The Jubilee Year?

[ProScribe]

Any info about the Jubilee year according to Jewish custom would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[daq]

Yes, I understand that this thread is very old, and that the OP does not seem to be posting on this board anymore, (the OP's profile is inaccessible), but since the question in the opening post is so basic and simple I decided to resurrect this thread rather than start another thread on the same topic.

There are different Jewish customs regarding the Yobel or Jubilee year. My hope in bringing up this thread is to focus on the custom from the time frame surrounding the turning of the first century, held by those of the Yahad, ("unity", as in, the Community), at the location which is now known as Khirbet Qumran, (a.k.a. Damascus).

The Yahad calendar was, as most here probably know, a 364 day calendar: but it had to have been intercalated or it would not have stayed in sync with the solar tropical year for more than a few years, (six years and you would already be almost a week out of sync). The intercalations for the leap week are found in Sefer Henok, (1Enoch), and are also tied to the ten weeks prophecy of Henok, which is the seventy year intercalation and is itself tied to the Yobel cycle although it is not the same: the seventy year cycle is intercalated through the Yobel cycle and zero's out at ten Yobel cycles, which are 490 years. Each week of Henok is 490 years making the whole ten week prophecy 4,900 years in the long-count interpretation of the weeks. In the LXX chronology these 4,900 years run from the birth of Henok in 4831BC unto 70AD, (4,900 years).

More to come: but I'll leave off here, for now, to see if anyone else wishes to engage such a topic.

 

[Sabertooth]

So, the 50th year, Yobel, is Year 1 (not Year 0) in the next Jubilee cycle...?

 

[daq]

So, the 50th year, Yobel, is Year 1 (not Year 0) in the next Jubilee cycle...?

If I understand you correctly, yes, because the cycle is 49 years, so the fiftieth year is the first year of the next cycle. The Shabbat for the land is on the same principle as the weekly Shabbat, continuous consecutive weeks of seven days without interruption. It is also in the same manner that the fiftieth day of the feast of Weeks, (a.k.a. Pentecost), does not change, delay, or interfere with the weekly Shabbat cycle. So to be as clear as possible, if you were counting Yoblim or Jubilees, (full cycles), you should not count them as fifty year cycles but as forty-nine year cycles. Ten Yobel cycles amount to 490 years, not 500.

 

[daq]

The first clue I would like to introduce is the following statement.

Matthew 18:21-22 HNV
21 Then Kefa came and said to him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Until seven times?"
22 Yeshua said to him, "I don't tell you until seven times, but, until seventy times seven.

On the surface the meaning is essentially always, (70*7=490 times), but the sod surely speaks in one way or another of the calendar: for the shmittah year is a remission or release, (as well as the year of the yobel), that is in this sense the releasing of debt, (Dt 15:1-2). However this does not concern the yobel cycle, which is only 49 years, so what does it concern? No doubt the seventy year cycle which originally comes from the ten weeks of Henok, for those weeks are 490 years and therefore each theoretical day is seventy years, (70*7=490).

What therefore is the Master hinting at here? The ten weeks of Henok prophecy contains the missing link for the intercalation of the calendar. However it is only a missing link to us now and probably was not to those to whom he spoke, (they would have immediately understood, being familiar with Sefer Henok). Daniel the Prophet also incorporates the weeks of Henok by the usage of shabuim for weeks, which is an irregular masculine form, and without pointing is the same identical spelling as the word for seventy. The seventy weeks of Daniel may therefore also be read as seventy seventies, which is seventy generations, (70*70=4900), if a generation is counted as seventy years, (Psalm 90:10, Henok 10:12). The passage therefore does not have only a mere single meaning but multiple meanings which are all in view: for the decree is clearly something that was already standing when the Malak Gabriel comes to him in chapter nine, and seventy seventies or seventy generations are decreed in Henok the Prophet, (which seventy generations are also confirmed in the genealogy of Luke 3, from Henok to Meshiah).

When the seventy year cycle is combined with the yobel cycle the leap week intercalations are extremely close to the solar tropical year over an extremely long period of time, 10,290 years before the yobel calendar becomes a mere seven days ahead of the solar tropical year: and when it reaches that point a leap week would then skipped, and the calendar zero's out and aligns once again perfectly with the solar tropical year.

