Parshas Behar
“And you shall count for yourselves seven weeks of years; seven years seven times!” (Vayikra 25:8)
It is a positive commandment to count the years seven times seven years until the jubilee year, when we are in the Holy Land after having divided it out, as it says “And you shall count for yourselves seven weeks of years; seven years seven times!”. This commandment (i.e. the counting of these seven periods of seven years) is the responsibility of the great rabbinical court of law, called the Sanhedrin. The commandment is fulfilled by the Sanhedrin counting each year and each “week” of years until the jubilee year, in exactly the same way that we count the days and weeks of the Omer. After this, we sanctify the fiftieth year by leaving the land to rest, and by calling freedom for all slaves and maidservants, and all fields return to their original owners.
Amongst the roots of this commandment according to the most basic understanding, is that Hashem wanted to inform His people that everything belongs to Him, and that in the end everything will return to whom Hashem gave it in the first place, for the land belongs to Him, as it says “For all the land is Mine!”, and by fulfilling this commandment of counting the years, they will keep far away from stealing other people’s property and even from desiring it, as they know that in the end everything goes back to the owner to whom Hashem gave it.
Amongst the laws of this commandment are that this obligation does not apply until after the conquest and re-division of the land, and from the time that the tribes of Reuven, Gad and half of the tribe of Manasheh were exiled, this commandment no longer applies, as the jubilees no longer existed, as it says “And you shall call freedom to the land and all of its inhabitants!”, from which we see that it only applies when “All” of them are there, and also when they are living there divided into their real tribes and not all mixed up.
