[Avodah] A Majority of World Jewry In Eretz Yisroel

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, June 13, 2008 4:01 pm, Zev Sero wrote:
: RallisW at aol.com wrote:
:> What halochos go into effect, once it has been proven that a
:> majority of
:> World Jewry reside in Eretz Yisroel? How long do you think it will
:> still
:> be before it's a reality?

: Don't you need each shevet on its own land?  Since almost nobody knows
: their shevet (and for this purpose Levi literally doesn't count), this
: doesn't seem possible.

See R' Jacob Farkus's post at
<http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol17/v17n033.shtml#05> where he
corrected me on the very same point WRT yoveil and shemittah. After
all, yoveil deOraisa ended when 2-1/2 shevatim were exiled from Eiver
haYadein, and that was certainly more than 1/2 remaining in Israel!
Tosafos entertains the possibility that perhaps only representatives
of each sheivet need to be on their own land, and therefore there was
yoveil during bayis sheini (and that Raba was suggesting Hillel's
pruzbul applied even though shemittah was at the time deOraisa).

However, that's kol yosheveha aleha. For challah, there is a
requirement of "bevi'as kol ha'aretz -- bevi'as kulkhem". There, a
majority may be sufficient to create the chiyuv deOraisa. So we still
may have issues of terumah and maaser deOraisa as well. RJF's post
doesn't discuss whether or not it's just challah, and I didn't yet
have time to check his sources. I just wanted to point people to them
before Shabbos.

SheTir'u baTov!
-micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "Man wants to achieve greatness overnight,
micha at aishdas.org        and he wants to sleep well that night too."
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