The nullification of the sabbatical year and the Jubilee represented anonymous new ideas as significant as Hillel 's Prosbul. These three biblical ideas could have had enormous economic impact and more important they basically destroyed the social vision of the biblical author. What had been a mandatory re-balancing of the society was now limited to voluntary aid for the impoverished.
Similar later new economic vehicles were created to solve other economic problems connected with loans; they led to extensive laws of rivvis and the creation of the heter iska; these efforts enabled the charging of interest on loans something clearly prohibited by the Bible (Ex 22:25: Deut 23:20). Again idealism was sacrificed to economic forces. The biblical laws represented an ideal. Human nature being what it is. the ideal was lauded, but not followed. Less idealistic solutions were demanded so that commerce could continue. Society may have benefitted, but the ideal demanded by the Bible was removed and left to a weakened humanitarian impulse.
The presentation of new ideas, anonymously or by attribution to an earlier famous figure, certainly with no thought of protection, continued to a lesser degree in the Middle Ages and early modern period. The Sefer Hassidim of Judah Hehasid(Germany twelfth century) made it a principle to avoid citing authorities for its statements in contrast to contemporary halakhic works. On the other hand, Moses de Leon , most likely the author of the Zohar, which appeared in the thirteenth century, attributed it to Shimon ben Yochai (2nd century). Moses de Leon claimed to have rediscovered this long forgotten work of the mishnaic author. Although suspected earlier, his actual authorship has now been generally accepted. It is a revolutionary mystical work which gained enormous influence. The highly gifted inventive scholar rejected the path of personal fame and this led to the wide acceptance of his work.’ This path may appea strange to us in our egocentric world; however it was a path frequently taken in the broader non-Jewish world as well.’