Sabbath for the land

[unmowngrass]

Leviticus 25 says: 

The Sabbath Year

25 The Lord said to Moses at Mount Sinai, ² ‘Speak to the Israelites and say to them: “When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord. ³ For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. ⁴ But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to theLord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. ⁵ Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.⁶ Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you – for yourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, ⁷ as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.

Catherine and I were talking about this Sabbath for the land last week, and what it would also mean for the culture. If we assume that most of the people were land workers, who would therefore be without their regular employment, what would happen during this year? (I realise this may be a big and/or faulty assumption to make, but how do I know how many people would have worked the land?)

Here is a semi-organised brainstorming list of potentiallities:

1) People would sleep. Farmers in particular tend to be up early, working long hours and more or less always on call. Therefore they, moreso than anyone else, will probably benefit from being able to have a few lie-ins or early nights.

2) It's a great time to think and plan for the coming six years. Also, new dreams and ventures would be born, or even new skills would be gained.

3) Speaking of birth, and of early nights, there would probably be a glut of children born that year or the year following. It gives people time to invest more time in their, ahem, closest relationships.

4) Other relationships would flourish too. Men who have worked long hours would be in a position to hang out with their offspring for a change, and visits would be made to friends and extended family in far away places, that couldn't be done in a profession so dependant on the seasons and where everything always has to be done at exactly the time for it or it won't work.

5) Houses would get tidied. All those nooks and crannies that fill up with stuff that we don't get around to clearing, would be gone. All sorts of treasures may be found out as we do it.

6) Music would be made, and probably art, too. After they've had their fill of early nights, there would be much sitting up late and chatting, and in general, conversation would probably run at a deeper level than usual.

7) The meals would probably change when there is the time to dwell over the preparation of them, and the women may well become more creative in the types of meals they made. Incidentally, from later in the same chapter:
²⁰ You may ask, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?’ ²¹ I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years. ²² While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in,

so there would have been plenty to work with.