When I first moved to Israel in 1984, I had my heart set on living in the mystical city of Tzfat. I had learned that apartments were available for very reasonable prices in a new development. When I went to visit the complex, I was asked to sign a contract which was primarily intended to insure the religious nature and standards of that particular community, which had built these apartments. Prominent among the conditions was a clause that read: "During Shemittah, I will only purchase non-Jewish fruit and vegetables". The fact was, I had not yet decided on how I would observe Shemittah. I needed to study the sources and opinions. I refused to sign. That decision changed the course of my life. I and my family wound up in the settlements, where the politics and pressures broke our spirits, until we left the country seventeen years later.
Why would anyone boycott Jewish agriculture? I later learned that there are many who regard both the Heter Mechirah and the Otzar Beit Din as unacceptable legal fictions. Until the late nineteenth century, there had been virtually no Jewish farming in Eretz Yisrael, and non-Jewish produce was the norm. As to the argument that it would be impossible to maintain a Jewish State without farming one year in seven, they would counter with: "That is well and good if you consider Shemittah as rabbinic law, and even more so if you consider it custom. However, if you consider it Biblical even in this age, ideology would be no excuse. Tampering with a Biblical law requires an actual life-and-death situation. Put your politics aside, and obey the commandments of G-d".
Those opposed to this policy counter that besides the issue of ideology, there are real problems with this approach. At one time, everything sold in the non-Jewish market was grown by non-Jews. Today, although there is much farming done by non-Jews, much of what is sold in those markets is, in fact, through Tenuvah, Israel's main marketing cooperative. Hence, a large proportion of these fruits and vegetables are actually Jewish grown. On top of this, when Tenuvah knows that fruit is "orlah" (literally, "uncircumcised". That is, fruit grown during the first three years of a tree's life, or the first three years after transplanting a tree. Such fruit is forbidden by the Torah to be consumed), it is diverted to non-Jewish markets. Therefore, those buying supposedly non-Jewish produce, a significant proportion of what they are buying is, in fact, not only Jewish produce, but often intrinsically forbidden produce! Those who do accept this practice argue that since most produce sold in non-Jewish markets is non-Jewish produce, I can make the assumption that I have bought non-Jewish fruit and vegetables. Opponents consider this more of a legal fiction than Heter Mechirah or Otzar Beit Din.
One more common method of dealing with Shemittah remains. It deals with the politically, as well as religiously, hot topic of where are the borders of Eretz Yisrael. That will be my next post.