion; because he has announced the wasteland for the Lord. "

The sabbatical is considered " a furtherance of the basic idea of the Sabbath commandment ," the meaning of which was " not get the last -. From the earth's resources not from the non- capital, from the labor of others are not, and from their own not "

European exegetes took a long time that the Sabbath year was not really practiced, but it is nowadays of the opposite. By Flavius ​​Josephus, the following years have witnessed as actually held sabbaticals: 164/163 BC, 38/37 BC, 68/69 AD The bid will now be honored or by Orthodox Jews.

This scheme, however, led that prior to the adoption year hardly loans were granted; around the time of the famous scribes therefore allowed Hillel to attach a clause on debt contracts that the driving of the debt at any time, including after the expiration of the seven years allowed ( " Hillel Prosbul "). This should serve to produce a more socially just order.

The year 5768 ( = 2007/ 08 ) was a Shmitah or sabbatical.

After Lev 25.8 to 34 EU follows seven sabbaths of years a Jubilee ( Jubilee, Year of Jubilee ).

Incomprehension in Tacitus

Tacitus did not care much for the institution of Schmittajahres: " Septimum quoque annum ignaviae date ". In his eyes, the seventh year of idleness was dedicated as he was also opposed to the institution of the Sabbath, and it pointing as a sign of laziness and inertia of the Jews ( historical 5,4,2 ).