I believe I found the answer to my question - the lst Shmita in the modern State of Israel was celebrated in 1951 and the last one was in 2007 (5768) - therefore the next will be in 2014. "Jovel" is not observed in modern times because it's correct date is unknown. Hmmmmmm .... if this is not correct, I'm sure someone will graciously let me know.
When the Hawaiian Queen went to the "Jubilee" and received the gift of the gold bracelet, it was in England I believe. I'll have to check out the dates again. I'll also have to check out the background or history of the Jubilee year celebrated in England.
I would ultimately like to understand the inner meaning of the seven years X seven culminating in the 50th year of celebration. He Hawai'i Au, poh
The "Jubilee" in England was celebrating 50 years since Victoria had come to the throne (an unusually long reign).
The use of "seven" in ancient time-keeping was because it is approximately one quarter-phase of the moon, and seven quarter-phases are approximately one-seventh of the seasonal year. Actually, the "phase" week has to be sometimes seven, and sometimes eight: in the most ancient calendar of this type that we know, from king Sargon of Akkad, the special days were half-moon on the 7th of every month, full-moon on the 15th (not 14th! this week had to be long), waning half-moon on the 22nd, new moon on the 29th or 30th (whether or not to lengthen this week would change from month to month, since the cycle of phases is 29 and a half days long). A week of strictly seven days was known to Chaldean astrologers around the time of Abraham, so it was not new with Moses.
But there may have been some continued use of the variable-length "phase" week: there was an argument (recorded in the Talmud) about whether the "Sabbath of the Passover" from which seven weeks are counted until the Shavuoth (feast of Pentecost) meant the
Saturday (in the strict seven-day week) or the
full moon, and whether the seven weeks were 49 days, or seven phases of the moon. I think the "phase" week (occasionally skipping a day outside the cycle of seven) is what was meant there, although the "strict" week (seven days, and that's it) is almost always what is meant in other contexts. But a lot got forgotten during the Babylonian Captivity: the Jewish calendar now is just a slight variant of what the Babylonians did, and nobody seemed to remember how their old calendar went. It is not clear if the "week of years" you are asking about was a "strict" week (seven always; making 5768 a sabbath-year is based on that assumption, since the number 5768 divides evenly by 7) or if a year was skipped at the end of every seven weeks: that is, if the jubilee was every 49 years, or every 50. I assume it was every 50. The higher units are one
ger "sojourn" of seven jubilees (350 years) and one
'ulam "age" of fifty jubilees (2500 years).
I keep a dice-case (dice, although early adapted as gaming pieces, were originally designed as base-seven counters) in which I run my reconstruction of what I call the
Abrahamic Almanac. Follow the link to see a picture of the position on May 5: the middle and bottom rows give the long count, 2346/2066 (red dice for days, years, and sojourns; green for weeks, months, and ages; white for omers and jubilees), and the top row explicates what the last "6" is counting from. "Since Adam" (I set my zero in the spring of 4285 BC): the middle row 2346 means 2 ages (5000 years), 3 sojourns (1050 years), 4 jubilees (200 years), 6 weeks (42 years), and the bottom row 2066 adds 2 years, no omers, 6 phases, and 6 days; it was 6 days since the full moon (white marble in the upper left; green marble for waxing half, red for waning half, no marble for new) last Thursday (the red 5 in the top row) in the 2nd warm month (the green month-die is in the upper right during the warm half of the year, upper left in the cold half).
May 6, around 8 AM my time (11 AM EDT or "1500 Zulu"; the turning point depends on where I am in the world, sundown in Eden, midnight in Japan, sunrise in Polynesia, noon in Brazil) the long count turned to 2346/2100 (white die set to "1" in the current blank space, green and red dice removed).
The white "6" in the upper row is for adjustments to the normal flow ("normal" is that after one counter reaches six, it is reset to zero and the next higher counter turns). Since six is even, it is currently the even months which are lengthened to 30, taking an 8th day at two quarter-phase points (between half and full AND between half and new) instead of only one (between half and full only) as in the 29-day months: on May 13, the count will turn from 2346/2106 to 2346/2107, putting the red marble down where a die usually goes to mark "7"; only after that day is skipped do I get to 2346/2110 (removing the red marble, inserting the green die set at "1"; and in the top row, turning that red "5" to a "6" since the phase is now on Friday, and turning the green "2" to "3" as the next month will be starting). The white "6" also means that omer number "6" will take an eighth week this year (this is done every fifteen omers, to keep the lunar and solar reckonings in line).
At spring equinox 2015, the count will turn from 2346/6666 to 2346/7000, an extra year in that week of years because it is the last of a set of 49, and then in spring 2016, the count turns from 2346/7666 to 2350/0000 and this is the start of my "jubilee" year, if G-d spares me that long.
