3,792. Counting Shemittah and Yoveil Into Contemporary Times

Hilchos Shemittah v’Yoveil 10:3

The Jews counted seventeen yoveil cycles from the time they entered Israel until they were exiled. The year they left, when the First Temple was destroyed, was the year after shemittah and the thirty-sixth year in the yoveil cycle, since the First Temple stood for 410 years. When it was destroyed, the counting was suspended, after which the land was desolate for seventy years. The Second Temple was then built and stood for 420 years. In the seventh year after it was built, Ezra returned to Israel in what is called the second entry; they started counting again from this year. The thirteenth year of the Second Temple was designated shemittah; they counted seven shemittah cycles and sanctified the fiftieth year. Even though yoveil was not observed in the Second Temple era (as we will see IY”H in halacha 10:8), they counted it in order to sanctify the shemittah years.

Hilchos Shemittah v’Yoveil 10:4

We find that the year in which the Second Temple was destroyed – or, more specifically, the year starting from Tishrei, which was about two months after the destruction, since the counting of shemittah and yoveil is from Tishrei – was the year after shemittah and the fifteenth year of the ninth yoveil cycle. Following this count, the year in which the Rambam wrote this halacha (1176 CE) – which was year 4936 from Creation, year 1107 from the destruction of the Second Temple, and year 1487 for the dating of documents (which was traditionally counted from the reign of Alexander the Great) – was a shemittah year and the twenty-first year in the yoveil cycle.