The Seventh Year:
What to do?
Every seventh year the farmland in Israel is
supposed to be given a rest. As we approach another of these,
what is being done in Israel and how should or could a modern state
accommodate this biblical suggestion?
What we find in Israel right now are a large
number of Jewish farmers wondering how they would make a living if the
law were nationally observed. Many are not observant and would be
totally unconcerned except that their sales would suffer due to the food
supervision put in place and guarded by the orthodox. Many other
farmers are no doubt sympathetic to the Torah’s instructions but must
still feed their families from some kind of land-related productive
activity, which is where their interests and skills lie.
How do the orthodox authorities respond to this
dilemma? We are hearing that a group of rebellious rabbis want to
approve the shameful procedure of “selling” your land to non-Jews for
the seventh year and “buying it back” afterwards. That way, while the
Jewish farmers are not the owners of the land they wouldn’t be
obligated by the rest requirement. The orthodox establishment, to its
credit, does not approve of this scam.
Two things need to be mentioned with regard to
orthodoxy’s strict interpretation in this matter. First, selling the
land is no different than “selling” your leavened bread before Passover
and “buying it back” afterward. This is a widespread orthodox practice
whose gross distortion of the laws’ intent does not seem to be
troubling the group. So, twisting some laws out of shape to suit your
comfort, but not others, seems to be the erratic course of current
religiosity. (You want another example? Consider the less than full
participation in the armed forces by orthodox men and women.)
Second, no real alternative has been suggested nationally to deal with
the financial hardships that would ensue from a year of resting the
farmland. It is the responsibility of concerned Jews to make these laws
workable. We need a plan that could be developed and implemented
gradually. It’s a bit late for the upcoming rest-year but we could be
ready for the next one.
Here are some ideas that I would like to suggest as a starting point:
- The state of Israel would guarantee
alternative employment to all Jewish farmers during the rest year and
would have for them a choice of land-related projects.
- As I understand the Jewish law or would
like to interpret it, the only type of land required to rest is
farmland. Therefore the employment offered by the government would be
of a land-reclamation type, bringing unfarmed land into public use.
Three types of projects would be available:
- reclaiming land such as the many square kilometers of the Negev or other currently-unused pieces
- developing public parks and nature preserves
- beautifying all areas by landscaping, tree planting, and flower decoration
Jewish farmers would be kept constructively
engaged in the improvement of their homeland, putting into productive
use many many pieces of desert or other wasted land or beautifying the
cities, towns, highways, parks, and so on.
Of course my plan requires a people that is
inspired to go back to the beautiful basics of Judaism and a government
that similarly respects the basis of our claims to Israel.
Wouldn’t the country be far better off with
this approach? We would rest the working land as our books of wisdom,
the Five Books of Moses, suggest and we would feel great about that. At
the same time, we would do wonderful things for the current Israeli
lifestyle and for the future of the country.
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