Kommentar zu Wajikra 25:11

יובל הוא שנת החמשים שנה IT IS A JUBILEE; THE FIFTIETH YEAR [SHALL BE UNTO YOU A PERIOD etc.] — Why is this statement made at all? Is it not identical with that made in v. 10? But because it is stated (v. 10) “and ye shall sanctify [the fiftieth year]” which implies that the year has to be sanctified at the beginning although the law of setting the slaves free applies only as from Yom Kippur, and consequently one might think that the holy character of the year is to be extended till the tenth of Tishri of the next year. Scripture therefore states here “a Jubilee is the fiftieth year” — but not any part of the fifty-first — just as is explained in Rosh Hashanah 8b and in Torat Cohanim (Sifra, Behar, Chapter 3 1).

יובל היא שנת החמישים שנה תהיה לכם, just as the soil will become free from those who have purchased it, it will not be enslaved to the owners that are returning to it; during that year they must not yet use it as if it were their own.

נזיריה, freely growing grapes that have fallen off the vines must not be harvested. The same applies to grain that grew without having been planted during that year.

As it is [stated] in Rosh Hashanah. Explanation: Wherever it says “holy,” such as pertaining to Shabbos and Yom Tov, we add from secular to the holy, and here pertaining to the Jubilee too it is written (verse 10) “You shall sanctify.” Thus, one may have thought that we add to the Jubilee from the year following the Jubilee. Therefore it says, “It is a Jubilee, the year of the fiftieth year,” only this year and no more, and one does not need to add from the following year.

יובל היא, “it is a Jubilee year,” the expression יובל from the root יבל “to bring home,” reflects the extraordinary function of this year, namely to release slaves and to enable them to return to their original homes. Compare the use of this root in the transitive mode in Isaiah 23,7: יובילוה רגליה, “her own feet shall carry her far off”, or Psalms 60,11: מי יובילני עיר מצור?, ”would that I be brought to the fortified city!” Compare also Isaiah 18,7: ביום ההוא יובל שי, “on that day a gift will be brought from a people far removed.”[What follows really belongs to verse 10, the author may have had his reasons why he decided to place this here. Ed.]

את נזריה [YE SHALL NOT GATHER THE GRAPES] THAT ARE נזירים — i. e. the grapes which have been kept by you (cf. Rashi on v. 6: לכם לאכלה‎ שבת הארץ), but you may gather from those that had been declared free to all (cf. Rashi on v. 5: ‎‎לא תבצר). Just as this is stated with reference to the Sabbatical year so, too, is it stated with regard to the Jubilee (Sifra, Behar, Chapter 3 2). Thus there are two holy years one after the other: the forty-ninth year שמיטה, and the fiftieth,יובל‎‎.

Just as this is said, etc. You might ask: Why does Rashi explain, “Just as this is said, etc.,” on the phrase “You shall not gather the [grapes of] its untended vineyard,” more than on the phrase “You shall not plant and you shall not reap”? The answer is: Rashi writes “Just as this is said, etc.,” because regarding the JjubileeJubilee it is written “You shall not gather its untended vineyard [lit. fruits]” without specifying, and one might think that this applies to other fruits but not to grapes. Therefore Rashi explains, “Just as, etc.,” since there by the sabbatical year it says “The grapes of your untended vines (את ענבי נזירך) you shall not gather,” and here too likewise it writes, “its untended vineyard” (את נזיריה). Just as it applies to grapes there as it is explicitly written, “The grapes of your untended vines you shall not gather,” so here too it applies to grapes. Therefore Rashi explains, “Just as, etc.,” i.e., the sabbatical year and the Jubilee are the sameidentical in everything [restriction]. (Kitzur Mizrachi) You might ask: What is Rashi telling us? Does the verse not state explicitly, “You shall count for yourself seven sabbatical years... You shall sanctify the year of the fiftieth year”? The Kitzur Mizrachi found written [an answer] written: From the verses it is not obvious that they are [both] equally holy, and one may have thought that one has greater sanctity than the other does. But now that he explained, “Just as this is said in regard to the sabbatical year, so it is said in regard to the Jubilee,” we know their sanctity is equal. (R. Noson)

לכם, “for to you Israel, exclusively.” (Ibn Ezra).

יובל היא שנת החמישים שנה, “it, i.e. the fiftieth year is a Jubilee;” on the face of it the meaning of this line is not clear, nor why it is needed, seeing that the Torah had written the same words already in verse 10. We therefore need to understand this as follows: seeing that the Torah had written in verse 10 that we are to sanctify this year, that the meaning was that we should do so from the beginning of the year already, and that at the end of that year its special sanctity would continue for ten days until the Day of Atonement, as it is a custom to always add to, and thereby include, something secular, so that it also becomes something holy, the Torah, by repeating this line, teaches that the sanctity of that year does not extend beyond the end of its calendar year, i.e. Rosh hashanah. (Talmud, tractate Rosh Hashanah folio 8)