Rabbi Yehoshua Weber - Parsha like you've never learned it - Behar - Bechukosai

Okay, so first of all I just want to thank all of you. My printer was down last minute. I WhatsApped him, he came to show all he printed here. Like I mean there's a lot of stuff that goes into making this year happen. Okay, secondly I'm not going to be able to Yeah, yeah definitely a round of applause is is due. Um Um secondly I won't be able to give the topic due justice. It's It's It's It's a large topic. Um it's a small block of time. I'm not going to spend a lot of time in tonight cuz it's It's like by my for wedding. I mean that's what like by my is about, right? So um maybe 9:10 I'll um in a way we should maybe continue next week. But I I really want to touch upon what Shmita is all about. And I'm really going here partially cuz it's Parshas Behar. Parshas Behar is about Shmita and Yovel. But partially cuz it came up a few weeks ago. And And what came up a few weeks ago is is that there are these different planets in Israel when it comes to Shmita. You have the Charedi community where by and large the mindset is everything grown in Israel is treif. You know, you just you shouldn't be working the land in any form or fashion. And people buy into what heter is called. They buy um um produce that was produced abroad because the land is supposed to rest. You have the Mizrachi community where um people say, "Well, we rely on a heter for all types of other things. Women want to cover their hair, they don't want to wear paper bags on their hair so they wear sheitels." A little bit dubious. You want to lend with interest because otherwise the economy won't function. Rely on a heter is called. You rely on a heter here also. And that a heter allows you to um not work the land directly. Sell the land to a non-Jew. Have non-Jews work the land and it's fine and good. And it's And it's preferable because this way you're maintaining the Israeli economy. And each community thinks it's right. I I don't want to go into the, you know, who's right, who's wrong. I don't think that's the objective of the shear here. What I want to present is is that there are significant sources in both directions that are surprising. And the title of the article is Shmita spirituality, social stability, or both. Um the article sort of covers, you know, that you know, the motif of Shmita. It actually touches about other mitzvahs also. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is a Koliachol. And if Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us the Torah with a with a compass for living, it makes sense that compass is going to address the spiritual, the interpersonal, the economic, everything. And what I'd like to show is that Shmita is really about both. So, before we talk about the approaches that the different communities take, let's talk about the basic Rishonim who deal with Shmita. Now, when it comes to Shmita, when it comes to understanding mitzvahs, who is the most important authority in Jewish life? Really in Jewish life, if you have to pick one authority who defines Jewish life, who would that be? Rambam. I No, I mean, it's a It's really a horrible question to ask. I mean, but I would say the Rambam Halacha is the Rambam. Shulchan Aruch is based on the Rambam. Theology is the Rambam, the um you Gimalei Korim, the Moreh. Um and the Rambam Rambam Rashi maybe Perush. I mean, you know, who's the greatest? >> [laughter] >> Well, on on the Rambam's tomb it says Me Moshe u Moshe lo kam Kemoshe. He's the only one who has that. So, it's you know, it's not to say the greatest, but the Rambam is huge. I want to show you what the Rambam says about Shmita. The Rambam is a pragmatist. And I think you'd be really surprised by the Rambam. So, let's read it inside. In a way, I I'd rather that one of you read it just so that you're not reading with my bias. I've seen this Rambam. >> [snorts] >> Now, let's see the Rambam source two. It's on page four. Um and I think you'll be you'll be surprised. Anyone want to read the Rambam Now, it's the Moreh. The Moreh is a translation from the original Arabic. It's not a It's not the original. The original version is in Arabic. It's translated. But, you know, it's close. It's 98 98 99% of the year. And there's really no question. Okay? Two, anyone want to read? I think it'll be I I think it'll be more Please, yeah. I think Yeah, I think it'll be more meaningful. Yeah. Rambam. So, it's page four. It's source two. Safe from Moreh Nevuchim Perly D'mo Perig on the test. But all the mitzvahs that are there in shmita and yovel Okay. Page four, source two. Right, mercy from good goodness for the people. And and the and allowing for economic abundance, allowing for wealth. Okay. So you on shmita you don't farm your land and the poor people eat. So that the land will increase its crops. It's when a land smoother. Okay, may have honey above them. And also, you know, so we'll stop here cuz that really easy. So the Rambam when he talks about shmita that mentions nothing about spirituality, about connecting with God, he says, "You got to leave your land fallow." Um it came up so I really want this to be the motif of a shear. And if you don't leave your