[Avodah] otzar bet din

[Arie Folger]

R'n IS wrote:
> Also - I see how beit din solves the problem that the produce needs to be
> hefker and available to all. How does it solve the problem of s'fichin,
> which are assur because there is a concern that people might have planted
> them deliberately?

Reb Michael Elzuufon also asked, remarking that CI's OB is a major 'hiddush, 
what exactly the difference is between the MIshnah's OB and the CI's.

I am no expert, and only now beginning to delve into some of the more 
difficult issues in hilkhot shevi'it. It can keep one learning for years, 
BE"H.

AIUI, CI held that because Shemittah in our times is only rabbinic, therefore, 
the prohibition of sefi'him, which is equally rabbinic, doesn't apply 
nowadays. His OB therefore allows "selling" sefi'him.

In general, Rav Kook seems to have been stricter in worrying that shemittah 
nowadays is biblical, and hence needed to circumvent shemittah in order for 
the early yishuv to survive. One prominent Shemittah activist (CI's shittah) 
explained to me that in Rav Kook's days this was a real problem, as even if 
they could have found ways to survive without working the fields (debatable, 
as it isn't clear whetehr vetziviti et birkhati applies even when Shemittah 
is rabbinic. Rav Kook could have been 'hosheish for both sides), there was 
another danger: felahin and other Arabs were simply stealing land that lay 
fallow. The whole enterprise of buying land in Israel would have suffered a 
tremendous and dangerous setback during shemittah.

Hence, Rav Kook looked for a circumvention device. It helped, of course, that 
Rav Kook was of the opinion that a non-Jew can be mafqi'ah qedushat haaratz 
by buying the land, again a point that is open to debate.

CI was active a few years later, the situation had improved. especially after 
1948, and he felt that (a) it was important to keep shemittah, and (b) 
shemittah is rabbinic nowadays. Hence, CI had certain kullot that Rav Kook 
wouldn't accept. CI felt very strongly about the need to find every qulah in 
the book in order to make it likely that people will increasingly observe 
shemittah. It goes withou saying that a qulah like heter mekhirah wasn't 
applicable, as that qulah's point is to circumvent, rather than ease the 
observance of shemitah.

I am not familiar with the 'Edah's position, but it wouldn't surprise me that 
they hold by the stringencies of both the CI and Rav Kook, while they 
disagree with the political calculations of both CI and RK.

The above is NOT based on any original research, but rather on a shiur I heard 
from the abeve mentioned, anonymous shemittah activist who, by the way, 
founded a kolel for the study of mitzvot hateluyot baaretz.

KT,
-- 
Arie Folger
http://www.ariefolger.googlepages.com