JUBn.EE
1041
JUBILEE
I
blast of the tnimpet " on the tenth of the seventh month, on the clay of atonement," which is TisrI. See Atonk- MENT, Day of. The opinion that the sabbatical year and the jubilee were distinct, or that there were two fallow years, is also entertained by the Talmud {Rosh Ha-Shana, 8 b, 9 a), Philo {On the Decalogue, xxx), Josephus {I. f.)," and many other ancient writers. It must, however, be borne ia mind that, though there was to be no sowing, nor any regidar harvest, daring these two years, yet the Israelites were allowed to fetch from the fields whatever they wanted (Lev. xxv, 12). That the fields did yield a crop in their second fallow year is most unquestionably presupposed by the prophet Isaiah (xxxvii, 30). Palestine was, at all events, not less fruit- ful than Albania, in which Strabo tells ns (lib. xi, c. iv, sec. 3), " The ground that has been sowed once produces in many places two or tliree crops, the fruit of which is even fifty-fold."
It must, however, be remarked, that many, from a very early period down to the present day, have taken the jubilee year to be identical with the seventh sabbatical year. Thus the " Book of Jubilees,'' which dates prior to the Christian sera [see Jubilees, Book ok], divides the Biblical history from the creation to the entrance of the Israelites into Canaan into fifty jubilees offorh/- nine years each, which shows that this view of the jubi- lee must have been pretty general in those days. Some liabbins in the Talmud (Erachin, 12 b, with 33 a), as well as many Christian writers (Scaliger, Petavius, Ush- er, Cunajus, Calvitius, Gatterer, Frank, Schroder, Hug, Eosenmilller), support the same view. As to the re- mark, " Ye shall hallow the fiftieth year"" (ver. 10), " a jubilee shall t\\dX fiftieth year be unto j-ou" (ver. 11), it is urged that this is in accordance with a mode of speech which is common to all languages and ages. Thus we call a week eight days, including both Sundays, and the best classical writers called an olympiad by the name of quinquennium, though it only contained four entire years. Moreover, the sacred number seven, or the sab- batic idea, which underlies all the festivals, and connects them all into one chain, the last link of which is the ju- bilee, corroborates this view, inasmuch as we have, 1. A Sabbath of days; 2. A Sabbath of weeks {the seventh week after the Passover being the Sabbath week, as the first day of it is the festival of weeks) ; 3. A Sabbath of months (inasmuch as the seventh month has both a festi- val and a fast, and with its first day begins the civil year) ; 4. A Sabbath of years (the seventh j'ear is the sab- batical j'ear) ; and, 5. A Sabbath of Sabbaths, inasmuch as the seventh sabbatical year is the jubilee. See Sab- bath.
IV. Mode of Celebration. — As the observance of the jubilee, like that of the sabbatical year, was only to be- come obligatory when the Israelites had taken posses- sion of the promised land, and cultivated the land for that period of years, at tlie conclusion of which the fes- tival was to be celebrated, the ancient tradition pre- served in the Talmud seems to be correct, that the first sabbatical year was in the one-and-twentieth, and the first jubilee in the sixty-fourth year after the Jews came into Canaan, for it took them seven years to conquer it, and seven years more to distribute it {Erachin, xii, G; Maimonides, Jobel, x, 2). The Bible says nothing about the manner in which the jubilee is to be celebrated, ex- cept that it should be proclaimed by the blast of a trum- pet. See Trumpet. As in many other eases, the law- giver leaves the practical application of this law, and the necessarily complicated arrangements connected therewith, to the elders of Israel. Now tradition tells us that the trumpets used on this occasion, like those of the feast of trumpets, or new j'ear, were of rams' horns, straight, and had their mouth-piece covered with gold (Mishna, Rosh Ila-Shana, iii, 2 ; Maimonides, Jobel, X, 11) ; that every Israelite blew nine blasts, so as to make the trumpet literaU}' '• sound throughout the land" (Lev. xxv, 9) ; and that '' from the feast of trumpets, or new vear (i. e. Tisri 1), till the day of atonement (i. e, IV.-U u u
Tisri 10), the slaves were neither manumitted to return to their homes nor made use of by their masters, but ate, drank, and rejoiced, and wore garlands on their heads ; and when the day of atonement came the judges blew the trumpet, the slaves were manumitted to go to their homes, and the fields were set free" {Rosh Ha- Shana, 8 b; Maimonides, Jobel, x, 14). Though the Jews, from the nature of the case, cannot now celebrate the jubilee, yet on the evening of the day of atonement the conclusion of the fast is announced in all the syna- gogues to the present day by the blast of the Shophar or horn, which, according to the Kabbins, is intended to commemorate tlie ancient jubilee proclamation {Orach Chajim, cap. dcxxiii, sec. 6, note).