The same Hebrew phrase is used in the Babylonian Talmud when citing this passage from the Seder Olam, and some modern translations of the Talmud into English translate the phrase in the sense given by Guggenheimer, while others translate it in the sense of "the year after". 5782 Starts the Sabbatical Year - Atlanta Jewish Times plants sprouting by themselves) are available to animals in the fields. Now some hard facts on how Shemitah Years have ended in recent history. Therefore, it would seem necessary to closely examine the phrase in the original Hebrew when making chronological decisions. Today, the arrival of the Shmita Year in Israel brings with it heated debates. Destruction of Jerusalem in the latter part (. Therefore, many modern scholars have adopted a Sabbatical year calendar for the Second Temple period that is one year later, although there are many prominent scholars who still maintain a cycle consistent with Zuckermann's conclusion of a 38/37 BCE Sabbatical year. @Gary Unrelatedly, Gregorian dating didn't start everywhere in 1582. The year 588/587 BCE was also the year that Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians, consistent with the Babylonian records for the reign of Amel-Marduk and the Scriptural data regarding Jehoiachin and Zedekiah. However, in reality, it is identical only in appearance as prices are controlled, and may correspond only to expenses, with no profit allowed. The Samaritan community apparently used this method of dating as late as the 14th century CE, when an editor of one of the writings of the Samaritans wrote that he finished his work in the sixty-first Jubilee cycle since the entry into Canaan, in the fourth year of the fifth Sabbatical of that cycle. Besides resting the land, Jews may not eat anything sown or grown in Israel during the shmita year. For similar reasons, some authorities hold that if the Havdalah ceremony is performed using wine made from shevi'it grapes, the cup should be drunk completely and the candle should not be dipped into the wine to extinguish the flame as is normally done. Under this plan, the land would belong to the non-Jew temporarily, and revert to Jewish ownership when the year was over. The story behind the Shemitah is that the 7 th year is the year of resting and releasing. Just as the weekly Sabbath is a day of rest for Jews, so is shmita supposed to be a year of rest for Jewish farmland. b) The laws of debt absolution are in effect in all locations. Not planting nor harvesting any crops so the soil can recover from 6 years of growing and harvesting. In modern Israel, the Shmita is practiced by mainly Orthodox Jews now, and the government is not interested in enforcing the observance of the Shmita. Second battle of Beth-Zur; summer 162 BCE. [6] Elie Borowski (1987) takes the fallow year as one year in seven.[7]. Since 1900 these years have been: 5663, 5670, 5677, 5684, 5691, 5698, 5705, 5712, 5719, 5726, 5733, 5740, 5747, 5754, 5761, 5768, and 5775 (which began today). Since 1900 these years have been: 5663, 5670, 5677, 5684, 5691, 5698, 5705, 5712, 5719, 5726, 5733, 5740, 5747, 5754, 5761, 5768, and 5775 (which began today). Whatever the exact meaning is for this word, its use in Isaiah's prophecy and its prohibition in Lev 25:5 means that the first year of the Isaiah and Second Kings passages could not have been a Sabbatical year. (Under the reasoning of the heter mechira the shmita does not apply to land owned by non-Jews, so its produce does not have shevi'it sanctity. Like most tractates in the order of Zeraim, there is no Babylonian Talmud for this tractate.[27][28]. rev2023.3.3.43278. The Israel Supreme Court opined that divergent local rulings would be harmful to farmers and trade and could implicate competition. I know there are these two questions already (https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/36703/trying-to-get-shmita-year-dates-without-a-headache) and (When is the next shmita year (as of 5772)? the ground) rest and lie fallow, so that the poor among your people may eat from the field and the wild animals may consume what they leave. A sabbath year ( shmita) is mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible by name or by its pattern of six years of activity and one of rest: Book of Exodus: "You may plant your land for six years and gather its crops. Shmita applies only to land in Israel that is owned . Just as rain, dew and strong winds provide life to the world, so does the Torah. ; (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 1996), paragraph 1771. Zuckermann interpreted the Seder Olam text as stating that this happened in a year after a Sabbatical year, thus placing a Sabbatical in 68/69 CE. Furthermore, all agents of the beit din are appointed only if they commit to distributing the produce in accordance with the restrictions that result from its sanctity."