| |
NEWS
Hundreds of Farmers Attend Kabbolas Shmittah Event
By Y. Sheinfeld
Amidst heightened fervor and anticipation, thousands of gibborei koach farmers and their families from all over Eretz Yisrael, all geared up to usher in the Sabbatical year, attended a momentous event of Kiddush Hashem which took place this Wednesday afternoon in the Tzipori Bakfar auditorium in Kibbutz Chofetz Chaim. The event was initiated by Keren Hashevi'is and was attended by a roster of Torah leaders who came to boost the morale of these farmers for the upcoming year when they will faithfully fulfill the exalted mitzvah of leaving the land fallow throughout the seventh year. Modeling itself along our relationship to the seventh day of the week, the event was called to greet and accept the Sabbatical year, a week before it actually begins.
The high point of the event, taking place alongside fields which are already `resting' in anticipation of Shmittah, was the Farmers' Prayer voiced by the participating gedolei Torah, the hundreds of farmers participating in this event, and joined from their homes and fields by other hundreds of their counterparts throughout the country. This prayer expresses good wishes for all of Jewry in the coming year, including prosperity, and favorable decrees on the upcoming Day of Judgment. The prayer strengthens all those undertaking to keep Shmittah in practice for the coming year and determines that the merit of Shmittah, as our gedolim guarantee, is extremely powerful in tipping the scales for a good inscription during these propitious days.
Thanks to the energetic efforts of the active members of Keren Hashevi'is in these past months, many of the farmers attending the rally of kabbolas ol Malchus Shomayim are farmers who will be keeping Shmittah for the first time in their lives and they and their families are very excited over this decision. A spokesman for Keren Hashevi'is said, "This is propelled by a pure emunah of farmers who have undertaken to desist from all agricultural labor despite mortgages and debts involved with this daring decision. We must do everything in our power to stand by them and assist them in standing up to a year's challenge of laying their lands and fields fallow."
|
