THE SHMITA CONTROVERSY

If you are lucky enough to be in Israel this coming year, you will notice a few new signs displayed by the fruit and vegetable vendors in the market place. Some will notify the consumer that the vegetables were grown by non-Jews. Others will proclaim words like Heter Mechira or Otzar Bet Din.

The reason for these new proclamations (or warning), is because this year, according to the Hebrew calendar, is the sabbatical year-the Shmita.

The concept of a year of rest for the land makes its appearance in the book of Leviticus. The text informs the reader that just as one is to rest on the seventh day of the weekly cycle, so to after working the land for six years, the land is entitled to a rest.

A break from toiling the land sounds like a well deserved reward for the wonderful hard workers of the Holy Land. Yet one might ask; how are the farmers supposed to survive? For that the Torah notes;

“I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years.”-Leviticus 25:21

These extraordinary word of divine providence inspired many generations of Jews as they lived through many years of difficulty in the exile, and dreamt of a supernatural return to Israel, the land of divine intervention.

By the end of the nineteenth century the theoretical became practical. Land was being purchased by newcomers from Europe and once again, after a two thousand year hiatus, Jewish farmers were growing crops.

1889 was the first modern era Sabbatical-of-the-land were rabbinic authorities were asked how to deal with the issue. God’s promise of great yield on the year prior  to the Shmita was viewed as a reward for a nation on a high spiritual level. The farmers of that period did not see themselves achieving such standards. Thus they turned to the great rabbis of Eastern Europe for a solution for their problem; how can we cease from working the land for a whole year? They expressed in writing to the rabbis that if they indeed stop producing for a year, the few buyers of their goods will turn to others, and their loss will devastate the fragile new economy of the land.

Among the many rabbi who addressed the problem was the great sage of the period Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor of Kovno. The solution suggested was, to sell the land to a non-Jew, with the intention of buying it back after the Shmita year. By the fact that technically, the Jewish farmers did not own the land for the year, work and production could be done on the fields.

Not all rabbis were comfortable with this Legal Fiction. Consequently over the next few years some farmers relied on the Heter-Mechira (Leniency of the Sale) while others did not.

In 1909, as the land was preparing for another Shmita and its controversies, a new significant rabbi got involved in the issue. Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook -who at the time was serving as the rabbi in Yafo and eventually was chosen as the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the land- approved, and solidified, the Heter-Mechira and even encouraged farmers to sign the documents that would officially transfer the land out of Jewish hands.

At the same time the zealots of the Old Yishuv (a title given to the Jewish community of Israel that predated the later Zionist Aliyah) passionately rejected the leniency and assailed Rabbi Kook for his position.

The most vigorous attack came from Rabbi Yaakov Dovid Wilovsky.

Rabbi Wilovsky while still in Eastern Europe was recognized throughout the world as a great scholar, after he published his annotations on the Jerusalem Talmud. While visiting the United States in 1903 The Union of Orthodox Rabbis surmised that his scholarship, coupled with his fiery personality, can be used in a difficult city where rabbis failed miserably in confronting the challenges of the Americas. Thus, he was elected chief rabbi of the Russian-American congregations in Chicago.

Rabbi Wilovsky did not last long in the Windy City. He tried very hard to fight the dishonesty and corruption in the Kosher meat industry, but did not succeed. Within a year he found a new home, in the Land of Israel.

When he heard of Rabbi Kooks activities and promotion of the Heter-Mechira, an concept he did not like, Rabbi Wilovsky immediately was on the attack. In his communications he noted that historically most rabbinic authorities never approved of the “Leniency of the Sale”.  In addition he argued that even the opinion of the late great sage, Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor cannot be relied upon, since his judgment in Lithuania was based on false information on the circumstance in the Land of Israel.    

Predictably, the farmers who were attempting to work the land and produce during the Shmita year with Heter-Mechira were upset at Rabbi Wilovsky and the Old Yishuv. They claimed that their lack of appreciation for people who actually work for a living, is what guided them to their position. They alleged that the only thing the Old Yishuv is interested in, is fundraising opportunities. Another area of contention was the fact that members of the Old Yishuv were purchasing produce from arab farmers and thus, in the words of the Jewish farmers “they are supporting the ones who are afflicting us in our ancestral land”.

The debate between Rabbis Wilovsky and Kook was fierce and bitter and residual effects of the tension, can still be felt over a century later.

So as you enjoy the fruit of the promised land, be mindful of the challenges of the past that have shaped our wonderful present!