[23]. The rabbis of Jerusalem, on the other hand, embraced the opinion of Karo that produce farmed on land owned by non-Jews has no sanctity. The payment is made by a cheque post-dated to after the end of the Sabbatical year. Although this commandment, like so many others, was probably neglected throughout most of Israel's history, it was observed in Josiah's 18th year (2 Kings 23:1,2). Shmita politics: Here we go again - www.israelhayom.com An example of the caution that must be exercised when consulting English translations is shown by the Soncino translation in Arakin 11b, that the Temple was destroyed "at the end of the seventh [Sabbatical] year",[70] compared to Jacob Neusner's translation of the corresponding passage in the Jerusalem Talmud, that it was "the year after the Sabbatical year".[71]. In contrast, no direct statements that a certain year was a Sabbatical year have survived from First Temple times and earlier. have a look at the table below. The next Shmita (Sabbatical) Year begins on September 6th, 2021 and ends on September 26th, 2022. The Seder Olam uses the same phrase regarding a Sabbatical year for the destruction of both Temples, so that its testimony in this regard is important for dating the shemitot in both pre-exilic and post-exilic times. When owed to the court rather than to an individual, the debt survives the Sabbatical year. There are explicit mentions of a Sabbatical year found in Josephus, 1 Maccabees, and in various legal contracts from the time of Simon bar Kokhba. In the late 19th century, in the early days of Zionism, Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor came up with a halakhic means of allowing agriculture to continue during the Shmita year. This is called the "shmita" year in Hebrew, which means a year of "release". Sarna, "Zedekiah's Emancipation", 144-145. In halakha (Jewish law), produce of the Seventh Year that is subject to the laws of Shmita is called sheviit. To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. However, the Chazon Ish, who holds that the biblical obligation of Shmita observance remains in effect today, holds that the biblical promise of bounty follows it and Divine bounty is promised to Jews living in the Land of Israel today, just as it was promised in ancient times. Therefore, in 2003, an article by Rodger Young showed that the texts that Thiele could not reconcile were in harmony when it was assumed that Solomon died before Tishri 1 in the (Nisan-based) year in which the kingdom divided, rather than in the half-year after Tishri 1 as assumed, without explanation, by Thiele. A shmita year: Why we need to give it a rest in 5775 - J. Shmita is therefore abundance of Nature until it becomes holy. It is still discussed among scholars of the Ancient Near East whether or not there is clear evidence for a seven-year cycle in Ugaritic texts. The event of the gift of the Torah at Mount Sinai involved the whole world, in fact even the angels and other nations were witnesses or spectators of this miraculous event. How do I align things in the following tabular environment? Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. the year starting in the fall of 700 BCE, was a Sabbath year, after which normal sowing and reaping resumed in the third year, as stated in the text. Thus, the fields can be farmed with certain restrictions. . 23:10, 11, 12; Lev. You can do this using any of a variety of calendar conversion apps and websites, such as http://www.hebcal.com/converter/. The Shmita years are those divisible by 7. 1916-1917 Shmita Year - 40% U.S. Stock market value wiped out. The event was organized by Keren Hashviis, an organization that is the engine of the shmita movement. Since 1900 these years have been: 5663, 5670, 5677, 5684, 5691, 5698, 5705, 5712, 5719, 5726 . According to the Talmud, observance of the Sabbatical year is of high accord, and one who does not do so may not be allowed to be a witness in an Orthodox beth din (rabbinical court). [23], According to the Mosaic law, grains, fruits, legumes and vegetables are permitted to be eaten in the Seventh Year, yet must they be harvested in an irregular fashion, and only as much as a person might need for their sustenance, without the necessity of hoarding the fruits in granaries and storehouses. The off line converter is Kaluch 3 (Kaluch.org) The on line converter is The Hebrew Calender (. With Avodah this event is perfectly consolidated until the messianic vision of the reconstruction of Third Temple of Jerusalem. While the 49th year is also a Sabbatical year, the fiftieth year is not the 1st year in a new seven-year cycle, but rather is the Jubilee. Jun, 05, 2022 [25], As produce