land fallow, it'll it'll go bad. So the Torah instituted um the idea of shmita every seven years so that people should leave their land fallow. It's just good, that's all he says. He says nothing about spirituality. Now, we'll develop it, but that's all the Rambam says. And he's quite specific. So we're going to go we're going to go there. We're going It's better? Interesting. So interesting. >> 16, 17, 21 >> [clears throat] >> has good wine. It's always the better wines. And if you go you walk into the wine store, you really ask him which years are the best wines in in Sweden. Yeah. Right. So I'm going to actually compress today cuz again I've got to run to wedding in mistake. I I I must go. So like 9:10 is really remind me 9:10 because otherwise you know I turn into a pumpkin and you turn into pumpkins because I'll be disappointing my wife, right? So that my pumpkin cake becomes your pumpkin cake. So um So firstly it seems so odd that it's about farming advice. Well, let's discuss this and I want to go back to something we discussed in the share room. First of all, who are the people who are coming to our citrus roll? They had been nomads in the desert before they had been slaves in Egypt. The the there was no exposure to farming. There was no understanding of farming. So they needed farming advice. Yeah. Well, you'll tell me is that all it's about? I'm not saying it's all it's about. It's all the Rambam mentions here. And you know the fact that the Rambam mentions only this and nothing else I think speaks volumes. Is it also about spirituality? Perhaps. We'll see a soon who mentions that. But I think there's much more to it than that and I think we discussed that here within our little group. Right? I think again I don't remember what I discussed here. I mean I I taught many places in over the years. Please yeah, there's more than enough. Um it's a packet of six but they weren't stapled so six pages. Did we discuss this Menachem Shmita? Did this come up a little? I don't remember yet. We began. Yeah, so that prompted me that um the desire to go through this. I think the fact that the Rambam doesn't say other things is because it's obvious that Hashem owns land when he That's what I think that that's what he's not saying. So I'm not so sure. I think we're so conditioned to viewing that is that that we sort of but I mean the Rambam would say I I will say "Kol Mitzvos determined that it was actually God's plan and then the Rambam would have no leg to stand on. So we're going to we'll come to it in a moment but it actually is good for the land because every farmer knows that you have to rotate crops and you have to let land lie fallow. So it is the way and that is the reality. Farming has been around for a long time. People, I farm. I have a little garden patch. I know you have to sort of rotate. You have to you Remember there were no fertilizers, there was no artificial nutrition. So you had to let land lie fallow. But I want to come back to a very important point that I discussed within our little world. If you're going to let your land fallow, why have everyone keep the land fallow the same year? That's foolish. So every 7 years you will struggle. So what do we discuss within our little group? I really want to develop this because it's important. But I think I think we discussed it within our little group. Maybe we didn't. How are you going to survive that 7th year? So miracles, right? But the Rambam doesn't mention that. I mean the Torah says that it will create produce, but the Rambam doesn't mention the miraculous will cause you to survive. How in in people who are meant to be pragmatic and the Rambam is pragmatic, they know there's a shmita year, how are they going to survive that shmita year? The year before. And what do they do the year before? They'll store grain. But storing grain was something revolutionary in the ancient world. Yosef in Egypt lived not much not long not long before we came to Israel, right? We spent 40 years in the desert. And we were in Egypt for a few hundred years, but a few hundred years is not a lot. It seems that when the famine was striking Egypt, no one knew anything about storing grain because Yosef had to build storehouses, right? So the whole idea of storing grain from year to year was something that the ancient mind hadn't really developed. And proof in the pudding is we discuss Maybe I didn't discuss this here, maybe I discussed this in my community. I don't remember where we discussed this. But I think we we compared northern societies to southern societies. So it wasn't discussed here. Um northern Europe versus southern Europe. Which societies are wealthier have historically been wealthier? Sweden, Denmark, Germany, England or Last week Right, we discussed And why are these societies wealthier? You pushed me, though. Well, but because the northern societies should have a standard of living that is a third on the level of southern societies. Southern societies have two growing seasons. Southern societies also have to expend much effort heating, and in the ancient world that was a lot. So, you would think that the standard of living in Spain would be triple the standard of living in England 