Behar 5782 ~ May 20, 2022

Our Torah reading for this Shabbat, Behar, reminds us of our responsibility to be environmentally responsible. It requires those living in the land of Israel to leave the land fallow once every seven years. Back in the time of the Torah and even the Talmud, where the society included mostly private or personal farms, that halachic requirement might not have had a major significant impact upon the economy of the country. However, in today’s world where the agriculture is mostly run by private and state-run companies, the economic impact of such a system would be crippling to the State of Israel.

For the most traditional (Haredi) in Israel and around the world, the concept of the year of Sabbatical (Shemitah) still remains in effect. Though the requirement is only for crops within the Biblical Israel, in a worldwide economy where produce does come from Israel, there are those who are mindful of the Shemitah year and check out where their produce comes from to insure that they are not purchasing fruits, vegetables, flowers, etc. that are products of Israel. We are currently in the middle of a Sabbatical year and I know this reality first hand as a member of the Costco Kosher Facebook page. Every so often a question regarding oranges from Israel crops up (pun intended). Passover foods from Israel also brought about questions.

As we learned in our Lunch and Learn session earlier this year, the rabbis both in Israel in our time as well before the establishment of the State of Israel, understood that the economic impact was much different when farming was much more than a personal or private matter. They found methods of working around it, so as not to cripple the economy. One obvious work around, that of Rav Kuk (the first Ashkenazi chief Rabbi of Israel) is no different than how we observe not having chametz on Passover. Rav Kuk’s ruling was to sell the land, for the Sabbatical year, to a non-Jew. A second was to create a legal fiction where the produce was not sold by individual farmers, but by a collective warehouse created by the rabbinate so that it was not an individual’s produce. A third was to only plant in non-Biblical Israel during the year. A fourth was to plant before Rosh Hashanah, thereby planting before the Shemitah year took effect. In many very traditional circles, a reserve fund of money was created to help those farmers who would financially be harmed by observing the year of fallow.

Rabbi David Golinkin, who is the president of the Schechter Institute in Jerusalem and the head of the Beit Din of the Masorti Movement in Israel, suggests that some of these options do not seem to be logical.  For example, “The heter mekhirah (selling the Land of Israel to a non-Jew) not only grates on the ears; it undermines everything we have built in Israel over the last 120 years. Is that why we founded the Jewish National Fund? Is that why thousands of soldiers fell defending the land’s holiness? In addition to all the halakhic problems involved in the heter mekhirah, it makes a mockery of the entire Zionist enterprise. Besides, it is also a Hillul Hashem (a desecration of God’s name) in the eyes of the secular public – in order to preserve the land’s holiness it has to be sold to non-Jews once every seven years! We should recall that it was suggested for the first time in 5648 (1887-1888) when the Jewish settlement was a very small minority, and therefore it did not trouble them sell a few moshavot (colonies) to Arabs. In 5670 (1909-1910), when Rabbi Kuk supported the heter mekhirah in his book Shabbat Ha’aretz, he stressed that it was meant for a situation in which “the overwhelming majority of the Land of Israel is in the hands of gentiles as a result of our sins” (p. 121 and also p. 60). Today, this situation no longer exists and it is likely that Rabbi Kuk himself would oppose the heter mekhirah.”

Rabbi Golinkin writes: “In the final analysis, what is the pupose of Shemitah? As it is written: “that the poor of thy people may eat” (Exodus 23:2). Today, almost no one fulfills the commandment’s purpose as it appears in the Torah. Therefore, the religious kibbutzim started a special fund a few Shemitot ago in order to donate some of the Shemitah year profits to the poor. It would be most appropriate for all Jewish farmers in Israel to donate a percentage or a fixed amount of the Shemitah year’s profits to poor people. In this way, the original purpose of Shemitah will be achieved.”  Rabbi Golinkin has some other suggestions to safeguard the concept of this specific Torah law and others. 

In many realities, it is the concept that we should be mindful of and how to preserve it, without detracting from the fiscal reality of a modern state and the needs of the poor. But equally important is to preserve the integrity of the soil itself, so that Israel can retain much of its agricultural self-sufficiency, which is one of the many reasons we should be proud of Israel. And while we may not be marching down 5^th Avenue in NYC this Sunday as part of the 400,000 or more who will attend the annual Celebrate Israel Parade, Israel, even with all its foibles, remains part of our collective pride as Jews.