By: Shimmy Blum

During this period of mourning for the Beis Hamikdash and our era of glory in Eretz Yisroel, we cannot get the images of present day Eretz Yisroel out of our minds.

The missiles. The sirens. The smoke. The panic. The shelters. The frightened children. The destroyed homes.

Yet, through all the horror and carnage, the hand of Hashem has been visible to all. Although Israel has suffered several terrible deaths and injuries as a result, Hy”d, the casualty rate is nothing short of an open miracle considering the unprecedented quantity and scope of Hamas attacks.

In response to the situation, Rav Chaim Kanievsky, shlit”a, minced no words as to what is the true “Protective Edge” for the residents of Israel. “Chazal teach us that galus comes due to not observing Shmittah, and the horrors of this war are a result of this galus,” Rav Chaim said. “The remedy is to keep Shmittah and support those who do so. That is the protection that has the power to save us.”

On the frontier of this perilous battle stand the over 3,000 Keren Hashviis farmers, by far the largest group of uncompromising Shmittah observant farmers the Jewish people has had in memory. At a special Keren Hashviis gathering earlier this month, Rav Dovid Cohen, shlit”a, Rosh Yeshivas Chevron, offered the assembled farmers words of gratitude on behalf of the entire Nation. “It is not planes or tanks that are keeping us here in Eretz Yisroel,” he said. “You are…In the merit of keeping Shmittah, Hashem will help us.”

The farmers listening to Rav Cohen’s were very diverse in age, background and appearance – but they nodded their heads in near-perfect unison to the gadol’s words. If there is one common thread between these “giborei koach” – as Chazal call them, it is their unwavering emunah peshuta.

Deliberately forfeiting a full year’s worth of income, and instead incurring a loss, is an unbelievably great nisayon. Yet these giants have full confidence in their mesiras nefesh and the beracha it brings them – and all of klal Yisroel – now, in the shana hashishis, and in the future.

On July 8^th, the eyes of the IDF, Israeli government and world media were on Kibbutz Zikim, a farming community near the Israel-Gaza border. In a virtually unprecedented brazen operation, five well trained, heavily armed Hamas terrorists infiltrated the area by sea, bent on wreaking maximum destruction. Thankfully, this incident, which brought the entire region to a virtual standstill, ended well. The terrorists were detected in time, and were all eliminated by IDF forces before they could inflict any damage.

One unassuming resident of Kibbutz Zikim is a silver haired vegetable farmer named Avrohom ben-Hamu. A member of the Keren Hashviis network, Avrohom is looking forward to keeping his first Shmittah ever in 5775. Face to face with this reality for the first time, the former Gush Katif resident is not only not dreadful, but is convinced his mitzvah is what protected him and others in the area when the suicidal terrorists were at their doorstep.  “I’m moved, lo pashut,” he says.

After the Hamas incident, Avrohom walked around his vast farm, which produces 5 million Shekel in sales a year, with no dread that he’s about to abandon it all. Pointing towards the white roof of one of his hothouses, he states, “Here I have one roof, and above it another roof, but above it all is the borei olam watching over us. You and I – all of us – receive the beracha associated with mitzvas Shmittah.”