Nevertheless, it is natural to ask ourselves whether the law of jubilee was put into practice at some time. Beyond the “revolutionary” character of its posing, which makes it difficult to believe in its implementation, there are logistic issues that would complicate its execution. For instance, the fact that the jubilee year would come immediately after a Sabbatical year, determining that two consecutive years would go by with the land lying fallow and with no trading of its products. Too much time!

Modern researchers are divided. Most believe that it is a question of a theoretical law, admirable in its conception but impossible to exercise, based on ancient traditions we can find in the biblical text: Naboth refuses to sell his ancestral property to King Ahab (Kings I, chapter 21), and the redemption of family lands in Ruth’s story (chapter 4).

With the emergence of the Zionist Movement and the return of the Jewish people to their inheritance, the study of the laws connected to the land of Israel gained new relevance. As first Ashkenazi High Priest of the Yishuv (Jewish community) in British Palestine and one of the major exponents of Religious Zionism, Rav Kook deeply reflected upon the meaning of these laws. As a result of such exercise, he defined the jubilee year in the following terms:

A year of calm and peace, with no master or oppressor, a year of equality and stillness … The vehement desire for wealth stimulated by commerce is forgotten throughout that year and men return to their essential nature. A spirit of holiness, of dignity, impregnated the entirety of life during the Jubilee year.