There were reports that the Chief Rabbinate was not planning
to use the anachronistic heter mechiroh during the
coming shmitta year, but a battle is being waged by
various groups against this plan. Among the Torah-observant
sector which conducts itself according to the directives
gedolei Yisroel, and increasingly among even a broader
range of religious Jews, a feeling of consternation can be
detected because of this recurrent struggle.
The opinion of today's leading halachic authorities is that
the heter mechiroh has no halachic validity whatsoever
in our time. Rabbonim and halachic authorities who permitted
it in the past -- because of serious life- threatening
considerations which might have existed at that time -- would
not have permitted it today and especially in the way it is
implemented, since the approach followed by the Chief
Rabbinate in the recent past allowed many activities that
those who originally sanctioned would never have
permitted.
In early deliberations among rabbonim about the upcoming
shmitta year, a proposal to put an end to the broad
heter was raised. It was noted that today, when a some
agricultural branches are not commercial and are subsidized
by the State, and also in light of the fact that much produce
from abroad is actually cheaper, there is no reason nor need
to rely upon the heter. The claim of pikuach
nefesh becomes ludicrous in this case, they noted.
Moreover, the recent "heter" permitted work even in
ornamental gardens of municipal parks, which has nothing
remotely to do with pikuach nefesh.
A number of rabbonim involved in the issue said: "For whom
are they instituting the heter? For Kibbutz Mizra,
where Shabbos is desecrated and pigs are raised and marketed?
Suddenly they are concerned about saving them, so to speak,
from transgressing the prohibition to work the land during
the shmitta year. The damage the heter causes
far outweighs its benefits, since it causes tens of thousands
of upright, Torah-observant Jews to rely upon it, and even to
regard melochos deOraisa and the eating of
sefichin as permissible. The "heter" makes them
feel that the mitzvah of shmitta is practically
irrelevant in our times, chas vesholom."
At a special conference devoted to shmitta recently
held in Jerusalem's Har Nof neighborhood, the former Rishon
Letzion declared that he believes that one should rely upon
the heter mechiroh. This was noted in a printed text
circulated at the meeting. At the meeting, he tried to
present the issue as an argument between Sephardim and
Ashkenazim. In the past, however, there were Ashkenazi
rabbonim who permitted the mechiroh, just as there
were Sephardic gedolim who forbade it. In our times,
however, all halachic authorities, Sephardim and Ashkenazim
alike, affirm that the heter has no current
validity.
It was learned that in recent years even a number of national-
religious rabbis have even raised questions about the
sweeping reliance upon the heter mechiroh in our time.
However, other voices are also heard. Rabbi Yehoshua Neiman,
chairman of the Shmitta Committee in Chemed, has
published articles in Hatsofe and Nekuda in
which he makes "political" claims in favor of the heter
mechiroh. He pointed to the tensions between Jews and
Palestinians and concluded: "Minimizing the mitzvah of
shmitta, if this can strengthen Jewish settlement and
its hold on the land, is obligatory in light of the situation
at hand. If the heter mechiroh is minimized and, as a
result, the land is worked by non-Jews only, we will lose our
hold on the land." The writer perhaps didn't realize that his
arguments lead to the conclusion that all Israel should be
sold to the Arabs!
Even a number of rabbis from the national religious sector
said at a recent meeting of the Chief Rabbinate Council: "It
is clear to us that HaRav Kook would not have permitted the
heter in our time, especially not in the manner in
which it is done." However, amazingly, a dayan from
one of the cities who participated in the meeting demanded
that the proposal be removed from the agenda, and that the
opinion of the former Rishon Letzion, as stated above be
relied on.
The argument which erupted at the Council of the Chief
Rabbinate resulted in adjournment of the meeting without any
decisions being made. The upshot of this is that for now, the
previous policy persists. Those in favor of the heter
mechiroh are apparently trying to drag things out so that
they may claim that it's too late for a new policy.
Surprisingly, no official protocol of the meeting was issued
until last week, a month after it was held.
The pillar of current halachic authority, HaRav Yosef Sholom
Eliashiv, spoke very sharply on this issue last week and
said, "Any heter mechiroh is absurd and has no
substance. It can only cause people to stumble in the laws of
shmitta."