150 years ago before modern implement implements were in place. But, Spain and Portugal always trailed behind. Because in northern societies to survive the winter, people needed to plan, and they needed to set aside, and they needed to to farm in the summer and preserve for the winter, and they needed to to prepare firewood, and they needed to pickle and preserve, and that creates creative people. That creates people with a with long-term thinking. It creates people who can plan. It creates a more developed, more thoughtful, more organized society. What? No, no, no. So, blessings, right? The blessings of a skinny having to struggle, having adversity will make you stronger. So, by having everyone keep shmita the same year, people will need to build storehouses. They will become wealthy because of this. So, Hakadosh Baruchu commands that there will be blessing. Could be, for sure. Pasuk tells you. But, what is that blessing? Is it a divine increase in the crop? That, too. But, is it also the idea that you will have created a society that knows how to save and is prepared for famine and is prepared for war? That, also. The Rambam only mentions the pragmatic. You're saying the Rambam assumes that it's about divine realities, also, about connecting to Hakadosh Baruchu. I'm not so quick to assume that because the Rambam pointedly doesn't say that. Kol Hamitzvot u'Mitzvot u'Shmita, Yovel may Hamlacha. It's all he mentions, and that seems to be deliberate, and I will tell you the Chinuch quotes the Rambam, and he seems to believe that the Rambam is all about pragmatic. They knew nothing about farming. They needed this because they wouldn't have known what to do when they came into Israel. Hakadosh Baruchu from had them all keep it on the seventh year. That creates a tension, but a healthy tension, right? If a parent tells a child who's 25, you know what? I'm going to stop supporting you. Even though the child the parent can support, you might be doing the child the biggest favor in the world because at the end of the day, the child will have to create his own reality. That might be to his benefit. Hakadosh Baruch was saying, um here, I'm going to create a tough situation where every seventh year you can't work the land. All at the same time, it'll be about follow, but it'll be be about increasing productivity. Now, the Hinuch quotes the Rambam. Let's go back to the Hinuch. One, okay. Okay. It's three. Okay. Uh this is page three at the bottom. The Hinuch only talks about spirituality, nothing else. Okay? So, I'll go through this quickly cuz actually we're short on time today. So, he says, firstly, Hakadosh Baruch always wants us to rest on the seventh day to to remind ourselves of of my cerebrations. That's it seems like a little bit of an overkill cuz everyone knows that. In the ancient world, not everyone knew that. People didn't believe in Christianity. They believed in a universe that had been around the whole time. The whole idea of having a a day of rest on the seventh day was revolutionary. So, it's built in again and again and again. That's the Hinuch's first point. Then the second one All the points that you made, Chaim, to remind us that Hakadosh Baruch was in charge, that we don't control our destiny. And the third is that you're a vatran. If you don't work your land, you're going to leave it open for the poor people. People will walk through your land. It'll humble the rich. It'll empower the poor. It'll create a more even kill society. It'll force people to humble themselves. But that's all the Hinuch mentions. He doesn't mention anything pragmatic. Now, does he not believe that there's something pragmatic in letting the land lie fallow? I would imagine he does because he knew that people let their land lie fallow. Maybe it doesn't need to be said. Maybe the Rambam is the same. But the Rambam is actually more explicit than the Hinuch. The Hinuch only lists these three things. The Rambam seems to exclude other lines of thinking. Now, could it be both? So, in this little article that again, it's been rewritten. It's it's it's it's you know, it's book ready in a few months. I mean, I'd love to present the book to all of you. I I tried to point out that lots of mitzvahs that we don't even realize are about dual benefits. Kashrut, right? Kashrut is about self-discipline. You can eat everything. It makes you a stronger person. Kashrut is about about creating Jewish social bonds because when you eat with your own, you socialize with your own, you're marrying with your own. And maybe there's something to relate. We shouldn't don't talk about that. That's a later development that that has cabalistic tendencies. There's lots of things that come and that's the way God is with us. Shabbat is about God with us, but Shabbat is also about family and it's about empowering poor people whenever they arrest. It's about the social, it's about the divine. Kashrut is about the social, about the divine. Why can't Shmita be about both? It's very likely about both, but different we show them stress different things and this has everything to do with how things play themselves out in contemporary Israel. If Shmita is really about the divine and connecting