Sanhedrin 052

7:
I have translated the Hebrew of our Mishnah as "those who let pigeons loose". In all probability this is a reference to another incidence of "games of chance": pigeon racing. However, pigeons were an expensive and desirous commodity. They were used, in particular, for long-distance communications. But, of course, they were a messy lot! The sages legislated on this matter in order to minimize the damage and inconvenience to property, to living-standards and to the environment.

In mishnaic times the towns and villages were settlements that were usually enclosed by a protecting wall; outside the wall was a free area in which nothing could be built or planted [Tractate Bava Batra, chapter two]. The Gemara there [Bava Batra 24b] says that this was for aesthetic reasons, though in all probability there were also security considerations involved. This free area was surrounded by allotments, so that every inhabitant who wanted to could have a plot of land on which to grow produce – vegetable gardens, orchards and vineyards, olive groves, cereal crops and so forth. These plots were a part of the family's freehold inheritance and were passed down from generation to generation. Thus the inhabitants could use the produce that they grew for their own sustenance, for selling at a profit, or both. (Certain kinds of livestock were permitted within the towns and villages and other kinds were not permitted even in the allotments – for ecological and social reasons.) Some people obviously chose to raise pigeons – either for racing or for communications, or both, as we have mentioned. Pigeon fanciers were restricted, as we saw in the mishnah quoted above, in order to minimize the problems that the pigeons could cause to neighbours.

8:
The Gemara [Sanhedrin 25a] points out the obvious: it is highly unlikely that our mishnah is referring to people who race pigeons, since this misdemeanour is already covered by "games of chance": people would place bets on which pigeon would arrive at the selected destination first. That is why the Gemara seems to prefer the idea that pigeon fanciers are disqualified from sitting as judges and arbitrators because they train their birds to entice other people's pigeons into their coop. This would be a kind of theft. I say "a kind of theft" since the birds do not actually "belong" to anybody, but are "in the care of" the person in whose coop they are housed. Nevertheless, the sages legislated against such chicanery, and it is certainly theft according to rabbinic law. According to this explanation, pigeon-fanciers, too are playing fast and loose with the possessions of others.

9:
The last persons disqualified by our mishnah are "those who trade in sabbatical produce". Our mishnah is here referring to produce grown and or sold during the Sabbatical Year. The last year in every cycle of seven years is a Sabbatical Year. (Quite by chance, you can determine the status of the current year by dividing is value by seven. If the remainder is zero that year is a sabbatical year. If the remainder is greater than zero the remainder indicates the place of the current year in the current cycle. Thus 5758 is the fourth year of the current cycle.) The Torah legislates for two different aspects of the Sabbatical Year: it is a year in the agricultural cycle in which the land (of Israel) must lie fallow and any produce that grows of its own accord is Hefker [ownerless] so trading in such produce is forbidden [Leviticus 25:1-7]. The Sabbatical Year is also a year in which all monetary debts are automatically canceled [Deuteronomy 15:1-11]. Thus our sources refer to Shemittat Kesafim [Financial Sabbatical] and Shemittat Mekarke'in [Agricultural Sabbatical]. Our present mishnah is concerned only with the latter.

10:
The idea that seems to underlie Shemittat Mekarke'in [Agricultural Sabbatical] is not in order to preserve the fecundity of the ground, as is often claimed (though it undeniably had such an effect). It's purpose seems to have been to inculcate the notion that the land does not "belong" to anybody in particular, regardless of who may be the present freeholder. The land belongs to God, and God requires the agriculturalist to forego all his proprietary privileges over the land he holds once every seven years. He must throw open its enclosures, and stand by and watch while anyone enters the field, orchard, vineyard, vegetable garden – and helps himself to whatever happens to be growing there. Thus, once every seven years all Jews are truly equal from the financial point of view. Since the produce of the sabbatical year is Hefker and belongs to everybody, it follows that no one may gather sabbatical produce in order to resell it at a profit. Anyone who does so is – like the gamesters and the pigeon-fanciers and the moneylenders – making an unearned profit on what does not belong to them.

11:
We now come to the explanatory interpolations of Rabbi Shim'on ben-Yoĥai. He says that originally they were termed "those who collect sabbatical produce". Now collecting sabbatical produce was certainly not forbidden! That was, indeed, the whole object of the exercise! The Gemara [Sanhedrin 25b] explains further, that "those who collect sabbatical produce" were entitled to do so; what they were not entitled to do was to sell the produce further down the line. Those who tried to make a profit were derisively called "sabbatical collectors".

12:
Rabbi Shim'on goes on to explain that since the increase in tax collectors they have been termed "those who trade in sabbatical produce". During the period prior to the Roman occupation of Eretz-Israel all governments refrained from leveling taxes during the sabbatical year. However, once the Romans undertook direct rule (from the year 6 CE onwards, with a blessed hiatus from 40 – 44 CE, the procurators [i.e. governors-general] were not so sensitive to such religious considerations. They demanded taxes to be paid regardless of the place of the current year in the sabbatical cycle. (Actually, the most difficult years of all were not the sabbatical years themselves, but the following year, the first year of the new cycle, when the people had nothing with which to pay their taxes. It is no mere coincidence that there were bloody riots in Eretz-Israel in the years 7, 28 49 and 63 CE – all of which were Motza'ei Shevi'it, the first year of a new cycle.

13:
The Roman method of tax collecting was open to immediate abuse. The treasury in Rome would determine its fiscal needs, and each provincial governor was required to pay immediately out of his own resources the amount owed by his province. This loss he passed on (after adding a suitable profit) to professional tax-collectors – called 'publicans' in the New Testament. These, too, had to pay immediately out of their own resources and the loss was passed on (again after adding a further profit) to the poor people. Thus we must understand that these tax-collectors were viewed like legalized loan-sharks, who would stop at nothing to recoup their monies. The situation was so bad that the sages had to permit the people at large to gather sabbatical produce in order to pay their taxes with it. There were obviously some who abused this leniency and used the gathered produce for trading purposes. Such people, says Rabbi Shim'on, were called those who trade in sabbatical produce. Such people were disqualified from sitting in judgment.

14:
The Seifa [last section] of our mishnah presents the attempt by Rabbi Yehudah [ben-Ilai] to qualify the previous statements of Tanna Kamma. When are the aforementioned disqualified? When they have no other occupation at all. It is not entirely clear which prior clause he seeks to qualify. It could be that he is referring to the gamesters and the pigeon-fanciers: they are disqualified when this is what they earn their living at, but a harmless "flutter" is acceptable. Or it could be that he is referring to those who trade in sabbatical produce. The latter is the view of Rambam [Moses Maimonides, North Africa, 12th century CE] in his Mishnah Commentary.