Dilemma is the mildest word for Shemitta, the Sabbatical of the Land. How can I say the truth of what I think about a Torah Mitzvah, that it's a nightmare?
The late Rabbi Kook, ZaTza"L, developed a halachik way to include all of the Jewish agriculture in Eretz Yisrael within observing the Mitzvah. That was Heter M'chira, "permitted selling" of the Land.
In recent Shemitta years more and more Torah-observant Jews have looked down on this psak, rabbinic decision. Now it seems like the rabbinate is phasing it out.
For me the nightmare isn't finding "permitted" fruits and vegetables, which actually lasts almost two years from the quickest growing greens, until the fruits which blossomed in the Shemitta year finish their marketing season late the following year. What disturbs me is the "one-upmanship" of other Jews as they try to show their "superior" Torah observance over others.
I doubt if this will be the last post about Shemitta, so stay tuned.
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