וספרת לך שבע שבתת שנים שבע שנים שבע פעמים והיו לך ימי שבע שבתת השנים תשע וארבעים שנה והעברת שופר תרועה בחדש השביעי בעשור לחדש ביום הכפרים תעבירו שופר בכל ארצכם וקדשתם את שנת החמשים שנה וקראתם דרור בארץ לכל ישביה יובל הוא תהיה לכם ושבתם איש אל אחזתו ואיש אל משפחתו תשבו (ויקרא כה, ח-י)
The Counting
The Torah commands to count a cycle of 7 years (Shmitah) and 7 sets of 7 years (Yovel). The laws of Yovel are the same as the laws of the years of Shmitah regarding the prohibition to work the land of Israel. The additional laws of Yovel also involve the freeing of slaves and the returning of sold ancestral lands.
The Gemara (Arachim 12b-13a, Nedarim 61a) records a dispute in understanding the count of years of Shmitah and Yovel. According to the Chachumim the Yovel immediately follows the 49th year and that year does not count towards the counting of the next Shmitah cycle. Rabbi Yehudah says the Yovel year also counts as the first year of the Shmitah cycle.
Chachumim vs. Rabbi Yehudah
Thus, according to the Chachumim the Yovel occurs every 50 years. According to Rabbi Yehudah the Yovel occurs every 49 years (after the first set). According to both opinions the Yovel is anchored to occur the year after the 7th Shmitah year.
Third Opinion: Rabbi Yehudah in Yerushalmi
Rabbi Yehudah in Yerushalmi Kedushin 1:2 is an understanding of Rabbi Yehudah that agrees the Yovel occurs every 50 years, but the first year of the new Shmitah cycle occurs the year after the completion of the 49 years (7 cycles of 7 years). Thus, the Yovel which occurs every 50 years can occur in any year of the Shmitah cycle and is not anchored to the 7th Shmitah year.
Shmitah and Yovel Prior to Entering Eretz Yisrael
The laws of Yovel and Shmitah are only applicable to the land of Eretz Yisrael. Thus, prior to the Jewish people entering Eretz Yisrael in the year 2488, the laws did not apply. Further, the laws of Yovel only apply when all (most) of the Jewish people are settled in the Land. (Some commentators do count backwards to the Creation to establish “Yovel” years)
Shmitah and Yovel After Settlement in Eretz Yisrael and the First Bais HaMikdash
The period from when the Jews entered Eretz Yisrael until the destruction of the first Bais HaMikdash lasted 850 years (a number divisible by 50). However, the counting of Shmitah and Yovel did not begin until after the first 14 complete years of conquest and distribution of Eretz Yisrael. (“Six years you should sow your land etc.” (VaYikra 25,3) Every person must recognize their land before Shmitah can be counted.) Thus, the laws were applicable for 836 years.
Important events: First Shmitah: 2510. First Yovel: 2553.
The laws of Yovel apply only when all the Tribes of Israel reside in Eretz Yisrael, each in its own Biblical portion of land (Arachin 33b). With Shlomo’s reign, the ideal state of Israel’s nationhood had been attained. Every institution envisioned by the Torah was in place – the monarchy, the Bais haMikdash, the Bais Din haGadol, the Kohen Gadol, prophecy. Every condition for national life guided by Torah was in place including the Yovel, including its most stringent condition, that the majority of all Jews should be living in their land, was fulfilled.
However, the exile of the tribes of the Eastern bank constituted the first apparent break in this ideal. The Yovel was no longer applicable and the start of Galus had begun.
After the tribes of Reuven, Gad and Menasheh had been in exile for 109 years (Chazon Ish, Seviis 3:11), Yirmiyahu led them and the rest of the 10 Tribes back to Eretz Yisrael (Megillah 14b, Rashi Arachin 12b). According to Ramban (commentary on Chumash), most of each tribe must have returned for the Yovel laws to start again. It is evident that the Ten Tribes returned (Arachin 12b) and a new Yovel period began, and that the Temple was destroyed 36 years later. This appears to be the Gemara’s understanding according to Rabbi Yehuda. Even though a new Yovel was not actually observed, since the Temple was destroyed and almost all the Jews went into Exile in the 36th year of that Yovel cycle according to all opinions.
