The Shmita year fell on the renewed Yishuv in Eretz Israel for the first time in 1889.
Political leaders and rabbis in the Yishuv and elsewhere debated how to observe the precepts of shmita while minimizing the economic toll on the young settlements. Since the Baron understood that strict Shmita observance could endanger the Yishuv’s fledgling agriculture and leave its farmers without food or livelihood, he was in favour of continuing to cultivate the soil during the Shmita year.
He was in favour of continuing to cultivate the soil during the Shmita year.
A workable solution was found in heter mahira, a temporary “sale” of agricultural lands and produce to non-Jews for the duration of the Shmita year.
Did you know?
The heter mahira that was agreed upon in those days still exists today!
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