The Laws of Biur for Shemitah Fruits

The Torah states: "And for your cattle and for the beast that is in your land shall all the produce be to eat," and our Sages taught, as long as this type of produce is being eaten by animals in the field, you may eat it at home, but when it is no longer available to animals in the field, you must remove it from your home. As explained earlier, one of the practices regarding produce with sanctity is that a person must declare their field's produce ownerless, and one is prohibited from bringing large quantities of produce into their home, but may take small amounts from the field. However, this permission only applies while the produce is still available in the field. If the produce is depleted from the field, a person must remove the produce that is in their home from that field. This law is called "biur of Shemitah produce."

The law of biur applies only to produce that has Shemitah sanctity (as explained above regarding which produce has sanctity).

Produce from Otzar Beit Din (court-managed distribution), although it has sanctity, is not subject to the laws of biur.

This removal is carried out through declaring the produce ownerless. The procedure is as follows: according to the basic law, one must declare the produce ownerless in front of three friends, and some say that one must also take the produce out and place it at the entrance of their home and say, "Our brothers, the children of Israel, whoever needs to take, let them come and take." After a person has declared the produce ownerless, they may bring it back into their home and eat it.

Produce that has reached its time for biur and has been declared ownerless can be reacquired and may be eaten, but one must still treat this produce with sanctity.

Produce that has reached its time for biur and was not declared ownerless is forbidden to benefit from. This prohibition applies to both men and women.

How should one act if they are uncertain whether the time for biur has arrived for the produce in their possession? There are several approaches:

Some say: One should immediately declare the fruit ownerless, then reacquire it, and the next day declare it ownerless again and reacquire it again, and continue doing so until the doubt is resolved regarding when the biur time for this fruit is. Since this procedure is difficult to implement, one may declare the fruits ownerless once and bring them back into the house with the status of being ownerless, meaning they intend not to acquire these fruits as long as there is doubt, and they should announce at the time of declaring them ownerless that even though they are bringing the fruits into their home, they remain ownerless and available, and everyone has permission to come and take them whenever they wish.

Some say: This approach (repeatedly declaring ownerless and reacquiring) is not effective, but rather one should declare them ownerless and not reacquire them until they know with certainty when the time of biur is.

If a person sold produce with sanctity (and it will be explained below whether it is permissible to sell sacred produce at all), this sanctity transfers from the produce to the money, and therefore the laws of biur must also be observed with the money. For example, if one sold grapes and these grapes are no longer available in the market, biur must be performed for the money with which the grapes were purchased. For any questions, it is recommended to consult with a Torah scholar.

Wine that has Shemitah sanctity has its time of biur on the eve of Passover in the year following the Shemitah year. One should declare the wine ownerless in front of three people (as explained above), and after declaring the wine ownerless, it is good to wait and explicitly state that one does not intend to reacquire the wine until after Passover. However, according to the basic law, one may reacquire it immediately and drink it on Passover.

If a person forgot and did not declare their wine ownerless on the eve of Passover, they may declare it on the Seder night (meaning on the holiday itself).

If a person forgot and did not declare their wine ownerless on the eve of Passover, they may do so until the seventh day of Passover (until the end of the Passover holiday).

If a person did not declare their wine ownerless until after the Passover holiday ended:

If they intentionally did not declare it ownerless: The wine is forbidden and must be removed from the world (meaning pour the wine down the drain).

If they unintentionally forgot to declare it ownerless: They should declare it ownerless immediately, and the wine is permitted for drinking.

If a person forgot and did not declare their wine ownerless on the eve of Passover and has no other wine, they are permitted to drink from this wine for the four cups of the Seder night.

If a person made jam from fruits that have Shemitah sanctity, they should be careful to eat the jam before the time of biur for the fruits from which the jam was made. If they still have jam remaining, they can declare it ownerless and reacquire it. If they forgot, they should declare it ownerless immediately and may reacquire it.