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Counting the Shmitah (Sabbatical) Years

and

the Yobel (Jubilee) Years

 

The Shmitah year is the Sabbatical year. The Yobel year is the Jubilee year.

 

The Shmitah (Sabbatical) year is not calculated by diving the years by seven.

 

We need to figure out the Yobel (Jubilee) year then from that we figure out the Shmitah (Sabbatical) year.

 

Therefore, we divide the years by 50 and the year 51 is the first year of the seven.

 

Thus the years 57 - 64 - 71 - 78 - 85 - 92 - 99 are Shmitah (Sabbatical) years.

 

The year 100 is Yobel (Jubilee)

And the years 107 - 114 - 121 - 128 - 135 - 142 - 149 are Shmitah (Sabbatical) years.

 

This method was practiced by the sons of God from the Creation of Adam until the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by Titus AD 70.

 

At this time, AD 70 - AD 135 at the Sanhedrin of Yabneh, the rabbis changed the counting system and ignored the calculation of the Yobel (Jubilee) year. They simply divide by seven and count the Shmitah (Sabbatical) years. Thus, the Shmitah (Sabbatical) years calculations we have today are not accurate.

 

The rabbis of Yabneh made this modification to ease the lives of the Jews who were under oppression from the Romans and who had no Temple. Thus, they exempted them from the Yobel (Jubilee) year requirement mentioned in the Books of Moses.

 

If we want to calculate accurately the Shmittah (Sabbatical) year, then we can take the Jewish year (for example) and divide it by 50.

 

We notice that there are 115 Yobel (Jubilee) had passed at the year 5750

 

 Therefore the Shmittah (Sabbatical) years are

 

Jewish               Begins             Ends

Shmittah             A.D.                  A.D.

(Sabbatical)      

5757                  1996                  1997

5764                 2003                  2004

5771                  2010                   2011

5778                 2017                   2018

5785                 2024                  2025

5792                 2031                   2032

5799                 2038                  2039

5800                 2039                 2040

Yobel Year

 

I expect the Lord’s coming to be on a Shmitah (Sabbatical) year and preferably on a Yobel (Jubilee) year.

 

Personally, I pray that Jesus the Messiah comes again by the year 2031 and not later.

 

Christians who follow the rabbinic teaching of the Shmitah (Sabbatical) are not aware that they must use the Yobel (Jubilee) year to calculate the Smitah. Thus they have different Shmitah (Sabbatical) years which I believe inaccurate.

Scripture verses in reference to the Shmitah (Sabbatical) and the Yobel (Jubilee) years:

 

1."Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave, the beasts of the field may eat. In like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove.” (Exodus 23:10–11).

 

2.“And YHWH the LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying,"Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a sabbath to YHWH the LORD. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to YHWH the LORD. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, for it is a year of rest for the land. And the sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you: for you, your male and female servants, your hired man, and the stranger who dwells with you, for your livestock and the beasts that are in your land--all its produce shall be for food.” (Leviticus 25:1–7).

 

3.“And if you say, "What shall we eat in the seventh year, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?" Then I will command My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years. And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes in, you shall eat of the old harvest.” (Leviticus 25:20–22).

 

4." I will scatter you among the nations, and keep the sword drawn against you. Your land will remain desolate, and your cities in ruins. Then, as long as the land is desolate and you are in your enemies' land, the land will enjoy its sabbaths. The land will rest and enjoy its sabbatical years. Thus, as long as it is desolate, [the land] will enjoy the sabbatical rest that you would not give it when you lived there." (Leviticus 26:33-35).

 

5.“At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release of debts. And this is the form of the release: Every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall release it; he shall not require it of his neighbor or his brother, because it is called the LORD'S release. Of a foreigner you may require it; but you shall give up your claim to what is owed by your brother, except when there may be no poor among you; for the LORD will greatly bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, only if you carefully obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe with care all these commandments which I command you today. For the LORD your God will bless you just as He promised you; you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you.” (Deuteronomy 15:1–6).

 

6."Moses then gave them the following commandment: 'At the end of each seven years, at a fixed time on the festival of Sukkoth, after the year of release, when all Israel comes to present themselves before God your Lord, in the place that He will choose, you must read this Torah before all Israel, so that they will be able to hear it. 'You must gather together the people, the men, women, children and proselytes from your settlements, and let them hear it. They will thus learn to be in awe of God your Lord, carefully keeping all the words of this Torah. Their children, who do not know, will listen and learn to be in awe of God your Lord, as long as you live in the land which you are crossing the Jordan to occupy'." (Deuteronomy 31:10–13).

 

7.“Thus says YHWH the LORD, the God of Israel: 'I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying,"At the end of seven years let every man set free his Hebrew brother, who has been sold to him; and when he has served you six years, you shall let him go free from you." But your fathers did not obey Me nor incline their ear.” (Jeremiah 34:13–14).

 

8."And if the peoples of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy of them on the sabbath, or on a holy day; and that we would forego the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt." (Nehemiah 10:31).

 

9.“And those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon, where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.” (2 Chronicles 36:20–21).

 

10.“This shall be a sign to you: You shall eat this year such as grows of itself, And in the second year what springs from the same; Also in the third year sow and reap, Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.” (2 Kings 19:29).

 

11.“This shall be a sign to you: You shall eat this year such as grows of itself, And the second year what springs from the same; Also in the third year sow and reap, Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah Shall again take root downward, And bear fruit upward.” (Isaiah 37:30-31).

 

12.Finally, the references 2 Kings 19:29 and Isaiah 37:30-31 describe the same event which happened in the year 701 B.C. The year 701 B.C. was a Shmittah (Sabbatical) year. Then, notice that the following year was also a year of rest for the land. Thus, the year 700 B.C. was a Yobel (Jubilee) year. Then the beginning of the next seven years cycle when they can plant again was in the year 699 B.C.

 

Remember, the Yobel (Jubilee) year was respected until the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem A.D. 70. The rabbis changed the law and taught the people that their law (the Torah which is based on their Tekonot teachings and Ma’asim customs.)

 

All the rabbis today and the Christians use the later invented calendar of seven years without counting the Yobel (Jubilee) year.

I prefer to use the original calendar system which was used from the creation until A.D. 70.

 

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