Sefer HaChinuch ספר החינוך

The commandment of the sanctification of the Jubilee year: To sanctify the fiftieth year, like the sabbatical year — meaning to say with the stoppage of work on the land and the rendering ownerless of that which grows on it — as it is stated (Leviticus 25:10), “And you shall sanctify the fiftieth year.” And the verse explained that the matter of the sanctity is that its fruit and its produce be ownerless, and that the slaves go out from under the hand of their master. As Scripture states after that, “and you shall proclaim freedom in the land for all of its inhabitants” — meaning freedom for slaves — “Since it is the Jubilee, it shall be holy to you; from the field shall you eat its produce” (Leviticus 25:12) - meaning that the produce will be ownerless, and not that each and every one gather it into his domain.

What I wrote about the commandment of the counting of the years (Sefer HaChinukh 330) is from the roots of the commandment — that God wanted to have His nation merit in the acceptance of His Kingdom, etc., as I wrote it there, but here was its [true] place.

From the laws of the commandment is that which they, may their memory be blessed, said (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Sabbatical Year and the Jubilee 10:16-17) that everything that is forbidden from work on the land in the seventh year is [also] forbidden on the Jubilee; and everything that is permitted on [the one] is permitted on [the other]. And the liability for one who does [forbidden work] is the same in both of them. The seventh [year] is more than the Jubilee in that it releases [loans], and specifically at its end. And the Jubilee is more than the seventh [year] in that it releases land and removes slaves at [its] beginning. And the Jubilee year does not count in the tally of the years of the seven-year cycle. Rather we count forty-nine years, which are seven times seven years; and after the sabbatical year, which is in the last seven-year cycle, we make the Jubilee in the fiftieth year; and we begin to tally for [the next] Jubilee in the fifty-first year. And it is [also] the beginning of the six years of the seven-year cycle. (See Nedarim 61a.)

And this commandment is practiced in the Land of Israel at the time that all of its inhabitants (the Jews) are upon it, as I wrote above. And it is from what it appears that the Sanhedrin would gather for the sanctification of the year and recite the blessing, “to sanctify the years,” upon it and blow the shofar afterwards. And so [too,] each and every individual would blow in his domain; and the sound would be heard in all of the land. And the slaves would leave to their homes and the lands would go back to their [original] owners. And the rest of its details are in Tractate Arakhin. And one who transgresses it and worked his land [with] a forbidden work on the Jubilee — and likewise one who did not want to send away his slave [to be] free — has violated this positive commandment, besides that he violated a negative commandment, and as we will write in this Order, with God’s help (Sefer HaChinukh 333). And his punishment is very great, as he is like one who denies the creation of the world.