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Chapter 10

The Mitzva of Yovel

י - מצוות היובל

In this chapter (11)
  1. 1. The Mitzva of Yovel
  2. 2. The Laws of Yovel and Resting in It
  3. 3. The Meaning of the Yovel
  4. 4. Yom Kippur of the Yovel
  5. 5. Selling a Field and Its Return in the Yovel
  6. 6. The Right to Redeem the Field Before the Yovel
  7. 7. Slavery and Release in the Yovel
  8. 8. The Laws of Slaves, the Law of a Convert, and One Sold to a Gentile
  9. 9. The Law Regarding a Woman
  10. 10. The Reason for the Mitzva of Slavery
  11. 11. Slavery in the Present and the Future
10:1

The Mitzva of Yovel

מצוות היובל

The mitzva of Yovel is that Israel count seven years seven times and make the fiftieth year a Yovel year, releasing the Hebrew slaves to their homes, while those who bought fields return them to their owners. As it is stated (Vayikra 25:8-10): “You shall count off seven weeks of years – seven times seven years – so that the period of seven weeks of years gives you a total of forty-nine years. Then you shall sound the horn loud; in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month – the Day of Atonement – you shall have the horn sounded throughout your land. And you shall hallow the fiftieth year. You shall proclaim release throughout the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: each of you shall return to his holding and each of you shall return to his family.”

The law of the Yovel year is also like the law of the seventh year: one must rest in it from all field work, release the produce, and treat it with holiness, as it is stated (ibid. 11-12): “You shall not sow, neither shall you reap the aftergrowth or harvest the untrimmed vines, for it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you: you may only eat the growth direct from the field.” However, the release of debts takes place only in the Shemita year.

According to the Sages, in the year after the Yovel, which is the fifty-first year, one begins counting seven Shemita cycles anew. It turns out that the complete cycle of Shemita years and Yovel lasts fifty years. According to Rabbi Yehuda, the fiftieth year counts both ways, that is, the Yovel year is also the first year of the next Shemita cycle, so the complete cycle is forty-nine years and not fifty (Rosh Ha-shana 9a).

The mitzva of Yovel depends on the counting of the years that was carried out by the Great Beit Din on behalf of all Israel. There are two positive commandments in this: The first is to count seven years seven times, like the counting of the omer. However, in the counting of the omer every Jew must count, as it is stated (Vayikra 23:15): “And you shall count for yourselves (u-sfartem lakhem),” whereas the years must be counted by the beit din on behalf of all Israel, as it is stated (ibid. 25:8): “And you shall count for yourself (ve-safarta lekha),” in the singular. The second mitzva is to sanctify the fiftieth year, making it a Yovel, as it is stated (ibid. 10): “And you shall hallow the fiftieth year.”¹

Notes (1)
  1. According to the Rambam 10:7, the halakha follows the Sages, and according to the Ri in Tosafot, Rosh Ha-shana 9a, s.v. “u-le’apukei,” the halakha follows Rabbi Yehuda, as explained above 5:7, n. 6.
    The mitzvot of counting the years and sanctifying the fiftieth year are performed verbally by the beit din (Rashi, Rosh Ha-shana 8b, and Meiri there; Rambam 10:1). The sanctification of the fiftieth year is on Rosh Ha-shana (Rashi ibid.). A berakha must be recited on the counting, as on the counting of the omer (Tosafot, Ketubot 72a, s.v. “ve-safra”), and a berakha is also recited on the sanctification of the fiftieth year (Ḥinukh 332). The order of counting is like the counting of the omer: one counts years and counts Shemita cycles (Ra’avad and R. Shimshon of Sens on Behar, parasha 2). Thus on Rosh Ha-shana of the eighth year, for example, they stand in the Great Beit Din and say: “Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us concerning the counting of the Shemita and the Yovel. Today is eight years, which are one Shemita cycle (lit. ‘week’) and one year, of the Yovel,” and so in all the years, as in the counting of the omer (Arukh Ha-shulḥan 30:5-7). See Shabbat Ha-aretz 10:1.
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