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17 Adar I 5760 - February 23, 2000 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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News
Battle For the "Heter Mechiroh"

by Rabbi Nosson Zev Grossman

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."


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