Study Rosh Hashanah folio 9A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
ורבנן? שנת חמשים אתה מונה, ואי אתה מונה שנת חמשים ואחת — לאפוקי מדרבי יהודה, דאמר: שנת חמשים עולה לכאן ולכאן, קא משמע לן דלא.
And the Rabbis, who do not require an additional verse to derive that the Jubilee Year does not extend until Yom Kippur of the 50-first year, derive this halakha from the verse: You count the 50th year as the Jubilee Year alone, but you do not count the 50th year as the Jubilee Year and also as the 1st year of the next Sabbatical cycle. This halakha comes to exclude the opinion of R' Yehuda, who said that the 50th year is counted for here and for there, both as the Jubilee Year and also as the 1st year of the next Sabbatical cycle. Lest someone think that that is the case, therefore, the verse teaches us that this is not so; rather, the 50th year is the Jubilee Year, and the following year is the 1st year of the next Sabbatical cycle.
ודמוסיפין מחול על קדש מנלן?
§ Apropos of the discussion of extending the Jubilee year, the Talmud asks: From where do we derive the principle that one extends a sanctified time period by adding from the profane to the sacred at both ends?
דתניא: ״בחריש ובקציר תשבות״, רבי עקיבא אומר: אינו צריך לומר חריש וקציר של שביעית, שהרי כבר נאמר ״שדך לא תזרע וגו׳״. אלא חריש של ערב שביעית הנכנס לשביעית, וקציר של שביעית היוצא למוצאי שביעית.
As it is taught in a baraita: The verse states: “In plowing and in harvest you should rest” (Exodus 34:21). R' Akiva says: It is unnecessary to state this about plowing and harvesting during the Sabbatical Year, as it is already stated: “But in the 7th year should be a Shabbat of solemn rest for the land, a Shabbat for YHWH; you should neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard” (Leviticus 25:4). Rather, the verse: “In plowing and in harvest you should rest,” is referring to plowing in the year preceding the Sabbatical Year going into the Sabbatical Year, i.e., plowing in the 6th year that will benefit the crops growing in the Sabbatical Year, and about harvesting of the Sabbatical Year going into the year that follows the Sabbatical Year, i.e., harvesting grain that grew in the Sabbatical Year in the 8th year. This teaches that there is a requirement to add extra time to the sanctity of the Sabbatical Year, and not work the land both before and after.