Israeli Farmers Fear Haredi Monopoly of Fruit and Vegetable Market Ahead of Shmita – Rabbis Ban Non-Haredi-Endorsed Produce, Prevent Sale In Many Cities, Including Jerusalem

The Jerusalem post reports:

Farmers are concerned that a haredi power struggle to monopolize the fruit and vegetable market in the upcoming shmita [Sabbatical] year could cause growers as much as a NIS 700 million loss and result in a sharp rise in retail produce prices.

Yusta Bleier, Chairman of the Farmers Association, said Wednesday that fruit and vegetable growers were "very concerned" about "aggressive marketing tactics" being pursued by certain haredi kosher supervision organizations.

"Haredi kosher supervisors are trying to monopolize all the major retail chains," said Bleier, "And many local rabbis are refusing to allow fruits and vegetable that are not under haredi-run kosher supervision to be sold in their towns and cities, even when the majority of residents are not even religious."…

[I]n Jewish legal tradition there is a solution to the restrictions of the shmita year. Known as "heiter mechira," which can be loosely translated as "the sale option," the solution entails selling Jewish-owned land in Israel to a non-Jew…

But haredi rabbinic leadership has traditionally opposed heiter mechira since it was first introduced at the end of the 19th century. The haredi rabbis scoff at the attempt to stage a fake "sale" of the land so as to permit farmers to continue to work as usual during the shmita year.

[Of course, these same haredi rabbis implement and make money from an equally "fake" sale every year – the selling of hametz before Passover. Other such pro forma sales are used throughout Jewish law, as well. But I, Shmarya, digress into reality …]

Instead, haredi rabbis demand that all fruits and vegetables be bought from non-Jewish, mostly Arab, farmers inside Israel who have legally registered ownership of their land or from farmers outside Israel.

Haredi leaders are also trying to put pressure on the Agriculture Ministry to increase produce imports, which would be a serious blow to local farmers.

In previous shmita years, said Bleier, haredi rabbis were concerned solely with providing kosher supervision over fruits and vegetables earmarked for their own followers.

"But this shmita year the haredim have become much more aggressive. They are now waging a war against heiter mechira. They are doing everything they can to block the sale of heiter mechira produce.

"But we won't let them. If we need to we'll set up our own fruit and vegetable stands outside the supermarket chains and sell our own produce."

In several cities local rabbis have announced that they will refuse to allow heiter mechira produce to be sold in their cities. Grocery stores will have to choose between no kosher supervision whatsoever and the stringent, haredi supervision.

For instance, the rabbis of Rehovot, Petah Tikva and Herzliya have already announced they will not allow the sale of heiter mechira. Wholesalers in Herzliya have petitioned the Supreme Court to force the local rabbi to allow the sale of heiter mechira. The wholesalers argue that since the majority of Herzliya's residents are not haredi the local rabbi cannot coerce them to accept a stringent haredi kosher supervision.

In Bat Yam, Ra'anana, Afula, Kfar Saba and Ashdod the chief rabbis are also opposed to the sale of heiter mechira.

In Jerusalem, where there is no chief rabbi, the situation is similar. Only the more stringent kosher operations will be allowed to give supervision.

Rabbi Moshe Rauchverger, a senior member of the Shmita Council in the Chief Rabbinate, said that the rabbinate's policy was to allow each local rabbi to decide for himself which kosher supervision to adopt. Rauchverger admitted that this shmita year a concerted effort was made by the rabbinate and its head, Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger, to reduce to a minimum the use of heiter mechira. In fact, one of the reasons Metzger received haredi support for his appointment as chief rabbi was the promise he gave to oppose heiter mechira.…

Bleier said that annual agricultural production in Israel was NIS 7 billion. While last shmita, the haredi market only accounted for about 6-7% of the market for agricultural goods, the demand has grown so that today they represent about 17% of the market, translating into a loss for farmers of about NIS 700m.