This ten thousand years is mentioned in Henok 18 and the author of the text surely appears to have understood this cycle because of the background context where the statement is found. Seven stars that transgressed their command are locked up in the bottomless abyss, (the quiver of El), and some of the stars stand for days in the book of the Luminaries, and these seven, representing the seven days of the leap week intercalation, are released in every year of release: the shmittah, the yobel, and the seventieth year of each seventy year cycle embedded within the yoblim cycles. And when the time incurred for their transgression is accomplished, which is ten thousand years, (10,290), a single leap week is skipped and the calendar falls into exact alignment once again with the solar tropical year.

So the year is three hundred and sixty-four days. The yobel cycle is forty-nine years. One yobel cycle has eight leap week intercalations: seven shmittah and one in the yobel. The seventy year cycle ends with one intercalation coinciding with a shmittah year, (rotating through the yobel cycles), and there are seven cycles of seventy years in ten yoblim, (7*70=10*49=490).

After 490 years the calendar is ahead of the solar tropical year by 0.3270 of one day, (approx 1/3 day).

490*365.2421897 = 178,968.672953 days
490*364.0000 = 178,360 days + 560 days (smittah/yoblim) + 49 days (70 year cycles) = 178,969 days
178,969 −178,968.672953 = 0.327047

It takes 1470 years for the calendar to become 1 day ahead of the solar tropical year, (3*490=1470).
In 21 cycles of 490 years the calendar becomes 1 week ahead of the solar tropical year.
21*490=10,290 years, (Henok 18:16).

 

[daq]

This ten thousand years is mentioned in Henok 18 and the author of the text surely appears to have understood this cycle because of the background context where the statement is found. Seven stars that transgressed their command are locked up in the bottomless abyss, (the quiver of El), and some of the stars stand for days in the book of the Luminaries, and these seven, representing the seven days of the leap week intercalation, are released in every year of release: the shmittah, the yobel, and the seventieth year of each seventy year cycle embedded within the yoblim cycles. And when the time incurred for their transgression is accomplished, which is ten thousand years, (10,290), a single leap week is skipped and the calendar falls into exact alignment once again with the solar tropical year.

The reason I made note of the quiver of El in the above is because there is one by this name in Sefer of the Luminaries, and by his name and placement in the calendar a secret is revealed. The R.H Charles rendering of the Henok passage is as follows.

[Chapter 17]
1 And they took and brought me to a place in which those who were there were like flaming fire, 2 and, when they wished, they appeared as men. And they brought me to the place of darkness, and to a mountain the point of whose summit reached to heaven. And I saw the places of the luminaries and the treasuries of the stars and of the thunder and in the uttermost depths, where were 4 a fiery bow and arrows and their quiver, and a fiery sword and all the lightnings. And they took 5 me to the living waters, and to the fire of the west, which receives every setting of the sun. And I came to a river of fire in which the fire flows like water and discharges itself into the great sea towards 6 the west. I saw the great rivers and came to the great river and to the great darkness, and went 7 to the place where no flesh walks. I saw the mountains of the darkness of winter and the place 8 whence all the waters of the deep flow. I saw the mouths of all the rivers of the earth and the mouth of the deep.
Enoch Online

In the next passage Henok is in this place of the uttermost depths, the quiver of El, wherein are the seven stars which transgressed their command.