with God with us, then the Haredi approach in Israel makes a lot of sense. You don't work your land. How are you going to survive? God with us will take care. Now, the truth is it's a little bit interesting because at the end of the day, all the farmers who don't work the land come collecting in Hutz La'aretz. So, there are funds that fund them. So, you know, I guess There's also loopholes where they have a guy buy land. But that's that's but but the classic Haredi approach is it's the right thing and you spend the year learning and you spend the year trusting in God with us and you become a veteran. The Mizrahi approach is is the exact opposite. And let's think about this. And again, we'll condense because I'm short on time because I want you to see the sources. Did [snorts] we go through all of this? You and I or not? Part of it. Let's say um people would not all Israeli farmers would stop farming the land every seventh year, right? So, right now, the farmers who choose the Haredi approach, there's a Karen that supports them, and they can make it through the year. But, if all Israeli farmers would stop farming the land on the seventh year, would they all be supported? I don't think so. By who? >> Hashem is But, Hashem isn't supporting the farmers that they come collecting every 7 years. >> cuz that's how That's how So, okay, so could be could be, but I'm just saying if if they would all would they be Maybe, but I'm just saying if if it would be an open nice, then you wouldn't have to come collect, right? >> nice probably [snorts] is. Right. Well, but if they all wouldn't farm, I think many people who take a Rambam esque approach would say, "It's going to be tough to to continue farming the land." Why? Even if you'll survive the seventh year, what's going to happen? Um so, I'm not sure how many of you have retail stores or many Whatever you do, you probably have customers or relationships, right? Unless you're an accountant. Is anyone here an accountant? You're an accountant, right? So, you have you you work with you work for a firm or you work with clients individually? >> [clears throat] >> Individually. So, let's say you tell your um client, "I'm going to be your accountant, but every seventh year I'm not going to be your accountant." What's going to happen? Find somebody They'll find somebody else, right? Because people want long-term relationships. So, if every seventh year Israel would not send produce to Europe, and Israel's money from agriculture, and it's not really a large source of the Israeli economy. [clears throat] But, the money that Israel produces from agriculture is based on export, right? That's where the money comes in. So, if every seventh year German supermarkets wouldn't be able to get their tomatoes from Israel, what are they going to do? Instead of having long-term contracts with Israel, they'll have long-term contracts with I don't know, um Morocco or Spain. And, what's going to happen to Israeli agriculture? It'll collapse. Now, what's going to happen to all that land? Now, Israel needs land for building, but not all the land is going to become apartment buildings. Some of the land will remain open and will remain valuable farmland. Who's going to buy that land? Jews won't be able to farm, right? Cuz you'll cuz you're keeping shmita. So, who's going to buy that land? Arabs. And which guy are we going to buy? Which guy will win Israel? Arabs. >> [snorts] >> So, who controls most of society's land? Farmers, right? People who own homes own a tiny percentage of land. You typically farmer owns a thousand times more land than even a person in Monsey. Okay, forget a person in Brooklyn, right? So, what's going to happen is is that 90 plus percent of Israeli land is going to be owned by Arabs. So, you will have the death of Jewish agriculture, which means all the mitzvahs that result from Jewish agriculture, like keeping shmita. You're keeping with a loophole, but you're keeping shmita. Trummus, ma'aser, or all of those amazing mitzvahs that you're supposed to go to Israel for will no longer be kept. But more than that, 90 plus percent of your land is going to be controlled by Arabs. Now, most of them may not be terrorists, but is it smart if 90% of the land owned by a section of the population that isn't fully on board with what you believe? So, I remember was sitting with Rabbi the chief Rabbi Michel Lion, Rabbi Shapiro, who again, the people the Haredi community are very passionate that you trust Hashem and don't from the land. He was saying and I just I'm rushing it tonight. What? I'm not saying it's a consequence of it. Let's go back to the shear I gave a few weeks ago. There's a rationale behind the mitzvah. And when there's a rationale, let's shift. You have a lot of money. There's a friend who wants money because he wants to build a business. He knows there's inflation. He wants to borrow money so he can build a business so he can be with his partners and his family. You're going to say, "I'm not going to lend you money because I can't take interest from you." Uh but there's a heter iska. I don't want to rely on loopholes, right? But will you do that? And will that be the right thing to do? Lend your money >> be the wrong thing to do? Yes, I think it would be the wrong thing to do. Because because there's a sensible way of doing business with a Jew and allowing a Jew to to make parnassa. Because otherwise you will never lend money to a Jew. Jew won't be able to start a business. A Jew won't be able to do anything. A Jew won't be able to take a mortgage, right? How will people going to buy homes in Israel? How are they going to establish businesses? You said Torah's out of date. I'm not saying the Torah's out of date. I'm saying we as a community that Kodesh Baruch Hu gave us a wonderful >> doesn't work in the current economy. So we have to rethink it and find a way around it. We didn't. The Torah, the Chachamim created heter iska. The Chachamim created principle with the understanding that economics shifts. You never violate I guess you weren't there that week. You never violate a Torah mitzvah, but you sometimes deliberately circumvent. And Kodesh Baruch Hu wants you to do that because you have to make things work. So again, you will tell me that Israel the Israeli economy will cease to function. Um it's heter iska is a work around. And ribbis is a much bigger problem than shmita. Ribbis is a clear de'oraita. Shmita maybe de'oraita, maybe not. The consequences the Chazal that talk about ribbis aren't are much much more severe than shmita. So just think about that. So there's shmita there's um Pesach. Right? All the Jewish grocery stores will cease existing. If you don't sell chametz, no Jewish grocery store logic. And we don't use logic. But we do. We don't. We we But We rely on You don't rely on us. But You don't use logic. But do the Jewish grocery stores just rely on us? Or will they just shut down? Hard to be a What? Hard to be a Jew. It's not hard to be a Jew. The Chachamim uh the Remus used to say it's a one shouldn't say that. It's excellent to be a Jew and it's sensible and it's wise. And one of the beauties is that I got this problem gave us a Torah and he and he and he told us listen to your coming and they'll steer you. Certain things are set in stone, but where you can sometimes society changes. So again, Schmitah is small. Schmitah is the rabbinate and by by not keeping it you lose so many mitzvahs. Ribbis is huge. Chametz and Pesach is huge. And and every single one of us relies on these things and without these things the world we have would stop functioning. Let's forget chutz la'aretz, it's Israel. You will not have an economy if you don't work with heter iska, right? You can't have a mortgage. You won't have mortgages. >> Okay, but heter iska is doing your shabbos. Which is shabbos? You're doing your shabbos you're doing it? >> the Torah know the laws. So the no one God forbid says you should farm the land of Schmitah. So no one God forbid suggests that you should farm the land of Schmitah. All some chachams say and early chachams, not recent chachams, um the chachams who lived in Israel over the last few hundred years who were farmers and that seemed to be the norm. Come come every seventh year they would sell the land to a guy and have do the work. Just the way you rely on it for heter iska. Just the way you rely on it for um um lending money. Just the way you rely on it for chametz. Just the way women rely on it with their sheitels. Um some of these things are almost ludicrous, but we rely on them. This is not ludicrous and people have relied on this historically. Come to me to um Tshuvas Yeshua's Malco 5. Which so he's it's 19th century, but he's talking about um What? Where he says um well it's obvious you do this. What page? Um um page four. Four? Number [snorts] five. V'einam machzi b'pshitus she'tov la'adam l'amkor l'nachri af b'shas l'tin b'limke karka. Now he says of course there are issues. You're not allowed to sell land to a in in Eretz Yisrael. Well maybe you're allowed to sell to a a who is a monotheist. Muslims are monotheists. Maybe you're not allowed to sell, but maybe you're allowed to sell to a who already has land. There are ways to make it work. Um l'umka l'vei Yisrael kivan she'hu l'ta'avis ayish pshita d'einka nis. >> The objective here was to strengthen the hold. Without doing this, you will not have Jewish control of the land. Israeli security will be endangered. You're not going to have it at least for this. So, it's counterproductive. The whole objective of shmita, according to the Rambam, was to strengthen our hold on the land. The whole objective, according to the was to create a spiritual reality. Did each one accept the other's perspective? I don't know. Each one just mentions his own. The Rambam is quite firm in saying this is the only approach. Hinukh not so much. And remember, the Hinukh felt himself um to be less than the Rambam. He quotes the Rambam, and when he quotes the Rambam, he says, "Well, that's what the Rambam says. I'll offer an opinion, but I won't disagree with the Rambam." So, the Rambam is me Moshe ad Moshe lo kam k'Moshe. So, the Rambam is absolutely clear, right? Everything that that we know, the Rambam knew and more. The Hinukh is also clear. I'm not saying you should lock yourself into one approach. What I'm saying is you shouldn't discount. In other words, if