4 Walter Jacob animals(Ex 23.10; Lev. 25.2-7). All debts were to be canceled(Deut 15:1-3) and all male Hebrew slaves released(Ex 21:2-6); Deuteronomy extended this to females(Deut. 15:12-18). Jeremiah’s protest(34:8-12) showed that when the people were reminded of these laws by King Zedekiah , they briefly observed them. Otherwise we hear nothing of them until the time of the Maccabees (1 Mac. 6:49, 53: 16:14; Josephus , Antiquities xii, 9, 5; 8,1). The fact that this was observed at all in a poor peasant society is amazing and demonstrates the power of the goal of social equality. At least one scholar felt that they continued to be observed until the 11th century by some. The best evidence for their observance in the first and second centuries is the detailed discussions of the Mishnah and for a slightly later period in the Jerusalem Talmud.

They were not observed in the Diaspora because the Levitical statement spoke of“your land,” which was interpreted as restricting this legislation to the Land of Israel. Even in Israel , a more competitive economy made the laws concerning the cancellation of debts counterproductive, and so they were replaced by the prosbul ascribed to Hillel , it transferred debts to the court and prevented the drying up of all credit sources(M. Shev. 10:4). In this legal transaction one or both parties were required to possess real-estate. The prosbul was used through a portion of the talmudic period but then fell into disuse as the Babylonian Talmud made clear.

Asher ben Yehiel in 12th century Spain tried to revive the practice, but with little success. A small group of farmers in modern Israel follow the segment of the law that demands that the land lie fallow, some use hydroponics to circumvent the letter of the law but voiding its spirit as realism prevails.