Our next ‘jewish invention’ myth comes to us courtesy of the jewish writer Debbie Lechtman and is related to the myth that jews invented the seven day week, (1) the weekend (2) and leap years (3) in the form of her claim that jews invented the concept of ‘taking a sabbatical’ or taking time off your labourers to do something else that is productive.
She writes:
‘SABBATICAL YEAR
In 1880, Harvard University was the first to grant its scientists, physicians, and other academics the option of a paid sabbatical leave. But the ancient Israelites were the first to come up with the concept nearly 3000 years prior!
Since the times of the Torah and perhaps even earlier, Jews and our ancestors have practiced Shmita, also known as the “Sabbath of the land.”
The Torah mandates that Israelites follow a seven-year agricultural cycle. Just like God commands that we rest on the seventh day of the week, Jews believe that we have been entrusted with a special responsibility to our Indigenous land. As such, the earth, too, deserves to rest.
During the seventh year of the agricultural cycle, the land is left un-farmed to allow for it to rest and recover.
Beyond the agricultural elements of Shmita, all interpersonal loans are also forgiven. Jews in the Diaspora can commemorate Shmita in some ways — e.g. forgiving loans, not purchasing fruit from the Land of Israel — but the agricultural practice applies *exclusively* to the Land of Israel. In other words, Jewish farmers in the Diaspora continue farming during the Shmita year. This is because we only have stewardship over our ancestral land.
During the Shmita year, Jewish farmers in the Land of Israel must allow their fields to lie fallow. Food storage and perennial harvests are made accessible to all.
In recent decades, environmentalists have begun studying the Indigenous practice of Shmita as a means of addressing environmental problems.’ (4)
The problem is that while the modern origins of ‘taking a sabbatical’ (as in a ‘sabbatical year’) do lie in the Harvard University in 1880; the concept of Shmita in Judaism has little to do with it since – as even Lechtman admits – this refers to the seven-year crop cycle not ‘taking time off’. Even then despite claiming that Shmita comes ‘from the Torah’ the truth is that it doesn’t; we have evidence in the Ugaritic texts (c. 1,200 to 1,400 B.C.) that the concept Shmita is derived from an ancient Canaanite practices (5) that jews then adopted – since remember Yahweh is originally the Canaanite storm god El and the Shekinah of Judaism is a fusing of the Canaanite goddesses Astarte and Asherah – (6) and have subsequently presented as ‘their own invention’.
Further the concept of ‘a rest year’ in the context of people is not drawn from the Shmita at all with it only using the name ‘sabbatical’ because of its links to Christianity, but rather from the popular Roman concept – remember Harvard University used to be a major centre of scholarship on the classical world – called ‘Otium’ which translates best as ‘leisure time’ where-in a Roman would take a break from ‘negotium’ (lit. ‘business’/’being busy’).
Indeed, the Romans even distinguished between taking ‘time off to do something productive’ (‘otium otiosum’) and ‘time off to do whatever one wanted’ (‘otium negotiosum’). This is of course the classic distinguishing element in ‘taking a sabbatical’ in that you are being allowed leisure time but while there is a desire to do ‘what you want’ (aka ‘otium negotiosum’) you have to actually be productive for that sabbatical to be of value to you (and others) (aka ‘otium otiosum’). (7)
So, no; the jews didn’t invent ‘taking a sabbatical’ or the ‘sabbatical year’ for that matter.
References
(1) On this please see my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myths-the-seven
(2) On this please see my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myths-the-weekend
(3) On this please see my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myths-the-leap-year
(4) https://www.rootsmetals.com/blogs/news/israelite-jewish-inventions-during-ancient-times
(5) Cyrus Gordon, 1982, ‘The Biblical Sabbath, its Origin and Observance in the Ancient Near East’, Judaism, Vol. 31, pp. 12-16; Cyrus Gordon, 1953, ‘Sabbatical Cycle or Seasonal Pattern? Reflections on a New Book’, Orientalia, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 79-81
(6) Cf. William Dever, 2005, ‘Did God Have a Wife?: Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel’, 1st Edition, William Eerdmans: Grand Rapids
(7) On this tension in modern academe see: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/sabbaticals-no-longer-so-open-ended-or-available/2019616.article
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