[Avodah] purchasing shmitta produce

[Zev Sero]

T613K at aol.com wrote:
> This kashrus alert came in a  kashrut.com email:

>> may be eaten, but cannot be purchased with cash unless other non 
>> Shemitta items are purchased together with them. They may be purchased 
>> with credit cards.

> Can somebody please explain what is the problem with paying cash and why 
> using a credit card is OK?

AIUI, if you sell peirot shevi'it, the money you receive is also kadosh,
and must be spent only on food which must be eaten in its normal fashion,
not wasted, etc, just like the fruit you sold.  If the seller is a Jew
and not observant, and therefore is not likely to spend the money in an
approved fashion, then by buying from him you are being machshil him.

One way to get around this restriction is to combine the money for peirot
shevi'it with money for other purchases, just as we do with sechar shabbat.
When a babysitter works on Shabbat, you don't pay her just for those hours
on their own; instead you make sure she does some non-Shabbat work as well,
and pay for everything together, so that she is not taking sechar shabbat.
Here too, the combined amount is not ma'ot shevi'it, even though the
purchase included peirot shevi'it.

And of course if you pay by credit card then in all likelihood the
merchant will never actually get any physical money from the bank at all,
and even if he does it will represent the net sum of many purchases and
expenses over the course of a long time, and not be at all traceable to
your pomegranate.

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas