Positive awareness follows the recent meeting held last week in the conference hall of the Religious Council of Jerusalem to strengthen and broaden the circle of agricultural Shmittah observers. It was attended by the elite of rabbonim in Eretz Yisroel and representatives of mehadrin kashrus supervision. Highlighting this gathering was the establishment of the Vaadas Hashmitta Ha'artzis, the National Shmittah Committee.
The gathering was organized at the initiative of the Jerusalem Rabbinate and the assistance of HaRav Binyomin Chazan, one of the heads of the Mehadrin Kashrus network which has already chalked up much success in organizing the setup of mehadrin shmittah observance in the past. This time, as well, the initiative has received the blessing and participation of rabbonim in cities throughout the country and the various mehadrin kashrus supervision for the purpose of pooling resources for the upcoming Shmittah without, of course, relying on any loophole heteirim, and embracing as many cities and markets as possible throughout the land. This unity hopes to create pressure where the consumer demand will force the general market to accept only produce under Mehadrin supervision where all the stringent halachic guidelines are fully adhered to. This established body will also create blessed accord in significantly regulating the prices to the consumer after the deduction of the supervisional and logistic costs involved in maintaining a Shmittah kashrus operation under a united and uniform network, eliminating the redundancy of overlapping supervisional bodies and their operational costs for which the consumer ends up paying.
Participating in this vital and impressive gathering were the following rabbinical figures: HaRav Yitzchok Yechiel Yakobovitz, rabbi of Herzliya; HaRav Simcha HaKohen Kook, rabbi of Rechovot; HaRav Yosef Sheinin, rabbi of Ashdod; HaRav Yosef Efrati, head of the Beis Hamedrash for Halacha in the Settlements and head of the Kashrus Mehadrin network; HaRav Eliyahu Schlesinger, head posek in the Jerusalem rabbinate; HaRav Mordechai Eichler, head of the Kashrus Network of the Kehal Machazikei Hadas; Chief Rabbi HaRav Dovid Lau; HaRav Yosef Shlush, rabbi of Southern Sharon area and HaRav Moshe Tobal, member of the Kashrus LeMehadrin organization.
Also participating in this conference were representatives of the various kashrus supervisionary bodies: the Jerusalem Rabbinical Supervision, the Kashrus Lemehadrin, Shearis Yisroel Kashrus, Kehal Machazikei Hadas, the Rechovot Rabbinate supervision; the Ashdod Rabbinate supervision; the Netanya Rabbinate supervision, the Zichron Yaakov Rabbinate supervision and representatives of the outlying settlements of Ashdod and many others.
