MY YOVEL

The word יובל = "YOVEL" in the Torah, refers to the last year of the fifty-year cycle. This word became the basis for the well-known word "jubilee". 

8 And you shall count to yourself seven Sabbath years, seven times seven years, so that you shall have forty-nine years in the seven Sabbath years;

10 And you shall sound a trumpet ...and consecrate the fiftieth year, and declare liberty in the land to all its inhabitants: let it be your jubilee = יובל = YOVEL ... (Lev.25:8-10)

To better understand the commandment of YOVEL, we need to look at the etymology of the word.

The meaning of the word יובל = YOVEL is a ram's horn (trumpet horn),[1] a ram.  Rashi[2] writes thus about the name of the fiftieth year: "This year differs from the other years in that it is given a special name. What is its name? "YOVEL" in reference to the blowing of the shofar. Also, the same Hebrew root, from the trumpet sound that the ram's horn makes to control or convey information to a large number of people, may have the verb form of the word YUVAL = "guided".[3]

Rav Hirsch writes that the word "YOVEL" is related to the verb "HOVIL" (in the future tense "YOVIL"), which means "to deliver," "to bring." The deeper meaning of this word in the aspect of the fiftieth year is to deliver a person and his possessions to the right place and bring them to the right condition, order. That is, the indication here is that all that man in this world has acquired as property is not really his, but God's. Neither debtors nor lands can belong to man until the end. The fiftieth year puts man in commanded renunciation of all that he has "privatized." Here is how Jewish tradition explains it: "Yovel marks the cumulative end of an age. Everything that has gone before comes to an end. It is as if this year wipes out the previous 49 years. Everything returns to its original pristine state, and the process begins anew. Yovel,[4] trumpeted on Yom Kippur of the 50th year, heralds the return of people and objects to their original state. Sold fields to their former owners.[5] Slaves to freedom, that is, to their natural state.

YOVEL "brings back" and returns to G-d all that man has "privatized" in 49 years.[6]  All seven-day (SHABAT), seven-year (SHMITA) and fifty-year (YOVEL) repetitions have only one task: to remind a person of the limited number of days of his possession of that which is actually his property only conditionally. By the end of each cycle, the Law places man before the fact that he is not here the true owner of the land or the people.  

The twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus (Vaykra) speaks in the context of the commandment of the fiftieth year, Yovel, about the return of the ancestral possessions and the freeing of slaves who have been sold into slavery because of debts and impoverishment. That is, in this year, among other things, debtors and slaves were set free.

 
According to Jewish halacha on Yovel, only Jewish slaves were freed. The laws of Shmitah and Yovel, alakha prescribed for observance only in the land of Israel. But the New Testament people are told, "Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:20). Therefore, by Christians, the fiftieth year can also be sanctified - i.e., highlighted. But now there is no literal slavery and other institutions to which the commandments of the Jubilee year refer. How, then, does a Christian sanctify the year? 

To me, an example of Christian fulfillment of the Jubilee commandment was given by my friend and selfless publisher of my book,[7] Vasily Slonov. For his Jubilee year, he announced on social media that all his financial debtors would be forgiven their debts. In ancient times, the trumpet sound of the shofar[8] heralded the "year of deliverance".[9]  Now this trumpet sound could be an alert to a large number of people through information media and social media. It is pertinent to recall that Christ condemned "trumpeting"[10] - that is, divulging one's good deeds to others. But notifying forgiveness of debtors is the only permissible, and even commanded, "trumpeting to oneself".[11] My friend's sanctification of his fiftieth year was one of the most impressive and inspiring Torah lessons I have received from others. This example of Yovel's consecration made me want to repeat it without fail. Today marks the beginning of my fiftieth year. Except that I, am not financially indebted. Rather, I am the financial debtor of other people. So how do I sanctify my anniversary? It remains to remember only those who became my debtors after bringing trouble into my life through injustice and enmity. 

The wrongs, i.e., in another way, the troubles people bring, put them in the category of "debtors. There are people who turn over the lives of others by their wickedness. These are debtors whose debt is difficult to forgive because it is so great. But the fiftieth year puts one in front of the fact that debtors are not in perpetuity. If anyone we owe anything to, it is the Almighty. We need to return everything to the Master of the universe. It is His possession, and His debtors.[12]  Besides, man has no freedom of his own if he does not give freedom to those who "owe" him. Debt binds and makes a slave not only to the debtor, but also to the one who is waiting for that debt to be repaid. This is why the Lord's Prayer says, "And forgive us our debts, just as we forgive our debtors" (Matt. 6:12). No matter how great a man's desire to possess a bunch of his "slaves," it is always more blessed to be free from the desire to be a "slave owner. God calls us to a freedom that does not tolerate attachment to what we have "privatized" in this life. And the Yovel established by God brings all our possessions to the Most High, first and foremost, by making us free ourselves.

In Messianic terms, Yovel is our freedom and forgiveness in Christ. Christ accomplished the deliverance of God's debtors through His Atonement.[13]  His Deliverance is the eternal Yovel. He brought to God all who heeded the cry of remission of sins through his Atonement. Having received deliverance in the great Yovel, shall we not proclaim freedom to our debtors? For our debts to the Most High are far more unpaid and great. Every Christian knows and remembers the Gospel parable of the two debtors (Matt. 23:35). And according to Christ, we are forgiven our debts only if we ourselves forgive. The Talmud also says, "Heavenly judgment passes over all the sins of the one who passes over his own offenses, as it says, "...He forgives the sin and passes over the offense" (Micah. 7:18). To whom is sin forgiven? To him who passes by the offense committed against him personally" (Rosh Hashanah 17a).

Therefore, today, on my 49th birthday, at the beginning of my fiftieth year, as I consecrate my Yovel, I cry out for the forgiveness of all my personal debtors. I hope and believe that this "year of freedom" will make me even freer.

BLESSED ARE YOU, LORD OUR GOD, KING OF THE UNIVERSE, WHO CONSECRATED US WITH YOUR COMMANDMENTS AND COMMANDED US TO CONSECRATE THE YEAR OF JOVEL.

BLESSED BE THE GOD AND FATHER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, WHO LEAVES OUR DEBTS, AND COMMANDED US TO FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS!

From Pasechnyuk Victor's book, "The Unspoken Sermon.

Machine Translation: deepl.com