[Chapter 18]
1 I saw the treasuries of all the winds: I saw how He had furnished with them the whole creation 2 and the firm foundations of the earth. And I saw the corner-stone of the earth: I saw the four 3 winds which bear [the earth and] the firmament of the heaven. And I saw how the winds stretch out the vaults of heaven, and have their station between heaven and earth: these are the pillars 4 of the heaven. I saw the winds of heaven which turn and bring the circumference of the sun and 5 all the stars to their setting. I saw the winds on the earth carrying the clouds: I saw the paths 6 of the angels. I saw at the end of the earth the firmament of the heaven above. And I proceeded and saw a place which burns day and night, where there are seven mountains of magnificent stones, 7 three towards the east, and three towards the south. And as for those towards the east, was of coloured stone, and one of pearl, and one of jacinth, and those towards the south of red stone. 8 But the middle one reached to heaven like the throne of God, of alabaster, and the summit of the 9,10 throne was of sapphire. And I saw a flaming fire. And beyond these mountains Is a region the end of the great earth: there the heavens were completed. And I saw a deep abyss, with columns of heavenly fire, and among them I saw columns of fire fall, which were beyond measure alike towards 12 the height and towards the depth. And beyond that abyss I saw a place which had no firmament of the heaven above, and no firmly founded earth beneath it: there was no water upon it, and no 13 birds, but it was a waste and horrible place. I saw there seven stars like great burning mountains, 14 and to me, when I inquired regarding them, The angel said: 'This place is the end of heaven and earth: this has become a prison for the stars and the host of heaven. And the stars which roll over the fire are they which have transgressed the commandment of the Lord in the beginning of 16 their rising, because they did not come forth at their appointed times. And He was wroth with them, and bound them till the time when their guilt should be consummated (even) for ten thousand years.'
Enoch Online

These seven stars are likened to evil entities, even petitioning Henok in chapter twenty-one, (in some translations). That chapter comes after an interruption in the text so as to introduce the seven holy Malakim who watch, so the renderings are probably not quite accurate in suggesting that this is a different location: it is the same place as in the above quote.

[Chapter 21]
1,2 And I proceeded to where things were chaotic. [continued in the place where things were chaotic] And I saw there something horrible: I saw neither 3 a heaven above nor a firmly founded earth, but a place chaotic and horrible. And there I saw 4 seven stars of the heaven bound together in it, like great mountains and burning with fire. Then 5 I said: 'For what sin are they bound, and on what account have they been cast in hither?' Then said Uriel, one of the holy angels, who was with me, and was chief over them, and said: 'Enoch, why 6 dost thou ask, and why art thou eager for the truth? These are of the number of the stars of heaven, which have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and are bound here till ten thousand years, 7 the time entailed by their sins, are consummated.' And from thence I went to another place, which was still more horrible than the former, and I saw a horrible thing: a great fire there which burnt and blazed, and the place was cleft as far as the abyss, being full of great descending columns of 8 fire: neither its extent or magnitude could I see, nor could I conjecture. Then I said: 'How 9 fearful is the place and how terrible to look upon!' Then Uriel answered me, one of the holy angels who was with me, and said unto me: 'Enoch, why hast thou such fear and affright?' And 10 I answered: 'Because of this fearful place, and because of the spectacle of the pain.' And he said unto me: 'This place is the prison of the angels, and here they will be imprisoned for ever.'
Enoch Online

The quiver is the place just above the last place mentioned, which is even deeper, which is the ultimate prison of the stars, suggesting that the location just above, the quiver of El, is not yet a permanent prison. There is, as said previously, one who is named Quiver of El in Sefer of the Luminaries, and his service is rendered in the second season, (summer), wherein is the fifth month: and the fifth month is the month wherein the leap week intercalation of seven days is inserted into the calendar in the years of intercalation for the shmittah years and the yoblim, (but the seventy year cycle intercalations are inserted in the seventh month, as hinted at in Zekaryah the Prophet, (Zec 7:5, while the four fast-day intercalations are mentioned in Zec 8:19)).