However, the head of shmita year kosher supervision for the Edah Haredit denied his organization, which is the single largest kosher supervision apparatus catering to the haredi population, has any interest in monopolizing non haredi markets.

"We are focusing solely on predominantly haredi areas such as the haredi neighborhoods in Ashdod, Beit Shemesh, Modi'in Ilit, Beiter Ilit and Safed."

The Edah Haredit source admitted, though, that his competitor, Efrati's Kashrut Le'mehadrin [please see below], was pursuing an aggressive campaign to expand his organization's influence beyond the haredi sphere.

First, any locality's chief rabbi that refuses to allow heter mehira produce to be sold should be dismissed. The state has no business paying these rabbis' salaries.

Second, it would be wise if a movement could be started to boycott all haredi-endorsed produce and food. What they try to do to us should be done to them, but legally and in spades.

I believe "Efrati's Kashrut Le'mehadrin" is run by Rabbi Efrati, haredi leader Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv's right-hand man.

Rabbi Metzger was backed for election as chief rabbi by Rabbi Elyashiv, despite Rabbi Metzger's previous ethical lapses, the then last of which found Metzger before a Rabbinate panel of three senior rabbinic judges charged with extorting money from people as he was performing their weddings. (He was also accused of sexual harassment of both women and men.)

Rabbi Metzger threatened to sue the Rabbinate in civil court and the panel backed down, accepting Rabbi Metzger's promise not to run for chief rabbi of Tel Aviv. Later, Metger declared his candidacy for Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel and received the backing of Rabbi Elyashiv.

Haredi spokesman Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblum told me then that Rabbi Elyashiv was "fully aware" of Rabbi Metzger's ethical and legal problems including the judgment against Rabbi Metzger by the Rabbinate's panel of judges and the allegations of sexual harassment, but said that Rabbi Elyshiv chose to back Rabbi Metzger anyway to "return the glory" to the chief rabbinate.

Of course, what Rabbi Elyashiv really wanted was the weakest candidate that he could propel into office. That would weaken the Rabbinate and, at the same time, put it under Rabbi Elyashiv's control.

So haredim under the leadership of Rabbi Elyashiv are inflicting their stringencies non-haredim. At the same time, their actions may very well bankrupt Israel's farmers.

Rabbi Elyashiv does this in the name of Torah but, make no mistake about it – it is political power and the money that comes with it Rabbi Elyashiv seeks.

Many religious leaders are misguided. Some, as you know, are criminals who parade in the clothing of saints. But I think few religious leaders are truly evil. However, Rabbi Elyashiv is, in my eyes, one of those truly evil men.

Comments

[Anonymous]

The Torah guarantees that whoever follows the shmitta rules will be blessed with a surplus so that they will gain - not lose. It would seem that anything in the Chumash is becoming more & more alien to Shmarya.

Although Shmarya has ill intentions overall, he is correct here about mechiras chometz. The Vilna Gaon and other poskim rule there is no such thing as selling actual chometz, making any such contract fake. Many individuals follow this opinion.

Mechira by shmitta is certainly fake and as the Chazon Ish said, if you are mafkir the fields, you are mafkir the Torah.

One thing the rabbonim should improve on here is stop the purchase of produce from Arabs who could poison it. They should buy it from Europe and elsewhere.

It's true that there are outstanding questions with Metzger, but since the govt rabbanut is a corrupt farce to begin with, I don't see how Metzger could make it any worse.

[Anonymous]

SHmarya is obviously framing Rav Elyashev as overly evil because he is the gadol hador. If you attack your enemy, in this case Orthodox Jews, you go for the head.

SHmarya has probably never mentioned the psak from Rav Elyashev to call the police on molesters and all the good he has done.

There is a "special" place in the next world for people like Shmarya.

[Richard Jewell]

Failure:

You are genuine nitwit. I suggest you take a gander at R. Elyashiv's apartment on your next trip. He's got nothing but a few chairs and a table. Where is he hiding his money? In his pillow case or a swiss bank account?

