jubilee

The Jubilee ( yōḇel; Yiddish: yoyvl) is the year at the end of seven cycles of shmita (Sabbatical years), and, according to biblical regulations, had a special impact on the ownership and management of land in the Land of Israel. According to the Book of Leviticus, Hebrew slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven, and the mercies of God would be particularly manifest. Rabbinic literature mentions a dispute between the Sages and Rabbi Yehuda over whether it was the 49th year (the last year of seven sabbatical cycles, referred to as the Sabbath's Sabbath), or whether it was the following (50th) year. The Jubilee ("Year of Release") deals largely with land, property, and property rights. The biblical rules concerning Sabbatical years are still observed by many religious Jews in Israel, but the regulations for the Jubilee year have not been observed for many centuries. According to the post-exile rabbinic interpretation of Torah, observance of Jubilee only applied when the Jewish people live in the land of Israel according to their tribes. Thus, with the exile of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh (about 600 BCE), Jubilee has not been applicable. Etymology The Septuagint used the phrase "a trumpet-blast of liberty" (ἀφέσεως σημασία apheseôs sêmasia), and the Vulgate used the Latin iobeleus; the English term Jubilee derives from the Latin term. The Latin term derives from the Hebrew term יוֹבֵל yōḇēl, used in the Masoretic Text, which also meant ram and ram's horn trumpet; the Jubilee year was announced by a blast on a shofar, an instrument made from a ram's horn, during that year's Yom Kippur.