[Chapter 82]
Enoch (Luminaries) 82:4-20
4 Blessed are all the righteous, blessed are all those who walk In the way of righteousness and sin not as the sinners, in the reckoning of all their days in which the sun traverses the heaven, entering into and departing from the portals for thirty days with the heads of thousands of the order of the stars, together with the four which are intercalated which divide the four portions of the year, which 5 lead them and enter with them four days. Owing to them men shall be at fault and not reckon them in the whole reckoning of the year: yea, men shall be at fault, and not recognize them 6 accurately. For they belong to the reckoning of the year and are truly recorded (thereon) for ever, one in the first portal and one in the third, and one in the fourth and one in the sixth, and the year is completed in three hundred and sixty-four days. 7 And the account thereof is accurate and the recorded reckoning thereof exact; for the luminaries, and months and festivals, and years and days, has Uriel shown and revealed to me, to whom the 8 Lord of the whole creation of the world hath subjected the host of heaven. And he has power over night and day in the heaven to cause the light to give light to men -sun, moon, and stars, 9 and all the powers of the heaven which revolve in their circular chariots. And these are the orders of the stars, which set in their places, and in their seasons and festivals and months. 10 And these are the names of those who lead them, who watch that they enter at their times, in their orders, in their seasons, in their months, in their periods of dominion, and in their positions. Their four leaders who divide the four parts of the year enter first; and after them the twelve leaders of the orders who divide the months; and for the three hundred and sixty (days) there are heads over thousands who divide the days; and for the four intercalary days there are the leaders which sunder 12 the four parts of the year. And these heads over thousands are intercalated between 13 leader and leader, each behind a station, but their leaders make the division. And these are the names of the leaders who divide the four parts of the year which are ordained: Milki'el, Hel'emmelek, and Mel'ejal, 14 and Narel. And the names of those who lead them: Adnar'el, and Ijasusa'el, and 'Elome'el- these three follow the leaders of the orders, and there is one that follows the three leaders of the orders which follow those leaders of stations that divide the four parts of the year. In the beginning of the year Melkejal rises first and rules, who is named Tam'aini and sun, and 16 all the days of his dominion whilst he bears rule are ninety-one days. And these are the signs of the days which are to be seen on earth in the days of his dominion: sweat, and heat, and calms; and all the trees bear fruit, and leaves are produced on all the trees, and the harvest of wheat, and the rose-flowers, and all the flowers which come forth in the field, but the trees of the winter season become withered. And these are the names of the leaders which are under them: Berka'el, Zelebs'el, and another who is added a head of a thousand, called Hilujaseph: and the days of the dominion of this (leader) are at an end. 18 The next leader after him is Hel'emmelek, whom one names the shining sun, and all the days 19 of his light are ninety-one days. And these are the signs of (his) days on the earth: glowing heat and dryness, and the trees ripen their fruits and produce all their fruits ripe and ready, and the sheep pair and become pregnant, and all the fruits of the earth are gathered in, and everything that is 20 in the fields, and the winepress: these things take place in the days of his dominion. These are the names, and the orders, and the leaders of those heads of thousands: Gida'ljal, Ke'el, and He'el, and the name of the head of a thousand which is added to them, Asfa'el: and the days of his dominion are at an end.
Enoch Online

The final leader mentioned at the end of the text above is Ashpael, a theophoric name, meaning Quiver of El. This is a direct reference back to the other texts quoted above herein, Henok chapters 17-21, and the context therein pertaining to the seven stars which transgressed their command and were imprisoned in the quiver of El. They are released in the years of release, the smittah and the yobel: their "debt" is symbolically suspended in those years, but it is really all about the calendar, adding seven days in the leap years in order to keep the calendar in sync with the solar tropical year. After their service in that year they are locked back up in "the quiver of El" until the next leap year.

Job 39:23
23 The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering spear and the shield.

H827 אַשׁפָּה 'ashpah (ash-paw') n-f.
a quiver or arrow-case.
[perhaps (feminine) from the same as H825 (in the sense of covering)]
KJV: quiver.

Unfortunately we are missing the other two seasons from Luminaries at the end of the text above: but the text reveals that all of the intercalations for the calendar were present.