grown on land in Israel owned by Jewish farmers cannot be sold or consumed, fruits and vegetables sold in a shmita year may be derived from five sources:[citation needed], There is a requirement that shevi'it produce be consumed for personal use and cannot be sold or put in trash. In contemporary religious circles these rabbinic leniencies have received wide but not universal acceptance. in Palestine", Last edited on 17 February 2023, at 21:39, "Jeremiah 34 / Hebrew - English Bible / Mechon-Mamre", "Nehemiah 10 / Hebrew - English Bible / Mechon-Mamre", "2 Chronicles 36 / Hebrew Bible in English / Mechon-Mamre", "As Farmers and Fields Rest, a Land Grows Restless", "Leviticus 25 / Hebrew Bible in English / Mechon-Mamre", "Israel looks to Cyprus as Jewish law orders land to remain fallow", https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/shmita-jewish-virtual-library, Shemittah | Shmita | Get ready for Shemittah Year 5768, "Israel's Top Court Backs Loophole in Farming Law", "Shmita Revolution: The Reclamation and Reinvention of the Sabbatical Year", "Genesis, Covenant, Jubilee, Shmitah and the Land Ethic", "As shmita ends, gardeners gear up for hard work", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shmita&oldid=1139986463. After ruling in favor of Minhag Yerushalayim, that the biblical prohibition consists of not cultivating the land owned by Jews ("your land", Exodus 23:10), Rabbi Spektor devised a mechanism by which the land could be sold to a non-Jew for the duration of that year under a trust agreement. Love God your Lord, hear His voice, and devote yourselves to Him. "sale permit"). G til innhold. [citation needed] All of this would seem to be strong evidence in favor of Zuckermann's scheme. So for each of these, you want to find the Gregorian date for 1 Tishrei and 29 Elul. Recital of Deuteronomy 7:15 by Agrippa I in a post-Sabbatical year, making the Sabbatical year 41/42. Chapter 25 of the Book of Leviticus promises bountiful harvests to those who observe the shmita, and describes its observance as a test of religious faith. Biur only applies to produce that has shevi'it sanctity. But during the seventh year, you must leave it alone and withdraw from it. [26], Tractate Shevi'it, the fifth tractate of Seder Zeraim ("Order of Seeds") of the Mishnah, deals with the laws of leaving the fields of the Land of Israel to lie fallow every seventh year; the laws concerning which produce may, or may not be eaten during the Sabbatical year; and with the cancellation of debts and the rabbinical ordinance established to allow a creditor to reclaim a debt after the Sabbatical year. Shmita: Why these Israeli farmers became heroes for killing their - J. Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz, a noted Haredi halakhic authority who issued key rulings on Jewish agricultural law in the 1930s and 1940s, ruled like di Trani, holding that produce grown on land in Israel owned by non-Jews has sanctity. Once there, the individual declares the produce in front of three people who do not live with him. Her books explore the intersection between Judaism and environmentalism in places ranging from holidays like Tu B'Shvat and Passover to the Torah. He did the same with years, a seven-year cycle that reflected the weekwork the land for six years and allow it to rest for one. The heter mechira was accepted by Modern Orthodox Judaism and is one of the classic examples of the Modern Orthodox approach toward adapting classical Jewish law to the modern world. Rabbi Joshua Falk, author of Sefer Me'irat Einayim on Choshen Mishpat, holds that Shmita nowadays is only a rabbinic obligation, and, subsequently, the biblical promise of bounty for those who observe the Shmita (Leviticus 25:2022[22]) only applies when the biblical obligation is in effect, and hence that the biblical promise of bounty is not in effect today. Britain, the world's greatest empire was almost bankrupt. Moses also applied the cycles of "seven" to weeks and years. Why does Mister Mxyzptlk need to have a weakness in the comics? Shmita - The next Great Recession | Servant of Messiah Ministries Ben Zion Wacholder, "The Calendar of Sabbatical Cycles During the Second Temple and the Early Rabbinic Period". Public reading of the Law in 3rd year of Jehoshaphat. )[23], When you eat and are satiated, you should bless God your Lord on the land The primary place where a Jew can eat in holiness is the Holy Land, which was given to us so we can sanctify its produce through the mitzvot such as tithes, the Sabbatical year, and so on. The year of "Shmita" or "Shemitah" (meaning: letting go) also called the sabbatical year occurs every seventh September. Therefore, it is not plausible that the word "shabbath" could refer to the first day of Hag HaMazoth, as