Three years ago a representative of the Center of Halachic
Agriculture walked into the offices of one of Israel's major
citrus product manufacturers and presented company officials
with a proposal they couldn't turn down. The center, run by
Rav Yosef Efrati under the guidance of HaRav Yosef Shalom
Eliashiv, is dedicated to raising the level of observance and
knowledge of all the laws connected to the land of Israel.
The representative, armed with charts and statistics
reflecting the market research conducted by the center,
showed the company that it could increase its sales
significantly by making its products suitable for the
religious consumer. All the company had to do was ensure that
the fruit it received from its suppliers was free of
orlah.
"It doesn't sound so simple," grumbled one company
executive.
"But it is," assured the representative. "Just give me a list
of your suppliers, and I'll guarantee that they'll soon be
supplying you with orlah-free fruit."
A Win-Win Situation
After meeting with company executives, the Center's
representative approached the farmers supplying the company
with citrus fruits and explained the company's dilemma.
"My client would like all of its products to be 100% orlah-
free," he said, "but it's just not being provided with
suitable fruit."
Many of the farmers wanted to cooperate but did not see how
they could remain financially viable were they to abide by
the laws of orlah, which prohibit the use of fruit
during a tree's first three years.
With a sweep of the arm, they would gesture toward their
newest fields of citrus saplings, recently shipped from
greenhouses and transplanted. Painstakingly placed in black
soil, each equidistant from the next, the hundreds of slender
trees spread in rows across the acreage, motionless, tranquil
yet vibrant with the promise of fruit.
The farmers sighed helplessly. Were they expected to let
their saplings stand untouched for three profitless years?
Again, the Center representative offered a solution.
Months earlier, Rav Efrati, the center's director, had called
upon Dr. Sachs, the center's chief research scientist, to
find a way of making orlah observance more
economically feasible for citrus growers.
Dr. Sachs focused upon the problem of transplantation.
Unfortunately, replanting tree saplings from the greenhouse
to the field restarted their halachic clock -- with 2 years
and 364 days left of orlah! If the substantial time of
early growth in the greenhouse could somehow be salvaged and
included in the three-year count, the farmers' wait would be
markedly reduced.
A mishna in seder Zeraim provided a doorway.
According to the mishna (Orlah 1:3), a tree whose
roots remain covered with enough original soil to keep it
alive may be transplanted without resetting the orlah
count. Dr. Sachs soon perfected a technique of soil
retention, and the Center contacted a number of greenhouses
that supply citrus growers with saplings and taught them the
method.
More than 70 greenhouses throughout Israel now employ Dr.
Sachs' technique, and hundreds of farmers are replanting
these saplings in their own fields and marketing their fruit
as orlah-free.
Today, all of the products of that particular citrus
manufacturer are, indeed, orlah-free.
Dr. Yehoshua Klein, a colleague at the center, called the
implementation of Dr. Sachs' technique a "win-win situation,
where everybody gains.
"Growers get more production from their trees, and consumers
get orlah-free produce," he said, adding with a smile
that even growers on non-religious kibbutzim and moshavim get
extremely excited about marketing their fruit to the vast
numbers of religious consumers.
The Beginning of a New Stage
While Dr. Sachs concedes that it will take another few years
before all citrus fruits in Israel are free of orlah,
the center is well on its way to realizing that goal.
"This is the beginning of a new stage in the fight against
orlah," he says.
Dr. Sachs explains that of the 600,000 saplings planted in
Israel in 1997, some 500,000 were planted under the Center's
auspices. Approximately 1.5 million trees, therefore, have
since been planted that will produce fruit untainted by
orlah. As a result, the rate of problematic
occurrences will be dramatically lowered.
"This number is only going to rise," Sachs says.
Winning the "Fight" Against Orlah
The Center for Halachic Agriculture has been "fighting"
against orlah since its inception in 1957.
"Brainstorming," however, may better describe what Rav Efrati
and his center have been doing to prevent consumers from
unknowingly eating orlah fruit.
"We've found," says Chaim Shore, spokesman for the center,
"that the most effective way of raising the level of kashrus
in Eretz Yisroel is by rolling up our sleeves and getting
involved at the ground level."
Shore explains that while there are many religious Jews who
look for a good hechsher that will not allow
orlah before buying fruit, they only amount to
approximately 10 percent of the population.
"We have to reach the other ninety percent," says Shore, "and
we've found that in this and other projects the best way to
do it is not by arguing about what is and isn't right with
the system, but by finding solutions within the system."
