Voices of Shemittah Farmers (Part II)
“I loved agriculture when I was young,” says David Ben Saadon, who grew up in Jerusalem. “I studied in an agricultural high school. In the army I was in Nachal in Kibbutz Be’erot Yitzhak. We founded the religious Bnei Akiva Moshav Gadid in Gush Katif in 1978 where I learned how to grow insect-free lettuce. We were a large group of singles at the time. I married in Kfar Darom [also in Gush Katif] and stayed there until the destruction of Gush Katif and then we left.”
After the destruction of Gush Katif, when Ben Saadon was forced out of Moshav Gadid, he says he did not receive enough financial help from the Israeli government to recoup his losses, so he moved to Central America, where he set up a farm in the Dominican Republic. “I had 450 dunams there, and we exported produce to the U.S. and Canada. I would fly back and forth to Israel to see my family,” he says. “After almost six years I returned to Israel and my family was still living in prefab ‘caravillot’ [caravans] in Nitzan.”
In 2010, he returned to live in Israel and established a farm in Zikim, south of Ashkelon, where he works now growing high-quality lettuce for the Chasalat-Alei Katif company. “All of Am Yisrael eats my produce; we have kashrut mehuderet. Chasalat-Alei Katif is the largest insect-free vegetable company in Israel. We use methods that we developed in Gush Katif.
“Today we live in the village of Be’er Ganim, a new village created for families from Gush Katif and some others also settled there.”
The laws of shemittah apply only to produce grown within the boundaries of Eretz Yisrael. Exactly where the boundaries extend is a matter of halachic discussion. Some authorities rule that anything grown south of Ashkelon (including Gush Katif) is outside the boundaries of Eretz Yisrael. Others extend the boundaries well into part of the Negev desert (east of Nachal Arava) until Eilat. Zikim – which is south of Ashkelon – is in an area considered “kibbush Olei Mitzrayim” (within the borders created by the Israelites who left Egypt and entered the Land of Israel with Yehoshua).
According to the Mishnah, when the Jews returned to Eretz Yisrael from Bavel after seventy years, the areas in which they settled and which Ezra sanctified regained their kedusha and are referred to as kibbush Olei Bavel. The laws of shemittah are only partially binding in parts of the country that were conquered by Yehoshua (kibbush Olei Mitzrayim) but were not reconquered by Ezra.
Ben Saadon’s lettuce is under the supervision of Otzar Ha’aretz, an organization that seeks to advance the proper observance of shemittah through overseeing an otzar beit din and other initiatives, and to strengthen Jewish agriculture. During shemittah, Ben Saadon sells his land to a non-Jew in a transaction known as “heter mechira l’chumrah.” Rav Moshe Baraness, who oversees all the Otzar Ha’aretz produce, explains: “We were required [in Ben Saadon’s area, considered kibbush Olei Mitzrayim] by the rabbanim of Otzar Ha’aretz and also according to the directives of Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, zt”l, and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel to make a heter mechira. So we do a heter mechira l’chumrah. It is not the regular heter mechira that you are used to that is within the borders of ha’aretz, but it is in a different area, in the area of Olei Mitzrayim.”
In other years, Ben Saadon and his son work hard on the farm. What does he do differently during shemittah?
“My son and I do not work; it is assur (forbidden). We just supervise our workers from Thailand, who have been with us for a number of years, and they manage the work.”
“All other years both we and the Thailandis work. We work harder than they do from the time the sun comes up until ‘the soul goes out’ [a colloquial Hebrew phrase] and are happy and are grateful to HaKadosh Baruch Hu who gave us parnassa [livelihood] to bring forth bread from the earth.”
Ben Saadon believes in finding solutions for farmers during shemittah while also strengthening Jewish agriculture. “If the Jews stop working the land, Arabs will work the land and they will sell their produce, making it more difficult for Jews to [reenter the market] after shemittah,” he explains.
Is it more difficult for you during Shemittah? What do you feel? And please explain your ideology.
David answers passionately: “We want to settle Eretz Yisrael and we want to hold on to the earth, and we believe we should do that through agriculture. This is one way of fulfilling ‘kibbush ha’Aretz,’ acquiring the Land.
“Our parnassa is from the land. It is not easy during the shemittah year; we have a lot of competition from the Arabs. We have to hold on to the land and when we leave it, they take our place, and this was also part of the thinking of Rav Kook in his time – that the moment the Jew leaves the land, the non-Jew comes in. Then it’s hard for you to get back your place in the market, after you’ve given them the knowledge, and it’s a shame. We are still Zionists and we love the land and agriculture and why should we leave the farming to Arabs who are [often] hostile?
“We can no longer employ Arabs from Gaza or Judea and Samaria, like we did in Gush Katif. Eighteen of our Jewish farmers were murdered by Arabs who had worked for them on their farms and greenhouses in Gush Katif. Today the State of Israel also brings workers from Thailand and India and Napal, and they work for us but the state charges us a high tax on that.”
At the end of the day, however, Ben Saadon knows that it’s Hashem controlling his livelihood – whether or not it’s a shemittah year. “It’s a real challenge when you work in agriculture; it’s not like when you work in a factory [and you receive a regular paycheck],” he says. “You are dependent on the grace of Heaven for rain in the winter and you have to deal with insects and with drought,” he says. “To be a farmer, you need strong emunah.”
A shorter version of this article appeared in Jewish Action, the quarterly magazine of the Orthodox Union (Spring 2022).
