Israel can keep the Shmita year in all new ways

The modern state of Israel presents Jews with unlimited opportunities of practicing their religious and cultural way of life, in the land where the Jewish journey began. The upcoming shmita (sabbatical) year, starting this Rosh Hashanah, is one such example.

The shmita is the seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle in Israel, during which is the land is left to lie fallow and agricultural activity is forbidden. Religious Israeli farmers and households need to change the way they work with and consume the vegetables and fruit of the shmita year.

However, thanks to the Israeli innovation and technology – initiated by institutions such as Torah VeHa’aretz and Tzomet – the religious community in Israel will be able to keep the letter and spirit of laws of shmita, in a way they were unable to in the past.

Rabbi Alex Israel, a popular teacher and writer in Jerusalem, tells The Jerusalem Report: “Shmita is a social and spiritual enterprise from which our society could learn much: In releasing the crops of our field to others, it curbs materialistic tendencies. In relaxing the human grip on food production, it tempers human hubris.

“In forgiving loans, it affords a fresh start to people in financial distress. In many of its laws, it contributes to the lowering of gaps between rich and poor. It reminds us of ecological concerns – that land needs to rest and be replenished – and religious ideals such as reliance on the Almighty.

Israel continues, “Personally, I am frustrated by shmita. Its ideal form offers transformative social and religious action. But today, it is nigh impossible to implement. So we are left to learn from the conceptual framework, but most people receive little of its experiential impact.

“As a gardener, I feel very strongly during this year, that the land is God’s, not mine. I cannot even dig or plant in my own garden. Ultimately, I am not the owner or master of my land. God is. That is quite a humbling reality,” concludes Israel.

Shmita also needs to be observed outside of Israel as Rabbi Daniel Roselaar, leader of the Alei Tzion community in London tells the Report: “Keeping shmita in the diaspora is complex – but for different reasons as to how it is complex in Israel. In part, there is – or at least there should be – a sense that we are side lined from a mitzvah that the whole of Israel is participating in.

“But there are also practical challenges. On the one hand, it is certainly easy to reject the heter mechirah (when the land is sold to a non-Jew to avoid transgressing the complex shmita laws) as not being necessary for us and we certainly won’t be lacking any fruits or vegetables during the course of the year. But on the other hand, we also have to grapple with the ideological questions about declining to buy Israeli produce.

Shmita also effects our relationships with our neighbors and those around us. Those who live in apartments who share their garden area should meet with their neighbors and ensure the laws are kept. We should give charity to those farmers and organizations who are making an effort to maintain all the laws of the shmita year – they need our support.

Rabbi Alan Haber, a teacher and writer on shmita from the Gush Etzion says, “We should make an effort to purchase fruit and vegetables and drink wine with kedushat shviit (holy produce of the 7th year). We live in Israel and it’s a real privilege to be able to consume kedushat shviit in the shmita year.

“We shouldn’t see all the laws of the shmita year as a burden and worry; rather a privilege – it’s the only mitzvah (commandment) in the Torah relating to agriculture that we can keep on a biblical level – let’s therefore embrace it!” says Haber.

Families in Israel are preparing for the shmita year with enthusiasm and excitement. Jonathan Gruenhut, originally from New York and living with his family in Jerusalem says, “In our family, we’re preparing by teaching our children the various laws and ideas.”

Gruenhut continues, “We also signed up for Otzar Ha’aretz (when the bet din takes ownership of the produce and distributes it). We prepaid for each month of shmita, and we’ll get coupons to buy produce sourced from farmers who keep Jewish laws. At home we rely on the heter mechira as well, but it’s important to us to support local halachic agriculture, especially as so many Jews in Jerusalem will prefer to buy imports.”

Beyond families and households, how are farmers themselves preparing for the upcoming shmita year?

The Report spoke with Rabbi Moshe Bloom from the “Torah VeHa’aretz Institute,” the main religious-Zionist organization in Israel advising and deciding on issues pertaining to the shmita year, about various solutions and innovations they have helped farmers with.

