THE WIDE-RANGING INSTITUTION OF

"THE YEAR OF JUBILEE"

RECAP: Origin and Purpose - This fiftieth year is sacred—it is a time of freedom and of celebration when everyone will receive back their original property, and slaves will return home to their families.

Leviticus 25:10 (CEV) And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

§ The text of the Book of Leviticus argues that the Jubilee existed because the land was the possession of Yahweh, and its current occupiers were merely aliens or tenants, and therefore the land should not be sold forever. Midrashic sources argue that the Jubilee was created to preserve the original division of land between the Israelite tribes, as evidenced by the rabbinical tradition that the Jubilee should not be imposed until the Israelites were in control of Canaan.

§ Leviticus also states that the Israelites were the servants of Yahweh, which classical rabbis took as justification for the manumission of Israelite slaves at the Jubilee, using the argument that no man should have two masters, and thus, as the servants of Yahweh, the Israelites should not also be the servants of men.

RESUME: The Jubilee as the Liberation

39 If one of your brothers becomes indigent and has to sell himself to you, don't make him work as a slave. 40 Treat him as a hired hand or a guest among you. He will work for you until the Jubilee . . . (Leviticus 25)

§ Israel was also commanded in the Bible to redeem tithes and other things based on how long it was to the next Jubilee period (Leviticus 27)

Leviticus 26 states: THE reason ancient Israel went into captivity was for not allowing the land to rest every seven years - by not giving it a break and letting it enjoy its own Sabbath rest!

27 'If in spite of this you still do not listen to me but continue to be hostile toward me, 28 then in my anger I will be hostile toward you . . . 33 I will scatter you among the nations . . . Your land will be laid waste . . 34 Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years (Leviticus 26)

What this year means is that all those who had to sell themselves into slavery because of their debts or had lost their property to someone so that they could survive and not starve to death was redeemed by God as no Israelite was to remain a slave permanently. It would also be a way to restore financial and property equality among the nation’s inhabitants so that the disparity between the rich and the poor would be gone. This equality allowed those in extreme poverty who had lost everything and even their own freedom to be gained back in the only way that they could have possible received it. In this way, all of the property of the nation became, in a sense, the property of all and no one family or person could gain an unfair advantage over their fellow citizens. There was also the command to give the land a rest from its labor of producing for the people. This rest, once again, may reflect the rest we have from our works and that salvation is fully a work of the Lord but agricultural research shows that farmland can produce a much larger yield if it lays fallow (or unplanted and unworked) for a full year. Some of the farmers where I live do this for just this reason. ….to be cont’d