Shmitah and Yovel During the Exile in Bavel
While the Jews were in exile for seventy years the laws of Shmitah and Yovel were not applicable. However, the years of Shmitah were counted and its laws applied in Eretz Yisrael. But the Yovel was not counted and its laws were not in effect.
Shmitah and Yovel During the Second Bais HaMikdash
Important event: 3416 – (seventh year after finishing the Bais haMikdash) Ezra came to Eretz Yisrael with the main group of returnees and the count of the Yovel resumes.
A disagreement exists during this period as to the nature of the laws and the counting of Shmitah and Yovel. The Gemara (Arachim 32b) derives from the verse דרור בארץ לכל ישביה יובל הוא תהיה לכם that only when all the Jews are settled in Eretz Yisrael are the laws of Yovel applicable.
If so, why were these laws observed in Ezra’s time (at the beginning of Bayis Sheni), when only a fraction of the Jewish nation were living in Eretz Yisrael?
In the time of Ezra when most of the Jewish people lived outside of Eretz Yisrael, Yovel laws were not operational (servants were not released, fields did not return to their original owners, nor was agricultural work was prohibited). However, the laws of Shmitah still applied (the land was not worked and the debts were forgiven).
Rather, the Yovel needed to be counted in Ezra’s time so that the Shmitah year would fall in the proper time (according to the Chachumim) since the 50th year was not in the cycle of seven years for Shmitah.
Tannaim disagree as to whether the laws of Shmitah apply even when the laws of Yovel are not in force. Rebbi maintains that Shmitah is contingent on the Yovel. Thus, during the time of the second Mikdash, when the Yovel laws did not apply, Shmitah did not apply either on a biblical level. The Rabbis decreed the obligation to observe the laws of Shmitah and the count of the Yovel year as a remembrance of the biblical law. According to the dissenting opinion, which holds that the laws of Shmitah are independent of the laws of Yovel, the Shmitah laws and the counting of the Yovel applied on a biblical level during the second Mikdash.
Shmitah and Yovel During the Final Exile
After the destruction of the second Mikdash, we are accustomed to no longer count the extra year for Yovel (the laws are not applicable). Thus, the 50th year is now the first year of the next 7-year cycle even according to the Chachamim. We still count the years for Shmitah since we do observe the laws of Shmitah in Eretz Yisrael as a rabbinical decree. (One has to be careful during the Shmitah year and following year regarding exported agricultural products from Israel)
Why do we not count the Yovel during this Exile while counting the Shmitah years, yet count both in the second Mikdash period? The Ramban explains that during the time of the Mikdash the Jews owned land in Eretz Yisrael. Thus, the Rabbis established a remembrance for the Yovel by counting the year of Yovel, not to forget the concept of the returning of the ancestral land to their original owners in the future restoration of the Yovel. This reason does not apply during the current Exile since most of Jewish people do not live or own land in Eretz Yisrael.
Final Exile and Future Restoration
Once the Bais HaMikdash is rebuilt then the counting of the Yovel year will be restored.
Three Historical Periods of Yovel and Shmitah
During the time of Ezra the court would count the years towards Yovel, but only in order to keep Shemita at the proper times. However, the actual sanctity of the Shemita year was not dependent on the count. Only the knowledge of when Shemita actually was utilized this counting, but the holiness of the year happened by itself when the time came. As such, it would seem that there can be Shemita even when there is no Yovel.
There is a deeper explanation for this based on the different sanctities that time can have. There is a type of holiness of time that is automatic, such as Shabbat, and a type of sanctity that comes from the Jewish people, such as that of the holidays which only comes when the Jews say it does (since the Jews set the calendar). Shemita confers a holiness that is independent, not reliant on the Jewish count, while Yovel comes about only as a result of the fifty-year counting process undertaken by the Bais Din. Thus, the counting of Shemita by Bais Din is not for the Shemita, but is only for the purposes of the next Yovel. And thus, when Yovel is no longer kept there is no longer a need for counting Shemita years.
However, once the Bais HaMikdash is rebuilt and the counting of the years for Yovel is restored, then the counting of the Shemita years will be restored as well, as a function of Yovel and as a function of the overall sanctity of the land of Israel.
