Shemittah Next Year 5768
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Shemittah Guide
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Shemittah Lectures
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Shmita Solutions
"Heter Mechira" instituted by great Rabbis over 100 years ago due to the extremely difficult financial situation of the small yishuv in Israel at the time and was continued by R' Kook, one of the leading rabbis in Israel about 80 years ago. This "heter" (permission) allows for only the top soil to be sold to a non-Jew, thereby all the produce is harvested from non-Jewish owned land. After Shmitta the land is sold back to its Jewish owner. Every seven years, as that year nears, debate rages concerning heter mechira, the permission to sell land as a solution to the halakhic prohibition.
Read More About Heter
Mechira
Otzar Beit Din. This is the standard partial solution that Halacha (Jewish Law) provides, in which the land becomes the property of Beit Din, a Jewish court, and Jewish farmers act as emissaries of the court, thereby they aren't working their own land. The produce can be sold by the Beit Din at cost, and in turn, the Beit Din pays the farmers for cost and not at profit. The produce still retains "Kedushat Shevi'it" -- the holiness of the Shmitta year (as opposed to "Heter Mechira")
.
Buying produce from non-Jews.
Some organizations buy produce from non Jews in Europe and other places outside of Israel. The Eida Chareidis, an ultra-Orthodox oragnization usually contracts deals with the Palestinian Authority to receive produce from Gaza.
Otzar Haaretz
plans to provide fruits and vegetables from sources such as:
1. Produce grown in greenhouses, where the soil is physically detached from the ground, thereby the produce is not "grown on the land"
2. Produce grown using "Otzar Beit Din" (see above)
3. Produce grown during the sixth year whose shelf-life has been prolonged.
4. Produce from the Arava, (regions in Southern Israel which are outside the Biblical borders of Israel, and therefore, Shmitta does not apply there)
Otzar Beit Din. This is the standard partial solution that Halacha (Jewish Law) provides, in which the land becomes the property of Beit Din, a Jewish court, and Jewish farmers act as emissaries of the court, thereby they aren't working their own land. The produce can be sold by the Beit Din at cost, and in turn, the Beit Din pays the farmers for cost and not at profit. The produce still retains "Kedushat Shevi'it" -- the holiness of the Shmitta year (as opposed to "Heter Mechira")
.
Buying produce from non-Jews.
Some organizations buy produce from non Jews in Europe and other places outside of Israel. The Eida Chareidis, an ultra-Orthodox oragnization usually contracts deals with the Palestinian Authority to receive produce from Gaza.
Otzar Haaretz
plans to provide fruits and vegetables from sources such as:
1. Produce grown in greenhouses, where the soil is physically detached from the ground, thereby the produce is not "grown on the land"
2. Produce grown using "Otzar Beit Din" (see above)
3. Produce grown during the sixth year whose shelf-life has been prolonged.
4. Produce from the Arava, (regions in Southern Israel which are outside the Biblical borders of Israel, and therefore, Shmitta does not apply there)
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The
Shemittah year of 5768