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Which
Year is the Shmitta year?
by Rabbi Michael Unger
Which year is the Shmitta year? Here is the Gemorrah
in tractate Taanis 29a. The subject is the
destruction of the second Temple on Tisha B'av
and gives the exact moment of the destruction: The gemorrah
tells us the story of the destruction of the second Temple, that it happened on Tisha
B'av after Shabbos and
after the shmitta year. Rashi
tells us that after shmitta means in the eighth
year. Of course, shmitta is in the seventh year and
so after that comes the eighth year. You might wonder why Rashi
has to comment at all. The Rambam saw the gemorrah differently. His opinion is that since the New
Year starts in Tishrei, less than two months after
the destruction of the Temple, so "after shmitta"
written here means "at the end of shmitta".
(Rambam Hilchos Shmitta veyovel ch. 10). In other words the Temple was destroyed during the course of the shmitta year. And there is a very good reason to want to
know during which year of the seven-year cycle the Temple was destroyed: This is the only place in Chazal that an historical event was related to the
seven-year cycle. Once we know during which of the seven years it happened we
simple continue counting seven-year cycles up to the present day. Then we
will know which year is shmitta in our generation.
If you read the above chapter in the Rambam you
will note that he brings down two opinions when Shmitta
occurs in his day. The first is according to the Rambam's
own opinion that the Temple was destroyed during shmitta. The
second opinion he brings down as the opinion of the Geonim
and notes that in the land of Israel this is what is actually followed. The
subject is quite complicated. Somebody interested is invited to look at the
commentators on the Rambam and also those of the Tur and Shulchan Aruch (Hoshen Mishpat ch. 67). The Rama in Shulchan Aruch ruled that all
Jews need to know when is shmitta because of the
law of cancelling loans, which happens the final hours of the shmitta year. In Israel today we follow the cycle of the Geonim mentioned above, and the last Shmitta
was in the year 5768. And the next one in 5775, which will begin on September
25, 2014.
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