Forget About It

In Deuteronomy Chapter 15, Scripture introduces a radical economic mandate when the seventh year begins – the relinquishment of all debts. This is the matter of the release: Every creditor shall release his hold over what he would claim (Ya-sheh: ישה ) due from his fellow or his brother… (v.2). The verb of the root Ya-sheh is Na-sheh (נשה), which could mean to claim one’s due as in our verse or to forget as to when Joseph named his first child Manasseh (מנשה) because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household (Genesis 41:51).
The Hebrew word Yasheh is very unique and only appears twice in the Bible; Deuteronomy 15:2 and the other time in the Book of Job – that God forget (Yasheh: ישה ) for your sake some of your iniquities (11:6). Linking these two verses together, the rabbis say that if we follow the commandment of forgetting about the debts owe to us when the seventh year comes, God will forget our sins.