The Heter Mekhira

During the long years of exile, the Land lay desolate, and the few Jews who lived in it did not engage in agriculture. Even the exiles from Spain who began immigrating to the Land about five hundred years ago, and the Ḥasidim and the disciples of the Gra who began immigrating about two hundred years ago, hardly engaged in agriculture. Only about a hundred and forty years ago did Jews begin to establish agricultural settlements throughout the Land. The first were members of the Old Yishuv in Jerusalem who went out beyond the walls and, together with new immigrants, established small outposts, until in 5638 (1878) they founded Petaḥ Tikva. In 5642 (1882) the First Aliya of ‘Ḥovevei Tziyon’ began, as a result of which, by the Shemita year of 5649 (1889), seven more moshavot were founded: Rishon Le-Tziyon, Zikhron Ya’akov, Rosh Pina, Nes Tziyona, Yesod Ha-ma’ala, Ekron (Mazkeret Batya), and Gedera.

Then, for the first time, the question of resting in the seventh year arose, and the problem was twofold, personal and general. On the personal level, the farmers barely subsisted and needed support, and resting in the seventh year could bring them to terrible hardship and danger of starvation. On the general level, resting could lead to the destruction of the moshavot. For even if some of the farmers could continue to hold on to their land, it was clear that many would not hold out, and many more Jews in the Diaspora who had been thinking of immigrating to the Land would refrain from doing so after hearing of the difficulties of making a living and of Shemita in the Land.

Rabbi Shmuel Mohilever, one of the Torah giants of the generation and one of the leaders of ‘Ḥovevei Tziyon’, together with his colleagues Rabbi Yehoshua of Kutno and Rabbi Klepfish, head of the beit din of Warsaw, discussed the matter and decided to permit the farmers to exempt their fields from the obligation of Shemita by selling them to a gentile, in such a way that afterward the Jews would work the fields as hired workers of the gentile who owned the field. The famous posek Rabbi Yitzḥak Elḥanan Spektor also supported the heter. Likewise the Sephardic rabbis in the Land, headed by Rabbi Elyashar, supported the heter, relying on the rulings of Sephardic rabbis of earlier generations who had lived in the Land.

However, the Ashkenazic rabbis in Jerusalem, headed by Rabbi Shmuel Salant and Rabbi Diskin, opposed the heter. In their estimation, no great damage was to be expected from resting in the seventh year, since in any case there were agricultural methods according to which it is good to let fields lie fallow from time to time. They further held that it would be possible to obtain financial support to sustain the settlers who rested. Others also argued that if people were lenient in this, they would be drawn to be lenient in other matters as well. On the contrary, they feared that precisely the heter would bring about the destruction of the moshavot, since the Torah states that exile comes because of the sin of neglecting the seventh year, while, conversely, by observing the seventh year one merits abundant blessing (Vayikra 25:20-21, 26:34-35, 43; Shabbat 33a; Avot 5:8-9).

In practice, most of the farmers and their supporters felt compelled to rely on the heter, and under the guidance of their rabbis from Europe, they turned to the Sephardic rabbis in the Land, who carried out the sale of the fields for them. This was also the position of most of the great rabbis. But there were still many rabbis in the Diaspora and in Jerusalem who opposed it, and the zealots of the generation stood by their side and fought fiercely against the heter and against the rabbis who supported it.

It is worth noting that at first, among the stringent rabbis there were also rabbis who felt public responsibility toward the new Yishuv and the farmers, such as the rabbis of Jerusalem. And among the stringent rabbis there were also rabbis who enthusiastically supported ‘Ḥovevei Tziyon’, such as the Netziv of Volozhin and Rabbi Mordekhai Gimpel Jaffe. However, from one seventh year to the next, it became clearer how difficult it was for the pioneers to rest, and therefore even among the stringent there were those who changed their opinion in favor of the heter. As the Aderet testified about himself, during the first two Shemita years, while he was in the Diaspora, he inclined toward the view of the stringent. But after he immigrated to serve as rabbi of Jerusalem, he saw the great hardship and changed his opinion to support the heter (Iggerot Ha-Re’iya 207). Rabbi Diskin of Jerusalem also opposed the heter in the first Shemita, and in the second Shemita, after becoming acquainted with the reality, he partially agreed to the heter.

In general, the dispute revolved around two axes. The first: whether the heter mekhira is based on the majority of poskim or on a minority. The second: how pressing the situation is, since it is a well-known rule in halakha that in a time of pressing need (she’at ha-deḥak) one may rely even on individual opinions, and the more severe the hardship, the more proper it is to be lenient.