10 And these are the names of those who lead them, who watch that they enter at their appointed times, in their orders, in their seasons, in their months, in their periods of dominion, and in their positions.
11 Their four leaders who divide the four parts of the year enter first, and after them the twelve leaders of the orders who divide the months, and for the three hundred and sixty days there are heads over thousands who divide the days: and for the four intercalary days there are the leaders which divide the four parts of the year.
12 And these [360] heads over thousands are intercalated between leader and leader, each behind a station, but their leaders make the division.
[12a] And these are the names of the leaders who divide the four parts of the year which are ordained: Melkiel, and Helemmelek, and Meliel, and Nariel.
13 And these are the names of those who lead them: Adnarel, and Yeshusael, and Yelumeel, and these three follow the leaders of the orders, [months] and there is one who follows the three leaders of the orders who accompanies the leaders of stations that divide the four parts of the year.
15 In the beginning of the year Melkiel rises first and rules, who is called Teimani Zahai, (Southern Light (Zahai = Zohar)), and all the days of the dominion of his rule are ninety-one days.
16 And these are the signs of the days which are to be seen on earth in the days of his dominion: dew, and warmth, and calmness, and all the trees put forth leaves, and all the trees bear fruit, and there is a harvest of grain, and the rose-lillies and all the flowers come forth in the field, and the trees of the winter quarter have been withered.
17 And these are the names of the leaders under these: Berakael, (Blessing of El), Tzelel, (Shade of El), Zeebel, ((Yellow) Light of El), and there is another one added, the head of a thousand who is called Hilluyasaph: (Added Praise), and the days of the dominion of this leader (Melkiel) come to an end.
18 The next leader after him is Helemmelek, who is called Bahiyr Zahai, (Bright-Shining Light, (Zohar)), and all the days of his light are ninety-one days.
19 And these are the signs of his days on the earth: glowing heat and dryness, and the trees ripen their fruits and produce all their fruits ripe and ready, and the sheep pair and become pregnant, and all the fruits of the earth are gathered in, and everything that is in the fields, and the winepress: these things take place in the days of his dominion.
20 These are the names, and the orders, and the leaders of those heads of thousands: Gidaiel, Keel, and Heel, and the name of the head of a thousand which is added to them, Ashpael: (Quiver of El), and the days of his dominion come to an end.

1) At the commencement of each season the heads of the mountains are seen, (Genesis 8:5).
2) Melkiel, whose name is called Teimani Zohar, (Southern Light), enters in the first day of the first season, that is, in the first day of the first month.
3) Following Melkiel the three heads of the orders for the three months enter in.
4) Following the three heads of the orders, for the three months of the season, the three heads of a thousand for the days of the months of the season enter in.
5) Following the three heads of a thousand, for the days of the months of the season, the head of a thousand who is added for the intercalation day enters in.
6) And in the seventh day, which is the intercalation for the first month in the first season, Melkiel rises and rules for ninety-one days: in that day Hilluyasaph, the head of a thousand who is added, also stands upon his station.
7) And the intercalation is the day of Hilluyasaph, which is to say, Added Praise.
8) And the first season runs its course: and the dominion of Melkiel is completed.

First Quarter:
1) Melkiel, who is called Teimani Zahai, (Zohar) rises first and rules ninety-one days.
2) Berakael, Tzelel, and Zeebel enter, (three consecutive days).
3) Adnarel, Yeshusael, and Yelumeel enter, (three consecutive days).
4) Hilluyasaph, the additional head of a thousand, enters, (one intercalation day).

And the intercalation day is the seventh day of the first quarter.
And the intercalation day is the day of Hilluyasaph, whose name means Added Praise.
(In the Torah, BaMidbar-Numbers 11:19-35, confirmed in 1Samuel 20:5-39, this fast day is moved to the second day of the fifth month for the fast of Ahron, who passed in the Rosh Hodesh, 5/1, for he and Mosheh spoke unadvisedly at the waters of Meribah, 1/7).

Second Quarter:
1) Helemmelek, who is called Bahiyr Zahai, (Zohar), rises and rules ninety-one days.
2) Gidaiel, Keel, and Heel enter, (three consecutive days).
3) Adnarel, Yeshusael, and Yelumeel enter, (three consecutive days).
4) Ashpael, the additional head of a thousand, enters, (one intercalation day).

And the intercalation day is the seventh day of the second quarter.
And the intercalation day is the day of Ashpael, whose name means Quiver of El.
And whenever it is a leap year the Quiver of El is opened in the fifth month.

 

[Sabertooth]

Any info about the Jubilee year according to Jewish custom would be appreciated. Thanks

For non-Jewish posters, it should be pointed out that the Jewish New Year and the Gregorian New Year are not the same day.
The Feast of Trumpets [a.k.a. Rosh Hashanah] is the Jewish New Year.

During Paul's time, it was commonly held among believers that Jesus could return on a Feast of Trumpets (at the very least), if not on a Year of Jubilee.

 

[visionary]

I love the cycle of sevens that the Lord favored both in growing meaning starting with the weekly sabbath and on to the millinium sabbath..