Our Gemara on Amud Aleph discusses the dispute between Rabbi Yehuda and the Rabbis about if the Yovel Year is part of the next Shemitta Cycle (year one of seven). The rabbis hold that the Yovel year, in a certain sense, is outside of the counting. It is the 50th year but not part of the new cycle. 

The Maharal notes in Nesiv HaTorah (1) that there are three mitzvos that have a man made sanctification: (1) Terumos and Maasros (2) Hafrashas Challah from the dough (3) The Yovel Year. All of these require a declaration of sanctification.

The Gemara (Kiddushin 40b) records a dispute amongst the sages over what is considered greater, study of Torah or mitzvah performance. Rabbi Yosi brings a cryptic proof. He says Torah study is greater than deeds because the Torah preceeded the mitzvah of challah by 40 years, Terumos and Maasros 54 years, and Yovel by 103 years. (The Jews were obligated in challah immediately upon entry to Israel, hence 40 years from the giving of the Torah. Terumos and Maasros only became an obligation after the conquest and division of the land, 14 years later. And, they only started the 50 year Yovel cycle after the conquest, with Yovel at the beginning of the year, hence 54+49=103.) But what was Rabbi Yosi really saying?

Maharal explains that that in a global sense, Rabbi Yosi is alluding to the eternality of the ideas of the Torah, and they precede performance specific and condition specific commandments. But more deeply, Rabbi Yosi is pointing to the idea that even though certain mitzvos contain allusions to eternal and universal truths, they still are subject to time and conditions unlike the pure essence of Torah. The sanctification of Challah dough, which is mixture, represents the lowest realm of existence, the physical world which is made of compounds like the dough is a mixture of flour and water. The sanctification of Terumos and Maasros represents the sanctification of the spiritual angelic realm which is non-compound but is still some kind of ethereal substance. Yovel, which is beyond time (as we see in our Gemara) represents a sanctification that is the highest level of existence and outside of time.

Rabbi Yosi was saying that even these three mitzvos, which represent in gradient fashion, release and elevation beyond the mere physical, cannot come close to the Torah, which represents a universal timeless truth beyond any particular ritual or observance which still is subject to physical terms and conditions.

 

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation cool

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