Otzar Ha'aretz
| Halakhic texts relating to this article | |
|---|---|
| Torah: | Exodus 23:10-11, Leviticus 25:2-7 Leviticus 25:20-22 and Deuteronomy 15:1-3. |
| Mishnah: | Shevi'it (tractate) |
| Jerusalem Talmud: | Shevi'it (tractate) |
Otzar Ha'aretz (literal translation: Treasure of the Land) is a commercial company from the Torah VeHa’aretz Institute (The Institute for Torah and the Land of Israel) established prior to the Shmita year 5769 (2008-2009) with the aim of providing kosher Jewish agricultural produce in the year of the Sabbatical year (shmita). The company provides services before the shmita year begins, and markets foods during shmita for distribution. During the Jewish Year of shmita, when private farming is at rest, in order to allow the farmers to have an income, the farmers are employed by the Jewish Bet Din (Jewish religious court) and receive a salary, creating a Storehouse of the rabbinical court.[1]
During Shmita, the Torah-mandated a yearlong farming hiatus a legal arrangement is created whereby the crops themselves are never bought or sold, but rather people are merely paid for their labor and expenses in providing certain services. This is a rabbinical solution to aid Jewish farmers who struggle to keep their farms viable in a year of no production. Rabbis in Israel created a number of solutions to this issue and Otzar Ha'aretz is different from another solution, “Heter mechira” or sale permit which allows Jewish farmers to “sell” their land to local non-Jews for a token amount, then hire non-Jews to do the forbidden labor thus keeping the farms active without sin.[2]
According to Jewish precepts,[3] during Sabbatical year Jewish farmers are not allowed to sell their crops, but if crops began growing before Shmita started, people are allowed to take them for free. So through a legal mechanism, a Jewish religious court will hire farmers to harvest the produce and the religious court will sell it. But you won't be paying for the produce itself; you're only paying for the farmer's labor. You get the produce for “free.”
The Company's activities during the Shmita year[edit]
The company was established with the support and encouragement of many rabbis including: Rabbi Avraham Shapira, Rishon LeZion Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, Rabbi Yaakov Ariel. Rabbi Zalman Nehemiah Goldberg, Dov Lior, Yaakov Ariel and Yehuda Amichai are part of the Otzar Beit Din (treasury). The company is run according to religious rulings.
Otzar Ha'aretz offers fruits and vegetables from a variety of sources in descending order of priority: first crops that grew in the "sixth year" (the year before the shmita year), crops from the Arabah region (an area that was not within the country at the time of Ancient Babylon and does not have seventh year sanctity, according to some rabbis) and finally crops grown in detached bedding and greenhouses. When these sources cannot be supplied, fruits and vegetables of Otzar Beit Din will be supplied, to which a seventh year sanctity applies. If they cannot supply from Otzar Beit Din, they will provide both sales and import permits. Fruits grown by Goy in the Land of Israel will not be sold by the company.
Towards the end of the Shmita year, the rabbis of the society, reinstated the biblical precept to borrow one loan that would not be included in the Prozbul bill. This loan, which would be provided to the needy, is cancelled according to Halacha at the end of the Shmita year, and the borrower does not need to repay it. The principles of this loan agreement were drafted and signed by Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein and Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu.
See also[edit]
- Shmita
- Laws and customs of the Land of Israel in Judaism
- Treasury of the Beit Din [1] - Hebrew Wikipedia
References[edit]
- ↑ Torah VeHa’aretz Institute (the Institute for Torah and the Land of Israel) (https://en.toraland.org.il/beit-midrash/halachic-guides/mitzvot-of-the-land/ website)
- ↑ Ben Sales, Arizona Jewish Post, "Understanding Shmita, Israel’s agricultural Shabbat", Posted September 9, 2014 (https://azjewishpost.com/2014/understanding-shmita-israels-agricultural-shabbat/ article)
- ↑ Precepts listed from rabbinic sources for Laws of trumot, shmita and Otzar Beit Din include Yalkut Yosef, Kitzur Shulchan Aruch and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef
External links[edit]
- About Otzar Ha'aretz
- The official website [2]
- Otzar Ha'aretz, on Facebook
- Rabbi Ehud Ahituv, Otzar Ha'aretz Jewish Products for the Year of the Shmita - Halachic Background, on the website of the Torah VeHa’aretz Institute [3]
- Hagit Rotenberg, Shivit Temples, on the B'Sheva website - Channel 7 [4]
- Yoel Yaakobi, Do Not Give Up on Seventh Holiness, on the B'Sheva website - Channel 7, June 21, 2007 [5]
- Steinberg, Jessica, The Israelis who buy farmland to let it lie fallow - Intent on allowing the land to rest during shmita, a group of ultra-Orthodox Jews has invested in an orchard; others take a less stringent approach, 28 September 2014, The Times of Israel
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