332. Diamond Jubilee: The obligation to sanctify the Jubilee year

Shemittah, the Sabbatical year, occurred at the end of a seven-year cycle. The land was therefore not permitted to be worked and produce was considered free for all in the 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th, 35th, 42nd and 49th years. At the end of seven such Sabbatical cycles, the 50th year was sanctified just like a Shemittah year. This fiftieth year was called Yoveil, the Jubilee. It was not considered part of the Shemittah cycle; the year before Yoveil was the seventh year of the seventh cycle and the year after it was the first year of the first cycle in a new series.

As with Shemittah, Yoveil demonstrates that God is the Boss. He makes the produce grow and declares it free for whoever wants it. Furthermore, in Yoveil all the Hebrew servants are released so that they should serve only Him and ancestral property reverts to its original owners. All this is because the world is ultimately God’s to do with as He chooses. He lets us run some things day-to-day, but He steps in periodically to “rebalance” things.

The Jubilee year was sanctified by the Sanhedrin, though only at a time when all of the Tribes reside in Israel, as we discussed in Mitzvah #330. In the Talmud, this mitzvah is discussed in the last three chapters of tractate Arachin. It is codified in the Mishneh Torah in the tenth chapter of Hilchos Shemittah and is #136 of the 248 positive mitzvos in the Rambam’s Sefer HaMitzvos.