Entitlement? Behar/B'chukotai 5786
The Shmitta year and the Yovel, Jubilee year - the rest every seven years is supposedly a chok - a mitzvah without rational explanation. The second of the double weekly reading -B'Chukotai - with my "chok"(plural) tells of the blessings and curses which result from following or disregarding these Mitzvot (commandments)
Leviticus 25:10 includes the words on the liberty bell: Keratem dror b'artzechah - Proclaim release/homecoming throughout the land. This is a spiritual homecoming. I disagree that the laws of Shmitta and Yovel are without explanation. They certainly are among the most radical and difficult and laws, particularly for the wealthy and powerful, to observe. It requires them to abandon free their slaves, to open their fields for the poor, and the wild beasts (!) and to become equal in status to other human beings. To give up the idea that they are entitled to what they or their ancestors have wrested from the earth and from others because (variously in the text): "G8d said so", or because it is what the eretz or earth requires, or because it's right. Here is one verse, and the Rashi Text that is interestingly an encapsulation of these laws.

(ה) אֵ֣ת סְפִ֤יחַ קְצִֽירְךָ֙ לֹ֣א תִקְצ֔וֹר וְאֶת־עִנְּבֵ֥י נְזִירֶ֖ךָ לֹ֣א תִבְצֹ֑ר שְׁנַ֥ת שַׁבָּת֖וֹן יִהְיֶ֥ה לָאָֽרֶץ׃

(5) You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your untrimmed vines; it shall be a year of complete rest for the land.

(א)את ספיח קצירך. אֲפִלּוּ לֹא זְרַעְתָּהּ וְהִיא צָמְחָה מִן הַזֶּרַע שֶׁנָּפַל בָּהּ בְּעֵת הַקָּצִיר וְהוּא קָרוּי סָפִיחַ:(ב)לא תקצור. לִהְיוֹת מַחֲזִיק בּוֹ כִּשְׁאָר קָצִיר, אֶלָּא הֶפְקֵר יִהְיֶה לַכֹּל: (ג)נזירך. שֶׁהִנְזַרְתָּ וְהִפְרַשְׁתָּ בְנֵי אָדָם מֵהֶם וְלֹא הִפְקַרְתָּם: (ד)לא תבצר. אוֹתָם אֵינְךָ בוֹצֵר, אֶלָּא מִן הַמֻּפְקָ:

(1) את ספיח קצירך THAT WHICH GROW OF ITS OWN ACCORD OF THY HARVEST — i. e. even if you have not sown it but it grew from the seed which fell into it (into the ground) at the time of the last harvest — and that is what the term ספיח denotes. (2) לא תקצור THOU SHALT NOT REAP [IT] — to take it as your exclusive property as you do with other harvests (with the harvest in another year) but it shall be owner-less (הפקר) to all and then thou also may reap of it. (3) נזירך [AND THE GRAPES OF THY VINE] WHICH ARE נזירים — i. e. those from which you barred people (שהנזרת) and from which you have kept them away, not having made them free to everybody. (4) לא תבצר THOU SHALT NOT GATHER — them thou must not gather, but you may gather from that which has been declared free to everybody (Sifra, Behar, Chapter 1 3).

The word "hefker" means owner-less - like a $20 bill you find on the street and nobody claims it. And the word "s'fiyah" means "with a mind of its own" This isn't just about grapes, it's about us, about wildlife. "In wildness is the preservation of the world, said Thoreau, We are meant to belong only to the One who formed us, and to have a mind of our own, at least every seven years, and to sound the shofar of freedom on the 50th year. Otherwise the wealthy and powerful feel they are entitled to own land, to own humans, to despoil the earth. Every 7 and then 50 years sounds about right to me, how about you?