Land of Israel

Dear Rabbi Yehuda Halevi Amichai,

I read with great interest the detailed explanation published on this site regarding the issue of “cutting down fruit trees for the sake of a mitzvah.”

I am a civil engineer specializing in transportation, and as part of my training, I work as a traffic planner on various projects across the country.

Many projects involve designing new roads, which often leads to the need to cut down or relocate trees, including fruit trees.

The clients are usually the Ministry of Transportation, Netivei Israel, Netivei Ayalon, local municipalities, or private developers (for residential projects).

When we plan a new road, we as traffic planners don't necessarily have information about which trees — and whether they are fruit trees or not — are located along the road's path.

During the project, an agronomist typically joins and classifies the trees according to their importance. Based on this, decisions are made about which trees will be cut down, which will be relocated, and in rare cases, which trees should be preserved even if they interfere with the road layout.

In smaller projects, an agronomist is not always involved, and sometimes the decision to cut down the trees is made within the project team (of course, after obtaining the necessary permits).

My question is: What is my level of responsibility as a traffic planner regarding this issue?

After all, it is my job to design the road in the best possible way (usually the utility of the road outweighs the importance of preserving the trees).

Of course, we make every effort to preserve existing trees, but in many cases, tree cutting or relocation is necessary — and sometimes these are not national infrastructure projects but smaller ones serving different needs over the years.

It's also important to note that I have no way of knowing whether the tree cutting is done by a non-Jew or a Jew.

I would greatly appreciate a response on this matter, as it concerns me due to my frequent involvement in such issues.

Thank you very much.

I want to build a storage area in my yard, but there's an avocado tree currently standing in the area where I want to build it. Am I allowed to uproot the avocado tree?

Near Mitzpeh Ramon, there is a vineyard with table grapes. Should one conclude me'ein shalosh by saying al haeitz ve'al peiroteha or al haeitz ve'al hapeirot?

Our rimon tree is about 5-6 years old. It's never really given its edible fruit. We're considering getting another non-fruit tree in its place. Are we allowed to uproot the rimon?

I live in the Jerusalem area and have a garden. I would like to start a vegetable patch and also plant some fruit trees. Could you please tell me about the halachic issues I have to take into account?

If someone has a tree or a few trees in their yard, do they need to leave the matanot aniyim (gifts for the poor) on the trees and hang up a sign outside? Or should the home owner harvest some of the fruits and give them out, or their value, to poor people? While there might be poor people in the neighborhood, they may not know the halacha and they might not come at all. Does this exempt one of the obligation to give these gifts in the first place?

How and in what way do we perform the mitzvot of giving the poor leket, shichechah, and pe’ah today?

Since this year, many farmers were hit hard during the war and especially since most of their foreign workers fled, will it be permissible this year to work in agriculture during chol hamo'ed?

I have two questions that relate to uprooting fruit trees:

1. We have a grapefruit tree that yields sour grapefruit, so we don’t fertilize or water the tree. Since we don’t like the fruit, the grapefruits are left on the tree until they fall on their own. The result is that our yard is littered with dozens of rotten, foul-smelling fruit that attract insects. In light of this, would it be permitted to cut down the tree?
2. In our yard there is an area of 4x4 m that is much higher than the ground level in the rest of the yard, so we can’t use it as part of our yard and we would like to level it. In the middle of this area there is a fruit tree. If we leave the tree in place, we would need to install a cement wall around it to secure the soil underneath that tree. Furthermore, should we leave the tree in place it will make it more difficult to level the ground and make the leveling process much more expensive. Would it then be permissible to uproot the tree to avoid the expenses involved in keeping the tree in place?

Is taking challah considered a mitzva tied to the Land of Israel? Is there a list of such mitzvot? Can you give me several examples?