Illustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio
What's going on here? מַה זֶה?
Yovel is the fiftieth year, when the rules of Shemittah, the year of release continue to apply as they do in the 49th year, plus all land gets returned to its original owners.
What does the word “yovel” mean?
- Rashi says it’s a reference to the shofar blast that announces the start of the year. The same word comes up as the sign that Benei Yisrael would be allowed to go up Mount Sinai after the Torah was given, and Rashi there also says that this sign, the "yovel," is a shofar blast.
- The Haketav Ve-Ha-Kabbalah says it’s connected to the word בְּלִילָה (belilah, to mix up), and it refers to the way the extreme differences between people who have a lot, and people who don’t have much, all get mixed up when land is returned to people.
- The Ha’amek Davar says it’s from הוֹבָלָה (hovalah, movement), referring to how people would move from their places of work to their homes because they couldn’t do farming work.
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