Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef on the Heter Mechirah

The Shmittah year is coming up and with it the usual controversy about the use of the heter mechirah. Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef's opinion is well known. However it is interesting to hear it from his mouth.

Holy Grape Juice

7 Tishrei, 5769

The shmittah year may be over, but here in the land of Israel we are still eating holy shmittah fruits.

Last week I received two boxes of holy shmittah grape juice, each one containing twelve one-liter bottles. The box comes with a sheet with instructions concerning the special holy grape juice. For instance, it is forbidden to take the juice outside of the holy land of Israel. It is also forbidden to waste this juice, so you can't overfill your kiddush or havdalah cup until it runs over. There is a lot of other things to know but this is just a blog post, not a shmittah guide!




Here's a pic of two bottles with my kiddush cup and a figurine of a Jew learning Torah:


Why in the world did I put a figurine of a Jew learning Torah you ask? Perhaps the Jew is a farmer who is taking advantage of the Shmittah year to learn more. Perhaps he is learning the different laws concerning the holy shmittah grape juice. Perhaps I like figurines of Jews learning Torah. Whatever.

Some Links For You

French Priest Keeps Shoah Memory Alive

Cardinal Requests Censorship of the Talmud

HH #135

Shmittah Calendar: Month of Cheshvan 5768

A Worthy Cause

Shmittah Update

We finally received the vouchers from Otzar HaAretz. Things are a bit confusing, since there are some vegetables that were harvested during the sixth year and do not have kedushat shvi'it (like potatoes) and there are others that were harvested during the shmittah year (like tomatoes). In spite of the confusion, we are doing our best to keep the laws of shmittah. Here is our special repository for peels/leftovers of shmittah produce, which is called a pach shmittah:

I Signed Up For Otzar Ha'Aretz. What About You?

Jameel had a great post about Otzar Ha'aretz not too long ago. I signed up and they sent me this nice book about the laws of Shmitah. It's been seven years since the last agricultural sabbatical year, and I know that I have to refresh my knowledge of the laws of Shmittah.

More On The Upcoming Shmittah

The "Public Treasury" Solution for Shemittah

Shmitah Series On Arutz 7

As the seventh year of the shmitah cycle approaches the problem of keeping shmitah, whether one is a farmer or whether one is a consumer, will certainly occupy the public. Arutz 7 is starting a series on the subject. Read the first article in the series, Upcoming Shemittah Year Generates Search for New Approaches.

Shmittah Is Coming!

Next year will be the seventh year in the shmittah cycle. Arutz 7 has an article about how the Rabbinate is preparing for Shmittah. Here's a peek:

Following a special session of the Chief Rabbinate Council on the topic, the Rabbinate decided to make "great efforts to reduce the reliance on the dispensation to a minimum."

Every seventh year, the Land of Israel must lie fallow, forbidden to be worked to produce its fruits. The year is known as Shemittah, from the root meaning to "drop" or "abandon." In the Shemittah of 1889, rabbis of the Land of Israel agreed to temporarily sell parts of the Land to non-Jews, so that certain agricultural activities could be carried out. As the national economy grew and the potential losses - including the very destruction of the fledgling Jewish community - became more threatening, the dispensation became more widespread and institutionalized.

The dispensation, called the heter mechirah, was never universally accepted, and continues to be a matter of controversy even now. Among the scholars who accepted it were Rabbis Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor, Avraham I. Kook, Tzvi Pesach Frank, Yechiel Michel Tukachinsky and Shlomo Yosef Zevin, while Rabbis Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin, Yechiel Michel Epstein and the Chazon Ish opposed it. Among living rabbis, Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef supports it, explaining that Shemittah applies nowadays only by Rabbinic dictum, while Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv opposes it.