RABBI YISRAEL-MEIR LAU

RABBI YISRAEL-MEIR LAU

THE PRACTICE OF JUDAISM IN THE LIGHT OF THE ORAL TORAH. HOW WE DO TODAY?

In our time, the laws of shviit are executed only by the decision of the sages. The status of the Shmita year is closely related to the status of the "Year of Jubilee" as discussed in the 25th chapter of the book of Vayikra. The "year of jubilee" is every fiftieth year, when all the lands sold during the fiftieth year are returned to their original owners, when the Jewish slaves go free, when all cultivation of the land stops and its fruits are declared ownerless, just as it happens in shweet year. However, the law of the "year of jubilee" is fulfilled only when all the people of Israel live in their land: "And you will proclaim freedom to all the inhabitants of your land." Since the 10 tribes of Israel were taken into exile (during the era of the First Temple), and to this day we have not been honored that all Jews live in the territory of the Land of Israel, and since then the laws of the "year of jubilee" do not work. According to the letter of the law of the Torah, the laws of shviit also should not be fulfilled in our time, but the sages, taking care that these commandments were not forgotten among the people of Israel, decided to fulfill them (only shviit - but not the “jubilee year”).

Therefore, we do not have the right to neglect the shviit laws, although there are many difficulties and material losses associated with their observance. Many farmers in Israel punctually observe everything related to the year of shviyit, and in return for the work that is not done this year, they find others ...

Those farmers who are less strict about these laws rely on the so-called geter mehira (in recent generations, which has become a stumbling block between the authorities of the Torah): on the eve of the year of shviit, land is sold to non-Jews and thus, in this year, the farmer, as it were, cultivates non-Jewish land. However, this is still not enough to thus make all kinds of work on the land or the unlimited use of this year's crop permitted.

The ideological meaning of the shviit commandment is quite clear - this is a social decree that at least once every seven years introduces the idea of general equality into the minds social assistance, nor the one who receives it - everyone has an equal right to everything that grows on the earth.

This year gives peace, freedom and prosperity to the earth. After all, the earth cannot be exploited indefinitely from time to time, it must rest and accumulate strength for the next working years. And one more thing: the year of shviit gives the farmer an opportunity to engage in other activities - spiritual, to give food to his soul. Like Saturday, when a person moves away from the material world of physical labor and is spiritually renewed for the next six working days, a whole year is given to a person to rise to a new spiritual level, preserving the spiritual values of the people of Israel. http://www.liveinternet.ru/users /rinarozen/post319550066/