Q&A

Dear Rabbi,

As part of my master's thesis in law, I wanted to ask you if you could address several points:

1. In your article on heter mechirah (which I thoroughly enjoyed reading), you wrote that the situation as Rabbi Kook saw it upon his arrival in the Land of Israel was that it would be impossible for the Jewish colonies and agriculture to exist unless heter mechirah was employed—for either objective or subjective reasons. What did you mean by "objective and subjective reasons"?
2. Do you not see an ideological contradiction in selling the land to non-Jews in order to maintain the Jewish ownership of the land (including both Jewish ownership and agriculture by Jews)?
3. Isn't it possible to present the halachic solutions of the Ridbaz on the one hand, and Rabbi Kook on the other, as serving the ideologies of each? If so, would this not be the flip side of the coin – law in the service of ideology, as we refer to the legal view of the issue of shemitah (as the land belongs to JNF-KKL and the Development Authority) where it is prohibited to sell land except in specific cases, including for shemitah (Basic Law – Israel Lands)?

Is there an advantage to have membership in Otzar Ha'aretz (besides the important financial support) for the issue of transacting with shemitah produce?

Dear Rabbi,

We have a pomegranate tree, and next year it will begin its fourth year. Because next year is a shemitah year, is there something special we have to do with the fruit besides separating terumot and ma'aserot? Is there a different way to perform the separation?

I recently hooked up a gray water recycling system from my house to the garden. My garden is approximately 200 m², including 80 m² of grass, 10 fruit trees, a living fence, and annual and perennial ornamental plants. I have about 500 drip pipes that run off of the system. Every day an average of 300 L of water runs out to the garden.

Is it possible to continue using the system during the shemitah year?

Is there a problem participating in a fruit-picking tourist activity (where you pay for the harvesting experience and receive the basket of fruit that you pick) during the shemitah year?

I'm asking about the difference between the period from Rosh Hashanah of the shemitah year and Rosh Hashanah of the ma'aser year, which is 15 Shevat. The new year for shemitah is 1 Tishrei, while the new year for ma'aserot from fruit is 15 Shevat (Tu BiShevat), as ruled by Beit Hillel. While the shemitah year starts on 1 Tishrei, we are still actually in the sixth ma'aser year (with the seventh year beginning only on 15 Shevat). If so, if a fruit begins to grow before 15 Shevat, do we need to separate ma'aser ani from it, as is the rule for sixth-year produce? On the other hand, from the research I've done, according to halachah during the shemitah year every fruit that begins to develop after 1 Tishrei will have kedushat shevi'it and thus exempt from ma'aser.

Practically speaking, the same question applies every year when the ma'aser sheni year switches to ma'aser ani, and vice-versa. The "problem" stems from the fact that the shemitah year period is not the same as the ma'aser year period, so it turns out that there is always a time during the year (from 1 Tishrei to 15 Shevat) where the shemitah cycle year is ahead of the ma'aser year.

Thank you!

What does shemitah lechumrah mean? If I eat heter mechirah, could I eat shemitah lechumrah?

What are the difficulties that the institution of otzar beit din address?

Do fruits and vegetables that grow outside the Land of Israel during the shemitah year have kedushat shevi'it?

1. How should I handle heter mechirah fruits and vegetables—do they have kedushat shevi'it (What does this mean? Can I throw away a rotten vegetable to the regular garbage can?)
2. Is it mandatory to separate terumot and ma'aserot from fruits and vegetables that grew in Israel under heter mechirah?