The second enactment, which is contained in Exod. xxiii, 11; Lev. xxv, 5-7, enjoins that the spontaneous growth (tn'^SG) of the fields or of trees (comp. Isa. xxxvii, 30) is to be for the free use of the poor, hire- lings, strangers, servants, and cattle (Exod. xxiii, 11; Lev. xxv, 5-7 ; comp. Mishna, Edayoth, v, 1). This law is thus dclined by the Jewish canons: "He who locks up Ills vineyard, or hedges in his field, or gathers all the fruit into his house in the sabbatical j'ear, breaks this positive commandment. Everything is to be left com- mon, and every man has a right to everything in every place, as it is written 'that tlie poor of thy people maj' eat' (Exod. xxiii, 11). One may only bring into his house a little at a time, according to the manner of taking things that are in common" (]\Iaimonides, ibid. iv, 24). " The fruit of the seventh year, however, may only be eaten by man as long as the same kind is found in the field ; for it is written 'and for the cattle and fur the beast that are in thy land shall all the increase thereof be meat' (Lev. xxv, 7). Tliercfure, as long as the animals eat tlie same kind in the field tliou mayest eat f>f what there is of it in (he house; and if (he animal has consumed it all in the field, thou art bound to re-
move thisfkind from the house into the field" (Maimon- ides, ibid, vii, 1). The people, who are enjoined to live upon the harvest of the preceding year, and the sponta- neous growth of the sabbatical year, are promised an especialh- fruitful harvest to precede the fallow year as a reward for obeying the injunction (Lev. xxv, 20-22). That the fields yielded a crop in the sabbatical year, and even in the second fallow year — i. e. in the year of jubilee — has been shown in the art. Jubilee Year.
The third enactment, wliich is contained in Deut. xv, 1-3, enjoins the remission of debts in the sabbatical year. The exceptions laid down are in the case of a foreigner, and that of there being no poor in the land. This latter, however, it is straightway said, is wliat will never happen. But though debts might not be claimed, it is not said that they might not be voluntarily paid; and it has been questioned whether the release of the seventh year was final or merely lasted through the year. This law is defined by the ancient Hebrew can- ons as follows : The sabbatical year cancels every debt, whether lent on a bill or not. It does not cancel ac- counts for goods; daily wages for labor which may be performed in the sabbatical year, unless they have been converted into a loan ; or the legal fines imposed ui)on one who committed a rape, or was guilty of seduction (Exod. xxii, 15, 16), or slander, or any judicial penal- ties; nor does it set aside a debt contracted on a pledge, or on a ?^2pTiQ =7rpoe ftovXy (or l3ov\i]v') — i. e. dec- laration made before the court of justice at the time of lending not to remit the debt in the sabbatical year. The formula of this legal declaration was as follows: " I, A B, deliver to you, the judges of the district C, the declaration that I may call in at any time I like all debts due to me," and it was signed either by the judges or witnesses. If this Prosbul was antedated, it was legal, but it was invalid if postdated. If one buiTowed money from five different persons, a Prosbul was neces- sary from eacli individual ; but if, on the contrary, one lent money to five different persons, one Prosbul was sufficient for all. This Prosbul was first introduced by HiUel (q. v.) the Great (born about B.C. 75), because he found that the warning contained in Deut. xv, 9 was disregarded : the rich would not lend to the poor for fear of the sabbatical year, which seriously impeded commercial and social intercourse (Mishna, Shebiith, x, 1-5; Gittin, iv, 3). This shows beyond the shadow of a doubt that the release of the seventh year did not sim- ply last through the seventh year, as some will have it, but was final. The doctors before and in the time of Christ virtually did away with this law of remitting debts bj' regarding it as a meritorious act on the part of the debtor not to avail himself of the Mosaic enact- ment, and pay his debts irrespective of the sabbatical year. But not glaringly to counteract the law, these doctors enacted that the creditor should say, '• In accord- ance with the sabbatical year, I remit thee the debt;" whereunto the debtor had to reply, " I nevertlieless wish to pay it," and the creditor then accepted the payment (Mishna, Shebiith, x, 8). As the Jlosaic law excludes the foreigner from the privilege of claiming the remis- sion of his debts in the sabbatical year (Deut. xv, 3), the ancient Jewish canons enacted that even if au}"^ Is- raelite borrows money from a proselyte whose children were converted to Judaism with him, he need not legal- ly repay the debt to his children in case the proseh-te dies, because the proselyte, in consequence of his con- version, is regarded as having severed all his family tics, and this dissolution of the ties of nature sets aside mut- ual inheritance, even if the children professed Judaism with the fatlier. Still the sages regarded it as a meri- torious act if the debts were paid to tlie children (ISIish- na, Shebiith, x, 9). It is often said, too, that in the sab- batical year all slaves of Hebrew birth were freed; but the words in Exod. xxl, 2 (eomji. Jer. xxxiv, 14 sq.) re- ((uire only that they be freed in the seventh year of their servitude (Josephus, Ant, xvi, 1, 1). Deut. xv, 12