THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS \ Zar07/19: YANgiar %AV Sabbatical Year Has Special Significance MRS. BEN BENESON and FAMILY wish all their friends and relatives a year of good health and peace CD 1 ./. / 7.0151Gfar45105 I 7,3YZA • / Arm/ By DVORA WAYSMAN Awoormullow World Zionist Press Service Best Wishes For A Happy, Peaceful New Year To All Our Friends and Relatives MR. AND MRS. LITMAN GOULD Southfield 01•1=1..., 197985740 Happy New Year The Adelstein Family Ronnie, Fern and David mimminiiiimi 1979°5740 111111111111111111111 to all our family and friends From the Cottlers', Cohens' and Kotlyars' This Rosh Hashana, marking the beginning of the Jewish year 5740, will have a special significance. It will be a "Shmitta" (Sab- batical) year — a year of reat for the soil. "Shmitta" literally means renunciation. We renounce the right to work the land, and let it lie fal- low: The seventh year shall be .a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land" (Lev. 25:4), and we renounce our right to col- lect debts: "At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. And this is the manner of the re- lease; every creditor shall release that which he lent unto his neighbor" (Deut. 15:1-2). Although the laws of the sabbatical remittance of debts apply to Jews everywhere, the obligation to let the land lie fallow is limited to the boundaries of Israel, as these laws begin only ". . . when ye come into the land which I give you" (Lev. 25:2). After wandering for 40 years through the barren desert, Moses gathered together the Israelites at the foot of Mt. Sinai, and gave them a detailed law about the soil. For as soon as they entered Eretz Yisrael, they were . . may the New Year be one of joy, happiness and prosperity for all mankind The Jewish News Staff And Their Families Extends heartiest greetings to the entire Jewish Community of Michigan, with gratitude for the splendid cooperation that has enabled us to work to- gether for good community spirit. Mr. and Mrs. Philip Slomovitz and -son, Gabriel Mr. and Mrs. Carmi M. Slomovitz and son, Randy Alan Hitsky Heidi Press Marlene Miller Marjorie Newberger Tedd Schneider Phyllis Tyner Janice Stein Sandra Main Ralph Orme 1111 ■ 111 I - I MIIINIM MI I I I I MINIM MU Dharlene Norris Drew Lieberwitz Ben Gorney Danny Raskin Seymour Schwartz Curtis DeLoye Donald Cheshure Catharine Ciccone A I I - - - — I I - IN AIM THERE IS STILL TIME TO PLACE YOUR NEW YEAR GREETING IN NEXT FRIDAY'S ISSUE OF THE JEWISH NEWS I Address a a Name C ity Zip Code The Jewish News, 17515 W. 9 Mile Rd., Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075 [11 Check enclosed —$7.50 —$12.50 —$17.50 (Please Circle One) 1•1=1111•11111111111111 ■ 11111111111M11•11111/1•111M11111•1111111111111111111111111111111 ■ M11111111=11•11111111111/11111111=4111 to become people of the land, with their whole lives bound up in agricul- ture. For many generations (until the system of crop ro- tation was devised, at the beginning of the 20th Cen- tury) both Jews and gentiles saw the logic of letting the land periodically rest and even unwittingly followed the law of the Torah in ag- riculture. For centuries, as the Jews in the Diaspora be- came a largely non- agricultural people, the ac- tual law of "Shmitta" re- garding the land was just a theoretical problem to be discussed by talmudic scholars. With the estab- lishment of the state of Is- rael, however, it again be- came a practical problem for the settlers. There are many reasons for the Shmitta year. Firstly, to teach mankind that the earth does not be- long to them, but only to God. It also teaches man to have confidence in God, for even though he rests from his work for a year, the Lord will invoke a blessing foi. him. Another reason is that one year in seven, man is - freed just to study Torah, for he is not preoccupied with working the land. During the Second Tem- ple period, the Jews rigidly adhered to Shmitta in Eretz Yisrael. During the Has- monean War, the fall of Beth Zur was attributed to a famine in the city since it was a Sabbatical year. Julius Caesar exempted the Jews from taxation in a Shmitta year sine; "they neither take fruit from the trees nor do they sow." After the abortive Bar Kokhba Revolt, however, the Jews were again compelled to pay taxes, causing grave hard- ships which in turn con- vinced the rabbis to relax many prohibitions. In modern times, the problem of Shmitta in Is- rael, with its unbearably heavy economic load, be- came too much for the young state to bear. Learned rabbis agreed to the use of a "heter" (spe- cial dispensation) to sell the land to non-Jews dur- ing the sabbatical year, to permit the land to be worked. In recent years, there have also been perfected other methods of using a "heter"— such as early sow- ing of vegetables before the New Year and the growing of crops by hydroponics or soil-less systems. Israeli botanist Meir Schwartz was the founder of the first fully-automatic hydroponic farm at the Agudat Israel kibutz "Hafetz Chaim." There are now other hyd- roponic farms at Ein Gedi and Eilat which use water culture, and the prevailing medium used is gravel. He that spares his rod hates his son; but he that I loves him chastens him be- an . times. Friday, September 21, 1979 79 11211211 rutt75 a happy and healthy New Year to all our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. friends and relatives MR. AND MRS. HYMAN GREENBAUM Miami Beach HELEN & MORRIS GREENBERG 17285 Lee, Southfield U ish all their relatives and friench - a happy and healthy Neu. Year Allan and Linda Gurvitz . Eric and Michelle wish all their family and friends a happy and healthy New Year IRVING and BRENDA ALTUS Tavistock Trail, Southfield extend best wishes to all their family and friends for a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year DR. and MRS. DAVIS A. BENSON extend heartfelt best wishes for a year filled with health, happiness and peace for all our friends and family THE BIDLOFSKY'S Murry & Yetta Herb & Sharon Slysa & Randy Gerald & Jacklyn wish all their relatives and friends a happy, healthy holiday MARY and HARRY EHRLICH AND FAMILY Lauderhill, Fla. wish all their family and friends a year filled with good health, happiness and peace. ri ;in ril;try ., May the New Year bring good health, happiness and peace to all our family and friends and all Israel MR. and MRS. MORRIS H. FISHMAN May The New Year Bring Health, Happiness and Peace To All Our Friends Relatives and the World MR.. & MRS. DAVID IWREY Southfield Anna and Nathan Pritz 20533 Braille, Detroit wish their family and friends a year of good health, peace and prosperity i