I'm in shmita in Israel, I will eat whatever my host gives me. My the backs that I live in, the backs that I raise my kids in, right? The backs that I live in, the backs that I raise my kids in is agree Menachem. Look, an old friend agrees. But, um that other approach is is has a strong base. So, if someone serves me my food, I'll eat it without a question. And I won't like try to circumvent or that is a very solid and in many ways superior. And the approach will say that it is superior in a different way. And I'm not saying one is better than the other. All I'm trying to say is don't discount the other approach. And [snorts] by doing that, you do a disservice to a large section of Israel. And I'll tell you it really is When I visited Shapiro, I remember there were a group of visiting. He was really upset. He was He wasn't He identified with the world. He said, "You know, we're the protest is generally coming from." This is many years ago. He said it's generally coming from Jordan. So, not only are we not, you know, supporting Israeli agriculture, we're we're supporting agriculture in Jordan. And where does that money go? I mean, what are they using it for? Some of that money is being used to buy weapons. What What is this? So, I'm not So, the approach back would be it's a mitzvah you keep a mitzvah no matter what. And I'm not That's a valid approach. But the other approach is an equally valid approach. And there are places all across In the realm of halachas, we worry about all those dominoes down the road. You do. We're going to circumvent No one you can never violate >> worry about all these dominoes. If somebody does something we don't like If somebody does something we don't like, we're going to change the We all do that with anything No one God forbid says changing. There was a shiur I gave a few weeks ago. Maybe you weren't here that week. And there was a title to that shiur. The title was um letter of the law or spirit of the law. There's a whole series of halachas where we're comfortable circumventing. And there's a whole series of halachas where we're not comfortable circumventing. No one will circumvent murder, right? They're always circumvent. No one will circumvent adultery. They're always circumvent. There's something Nobody currently will, but somebody might one day the same way So So the And that's where you have to go back to some type of innate morality. And that's another discussion. But at the end of the everyone in this room relies on on on on this idea of circumventing halacha for issues that are much bigger than shmita. And we are going to look at those poor Israeli farmers who really are working really hard, generally do not have high standards of living, and are really doing most of it for us, and saying, "Well, you can't." I mean, you're relying on it What? >> Where do you draw the line? We believe in circumventing. They circumvent And so this They you're not circumventing. They're breaking. So they And so the line and and the line would >> [snorts] >> Excellent question. And the line will be You see why you never wanted my shiur room taped. Um the line will be that this conservative movement wasn't circumventing, they were breaking. >> They thought they were circumventing. You're lighting a fire. Um and most of our But they didn't do anything. They thought they were circumventing. Right, and that's why it's Likewise, the ones you're naming And and and that's why the whole life is a big struggle. But again, I reiterate, not just I, you rely on this if you're involved. If you're being in Israel, your mortgage would involve a huge problem of for this. It would involve a huge problem of shmita. Open door Isis, and you're relying >> Even in American mortgages, how many mortgage companies are are Jewish, right? And you're going to say, "Well, I'm dafka not going to take from a Jewish bank, and I'll dafka go to a non-Jewish bank because I don't want to rely on a heter iska thing." I think that would be a terrible thing. You can all be Jewish. And that would be a terrible, terrible thing. I think um you can be giving parnassah to Jews. Um he heter iska was a And you're relying on it. All of Israel relies and so the idea would be you've got a new thing. Priska is not a new thing. But it was new. Hillel organized it 2,000 years ago. >> Right. But when he realized that when he realized things were not working, people weren't farming the same way. There was city living. When there was city living, there were different types of loans, and he created heter. No one suggests violating halakha. Everyone suggests that sometimes things are really hard to keep. And what is the diff? Um when things are really hard to keep and and they don't resonate morally, then we as a community, chachamim top down, will institute a heter. And shmita, the heter has been practiced in Israel for hundreds of years because of a small issue with farmers. Now, it became very politicized now. And again, there are these two camps. But um you and I rely on this. You rely on this for things that are much more significant and things that are silly. The shape Right. >> That's what I know. The fact that I So But before, you know, before you had the mass