BTW, a primary reason for the heter mechirah given by R. A.Y. Kook was that the land was controlled by gentile governments (Ottonman and then British. This no longer applies.

Lastly, to add to the above comment, in Israel and New York, you can find noodles etc. with a label claiming that they were manufactured after Pesach.

[Anonymous]

Wasn't Richard Jewell the guy initially suspected in planting the explosive device at the '96 Olympics in Atlanta before Eric Rudolph was caught?

[Abe]

You know that the situation in Israel is becoming intolerable when religious fundies begin controling the sale of fruits and vegetables. The secular Jews need to rise up and force politicians to get these orthodox cretins off the public payroll.

[Anonymous]

Shmarya would probably view it as even more unbearable if the "fundie" control of produce were to include black eyed peas, collard greens & watermelon. Just kidding.

[Shmarya]

Just banning. Bye. Don't let your white sheet hit your haredi ass on the way out the door.

[R]

If the pesach chometz selling is such a farce, why do we bother?
So for those that do the farcical selling of chometz on pesach, does that then mean the selling of the fields during shmita will be valid? Why can't they sell their stuff, but just have a label on the produce saying it has been sold that way.
As for what the torah says, the torah says alot that we don't take at face value, otherwise you get the story of the apikores who saw a boy obey his father in making the mother bird fly from the nest to collect the eggs, fall from the tree and die. But it says in the torah that if one does both of these mitzvot they get rewarded with long life.
I don't agree in Shmarya's method of writing and making the charedim plain evil.

[Shmarya]

And what about the pruzbol? And the other fictions of halakha used daily to avoid untenable situations?

We do the sale of hametz because if we did not, Jews would either lose a tremendous amount of money by throwing away their hametz or, more likely, Jews would find their own less legal ways around the law.

No one mandates that YOU must sell your hametz. You can burn all of it at will if you choose. But you CANNOT force others do do the same.

The same principle holds true for heter mihira and other areas of halakha.

If haredim do not want to eat heter mihira produce, fine – but they cannot force other Jews to do the same.

That is the point.

[shmuel]

And what about "heter iska"? (Really, I forgot and need a reminder--what does it allow?) There seem to be an awful lot of heterim and leniencies out there that many highly observant Jews avail themselves of. They're either all legitimate or none of them are, true? Why and when did haredim become the practitioners of "pick and choose" Judaism, which they criticize their less observant brethren of being?

[Alex]

Next up on the Superman series on the haredi channel: What happened was that all of the fruits that secular jews grew during the shmita year in Israel became alive and they grew fangs and started attacking people! What is Superman going to do?

eat them!!!

lol

[Neo-Conservaguy]

Has there really been an accurate accounting of the shmita cycle since the second temple fell? What about yovel?

My favorite story of the sale of hamets is that of a "frum Jew" who made sure to stock up on flour before Pesach so he could be certain he wasn't eating the new wheat harvest afterwards. Yes, you read that correctly.

[Isa]

Concerning the above comment:
I knew a pious fellow that stocked up on whiskey before Pesach as he could not be certain that the wholesalers would sell their hametz (whiskey)before pesach. By pious I mean pious toward HaShem AND towards people.

[Natan]

Rav Elyashiv forces people to hold by Heter Mechira on potted plants.

Why is there no mention of the Otzar Beit Din?

Mechira by shmitta is certainly fake and as the Chazon Ish said, if you are mafkir the fields, you are mafkir the Torah.

- Read the rest of his psikei regarding Shmitta. The Chazon Ish is very meikil when it comes to Shmitta. Rav Kook is much more machmir but because of that he had to allow Heter Mechira so that the Yishuv wouldn't fail.

[yona loriner]

i think capitalism is a great thing... let them do whatever they want....

[yona loriner]

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[yona loriner]

ok then

[yona loriner]

hehe

[yona loriner]

who the heck cares?