Our Gemara on Amud discusses the prohibition to use the produce of the Shemitta year for commerce. The Mishna Avos (5:8) lists various punishments that befall the world based on mass-level sins. Amongst those listed are pestilence, which comes from one of two corruptions: (1) sins punishable by death according to the Torah, but which have not been referred to the court or enforced, and (2) neglect of the law regarding commerce of the fruits of the sabbatical year (see Bartenura ibid.).

What is the logical connection between these two moral failures? We can intuitively grasp that the produce of Shemitta is supposed to be left hefker (ownerless, open to randomness and not guarded) for anyone to take. Therefore the consequence of neglecting this requirement is indiscriminate and random death: a rebalancing of chaos and disorder to make up for the over-control. As the verse (Vayikra 26:34) states: “Then shall the land make up for its sabbath years throughout the time that it is desolate and you are in the land of your enemies; then shall the land rest and make up for its sabbath years.” However, what does that have to do with a neglect of justice regarding capital cases?

Hon Ashir (ibid.) says something clever but difficult to understand. We are taught that the death penalty is only applied to one who commits the sin with unmistakable intent. So much so that two witnesses must warn him of the punishment and he must then commit the sin, in front of them, within a few minutes of the warning (Sanhedrin 40b), which some even describe as making oneself hefker to death (see Rashi ibid.). Here too, by neglecting justice we are not respecting what must be declared hefker.

I wonder: we might also say that a morally lazy society that refuses to prosecute serious criminals is making life itself inappropriately hefker, and therefore suffers the consequences of random chaotic death.

The Maharal (Derech Chaim 5:8) explains with a similar idea. Pestilence comes from Middas Hadin (divine strict justice) run rampant. As the Midrash teaches by the Plague of the First Born, once the Angel of the plague is unleashed it catches anything in its scope, even those undeserving. This is why the Jews were directed to stay indoors during the plague (Bava Kamma 60a). If justice is not served because society does not enforce its laws and punish serious transgressors, chaos reigns and a destructive force is unleashed without restraint. Similarly, refusal to honor the order of the Sabbatical year by allowing for the appropriate venting of the chaotic force induces a backlash reaction where chaos is unleashed indiscriminately.

The idea of balance and the problem of chaos is intuitively felt in little and big things. If we don’t assert ourselves appropriately there is a tendency to become overly aggressive in other situations. Midrash Tehilim (7:20) and Koheles Rabbah (7:16) comment on King Shaul’s misplaced mercy on King Agag of Amalek and his subsequent outsized cruelty in massacring Nov, the city of Kohanim, for an alleged insurrection: “If one is merciful when he is supposed to be cruel, he will end up being cruel when he’s supposed to be merciful.”

Big and small boundaries must be respected for a balanced personality, and a balanced civilization.