The Shemitah year waives all outstanding debts the next shemitah year will be the year 5775 after Creation, runs Sept. 25, 2014 to Sept 13, 2015

The Shmita Year (5775) 09/25/14 – 09/13/15


Hebrew CalendarOur Blog Emphasizes the importance of learning and acknowledging the Feasts of the Lord. We encourage you possess a Jewish Calendar in order to attune your heart and your prayer life with the times and dates that are important to God. We feel that knowing and acknowledging His Feasts are important in order to obey God’s commandments and understand current and future events. One can order a Jewish Calendar online or pick one up at a local Chabad or Jewish book store.

What is a Shmita Year?
The Shmita Year is the seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by the Torah for the Land of Israel and still observed in contemporary Judaism. When Moses received the Levitical law, God gave the commandment to rest on the seventh day, the Sabbath. Moses also applied the cycles of seven to weeks and years. A cycle of seven weeks points to the 50th day, called Pentecost. And a cycle of seven sets of seven years points to the 50th year, the year of Jubilee. The year of Jubilee is based on letting the land rest every seventh year as follows:

For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath to the Lord. (Lev. 25:3-4). 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.

The last Shmita Year was Jewish year 5768 – September 13, 2007 through September 29, 2008. The Financial crisis of 2007–08 began
with the collapse of Lehman Brothers. On September 16, 2008, the failures of massive financial institutions in the United States, occurred due primarily to exposure of securities of packaged subprime loans and credit default swaps issued to insure these loans and their issuers. This rapidly evolved into a global crisis resulting in a number of bank failures in Europe and sharp reductions in the value of equities (stock) and commodities worldwide. In the United States, 15 banks failed in 2008, while several others were rescued through government intervention or acquisitions by other banks. On October 11, 2008, the head of the International Monetary Fund warned that the world financial system was teetering on the “brink of systemic meltdown.” The economic crisis caused countries to temporarily close their markets.
Many asks: Is the United States being judged by God for its
“UnGodliness”?

Interesting facts about Shmita Years:
1916 was a year of Shmita. The FOLLOWING year, Jerusalem was liberated from the Turks.

1965 was a year of Shmita, 49 years after the 1916 Shmita. The FOLLOWING year, Jerusalem was re-liberated from the Arabs.

This would suggest that both 1916 and 1965 were 7th Shmitas, preceding a year of Jubilee.

The next Shmita Year will be Jewish year 5775 – September 25, 2014 through September 13, 2015. This will be 7th Shmita/49th year, the following year, 2015-16 is Jubilee.

By adding together seven cycles of seven years, we count a total of 49 years. Therefore, the year of Jubilee is the 50th year as noted by the following verses.

You are also to count off seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven sabbaths of years, namely, forty-nine years. You shall then sound a ram’s horn abroad on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement [Yom Kippur] you shall sound a horn all through your land. You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family. (Lev. 25:8-10).

Some ambiguity occurs when we don’t consider that a Hebrew year intersects 2 of our years. And so if you add 49 yrs to 1967 you get 2016, or add 50 yrs to 1967 you get 2017. But the last Jubilee didn’t start in ’67, it began in ’66 and ran through to ’67 (Sep. 24, 1966 to Oct. 13, 1967). Consider, If the Jubilee didn’t begin until Atonement of ’67 (Oct 14, 1967), then Israel would have captured Jerusalem before Jubilee even began, which would be outside the laws of Jubilee…since all land is recaptured, debts cancelled, slaves set free WITHIN the year of Jubilee. But instead, if you add 49 yrs to Sept. 24,1966 you come to Sept. 22, 2015, with the very next day of Sept. 23, 2015 being the first day of that 50th year…Jubilee.

This ultimately reinforces Daniel 9:25 and the 7 weeks (49 years). Because if you take 49 Hebrew years (17460 days) from Israel capturing Jerusalem on June 7, 1967…you ALSO end up at September 23, 2015 which is the Feast of Atonement/Yom Kippur, and next Jubilee.

We are currently in the 70th Jubilee cycle since the very first Jubilee, which occurred when Joshua led the children of Israel into the promised land and liberated it from the Canaanites. The beginning of that liberation was heralded with the blowing of the Yobel rams horns. The word “Jubilee” comes from Yobel. At the blowing of the seventh trumpet, the walls of Jericho collapsed.

The book of Revelation speaks of seven trumpets blown by angels, heralding the transfer of ownership of the whole planet Earth. “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of Christ” announces the angel. *******