Rabbonim and kashrus organization heads are furious over the Agricultural Ministry’s attempt to force local rabbinates to approve the sale of heter mechirah farm produce in stark opposition to the opinion of gedolei Yisroel shlita, who have publicly announced (reported HERE) that it is prohibited to rely on the heter mechirah and anyone who lends a hand in this causes a chillul Hashem by openly showing that one can make a laughing stock of the cherished, holy mitzvah of shevisas ho’oretz.
Agricultural Minister Shalom Simchon announced on Monday that if the Chief Rabbinate does not act to direct the local rabbinates to approve selling heter mechirah produce, the Agricultural Ministry would not approve requests to import farm produce from abroad.
He called on the Chief Rabbis to immediately intervene at the local rabbinates that are not permitting the sale of heter mechirah produce.
The Agricultural Minister’s announcement infuriated kashrus organization heads, who expressed their surprise over the threat not to authorize agriculture imports from abroad, since the Agricultural Ministry is well aware that the rabbonim who head the various kashrus organizations have no intention of budging an inch from the directives of gedolei Yisroel shlita.
A notice issued by Gedolim two weeks ago read, “He who lends a hand to [using] the heter mechirah lends a hand to uprooting the mitzvah, and our opinion, daas Torah, is that one may not rely on this `heter.’ The matter does not hinge on disputes among Jews from differing backgrounds and communities. Every Jew must keep Shmittah according to halochoh and anyone who takes part in issuing instructions that uproot Shmittah through the `heter’ causes a chillul Hashem by openly showing that one can make a laughingstock of this cherished, holy mitzvah.”
The Torah-observant public in Eretz Hakodesh is hoping that the call by gedolei Yisroel will fall on attentive ears and those individuals who insist on uprooting the mitzvah of Shmittah by relying on a doubtful dispensation should abandon this dangerous development.
(Written by: Yechiel Sever for Dei’ah veDibur)
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4 Responses
I don’t understand the negative tone of this article e.g. “those individuals who insist on uprooting the mitzvah… doubtful dispensation.. etc” .
There is a machlokes haposkim on heter mechira, and even if most poskim oppose it, there is still al mi lismoch.
I’d be very surprised if Mr Sever has a heter for the possible motzi shem ra in this article.
There is not really a machlokes haposkim. The VAST majority (rov minyan ubinyan) hold that you can’t rely on the heter mechirah. It is also quite obvious that rav Kook wouldn’t hold of the heter himself in our generation.
I’m not one to judge the extent of the machlokes, but certainly the article could have been written without the obnoxious tone. Why couldn’t he conclude with:
“The Torah-observant public in Eretz Hakodesh is hoping that the call by gedolei Yisroel will fall on attentive ears and that every Jew will strive to keep the mitzvos of shmittah properly.”
diracheha darchei noam.
diracheha darchei noam went out of style a long time ago as ka’na’us tookl over for all public dealings. Remember bein adom lamakom is now more important then bain adam l’chaveiro