[Avodah] shemitta

[Moshe Feldman]

RETurkel wrote:
<< 1. Eda Hacharedit - use exclusively nonJewish produce. They have signed
an
agreement to import a large amount of vegetables from palestinians in Gaza!
>>

Rav Matanya Ben-Shachar (rav of Neve Daniel) pointed out that as shemitta
nowadays is drabbanan, such a view avoids a drabbanan but may violate a
deoraisa of lo sa'amod al dam rei'echa (given the fact that the Gaza farmers
pay "maaser" to terrorist groups).  He also noted that such a position
undermines the mitzva of yishuv haaretz (deoraisa according to Ramban), as
Jewish farmers flounder financially and may abandon farming (and there is
less and less farming in Israel today).

<< 3. CI - Otzar Bet Din   -  vegetables are used from Jewish farmers that
abide by the
Shemitta rules and sell their produce that grows by itself to a bet din who
then
sell it to the consumer. Fruit can go directly to the consumer. In all cases
the
vegetables & fruit have "kedushat sheviit".
>>

Rav Ben-Shachar and many other rabbanim in Gush Etzion (as well as all the
DL parsha sheets that I have read dealing with the issue) all are pushing
Otzar Bet Din.  Specifically, everyone is mentioning Otzar Ha'aretz, which
is part of Machon HaTorah v'HaAretz (http://www.toraland.org.il/), which is
DL.  Does anyone know if there is an Otzar Bet Din that is charedi?

Rav Shlomo Levy (rosh kollel of Yeshivat Har Etzion) noted that according to
the Ramban (as understood by Rav Kook, which Rav Levy believes to be the
simple understanding of the Ramban), there is a mitzvah de'oraisa (when
shmitta is de'oraisa) to eat peiros shevi'is (the pasuk says "l'ochla"),
though the CI believes that according to the Ramban the mitzvah is just not
to destroy the fruit (l'ochla v'lo l'hefseid). 

<< Interestingly many charedim in Bnei Brak have given up on the "kulah" of
the
Chazon Ish and gone over to the Edah Hacharedit. One reason is not to have
to"bother" with the rules of shemitta produce.>>

According to what I wrote above, this should not be viewed as a "bother" but
a zchus to fulfill a mitzvah.  We don't normally try to put ourselves in a
position to be patur from fulfilling mitzvos.

Kol tuv,
Moshe 

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: winmail.dat
Type: application/ms-tnef
Size: 5986 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20070516/a2485361/attachment-0002.bin>