Kol Yemei HaShama Tishbot – The Accounting of Shemitah and Exile
1. Introduction to the Parsha and the Teukokha
This week, on Tuesday, we read Parshas Bechukoy, which contains the Teukokha—the section of rebuke. It’s a very long parsha, and many of the words are unfamiliar, so there is a lot of commentary from Rashi to help us understand. By the time you reach the end of the parsha, after working through all its details, you encounter a sizable Rashi that goes through an intricate calculation related to the exile and Shemitah years.
2. The Connection Between Exile and Shemitah
The Torah states that the time when the Jewish people are not in Eretz Yisroel—because they have been sent into exile—corresponds to and compensates for all those years when they were in Eretz Yisroel but did not observe the Shemitah—sabbatical year—and Yoyvel—Jubilee year. This is rooted in what we learned at the beginning of Parshas Bahar: every seventh year is a Shemitah year, and after seven cycles (49 years), the 50th year is Yoyvel.
3. Rashi’s Calculation: Shemitah and Yoyvel in 100 Years
Rashi explains that within every 100-year period, there are 16 years during which work should not be done due to Shemitah and Yoyvel. Here’s how it works: in 49 years, there are seven cycles of seven years each, so there are seven Shemitah years plus one Yoyvel year (the 50th). That makes eight such years per 50-year cycle. In 100 years (two cycles), that totals 16 years.
4. The Years of Neglecting Shemitah
Rashi further calculates that while the Jews were in Eretz Yisroel for a total of 850 years (from entering until the destruction of the first Beis HaMikdash), they neglected to observe Shemitah for 436 of those years—just over half their time in the land! If you multiply those 436 years by the ratio above (16 per 100), you get a total number of missed sabbatical or jubilee years.
5. Arriving at Seventy Missed Years
If you break it down: for every 400 years, there are 64 missed sabbatical or jubilee years (since 16 per hundred times four is 64). For the remaining 36 years (436 minus 400), you add another five missed years, totaling 69. There was also one more year added because Hashem, in His mercy, counted an additional incomplete cycle as if it had not been observed either. This brings us to a total of seventy missed Shemitahs or Yoyvels.
6. The Seventy Years of Exile as Compensation
The seventy-year exile following the destruction of the first Beis HaMikdash was therefore precisely to compensate for these seventy neglected sabbatical and jubilee years. This is explicit in Divrei HaYamim—Chronicles—which states that these seventy years were required so that “the land could rest” for all its missed sabbaticals. Rashi brings this at the end as well: those seventy years correspond directly to what was owed.
7. Closing Thoughts on Rashi’s Commentary
There is much more depth in Rashi’s commentary on this topic, but this overview captures his main calculation regarding why specifically seventy years of exile were decreed after Churban Bayis Rishon until Bayis Sheini was rebuilt—to make up for seventy missed Shemitahs. For further detail, one can look into Rashi inside at the end of Parshas Bechukoy.