Every seventh year, Israeli farmers are faced with a sabbatical year for the
land (called Shmitta in Hebrew):
Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt
prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;
But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest
unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor
prune thy vineyard. -Lev 25:3, 4.
The farmers typically get around this burdensome requirement by "selling" the
land to a non-Jew for the year and buying it back - all under a previously
agreed contract - at the end of the year.
This is critical for many, not only to keep their land in fruits and
vegetables, but to pay their debts and prevent their losing the homes and lands
to creditors.
Sabbatical Year Begins
But this year, Rabbi Shalom Elyashiv, the country's most influential rabbi,
dug in his heels. Beginning at sunset on Rosh Hoshana (September 29) the
sabbatical year began, and this year, the Shmitta must be kept to the
letter, he said. As this generation's premier adjudicator of Jewish
religious practice, Elyashiv ruled that there would be no planting and no
harvest for an entire year, and no fictitious sales of land to
non-Jews.
This created a serious dilemma: skipping a growing season can mean defaulting
on loans and losing their farms and homes to creditors.
But defying a rabbinical ban would render their crops non-kosher, inedible to
the half of the Israeli population that keeps the dietary laws.
Rabbi Eliahu Bakshi-Doron, the Chief Rabbi of Israel, had supported the
symbolic sales, only this year he was to be overruled by the nonagenarian
Elyashiv, who holds no official office but outranks him in the unwritten
consensus world of rabbinic authorities.
And so this year, rabbinic wisdom on this issue was all over the map.
(As they say in Israel, "Where you have two Jews you have three opinions.")
Rabbi Doniel Hartman, the modern Orthodox Zionist educator, was furious; he
not only criticized Elyashiv's ruling as too strict, but was even more critical
of fellow Zionist rabbis who did not come to Bakshi-Doron's defense.
Rabbi Hartman suggested that another verse in Leviticus provides the
answer:
And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall
not sow, nor gather in our increase.
Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall
bring forth fruit for three years.
And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the
ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store.
-Lev 25:20-22
In other words, a miracle was required, Hartman suggested. Since there
are no miracles these days, he said, the strict Shmitta laws need not be
kept.
(An interesting justification for breaking the Law. Others suggest that
they never see any miracles because they take action themselves before God can
act miraculously.)
Jumping into the fray, Yosef Lapid, leader of the secular political party
Shinui, or Change, encouraged farmers to set up rabbi-free markets.
"We'll buy their produce," he pledged. Lapid said that in a modern nation,
secular citizens should not have to pay more for their food to get a rabbinical
certificate of approval they don't want anyway.
After much dissent, a compromise was finally reached that allowed the old
system to remain in place. Still, the controversy reverberates, reflecting
continuing conflicts between traditional Jewish Israelis versus secular
Israelis, and Orthodox Jews against ultra-Orthodox.
There have always been degrees of strictness in observing Jewish laws, and
the Shmitta is no exception.
Most Jews accept the centuries-old practice of circumventing the
Shmitta. But stricter ultra-Orthodox Jews do not eat fruit
or vegetables grown in the Holy Land during this year, paying more for food
grown in Gaza, Jordan or the Golan Heights, outside Biblical boundaries.
At its heart, the dispute is over dueling interpretations of another
commandment from Leviticus:
Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do,
he shall live in them: I am the LORD. -Lev 18:5
The
ultra-Orthodox, who devote their lives to studying religious tomes, do not
recognize the state of Israel and refrain from contact with the secular world.
They take this to mean that the Biblical laws must be followed literally.
Modern interpreters of the phrase emphasize the word "live," and guard
against rulings that would make it impossible for people to live by the
commandments.
"My brand of Zionism combines religion with life," Hartman said. "The
ultra-Orthodox have no connection with daily life."
Instead, he said, they took an opportunity to undermine the chief rabbinate,
associated with religious Zionism.
Rabbi Eliahu Klugman, a follower of Elyashiv, disagrees. He said
Elyashiv outlawed the fictitious sale of land on the basis of today's
reality.
"The conditions that applied 120 years ago no longer apply today," said
Klugman.
When the sham sales were first allowed, agriculture was the mainstay of the
economy, food could not be imported, poverty was widespread and untilled land
was in danger of being taken over by non-Jews. The solution then was to
bend the rules. "Israel can live without this now," said Klugman.
There are some who see other solutions.
Technological Alternatives?
At his institute for the study of the commandments of the Holy Land, Rabbi
Shneour Revach has developed ways to grow fruit and vegetables without breaking
the Shmitta laws and without selling the land.
Revach persuaded some farmers to prune their grapevines before the start of
the Shmitta. Usually farmers wait until the winter.
Deftly handling a pruned vine, he said his experiments showed that there is
almost no financial risk from early pruning.
Revach wants the laws to be followed, "but not by coercion. That makes
religion hateful."
* * *
[This article was largely excerpted from an article by Mark Lavie,
Associated Press Writer, in Religion Today, September 28,
2000.]
