Sova Project

The enormous control the leadership class can exercise with social engineering these days, the power of present day information technology a...

It might be that historically one of the main reasons for the weakness of the shemitta laws was because the leaders of those ancient societ...

The conviction that shemitta could be made to work discloses a committment and a confidence in the grass roots.  Those who say shemitta co...

Just as firefighters manage forestry through controlled burns shemitta would perform a similar function for the economy by applying what wo...

Before we can tackle shemitta , and, indeed, before we can even study shemitta we need to study Leviticus 26, the tokhachah , the chapter ...

Shemitta affects not only society's social, political and economic structure, it also affects society's ideological base.  The same...

When in parshat Mishpatim it says the servant goes free in the seventh year, Bechor Shor says it means he goes free in shemitta , and that...

The terms lishmot and lintosh are crucial to verses Exodus 23:10,11.  The issue in these verses is taking care of the needy. There is no ...

Deuteronomy 15:1-18 talks about s hemittat kesafim . In Deuteronomy 31:10-13, not unlike that day at Mount Sinai, the day is called yom ha...

The overall Rabbinic vision of shemitta is that fundamentally it is a species of charity.  Shemittat kesafim , hence, is a model for how to...

Loaning is in the first place about abundance.  The ability to loan is a measure of abundance.  It seems the purpose of shemittat kesafim ...

Shemitta might well be the opposite of chazaq .  Shemitta means to release one's grasp as opposed to  chazaq , which means to hold one...

Shemittat kesafim might be about moving from debt to equity over the six year cycle.  Shemittat kesafim  would be about moving from a perso...

Shemitta is about relinquishing power.  The literal meaning of the word shemitta is to release one's hold on something, which is as un...

Shemittat kesafim is not about debts, it's about how society treats the poor and those who have turned to personal indenture and the lo...

Shemittat kesafim could not be about business or corporate debt.  The admonition to continue to make loans even as the shemitta year is ap...

By injecting shemittat kesafim into the core body of covenantal law the Biblical author is guaranteeing a basic level of security in the s...

How does choq and mishpat play out in the Chumash to figure out why it flips in the diaspora? ( Leviticus 26:14 vs 26:44)

The valuation of the inalienable follows directly after the story of the violation of shemitta , and focuses on how to work yovel . 

Can shemitta be re-instated in modern day Israel without radically altering the rabbinic understanding of the institution?  The Jewish peop...

The logic of the heter machira as disqualifying the institution of shemitta is in fact impeccable.  H eter machira  recognizes the unworka...

Mah inyan shemitta etzel torat kohanim likens the specificity of the laws of shemitta with the specificity of the laws of the mishkan .  T...

The character of the laws of shemitta as being pre- mishkan ic and of a moment earlier than the building of the mishkan in the Sinaitic ep...

If God is once again to risk allowing His Presence to manifest among the Children of Israel in a pre- mishkan ic fashion, then He must first...

Rabbinic legend has it that the Messiah will come when the Jewish people keep two Sabbath days in a row.  Curious that, since it deflects fr...

The difference between violating the laws of shemitta and violating the laws in Leviticus 18 of sexual perversion (both of which could tri...

Let us define chuqim umishpatim as the supporting practices and regulations that go into promoting the shemira and the assiya of a mitzv...

The number of times the word shabbos occurs in the Chumash is 70.  The number of times the word shabbos occurs with respect to shemitta ...

Choq has the mirror spelling of qach . It might also have the mirror meaning. As qach means to take, so choq could mean to be granted.  C...

Choq respects the boundaries, and is thus the legal embodiment of temperance; mishpat weighs the values, and is this the legal embodiment ...

Whereas it might be fair to say the general population does not ‘ zakhor’ the yom ha’shabbat , it would also be fair to say the general pop...

In detailing the laws of yovel , Leviticus 25:9 says ta'aviru shofar bekhol artzechem – in all your lands.  That seems to signify the ...

There's a pun at the core of the sheviit laws. The word tvuah , which means ‘that which is brought in from the earth’ ( Leviticus 25:1...

The violation of the laws of sheviit carries with it in particular the consequences of overturning the covenant.  That's why the laws o...

A people that will become subject to the despotism of strongman rulers will, right after those rulers are deposed, likely become fearful.  H...

'Mah inyan shemitta etzel har Sinai' is a malapropism. It should be 'Mah inyan sheviit etzel har Sinai' because the term ...

To honor God's covenant with Man requires Man to work less than the maximum. It requires self-restraint.  God draws Himself in to make r...

The reason for the shemitta (relief) of debt and for supporting the impoverished in society is not about the direct support of the poor, it...

Once the economic power is made to redound to the resources which are at the source of the production process the extractives lose their inc...