329. Wild Bunch: The prohibition against gathering fruit during Shemittah

Just as we may not harvest crops in the normal fashion during the Sabbatical year, we may not gather fruit as we normally do. We must do so in a manner that makes it clear that the fruit is ownerless. Examples of this include not using the normal tools of the trade for the task, like an olive press. Rather, we use regular tools that are not specially designed for the matter at hand. (See Mishna Sheviis 8:6.)

The Torah says we may not gather “invei n’zirecha.” The word “invei” means grapes; that’s easy enough. The word n’zirecha is the subject of some discussion. (This is why we omitted it from the verse citation above – so that we can address it here.) Rashi on our verse says that it means that a person guarded the grapes, rather than making them ownerless as he was supposed to. The meaning of our verse, then, is that one is not permitted to harvest produce that was not properly rendered free for all. A person would have to give them up in order to pick them. (There are other ways of understanding n’zirecha but we will not deal with them here.)

Once again, the reason for this mitzvah, as with all the agricultural laws of Shemittah, is to serve as a reminder that God is in charge of the land and its bounty. We recognize that He is the Landlord and what we have comes from Him.

This mitzvah applies to both men and women but only in Israel. It is the subject of the Mishnaic tractate of Sheviis and is codified in the Mishneh Torah in Hilchos Shemittah. This is #223 of the 365 negative mitzvos in the Rambam’s Sefer HaMitzvos and #25 of the 26 mitzvos that can only be performed in Israel according to the list of the Steipler Gaon.