[Avodah] Shmittah

[Arie Folger]

> Zev Sero writes (in Areivim) about the heter mechirah: "And one test [as to
> whether it was a real sale] is how the sellers would react if at the end of
> the year the Arab showed up with a bank cheque for 71.5 billion shekel,
> drawn on the central bank of Saudi Arabia, and refused to sell the land
> back." While this sounds reasonable as a test, is there any source that
> says that this is a test to determine if a sale is real or a sham according
> to halacha?

I would like to share the following story with the chevrah: the ancestor of 
one of our members had a mill. Before Pessach, he sold the mill cheaply to a 
non Jew. Obviously, he didn't yet know about only selling the chametz in it, 
and so he sold it (R'nTK, watch how I learn) lock, stock and barrel. After 
Pessach, the non-Jewish buyer refused to sell it back. The poor man, 
destitute, bereft of his livelihood, could not take the pain and committed 
suicide.

While he didn't have to sell the hardware, clearly that sale was a real sale. 
That story, however, should illustrate one aspect of a real sale, that the 
price is realistic. Selling the land without the slightest appraisal, for a 
peruttah, seems like an asmachta. I hope and expect that the Chief Rabbinate 
of Israel conducts at least some crude appraisal.
-- 
Arie Folger
http://www.ariefolger.googlepages.com