the Rabbis claim it does in . When the cheque is returned or not honoured at the end of the year the land reverts to its original owners. Release of slaves at beginning of the Sabbatical year 588/587 (Tishri 588). An analysis by respected posek and former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef in his responsa Yabi'a Omer (Vol. Mutually exclusive execution using std::atomic? The arguments of Wacholder and others to support the calendar one year later than that of Zuckermann are rather technical and will not be presented here, except for two items to which Zuckermann, Wacholder, and other scholars have given great weight: 1) the date of Herod's capture of Jerusalem from Antigonus, and 2) the testimony of the Seder Olam relating the destruction of the Second Temple to a Sabbatical year. Lev 25:6 ASV: "6 And the sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for thee, and for thy servant and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant and for thy stranger, who sojourn with thee.". Thus, under this approach, a legal arrangement is created whereby the crops themselves are never bought or sold, but rather people are merely paid for their labor and expenses in providing certain services. The first modern treatise devoted to the Sabbatical (and Jubilee) cycles was that of Benedict Zuckermann. September 17, 1917 - September 6 1918 Jubilee - Balfour Declaration. [84] The final text considered by Zuckermann was a passage in the Seder Olam that relates the destruction of the Second Temple to a Sabbatical year, an event that is known from secular history to have happened in the summer of 70 CE. [21] There is a major debate among halakhic authorities as to what is the nature of the obligation of the Sabbatical year nowadays. According to Karo, such produce has no sanctity and may be used and/or discarded in the same way as any produce grown outside of Israel. The Coming Shemitah & Jubilee Year 5774/5 - Pray4Zion SABBATICAL YEAR AND JUBILEE - JewishEncyclopedia.com For example, the first Shmita year in the 20th century was 5663, which spanned from 1 Tishrei 5663 = 2 October 1902 to 29 Elul 5663 = 29 September 1903. Any naturally growing produce was not to be formally harvested, but could have been eaten by its owners,[24] as well as left to be taken by poor people, passing strangers, and beasts of the field. Shmita is a serious matter. V'Zot Habracha & Hakhel: How The Torah Ends The Shmita Year by Rabbi Yonah Berman. Remission of taxes under Alexander the Great for Sabbatical years. were never applied all throughout the Second Temple period, but the Jubilee was being used during the period of the Second Temple in order to fix and sanctify thereby the Sabbatical year. Or did the Hebrew calendar just stay the same? Moreover, the laws governing the Jubilee (e.g. Just as the Torah calls for Jews to work six days and rest on the seventh, it calls for them to work the land six days and let it rest in the seventh. God instructed Israel to let the fields lie fallow every seventh year, and give the land its sabbath rest. just after the Sabbatical year of 38/37, based on references to the activities of Mark Antony and Sosius, Herod's helpers, in Cassius Dio (49.23.12) and also on other considerations. September 26th 2022 and the end of shemita (the sabbath year) @Gary. We're now less than a month away from the end of the current shmita as well as the current yubilee-year. What Is the Shemitah and Which Are the Correct Shemitah Years? It teaches mankind that the earth does not belong to them, but only to God. 'Shmita' Year Controversy in Israel : NPR The shmita year serves as a reminder that the Land of Israel was given to the Jewish people and that they are responsible for taking care of it with the land's best interests at heart, rather than exploiting the land endlessly for profit. [29][30] These restrictions are implied by the biblical verse, "You are not to reap the aftergrowth of your harvest, nor gather the grapes of your untended vines" (Leviticus 25:5), and by the supportive verse, "In the Seventh Year you must let it (i.e. If you preorder a special airline meal (e.g. Shmita - Wikipedia All these dates as calculated by Zuckermann are separated by an integral multiple of seven years, except for the date associated with the siege of Beth-zur. shmita years since 1900. It think you are confusing the Gregorian CALENDAR with the Christian (or "common") ERA. shmita years since 1900williamson county sports complex. [46][47][48] Israeli wineries often address this issue by making separate batches of Shmita wine, labeled as such, and giving away bottles of Shmita wine as a free bonus to purchasers of non-Shmita wine. He then waits to give the witnesses a chance to claim the produce. When we bless