Rabbi Yekutiel Fish, a prominent mystic from Jerusalem, gave a lesson last week in which he proved through a precise mathematical equation that next year will be the final Jubilee before the arrival of the Messiah.
“We are now in the month of Shevat on the eve of the Messiah,” Rabbi Fish said at the beginning of his lesson. “If you happen to hear a shofar, don’t be alarmed or confused,” the rabbi joked. “It is only the arrival of the Messiah.”
Rabbi Fish attributed the teaching to Rabbi Oren Evron, a prominent mystic-numerologist.
“Rabbi Evron told me the following message in the most simple manner possible, like an innocent child and not like a Torah authority,” Rabbi Fish said. “But after he told me, I realized that what we have here is an atomic bomb. Rabbi Evron informed me that next year, 5783, will be a Jubilee year and will usher in the Messiah.”
Today, in the absence of a fully-functioning supreme Jewish court, known as the Sanhedrin, the Jewish community in Israel neither marks nor observes the Jubilee year. According to Jewish tradition, the re-establishment of the Biblically-mandated Jubilee year is part of the messianic process.
It should be noted that the current year, 5782, is a shemittah (Sabbatical) year. The Shemitah is part of a larger framework of seven Shemitah (sabbatical) cycles, in which we count 49 years, and then the 50th year is the Jubilee year, as described in Leviticus.
And you shall hallow the fiftieth year. You shall proclaim release throughout the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: each of you shall return to his holding and each of you shall return to his family. Leviticus 25:10
In Judaism, it is a positive religious commandment “to sanctify the 50th year” (Leviticus 25:8). In actual practice, the Biblically-mandated requirement to observe the Jubilee year was disrupted when the 10 Tribes were exiled approximately 2,700 years ago. Prior to that time, the Jews were careful about counting the cycles leading to the Jubilee year. They observed all the Biblical requirements of the Jubilee year, including freeing slaves and returning property to its original owner.
The Jubilee year is observed only when all of the Nation of Israel is in the Land of Israel. Therefore, when the Jews returned from Babylonian Exile since many chose to remain in the Diaspora, the Jubilee was not observed. For the same reason, the Jubilee was not observed in modern Israel.
Rabbi Fish continued his lesson.
“We know that the Messiah will be revealed in the Jubilee,” Rabbi Fish said. “This is stated simply and to be understood simply. But we are currently counting and observing the shemittah without any Jubilee. We know the Messiah will come on the 85th Jubilee but by not counting the Jubilee, we are canceling out his arrival. The Jubilee has ceased to exist.”
The rabbi cited an explanation by Rabbi Chaim Vital, a noted 16th-century kabbalist from Tzfat, on a verse in Leviticus:
If he lacks sufficient means to recover it, what he sold shall remain with the purchaser until the jubilee; in the jubilee year it shall be released, and he shall return to his holding. Leviticus 25:28
“Rabbi Chaim explained that the verse teaches that if God sees that the nation does not have the strength to continue until the final Jubilee, the 85th Jubilee, that marks the time when the Messiah is set to come, then God will bring the Messiah anyway. Even if the nation does not merit Redemption, even if the nation is entirely evil, God forbid, God will bring the Messiah.”
“But Rabbi Vital and the Talmud speak about Jubilee and we don’t even have the Jubilee in our time. So how can this be?”
Rabbi Fish cited Rabbi Evron who stated, “Every seven days since the creation of the world has been Shabbat. Every seven years since the creation of the world has been the Shemittah.”
He noted that if the Hebrew year is divisible by seven, then it is a shemittah year. This year, for example, is 5782 which is the 826th shemittah year since the creation of the world.
“Similarly, the Jubilee is the first year of the next shemittah cycle. This has been true since creation. This year is 5782, divided by 49 equals precisely 118. So next year is the 118th Jubilee since the creation of the world. That would be clear and obvious had we been counting the Jubilee cycle, as we were supposed to.”
But the good news came with a dire warning.
“The rabbis teach that the Messiah comes in the year following a Shemittah but they also teach that the Shemittah year will bring wars.
Rabbi Fish noted that the genatria (Hebrew numerology) of the sentence, “במוצא שביעית בן דוד בא” (after the Shemittah the Messiah/son of David arrives) is precisely 1,000.
“One thousand plus the 118, the number of Jubilees since creation, equals 1,118, which in Gematria is the first line of Shema Yisrael declaring that God is king and God is one,” Rabbi Fish said. “After Messiah, after this Jubilee, the entire world will recognize that God is king and God is one.”