Bloom says that those farmers who use the otzar beit din approach are preparing to sow huge amounts of vegetables in Elul. In this way, during the first few months of shmita they will have vegetables with kedushat shviit.

Bloom explains that even farmers who rely on heter mechirah, and need to sow during the shmita year, make efforts to perform as many agricultural activities as possible prior to shmita. For instance, they plow before the shmita year begins.

This year, Bloom says, farmers are preparing to extend the tomato growing season so in February, and perhaps even March, there will be tomatoes with kedushat shviit available that were planted before Rosh Hashanah.

Bloom explains that advanced technology facilitates store a greater variety of fruits and vegetables for longer periods. Vegetables that grew during the sixth year, which are stored in special refrigerators for several months, are released to the market throughout the shmita year. Today this technique is employed for apples, carrots, potatoes, and more.

Bloom goes on to explain that they have discovered a method to store cabbage heads for three months in a special refrigerator.

“One of the major companies in Israel that sells insect-free leafy vegetables, performed a comprehensive study the check medium-term storage methods for cabbage, in conjunction with the Torah VeHa’aretz Institute.

“One of the agronomists was sent to Europe to examine cabbage storage methods so we could apply the method for the first time in Israel. The goal is to raise cabbage during seasons when it easier to grow, especially in seasons when they are lower levels of infestation, obviating the need to spray them heavily with unhealthy chemicals. To this end, we had to find cabbage varieties fit for storage, build special refrigerators and sophisticated technological systems.

After this method was found several years ago, it will also be used for the shmita year: large quantities of cabbage will be planted before shmita. When harvested, some will be sold and some stored for three to four months,” explains Bloom.

For sweet potatoes, too, Bloom says, the Torah VeHa’aretz Institute is testing various varieties that can be stored long-term. They test natural substances to facilitate storing potatoes for an entire year.

When it comes to vine pruning machinery, Bloom tells the Report that for many years, the Israeli wine growing industry used the batzoret, a machine that harvests the wine grapes. Recently, many vine growers have begun to use machinery to prune, which is much more gentle and precise.

Today, Bloom describes, two machines are used: one performs pre-pruning, imprecisely trimming parts of the vine at higher areas than regular pruning. Afterwards, another machine with an electronic eye cuts the vine at more precise points. Last, workers come and prune even more precisely. In terms of shmita laws, it is preferable for pruning to be performed mechanically as opposed to manually.

Bloom goes on to say that shmita laws do not apply to plants growing in unperforated planters with a maximum volume of 330 L, growing indoors.

Nurseries bring all of their saplings into special hothouses with non-porous nylon sheets on the ground, under close rabbinic supervision so they can continue to provide saplings while observing shmita laws.

Over the past months, the Torah VeHa’aretz institute’s agronomist, Dr. Motti Shomron, met with decision makers in charge of public gardening in dozens of municipalities: cities and in local and regional authorities to explain how to properly observe the shmita year.

In principle, Bloom says, public gardens should move from annuals to perennials, perform all of the seasonal treatments on trees and plants prior to shmita. During shmita, it is permissible to preserve and maintain existing plants.

Sowing is generally performed in early winter, and is forbidden during shmita, explains Bloom. There are farmers who sow triticale (a hybrid of wheat and rye used for animal fodder) early, before Rosh Hashanah. The concern is that if the grain sprouts too early and there is a dry spell, the sprout will die.

For this reason, farmers sow the seeds deeper than usual, add more seeds per hectare, and avoid watering them after sowing. In this way, the seeds will only sprout after the early rains of the year.

Finally, Rabbi Bloom tells the Report that etrogim for Sukkot are harvested before shmita to avoid performing forbidden work on them during the shmita year.

Another organization in Israel which provides technological support for farmers keeping the shmita laws Tzomet developed a device called the “shemiton.” This facilitates sowing with a gerama (indirectly) during the shmita year, which is permitted.

While the shmita year presents Israeli farmers and households with many challenges, at the same time, it also reflects the uniqueness of the Land of Israel and the special relationship the Jewish people have with it. Certainly, the technology and innovation by institutions like Torah Ve’Haaretz and Tzomet made the shmita year much easier to keep than in the past.