[Avodah] etrogim and shmitta

[Eli Turkel]

On Mon, Oct 13, 2008 at 8:02 PM, M Cohen <mcohen at touchlogic.com> wrote:
> I guess I should feel sorry for the poor estrog merchants
>
> ie .. if prices this year when no profits can be made and only the
> most basic expenses covered, still the prices are the same as other years,
> they obviously must be making almost zero money (over basic expenses) even
> in other years

In theory the merchants get paid for their time and nothing else.
All year long it is a mystery why otzar bet din products are not cheaper
than the competition.

Just to clarify my previous post. Our local rabbi already mentioned in
his shabbat derasha that he didn't understand how they could sell different
levels of closed etrogim boxes at different prices. According to the radio
on sunday morning someone went to R. Elyashiv on sunday morning and
asked the same question. His answer was that it was completely prohibited
and one should limit the purchase of etrogim to the minimum feasible.
To the best of my knowledge this was a private psak. However, by sunday
night it was already on the religious radio. Of course by then almost everyone
had already bought their etrogim,


-- 
Eli Turkel