immigration to Israel in the 19th century, you had hundreds, you had centuries of Jews living in Israel where many were farmers and they relied on this. How would How would that How could they have kept their farms? So, those who lived in Israel And now suddenly the mindset has sort of shifted to create a homer for Israeli farmers. I don't know that it's necessarily such I again, there's something there's something developed and beautiful about I'm not discounting the idea of keeping what seems to be a classic shmita. I am presenting another approach that is solidly based not just in the world of Machshava, but in the world of Pesach. And here there's a range of poskim that are on different sides of the divide. I'm not telling you what to do. All I'm telling you is don't dismiss the other side um because you Every one of you is relying in this on things that are important for you. Shmita isn't important for you because you're not a farmer there. Loans are important. No one I mean, I gave the speech at a hotel actually in Pesach and one of the guys came over to me that there was shmita and he and he loaned somebody money and he doesn't have a lot of money and he didn't want to rely on poskim. Fine. You don't want to But the economy would collapse. So, you can give up on your loan, that's great. But in a Bank Hapoalim cannot do that, right? Or they they can't continue. You won't have a banking system, right? So, the reality is you need to rely on things like this. Now, does everyone accept? Of course not. So, um Yeshua's Malko is a great proponent Look at his language. Kanievsky is very much a posit. And you And you can sort of predict Kanievsky represents, you know, more of a classic black and white chareidi view and he says, Why rely on heter mechira? Kanievsky tells you it's all going to be good and he says even selling land to a non-Jew is a naveira. And and the answer back would be Rav Kook would say, "It's not a naveira because the whole reason that Why does the Torah ban selling land to a non-Jew? Because he wants Eretz Yisrael to be Jewish. So, you're not going to sell the land every seventh year and this way all Israeli farmers will have to get rid of the land because they can't be farmers. So, all of Israeli land will be sold to non-Jews." There are miracles that people have seen I'm not discounting I have the same Yeah. I'm not I'm not you know again I'm so but again I know every schmekl people are collecting for people there. So so again so mix the schmekl forces a massive amount of stuff right so it's all I'm not I'm not locking you into one approach. I'm presenting two alternatives that both are solidly based. Now in terms of sack you want recent sack. So here you have rough cook one side of the divide a great proponent of heter mechira to allow people to build Eretz Yisrael Chazon on the other side. I'm not going to tell you you know it's rough cook and the Chazon Ish. I'm not you know saying right wrong but I'm presenting two great alternates and this goes way back and it really goes back to the Rambam and the Chinuch. Let's see on the Chazon Ish. Chazon Ish is very opposed to so the ain 6 bein im im karka al lo. He says well you'll tell me you can sell land to a non-Jew you're not allowed to sell land to a non-Jew because of ossur chanim but maybe you're allowed to sell land if the non-Jew already has some. He says it's not true he says you're not allowed to. That's the Chazon Ish's opinion. Okay. Now you'll tell me if he's if he's over avodah zarah you're not allowed to sell him land but yeah but he isn't over then you're allowed to. He says also not true. Okay. Ain chanim is very very strong and he says the issur of selling land is an issur d'oraisa. Shmitta maybe d'rabbanan. If you're selling land to a non-Jew and then he quotes many sources to develop this and so on and so forth. Really I should continue with this next week because it's really um there's more to this than meets the eye but I really should go to this wedding. I I will eat a little more ice at 9:10 right so I got another 3 minutes. Let's see rough cook source four. Okay. Binyan ossur chanim. Okay. He says well the only way to sort of allow this heter to work is to sell the land to a non-Jew but you're not allowed to sell land to a non-Jew so how can this heter get going right? Binyan ossur chanim ossur chanim karka Yisrael. Yoter chanim b'dinah d'Yisrael d'begoyishah b'lav k'dei karka ain ossur below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean below the ocean And then he says, go to the core of the issue. Is this a real sale at the end of the day? You're selling the land temporarily so you can have the land back. Is that a violation of the Shulchan Aruch or the whole objective is for you to maintain the land? Maybe not. He says there are so many components here that you can rely on this. So again, you got significant authorities there, significant authorities there, and this plays itself out. This even plays itself out. I mean, I can't really I'm I'm I'm going to hold myself back in terms of shmita canceling loans, which itself is the most extraordinary of discussion. But I will go to the wedding that I said I will go to. Okay? Good night.