The jubilee year(יובל) includes the laws of shmita, and in addition
all ancestral plots are restored to their original owners. The simple
understanding of the Chumash is that Yoval occurs every fiftieth year
immediately after the seventh Sabbatical year. In other words for two
consecutive years the land is not worked and considered as ownerless.
The Chumash asks the obvious question, what will we eat if
we have not planted or harvested? The reply is the G-d will command his
blessing on the land and it will yield its crops sufficient to last until the
ninth year. The implication is that crops harvested in the sixth year will
provide plentiful food for two years of shmita and yoval. In addition the
shmitas will be exceedingly joyous years and yoval will be a once in a lifetime
ecstasy.
In connection with these mitzvahs the Chumash gives the
assurance that if Hashem's ways are followed and His laws are kept that the
nation will dwell in the land securely in prosperity and peace. This is in
contrast to the tenor of BeChukosai which is a litany of horrors caused by
coolness to the law. Interestingly the harangue briefly mentions the Sabbatical
year saying that after the land is a desolation and the nation of Israel has be
exiled to their enemies the land will then enjoy its Shabboses.
The Kli Yakar discusses why the Chumash specifically states
that the laws of shmita and yoval were given on Mount
Sinai . He cites the verse that children of Israel were not to shepherd there flocks on it and
explains that Mount Sinai had much vegetation
on it. Therefore, the laws concerning agriculture bring back the national
memory of the G-d's revelation there.
He continues that the reason for the cessation of
agricultural work for a year or two strengthened people's faith. This is
because that one would not expect that the nation could survive for a year or
two without sowing or harvesting even more so for it to be a celebration.
However after it has been done successfully a number of times belief in G-d and
His Torah becomes very great. In addition the freeing of slaves and the return
of a man to his ancestral land also invoke memories of freedom from Egypt .
The commentaries also bring the verse, "An empty man
will gain understanding, and a wild donkey will a man be born", (Iyov -
Job - Chapter 11:12). This suggests that the horrors in BeChutosai are man's
natural state. However, if the nation has the faith to keep shmita and yoval
the supernatural will give them a paradise in its stead. The word יובל means a
ram's horn and the shofar is sounded on Yom Kippur to herald the start of the
Jubilee year. It, too, recalls the sound of the shofar during the revelation on
Mount Sinai . יובל also means a stream, suggesting that this
mitzvah is a flowing and overpowering stream of faith.
A discussion of how cessation of
agricultural labor in the Sabbatical and Jubilee years creates faith that
replaces disasters with joy
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