God for our food, we draw the sanctity of the Land into our eating[39], All good and blessing are the life of Jewish people. [16] The Assyrian siege had lasted until after planting time in the fall of 701 BCE, and although the Assyrians left immediately after the prophecy was given (2 Kings 19:35), they had consumed the harvest of that year before they left, leaving only the saphiah to be gleaned from the fields. Bernstein has a radical idea for advocating for change. It must be used in its "best" manner so as to ensure fullest enjoyment (For example, fruits that are normally eaten whole cannot be juiced). The Shmita years since the establishment of the modern state of Israel have been :1951-52, 1958-59, 1965-66, 1972-73, 1979-80, 1986-87, 1993-94, 2000-01, 2007-08, 2014-15. Entry into land; beginning of counting for Jubilee and Sabbatical years, as calculated from observance of 17th Jubilee in 574/73 BCE and (independently) from 1 Kings 6:1. Under an otzar beit din, a community rabbinical court supervises harvesting by hiring workers to harvest, store, and distribute food to the community. . 4), though Ibn Ezra . [36] Rabbi Nathan ben Abraham permits the gathering of aftergrowths of mustard greens (Sinapsis alba) during the Seventh Year. There is an alternative explanation used to rectify what appears to be a discrepancy in the two biblical sources, taken from Adam Clarke's 1837 Bible commentary. 25:27; comp. Karelitz's ruling was adopted first by the religious families of Bnei Brak and is popularly called Minhag Chazon Ish (the custom of the "Chazon Ish"). Sabbatical yearevery seventh year, during which the land, according to the law of Moses, had to remain uncultivated (Lev. 5663, 5670, 5677, 5684, 5691, 5698, 5705, 5712, 5719, 5726, 5733, 5740, 5747, 5754, 5761, 5768, and 5775 (which began today). The Jewish method of calculating the recurring Sabbatical year (Shmita) has been greatly misunderstood by modern chroniclers of history, owing to their unfamiliarity with Jewish practice, which has led to many speculations and inconsistencies in computations. The community at large, including members of the poor, must be afforded some opportunity to take the produce. This is important because the system of Shmita and Jubilee years provides a useful check in deciding between competing reconstructions of the histories of the First Temple period and earlier and the history of the Second Temple period and later. that the returned exiles had a renewed start of tithes, Sabbatical years, and Jubilee years. While the observance of this biblical law is only applicable in the land of Israel today, its spirit is something that can, and . [69] Although Zedekiah's release of slaves could have occurred at any time, the occurrence of a Sabbatical year at just this time provides some insight into the background that probably influenced Zedekiah's thinking, even though the release was later rescinded. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. How can we prove that the supernatural or paranormal doesn't exist? [57] The passage about the reading of the law in Jehoshaphat's third year does not specify whether this is measured from the beginning of the coregency or the beginning of the sole reign, but since the two synchronisms to Jehoshaphat's reign for the kings of Israel (1 Kings 22:51, 2 Kings 3:1) are measured from the start of the sole reign, it would be reasonable to determine Jehoshaphat's third year in the same way. He based his conclusion on the date of the biblical Flood as 4990 BC, added 7,000 years (based on 2 Peter 3:8 ), and determined this date. = "trumpets of rams' horns"; Josh. shemitah years since 1900 shmita years since 1900jillian michaels hypothyroidism. [2] A variety of laws also apply to the sale, consumption and disposal of shmita produce. [58] In 2009 Leslie McFall, who is recognized in Finegan's Handbook of Biblical Chronology as the foremost living interpreter of Thiele's work,[59] agreed with Young's correction that moved dates for Jehoshaphat and the preceding kings of Judah up one year,[60] as have some other recent works by evangelicals and creationists studying this the field. It is not just any seventh year but an appointed seventh year by the Creator. Seven years ago, during the last shmita year, the group's budget was just $27 million. shmita years since 1900 | Promo Tim The Shmita year starts every 7th year on Elul 29 on the Biblical Calendar on the Feast of Trumpets. However, since 1966, every single Shmita Year has seen a recession or drastic downturn in the U.S. Economy the has almost every single time had drastic effects on the world economy If you have been doing the math, we are due for the next one in 2021-2022 with the next Shmita year starting on September 6, 2021 and