Jerusalem, August 7 – Officials at Israel’s Ministry of Religious Services are worried that too many consumers will be able to avoid disturbing issues when purchasing produce during the Sabbatical year, and are working to ensure that several layers of cronyism, politics, and bureaucracy are available to thwart those who try.
Shmittah, the Sabbatical year, occurs every seventh year in the land of Israel, as Biblically mandated. Individual farmers decide whether or not to refrain from working their lands during that time, which begins for most crops this coming Rosh Hashanah (September 25 this year), and earlier for trees. However, significant consumer demand for produce that complies with the many restrictions of Shmittah effectively guarantees that all the major sources of agricultural products adhere to one standard or another of certified compliance, and the ministry sees its role as maximizing the tension and confusion surrounding that process.
By itself, the requirement that fields go unworked is not a major source of bewilderment. The confusion, says ministry spokesman Rabbi Job Zwerth, arises from the array of possible workarounds aimed at ensuring an adequate, affordable food supply. “By far the most popular route for growers and consumers alike is the legal fiction of selling the land to a non-Jew for the relevant period. According to some important authorities in Jewish law, this allows the farmer to continue working the field as before, and renders the produce permissible.”
However, he explains, anything that is good enough for the masses of Jews is never good enough for those who feel more religious, or at least want to appear so. Those segments of society demand decry legitimacy of the Heter Mechira, as it is known, and resort to a different loophole called Otzar Beit Din. Under the latter, a religious court assumes the role of attorney for the public, and its agents perform the field work and harvest the produce. Technically, the consumer pays for the labor and transportation, and not the produce itself, which under Shmittah law may not be subject to commerce. However, in practice the agents appointed by those courts are more often than not the farmers themselves, who continue to work their fields as before, just as under Heter Mechira.
Even those options are relatively clear, which poses a challenge for the Ministry of Religious Services. It is currently working with the Ministry of Agriculture to increase the political tensions associated with buying produce from Arab farmers, so that even that loophole is fraught with socially problematic implications. Another avenue of collaboration involves raising import tariffs on produce, which will add economic stress to decisions already heavy with questions of patriotism and loyalty.
“The government is always looking for ways to exacerbate tensions between different demographic groups, and Shmittah serves as an effective medium for deepening those rifts,” says former cabinet minister Devuy DenConker. “The Religious Zionists will lean towards the Heter Mechira, which causes minimal hassle for farmers and consumers, and helps maintain strong Jewish agriculture, which has always been at he heart of that enterprise. Naturally, that population will be at odds with the Haredim, whose conservative approach to Jewish law places a premium on meticulous adherence to the rules, regardless of the political circumstances.” Most of the rest of the population, says DenConker, will simply be disgusted by the ongoing bickering and shun both other groups.
The Biblical vision of Shmittah involves a letting go of ownership and giving the have-nots equal access to whatever grows in the fields. In the modern context, however, such a rosy vision could never happen, says DenConker. “That original model presupposes a central authority that actually cares about its people and their welfare, instead of cementing control and lining ts own pockets. It’s simply not relevant to today’s milieu.”
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