Q. Is there a point to make a Pruzbul at the beginning of the Shmita year?
A. In principle the lender can write a pruzbul and give over his loans to Bais Din at any time he wills, even years before the beginning of the shmitta year. However the pruzbul will only have an effect on loans made before this pruzbul was signed. Poiskim disagree as to when shmittas k'safim or the cancellation of debts instructed by the Torah takes effect. Most maintain that it is only at the end of the shmita year and it is then that the pruzbul should be signed. (Rambam – H. Shmitta 7, Shulchan Aruch C.M. 67: 30, Chinuch 477 et. al.) The Chasam Sofer (C.M. 50) testified that so was his and mentor's minhag. Shaarei Tzedek (21: 9) writes that this was and still is the Yerushalmi tradition and it is the most accepted custom worldwide.
However, the Rosh (Gittin 4: 10) and Tur (C.M. 67) and others maintain that the prohibition to collect loans takes effect already at the beginning of the shmitta year, therefore the pruzbul would have to be written before the end of the sixth year. Nitey Gavriel (Shmitta p. 16 ) quotes Minchas Yitzchok mentioning that the Chasidim of Lubavitch following the opinion of the Shulcham Aruch Horav and the contemporary Rebbe that one should make two puzbulin, one at the end of the sixth year and another one at the end of the shmitta year.
Horav Shlomo Miller's Shlit"a opinion is that one should do the pruzbul as is customary by the end of the shmitta year. Yechidey segulah who feel close to Hashemt could be stringent and do it before the beginning of the seventh year.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit"a
Important Numbers
