after the return from Babylon the king, should perform | pg^p^^.^ (^LnUe vi, 1). Various explanations have been this duty. The manner in which it was read by the i gi^,g„ ^f (i^g terin, one of them being that it denotes the monarch is thus described in the Mishna: "At the close | first Sabbath of the second year in the cycle (Wieseler, of the first day of the feast of Tabernacles in the eighth quoted by Alford, vol. i).
year — i.e. at the termination of the seventh fallow 3-ear — IV. Design of the Regulation The spirit of this law
a wooden platform was erected in the outer court, where- is the same as that of tlie weekly Sabbath. Both have on he sat, as it is written, 'at the end of the seventh a beneficent tendency, limiting the rights and checking year on the festival' (ver. 10). Thereupon the superin- the sense of property; the one puts in God's claims on tendent of the synagogue took the book of the law and j time, the other on the land. The land shall "keep a gave it to the head of the synagogue; the head of the [ Sabbath unto the Lord." "The land is mine." The synagogue then gave it to the head of the ]iriests, the : sabbatical year opened in the sabbatical month. It head of the priests again gave it to the high-priest, and was thus, like the weekly Sabbath, no mere negative the high-priest finally handed it to the king; the king ' rest, but was to be marked by high and holy ocetipa- stood up to receive it, but read it sitting. He read— (1) ' tion, and connected with sacred reflection and senti- Deut. i, 1-vi, 3 (i'TO'^ ir D'^i::'!!! hbx) ; (2) Deut. ' fnent. At the completion of a week of sabbatical years, . . ' ' ' ,„, -^ . ,„ „^ ^ .. .. _.... ___.< 1 the sabbatical scale received its completion in the vear
vi,4-8(:'r-r); (3)Deut.x.,13-22("-,-:'.^t:-'5<n-ni);|^^.,^^^i,^^_
(4) Deut. xiv, 22-xv,23 (1C"n Tw"); (5) Deut. xxvi, j This singidar institution has the aspect, at first sight, 12-19 ("I'i'rb nbin '■Z) ; (6) Deut. xvii, 14-20 (n'iJIS ' of total impracticability. This, hoAvever, wears off when -ib^cn); and (7) Deut. xxvii. xxviii (H^bbpi m^-O \ '''^ ^""sider that in no j-ear was the owner allowed to ' ^ , ' i reap the whole harvest (Lev. xix, 9 ; xxin, 22). Un-
nir-lSn >D ^-Ciyii "ly). The kmg then concluded j^g^^ therefore, the remainder was gleaned very careful- with the same benediction which the high-priest pro- jy^ there may easily have been enough left to insure nounced, except that he substituted the blessing of the such spontaneous deposit of seed as in tlie fertile soil of festivals for the absolution of sins" (Mislma, Sota, vii, Syria would produce some amount of crop in the suc- 8). This benediction forms to the present day a part ceeding year, while the vines and olives would of course of the blessing pronounced by the maphtir, or the one j yield their fruit of themselves. Moreover, it is clear who is called to the reading oi" the lesson from the proph- : that the owners of land were to lay by corn in previous ets after the reading of the lesson from the law, and is ' years for their own and their families' wants. This is the given in an English translation in the art. Hapii- unavoidable inference from Lev. xxv, 20-22. Though TARAii of this Cyclopwdia, beginning with the v»ords '. the right of property was in abeyance during the sab-
SABBATIER
202
SABELLIUS
batical year, it has been suggested that this only applied to the lields, and not to the gardens attached to houses. The great physical advantage aimed at in the sabbati- cal year was doubtless that the land lay fallow, thus in- creasing the fruitfulness of the six years of cultivation, especially in that ancient period when the artificial use of fertilizers was unknown. But this rest was experi- enced likewise by men and eattle. Other advantages of more or less importance have been suggested : the encouragement of the chase (comp. Lev. xxv, 7); the securing of the land against famine (Michaelis in the Comment. Soc. Gotting. Oblat. [ lirem. 17G3], v, 9; Mos. Recht, ii, 39 sq.) ; the prevention of exportation and for- eign trade (Hug, Zeitschr. filr das Erzbisth. Freiburg, i, 10 sq.). On the other hand, scarcity did sometimes occur during the sabbatical year (1 Mace. vi. 49, 53 ; Jo- sephus, Ant. xiv, IG, 2), and it is certain that the insti- tution had various inconveniences incident to it (comp. Grever, Comment. Mis. Si/utagmu [Olden. 1794], p. 27 sq. ; Von Raumer, Vorles. iiber alle Gesch. i, 138 sq.), which, however, are certainly exaggerated by Von Kaumer. Hiillmann, too, has been carried too far by his zeal against this institution (^Staatsverfass. der Israelit. p. 163 sq.).
V. Literature. — iMishna, Shehiith; the Talmud on this Mishna; Maimonides, Jad Ha-Chezaka llilkoth Shemita Ve-Johel; Michaelis, Commentaries on the Laics of Moses, arts. Ixxiv-lxxvii (English transl. [Lond. 1814], i, 387-419); Bahr, Symbolik des mosaischen Cidtus (Heidelb. 1839), ii, 569 sq., GOl sq. ; Maimonides, Tr. de Jurib. A nni Sept. Vertit Notisqne illustr. J. H. Maius (Frankf.-on-the-Main, 1708) ; Carpzov, Appar.Tp.ii"! sq.; Winer, Realwijrterb. ii, 349.