Letters to the Editor
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‘The Shemita Debate’
In regard to “The Shemita Debate” by Hillel Halkin [Oped, October 2, 2007], the biblical law of letting the soil of the Holy Land lie fallow every seventh year may strike Mr. Halkin as “thoroughly impractical” but it is divinity, not practicality, that motivates believing Jews.
How odd that observers like Mr. Halkin, usually enamored of ecological and liberal ideals, are somehow rendered by Shemita into fierce opponents of leaving nature alone, of providing Arabs with extra income and of permitting individual rabbis to rule according to their consciences.
Perhaps the explanation lies in the Jewish belief that where there exists the potential of great holiness, the opposite, sensing a challenge, comes to the fore. The observance of Shemita is considered a merit for the security of the Jewish People in the land G-d bequeathed them — a concern much on the minds of Jews these days.
Mr. Halkin is certainly welcome to purchase any fruits or flowers he desires. But certainly it is possible to respect religiously observant Jews for their own choices, born as they are of the highest ideals.
RABBI AVI SHAFRAN
Director of Public Affairs
Agudath Israel of America
New York, N.Y.
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