Ilustration Credit: Rivka Tsinman
Here’s how the the Torah describes the יוֹבֵל (yovel) year:
וְהַעֲבַרְתָּ שׁוֹפַר תְּרוּעָה בַּחֹדֶשׁ הַשְּׁבִעִי בֶּעָשׂוֹר לַחֹדֶשׁ
בְּיוֹם הַכִּפֻּרִים תַּעֲבִירוּ שׁוֹפָר בְּכׇל אַרְצְכֶם׃
וְקִדַּשְׁתֶּם אֵת שְׁנַת הַחֲמִשִּׁים שָׁנָה
וּקְרָאתֶם דְּרוֹר בָּאָרֶץ לְכׇל יֹשְׁבֶיהָ
יוֹבֵל הִוא תִּהְיֶה לָכֶם
וְשַׁבְתֶּם אִישׁ אֶל אֲחֻזָּתוֹ וְאִישׁ אֶל מִשְׁפַּחְתּוֹ תָּשֻׁבוּ׃
You shall sound the shofar on the tenth day of the seventh month.
On Yom Kippur you shall sound the shofar throughout your land.
You shall make the 50th year holy.
You shall proclaim freedom throughout the land for everyone living there.
It shall be a yovel for you.
You shall return to your ancestral land and family.
- What do you notice? What questions do you have about these pesukim?
- Why do you think the shofar blasts are on Yom Kippur in the yovel year? What do you think that moment might feel like?
- In the second pasuk, there are three things to do: make the 50th year holy, proclaim freedom throughout the land, and return to ancestral land and family. What’s the connection between these things? How do they fit together?
- How does sounding the shofar in the first pasuk relate to the mitzvot in the second pasuk? What can this teach us about what the sound of the shofar represents?
- In yovel, Hebrew slaves are sent free and land that had been sold in the last 49 years would go back to its original owners. What words in the pesukim say this? What’s the connection between freeing slaves and returning land? What are these mitzvot teaching us?
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