The year of “Shmita” or “Shemitah” (meaning: letting go) also called the sabbatical year occurs every seventh September or October. The story behind the Shemitah is that the 7th year is the year of resting and releasing. The year also stands for debt forgiveness to break debt cycles.Then immediately it repeats the idea of Shabbat: Six days you shall do you work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor. The implication is that just as there is a rhythm to the work week whereby activity needs to be punctuated by periods of rest, so too, a parallel rhythm pertains over a seven year cycle; we need periods of rest and renewal.
Various ancient civilisations have made important decisions based on one cycle or the other. The Shemitah is also based on the principle that after every seven years of farming land should be allowed to recuperate for a year. And after every seven such cycle (49 years) it should be allowed to rest for two years. This explains the need for money at the end of cycles and selling of investments to meet the requirement. Many say that following cycles comes naturally to us as it is now in our DNA. Even if does not, knowing about them is better than being ignorant.
“The Shemitah.” Popularized by the New York Times’ best-seller “The Harbinger” and “The Mystery of The Shemitah” by Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, this cyclical phenomenon takes place every seventh September.
Shemitah, the last year of a seven-year cycle in the Jewish calendar, has several times in the past brought immense financial hardships to the world.
The first Shmita year in the modern State of Israel was 1951-52 (5712 in the Hebrew calendar).
Subsequent Shmita years have been 1958–59 (5719), 1965–66 (5726), 1972–73 (5733), 1979–80 (5740), 1986–87 (5747), 1993–94 (5754), 2000–01 (5761), 2007–08 (5768), and 2014-15 (5775)
The year 5782 on the Shemitah Cycle starts from Sept. 7, 2021–Sept. 26, 2022
Now some hard facts on how Shemitah Years have ended in recent history.
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1901-1902 Year of Shemitah – Stock market drops almost 50%.
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1916-1917 Year of Shemitah – Stock market drops 40%. United States enters WWI. Germany, Russia, Austria, Turkey and Great Britain suffer economic collapse.
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1930-1931 Year of Shemitah – The Great Depression. The worst financial crisis in modern history.
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1937-1938 Year of Shemitah – Half of the stock market collapses sparking a global recession.
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1944-1945 Year of Shemitah – End of German Reich and Britain’s hold on territories. Establishment of America as the world’s superpower. Bretton Woods Conference giving the U.S. Dollar Global Reserve Currency status; and diminishing of gold’s influence.1965-1966 Year of Shemitah (*Super Shemitah Year) – US Stock market drops almost 25%
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1972-1973 Year of Shemitah – US Stock market crashes almost 46%. Global recession; US oil crisis.
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1979-1980 Year of Shemitah – Global recession.
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1986-1987 Year of Shemitah – “Black Tuesday”; US stock market crashes by 33%.The biggest Wall Street crash of 1987
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1993-1994 Year of Shemitah – Bond market crash.
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2000-2001 Year of Shemitah – The 911 terror attack happened a day after Shemitah in 2001, September 17; stock market falls 700 points. 37% US Stock Market Crash and Global Recession. Dot Com Bust. Indian Market also carshed.
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2007-2008 Year of Shemitah – On the last day of The Shemitah Tear, September 29, the stock market drops a record 777 points. Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. 50% of US Stock Market Indian Stock Market Crashed.
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2014-2015 Year of Shemitah (*Super Shemitah Year)– Chinense Market crash by 50% Monday, Aug. 24, 2015 The S&P 500 opened at 1965.15 and within minutes fell to a low of 1867.01, a 5% decline.India Market crashed 6% in Single trading session. Greek/EU bailout
Believers say that the last few days of the Shemitah are the most painful.