[Avodah] A shemitta miracle story

[Moshe Feldman]

On Dec 1, 2007 3:36 PM, SBA <sba at sba2.com> wrote:
> Keeping shemitta - vetzivisi es birchosi.
> http://tinyurl.com/38xonr

This article is about how Mevo Choron has seen bracha in the 6th year
because of its decision not to farm the land at all during Shmitta.
However, http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3441757,00.html notes
that during a past Shmitta, Mevo Choron went into great debt because
of its decision to keep shmitta.

As to the applicability of v'tzivisi es birchasi: Hashem's promises
apply to the commandments *He* actually gave us, i.e., when Shmitta is
required by the Torah.  Hashem made us no promises with regard to
rabbinic enactments (even if they are patterned on the Torah rules),
and therefore He made us no promises with regard to Shmitta nowadays,
which is m'drabbanan.  This point is made by a number of achronim,
such as those quoted by Rav Shaul Yisraeli in
http://www.toraland.org.il/web/project/katava1.asp?codeClient=1555&CodeSubWeb=0&id=56001&projId=13663
(section 4).

The following comes from the Shmitta list:
<<Yevamos 16a says that Chazal deliberately left areas of the Eretz
Yisrael from Kdusha Shniya so that poor people could go there to work
the land for money or to collect leket shikcha v'peya (Rashi DH
ukedusha rishona). In doing so they specifically left areas out of
Kedusha Shniya that had had Kedusha Rishona before Galus Bavel. They
also reduced the scope of the Mitzva of Shevi'is as a result. They
didn't say simply that Hashem would provide, and they didn't even say
that poor people could survive through food from hefker crops, they
reduced the Kedushas Ha'aretz to maintain Aniyei Yisrael.>>

Of course, it is still possible for Hashem to bless Mevo Choron based
on their actions.  But the point is that there is no *guaranteed*
bracha, and if so, poskim must take this into account when formulating
psak for all of Klal Yisrael.

Kol tuv,
Moshe