ending September 25, 2022. The first Shmita year in the modern State of Israel was 19511952 (5712 in the Hebrew calendar). https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/36703/trying-to-get-shmita-year-dates-without-a-headache. Young presents a linguistic argument against this interpretation, as follows: Others have imagined that Isa 37:30 and its parallel in 2 Kgs 19:29 refer to a Sabbatical year followed by a Jubilee year, since the prophecy speaks of two years in succession in which there would be no harvest. By Judean reckoning, Jehoiachin's 37th year would then be 562/561 BCE. This is 294 years, or 42 Sabbatical cycles, before Ezekiel's Jubilee. [81] Zuckermann insisted that for Sabbatical years after the Babylonian exile "it is necessary to assume the commencement of a new starting-point, since the laws of Sabbatical years and Jubilees fell into disuse during the Babylonian captivity, when a foreign nation held possession of the land of Canaan We therefore cannot agree with chronologists who assume an unbroken continuity of septennial Sabbaths and Jubilees. When Moses received the Levitical law, God gave the commandment to rest on the seventh day the Sabbath. 24), which is placed in the 18th year of Josiah (Megillah 14b). The problem, however, is that many translations of the Seder Olam render the phrase as "in the year after a Sabbatical year" or its equivalent. The issue of secular courts ordering the rabbinate to rule in particular ways on religious matters aroused a debate within the Knesset. The 50th year of the land, which is also a Shabbat of the land, is called "Yovel" in Hebrew, which is the origin of the Latin term "Jubilee", also meaning 50th. The last sabbath year was in 2014-2015 and the last yubilee-year was in 1972-1973. Some authorities hold that Hanukkah candles cannot be made from shevi'it oils because the light of Hanukkah candles is not supposed to be used for personal use, while Shabbat candles can be because their light can be used for personal use. The rabbis of the Jerusalem Talmud created rules to impose order on the harvesting process including a rule limiting harvesters working on others' land to taking only enough to feed themselves and their families. For He is your life and the length of your days, enabling you to dwell upon the Land that God your Lord promised your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that He would give them[40] If someone separates himself from the Torah, it is as if he separates from life itself (Zohar I, 92a). In Sabbatical years, the Mosaic code specified that the Law was to be read to all the people (Deuteronomy 31:10-11). Overview - Hazon Leslie Mcfall, "Do the Sixty-nine Weeks of Daniel Date the Messianic Mission of Nehemiah Or Jesus?". shmita years since 1900. ashlyn 72" ladder bookcase / la montagne jean ferrat partition piano pdf / shmita years since 1900. shmita years since 1900. With shmita, the sabbatical year for agriculture, just around the corner (beginning on Rosh Hashanah 5782, September 7, 2021), . The Jewish year 5782, which began on Sept. 7, is not an ordinary year in the Jewish calendar. All debts, except those of foreigners, were to be remitted.[3]. It bears elaborating at this stage that shmita only applies to agriculture in the Land of Israel, nowhere else. Another public reading of the Law, suggesting a Sabbatical year, took place in the third year of Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 17:7-9). According to the Leviticus passage, the first Sabbatical year should have started in Tishri of 1400 if the people faithfully observed the Mosaic legislation, and the first Jubilee was due 42 years after that, in 1358/57 BCE. Every seven years, Jews in Israel, observe the biblical laws of shmita, the "year of release," which is more widely known as the sabbatical year. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. As regards the latter, the Hebrew term "yobel" refers to the blast of the shofar on the Day of Atonement announcing the jubilee year (comp. [38], The laws governing Aftergrowths apply only to crops grown in the Land of Israel.[31]. 13.8.1/235; The Jewish War 1.2.4/59-60) and 1 Maccabees (16:14-16), and during which a Sabbatical year started; from the chronological information provided in these texts, Zuckermann concluded that 136/135 BCE was a Sabbatical year. Shmita, which literally means "release," is also called shabbat haaretz ("Sabbath of the land") and is currently being observed during year 5782 on the Hebrew calendar. Douglas Petrovich, "The Ophel Pithos Inscription: Its Dating, Language, Translation, and Script". The Jubilee and Sabbatical year provided a long-term means for dating events, a fact that must have become obvious soon after the legislation was put into effect.