For the purpose of our discussion, we need to understand the first 8 halachot of Mishneh Torah Hilchot Shmitah v'Yovel Chapter 10. 1. It is a positive commandment to count years, 7 by 7, and to sanctify the 50th year, as it is written "And you shall count for yourself 7 sabbaths of years... and you shall sanctify the 50th year" (Leviticus 25:8). And these two commandments are the responsibility of the Great Court (the Sanhedrin) alone. And from when did they start to count? They started 14 years after entering the land, as it is written "For 6 years you shall plant your fields, and for 6 years you shall prune your vineyeard" (Leviticus 25:3), when every person should know their land. And they spent 7 years conquering the land, and 7 years in division. The Exodus took place in the year 2448, according to the count brought in Midrash Seder Olam Rabba. The 40 years in the desert finished in 2488. After this there were 7 years in which Yehoshua bin-Nun led B'nei Yisrael in conquering the land, ending in 2495. A further 7 years went in to dividing the land amongst the 12 tribes. This ends in the year 2502. 2. We see from this that in the year 2503 from the Rosh Hashanah after the birth of Adam HaRishon, which is the 2nd year of creation, they began to count. And they did the year 2510 from creation, which is the 21st year from the time they entered Eretz Yisrael, Shmitah. And they counted 7 Shmitah years and sanctified the 50th year, which was the 64th year from the time they entered Eretz Yisrael. The Rambam here tells us that they started in the year 2503, but counting from year number 2. Really, then, the count started in year 2504. This is implied by the fact that the 1st Shmitah is recorded as the year 2510. The first Yovel was, therefore, in 2553. Background: Midrash Seder Olam Rabba assumes that Adam HaRishon was born in year 1. The Rambam, however, states that we count starting from the "Year of Chaos". If Adam HaRishon was born on the 1st of Tishrei, that means that the other 5 days of creation were in Elul, and since we don't have a year 0, we shift the creation of Adam HaRishon to year 2. Then, in order to simplify our calendrical calculations, we calculate backwards to the prior hypothetical Tishrei, and that is the 1st Molad, on which all other calculations are based. This is called Molad BaHaRa"D. (BaHaRa"D is an acronym for the 2nd day of the week, the 5th hour, and 204 chalakim) In Tractate Arachin, there is a disagreement on how to count the Yovel Cycle.
The Rambam brings as the halachah the opinion of Rabbanan, that we count 7 Shmitah Cycles, and then have a Yovel Year. The following year is number 1 of the following Shmitah and Yovel Cycles. 3. Am Yisrael counted 17 Yovels, from the time they entered Eretz Yisrael to the time they left, and the year they left, in which the 1st Beit HaMikdash was destroyed, was the year after Shmitah, and year 36 of the Yovel, for the 1st Beit HaMikdash stood 410 years. The 1st Beit HaMikdash, which stood from 2929 to 3339. Continuing these 50 year cycles onward from 2504, we see that 3339 was the 36th year of the 17th Yovel cycle. That is to say that 16 Yovel cycles were completed, and the Destruction was during the 17th cycle. 4. And due to the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, this count ceased, for the land was nullified. And the land remained destroyed, 70 years; and the 2nd Beit HaMikdash was built, and stood 420 years. And in the 7th year from its construction, Ezra came up to Eretz Yisrael, and that is the Bi'ah Shniyah, and from this year a new count began. And they made the 13th year of the 2nd Beit HaMikdash Shmitah, and they counted 7 Shmitah years and sanctified the 50th year, even though there was no Yovel during the time of the 2nd Beit HaMikdash, they would count it in order to sanctify the Shmitah years. The Rambam's opinion is that during the 70 years of the Babylonian Exile, Shmitah and Yovel were not counted, due to the nullification of the initial holiness of the land imparted in the time of Yehoshua bin-Nun. As the Gemara teaches, the holiness imparted by Yehoshua was for its time, but the 2nd holiness, imparted in the time of Ezra, is eternal, even to our days. This is an interesting idea. We have seemingly separate issues: The counting of Shmitah and Yovel, and the holiness of the Land of Israel. According to the Rambam, the counting of Shmitah and Yovel is dependent on the holiness being in force. 5. We see from this that the year that the 2nd Beit HaMikdash was destroyed, whose start is from Tishrei after the destruction by 2 months, for it is from Tishrei that we count Shmitah and Yovel, that year was the year after Shmitah, and year 15 of the 9th Yovel. There is a very old tradition brought down that both of the Temples were destroyed in the year after Shmitah. In order to make this work, the Rambam asserts that in the case of the 2nd Beit HaMikdash, we are referring to the year after the destruction. It should be noted that the Tosefot on Arachin says that the 2nd Beit HaMikdash stood 421 years; this makes the calculation work. 6. And according to this calculation, this year, which is 1107 of the Destruction, which is 1487 to the count of Shtarot, which is 4936 to Creation, is a Shmitah year, and it is year 21 from the Yovel. Following the idea in Halachah 4, the holiness of the land is still in force, and therefore we should still count Yovel cycles. These numbers are the result. 7. However, all of the Geonim said that it is a tradition in their hands, from one generation to the next, that they only counted Shmitah during the 70 years between the Destruction of the 1st Beit HaMikdash and the Building of the 2nd Beit HaMikdash, without Yovel, and thus it is since it was destroyed this last time, we don't count the 50th year, but rather just every 7 years alone, from the the beginning of the year of the Destruction. And thus is the conclusion from the Talmud Avodah Zarah, according to this calculation, which is a tradition. The Rambam here brings a tradition which nullifies his own conclusion. During the time of the Babylonian Exile, the counting did continue, but only Shmitah cycles. Thus it is also during the Exile of Edom in our days, we continue with only the Shmitah cycles. This calculation, that 3829, the year of the Destruction, was a Shmitah year, leads to the year 5768 also being a Shmitah year, as we practice now as halachah. 8. And the year of Shmitah is well known by the Geonim and the people of Eretz Yisrael, and all of them counted only from the years of the Destruction, and removing the remainders of 7. And according to this calculation, this year which is 1107 to the Destruction, is the year after Shmitah. And this is what we rely on, and according to this calculation we teach for the matter of Maaser, and Shmitah, and Cancellation of Debts, for tradition and deed are major pillars of instruction, and it is proper to depend upon them. The Rambam here stresses the need to follow this tradition from the Geonim, despite the logic for this decision not being evident to us. We submit to their superior judgement. |