[Avodah] planting during shmitta permitted

[Dov Bloom]

Since R Yosef is one of the 2 chairs of the Shmitta C'tte that organized the heter mechira, and it fits that he allowed planting only by a goy even on sold-by-heter-mechira plots. 

The original heter mechira in 5649, promulgated by a Beit Din of 3 and aggreed to by R Yitzhok Elchonon, prefered the melachot d'orita (zeria, zmira, ketzira, betzira plus plowing) to be done by a goy even after the mechira unless the farmer was poor and couldn't hire goyim.  This point was a matter of dispute, where R Shmuel Mohliver, one of the 3 in the BD was explicit  that there was no problem doing these melachot d'oraita after the heter and wrote a long tshuva about that. At least one of the others on the BD seemed to prefer not, and that was the formulation. 

So R Yosef (not ROY but his son, Avraham, Chief Rabbi of Holon ) was following in a well trodden path if he stipulated that the planting should be done by nochrim even on sold-to-a-goy plots.