the levitical prohibition as well as the intent of that law; Hillel , however, understood that it also destroyed the economy. A sabbatical year without a viable economy was of no use to anyone, so he preferred to create a path around the biblical injunction. Hillel possessed sufficient authority along with the will to introduce this change. It was an invovation of enormous economic value; Hillel was duly credited, but sought and received no control of his idea nor any fiscal reward.’
Actually similar reinterpretations of the Biblical texts occurred in the early rabbinic period although none can be precisely dated. They dealt with the sabbatical year in the rural setting(Lev 25:2 ff.). The biblical ideal mandated that the land be left idle and the population either lived off previously stored grains or consume the meager crop which grew wild(Lev. 25:18-22). The Book of Maccabees is one of the few texts which noted its observance(I Mac. 6:49, 55). The rabbinic interpretation of these measures restricted them to the land of Israel and as those boundaries were far from clear, the law became void. There was talmudic discussion about the calendar and the sabbatical years(A.Z. 9b), but little about details of observance. Some farmers in modern Israel , however, to this day continue to attempt to observe it during each sabbatical year.
Much more difficult was the Jubilee Year (Lev 25:2 ff.). Its mandate declared that all rural property be restored to the original owner after fifty years- a noble attempt to re-balance society. An anonymous author even rewrote early biblical history into fifty year cycles to emphasize this ideal(The Book of Jubilees); the book, however disappeared from Jewish life only to be rediscovered in the nineteenth century. Neither the biblical ideal nor the effort of its later proponent was followed. The rabbinic literature anonymously nullified the law by stating that the biblical Jewish kingdom under which they had been Created no longer existed.