Page 12 - HaMizrachi Tu BiShvat 5782 - USA

WHAT IS A activities we do every year and knew It should help us feel the approach of
PROZBUL? that we had a base salary in any event.” the final redemption.
Sometimes there are indeed farmers To experience other types of holiness,
What is a Prozbul? The Mishnah in who don’t receive that base salary Jews would traditionally leave their
Shevi’it (10:3) states that when Hillel because a part of the community has homes and go up to Jerusalem. But
realized that many people refused concerns about otzar beit din. The public during the Shemitta year, the holiness
to lend money in the time leading up needs to partner in this holy mitzvah, comes home to us! We eat the holy
to the Shemitta year because they buy otzar beit din and other domestic produce and take care not to ruin it;
were afraid that they would not get produce grown according to the rules we remember to Whom the produce
their money back, he instituted the of Shemitta and help our outstanding really belongs.
Prozbul, a document which transfers farmers. RIS: One of the most significant halachic
private loans over to the court, thereby But it’s not just farmers who can conflicts in the history of Zionism was
allowing loans to be collected after the have the Shemitta experience; also if the debate about heter mechirah. This
Shemitta year (proz = enactment; bul = there’s a garden in a private home or device circumvents the laws of Shem-
rich – an enactment for the rich so that in an apartment building’s yard. There itta by selling land to a non-Jew right
they would lend to the poor). are rules for how to garden, and you before the year begins. Even today,
need to prepare. It affects the heart there are debates about whether the
too. Inside the home, the idea of the circumstances that brought about heter
The court guarantees a salary to some sanctity of Shemitta produce comes mechirah still exist or have become even
farmers who work with otzar beit din. across. Without the Beit HaMikdash, we more pressing, or if there is no longer
Quite a few farmers have come along don’t have sacrifices, ma’aser sheni, or any justification for this leniency. What
and said, “During Shemitta, we were neta reva’i. The only holy food we have are your thoughts on heter mechirah?
much calmer. We were at home more is Shemitta produce! It’s a privilege to RYZR: Some argue that heter mechirah
because we couldn’t do many of the bring Shemitta produce into the home. be fully utilized. In contrast, others
argue there is no justification for heter
mechirah today because we have the
financial means to observe Shemitta
without it. I say it’s not black-and-
white. Reality is complex. On the one
hand, heter mechirah works; Rav Kook
did not question its validity. On the
other hand, Rav Kook said that it is
a temporary measure for when the
nation is under duress and that it is
only acceptable when the obligation
to observe Shemitta is rabbinic and not
biblical.
There are industries where there’s no
choice in the matter in practice. They
need heter mechirah, because, without
it, they would disintegrate. But it’s not
only the potential economic damage;
it’s also because the State of Israel
needs Jewish Israeli agriculture to keep
Israeli land in Jewish hands. However,
the more otzar beit din and matza’im
menutakim (detached bedding) can be
used, the better. That needs to be the
aspiration.
(PHOTO: RABBI ALEX ISRAEL)
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