Question:neemar shehayu bodkim oto besheva chakirot :
1) beizo shavua
2) beizo shana
3) beizo chodesh veculo....
keshe haeed one labeit din shdavar ploni kara beshana 5758 haim haed
lo ana al yede ze al shenei hasheelot beizo shavua ubeio shana??
techalek 5758 veteda beizo shavua ubeezo shana.
lama lanu lishol shetei hasheelot???
toda raba merosh
albert battat
sao paulo brazil.
(TRANSLATION: The Gemara says that the Beis Din would interrogate the witnesses with seven "Chakirot":
1) in which Shemitah cycle the event occurred,
2) in which year it occurred,
3) in which month it occurred, etc.
When the witness answers Beis Din that the event occurred, for example, in the year 5758, has the witness not answered the first question, but only the second? As long as he knows the year, he also knows what Shemitah cycle the event occurred in (he can simply divide the year by the Yovel cycle and then divide that by seven to get which Shemitah cycle that year is). Why, then, does Beis Din ask both these questions?
Interesting question. However, we find in RASHI (Sanhedrin 40a) that the question "which year did the event occur" does not refer to the year from Creation (e.g. 5758), but rather it refers to the year of the Shemitah cycle (that is, is it the first, second, third, ... or seventh year of the cycle). The first question, "which Shemitah cycle did the event occur," refers to the first, second,... or seventh Shemitah series of the Yovel cycle. Thus, he does not have to know the year from Creation in which the event took place, and thus he has no external way of knowing what Shemitah cycle the event occurred in.
Besides, it is not so simple to calculate the Shemitah cycle by dividing the years since Creation, since the Yovel cycles are not counted beginning from the time of Creation, but from the time that Eretz Yisrael was settled.
Translation: She'eilah me'anyenet. Aval k'sh'ne'ayan ba'davar, nir'eh sh'iy efshar l'da'at et ha'teshuvah ha'rishonah mi'toch ha'teshuvah ha'sheniyah. RASHI (Sanherdin 40a) mefaresh she'ha'she'eilah "b'eizo shana" mechaven l'eizo shana shel ha'shemitah (hayinu, shana 1,2,3,4,5,6, oh 7), v'lo eizo shana mi'Ma'aseh Bereishit (5758). Ha'ed lo tzarich la'da'at et ha'shana (5758). v'Im ken, efshar she'lo yeda et shenat ha'shemitah v'gam lo yeda eizo Shemitah shel oto Yovel (ha'she'eilah ha'rishonah).
B'vrachah,
Yisrael Shaw