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 th 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.
SECOND MIKDASH
420 YEARS DURATION
CONSTRUCTION IS RESUMED
TH OF KISLEV 3409
