The laws pertaining to the Seventh Year apply only to that territory formerly occupied by Jews who returned from the Babylonian captivity in the days of Ezra.
However, the Rabbis, desiring to maintain a distinction between the Land of Israel and the rest of the world, and for other reasons stated below, kept in force some of the special laws.
Hence semikhah was still left in the hands of the judiciary, with power to inflict the penalties of lashes and fines, and to announce the day of the new moon on the evidence of witnesses.
Rabban Johanan ben Zakkai, after the destruction, made it prohibited to partake of the new harvest until the 17th day of the lunar month Nisan, leaving the original time in perpetual abeyance.
[7] Another ordinance was directed against the raising of small livestock (sheep and goats) except in woods or barren territory, in order to preserve the cultivated lands from injury.
One must not emigrate unless the necessaries of life reach the price of a "sela" (two common shekels) for a double se'ah-measure of wheat, and unless they are difficult to obtain even then.
[13] Besides these legal variations there were many differences, especially in the early periods, between Jewish practices in the Land of Israel and Babylon (sometimes called "the East").