Avot317

Today's shiur is dedicated by Sol Freedman
in memory of his mother,
Sylvia Freedman,
Surah Sheindel Bas Luzar z"l,
whose Yahrzeit is today, 18th Tevet.

37:
In view of everything that we have learned so far concerning Shemittah 'in our day and age' it seems that there is ample backing from the Rishonim [major sages and decisors] of the middle ages for us to do in the 21st century what Rabbi wanted to do in the 2nd century. We should declare that nowadays the observance of Shemittah is an act of supererogation. Where observance would cause extreme hardship, enormous economic loss and thrust us into an ideological topsy-turvydom we should absolve those concerned from the need to observe the custom at all.

38:
Economic loss is beyond our comprehension: if every farm, every moshav and every kibbutz in Eretz-Israel were required to cease all agricultural activity they would bankrupt themselves before the year was out and food production would grind to a halt.

39:
The solutions which have been proposed by the orthodox are, to put it as mildly as I know how, ludicrous! The Ultra-orthodox would have all Jews in Eretz-Israel for one year eat only agricultural produce imported from Arab lands: thus enriching beyond their wildest dreams the coffers of the Palestinian Authority and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The Zionist orthodox, on the other hand, would have us sell the Land of Israel to a non-Jew for two years! Is this the ultimate realization of the Zionist enterprise, to sell the land we have yearned for for two millennia simply because we have achieved our heart's desire?

40:
Of course, it is much easier for private individuals to fulfill the act of supererogation if they so choose: the private householder with his or her little plot can perhaps forego the pleasures of gardening for one year. But there is something deeper that none of us should ever forget: the purpose of the laws of the sabbatical year. The Torah has made it quite clear that the purpose of these laws was poor relief:

The sabbatical year should be a year in which we all practice charity and generosity in an even greater degree than we usually do.

41:
I have expatiated on this matter because 5768 is a sabbatical year and I thought that all Conservative Jews should understand the halakhic possibilities that are presented to us in this year.

To be continued.

Marty Berman writes (concerning Ĥanukah):

You mention that the Talmud Bavli is the only source for the story of the oil. I know that it is also mentioned in Megillat Taanit. I don't know the purview of the text. Is it not from Eretz Yisrael and even perhaps pre-mishna?

I respond:

It is very difficult to know the origin of Megillat Ta'anit. The Gemara [Shabbat 13b]tells us that it was composed by "Ĥananyah ben-Ĥizkyah of the Garon family, together with a number of others who had assembled for a meeting in his house." However, most of the body of the work is composed in a very late Aramaic of Eretz-Israel, and in the early first century or earlier any such work would surely have been composed in Hebrew. Another source tells us that it was composed by "elders of the school of Shammai and elders of the school of Hillel". The scholion to Megillat Ta'anit tells us that "El'azar ben Ĥananyah of the family of Garon together with his followers" compiled Megillat Ta'anit. This would put the compilation into the time of the great revolt against the Romans, some 230 years after the Maccabees. The Gemara which tells the story of the cruse of oil seems to be quoting directly from this work and relates to it as if it were a baraita. Perhaps the sages in Babylon really thought that Megillat Ta'anit was an authentic composition, contemporary with the Hasmoneans. The sages of Eretz-Israel apparently knew differently because they ignore it.

The next shiur in this series will be, God willing, on Thursday 3rd January 2008.