This legal document is a heter mekhira issued by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel in 1929 on the eve of the shnat shmita, the sabbatical year. The document was printed with the permission of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, and the text states that all signatories agree to sell their land and trees. At the bottom of the document is space for landowners to sign that they agree to the sale and the conditions contained within the document.
Would You Like to Know More?
Shnat Shmita - The sabbatical year takes place once every seven years, during which landowners have a biblical obligation to leave the land fallow for the whole year. A number of reasons are given for this biblical law including: the need to give the land a year’s rest and the requirement to remember that the land belongs to God.
Since farmers were thus presented with a dilemma between observing the shmita year or ensuring that agricultural industry continues in Israel, leading rabbis came up with a compromise which allowed working the land while still observing Jewish law. This compromise – the heter mekhira – permits the sale of the land to a non-Jew for the year-long period, thus allowing work to continue since the laws of shmita do not apply to land owned by non-Jews.
There were a number of arguments against this halakhic solution, and the debate continues today with a large majority of the Haredi world refusing to purchase produce grown accordingly. Opponents point to the biblical prohibition to sell Israeli land to non-Jews and to the fact that the sale is a legal fiction, since the purchaser has no intention of holding onto the land for longer than a year. The heter mekhira is, nonetheless, relied on by the majority of the religious community in Israel.
Connection to Parashat Mishpatim
Even though Parashat Mishpatim is primarily associated with laws between fellow humans, the last section deals with festivals and the shmita year. This is the first time that shmita is mentioned in the Torah, even though it is subsequently repeated several times.
This heter mekhira contract is an example of biblical laws that still affect life in Israel today.
