[Avodah] shemitta

[Zev Sero]

Samuel Svarc wrote:

> I highly doubt this goes into Yishuv EY, not facilitating someone else.
> Furthermore, Yishuv EY today is not a mitzvah according to the Rambam and
> many others, so there is no problem in not facilitating someone else's
> Yishuv.

The Ramban holds that "viyshavtem bah" is itself a mitzvah, so that
someone who lives in EY and breaks every one of the other 612 mitzvot
is nevertheless doing a mitzvah merely by living there.  The Rambam
disagrees, and holds that living in EY is not itself a mitzvah in the
Torah. 

But he certainly holds that "Yishuv EY" -- that EY be settled -- is a
"mitzvah" in the looser sense, i.e. something that is not only desirable
but justifies kulot that one would not otherwise use.

For instance, suppose one wishes to buy a property, but it can only be
done on Shabbat, and the issur of amira lenochri stands in the way.
I know that in Australia for many years people permitted this, but only
if the nochri was only doing issurim derabbanan, which had been agreed
upon before Shabbat, and even then it was only bish'at had'chak, since
there was no other way to buy houses in those days.  As soon as it
became possible to buy on Sundays, people stopped buying on Shabbat,
even through a nochri.  But that's all in chu"l; in EY the halacha,
which AFAIK is unanimous, is that there is no problem, one can tell
the nochri to do anything that is necessary in order to buy the
property -- even clear melachot de'oraita -- and the reason is because
of Yishuv EY.  And I don't think this depends in any way on the dispute
between the Rambam and Ramban on whether Yishuv EY is itself one of the
613 mitzvot.  Even if it's not a mitzvah, it's important enough to
justify an exception to the issur of amira lenochri.  It doesn't seem
utterly unreasonable, then, to suggest that it may justify at least
some minor kulot in other areas, such as shmitta derabanan.

(This is not to suggest that it *must* justify *all* such kulot.  It
would be perfectly reasonable for a posek to say that this instance
of yishuv EY is so tenuous, and the issur which it is sought to relax
so strong, that it is not justified.  But one can't dismiss the very
idea of such a relaxation  by referring to the Rambam's position on
the status of yishuv EY as an independent mitzvah.)

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