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he Torah requires the
Holy Land lay fallow
every seven years. So
what does the closing of a
through-street by Rockefeller
Center each year have to do
with the esoteric command-
ment known as shemitah?
According to Rabbi Moshe
Heinemann of Agudath Israel
of Baltimore, that NBC-owned
through-street, between Man-
hattan's 49th and 50th, "is
closed to demonstrate owner-
ship. Hashem says in the
Torah "The land is Mine.' "
But shemita is more than a
matter of God enforcing the
ground rules. Because the year
of shemita, which means "to re-
lease," is also known as sheviis,
the seventh year. Rosh
Hashanah marks the beginning
of the Sabbatical Year, a year
of rest for the Holy Land. Just
as man rests every seventh day,
the soil rests every seventh
year.
"We're supposed to learn
who's the boss. We have Sab-
bath during our weekly cycle to
remind ourselves that man is
not the master of creation," said
Rabbi Tzvi Rosen, editor of
Kashrus Kurrent, a Baltimore-
based national periodical.
"Shemitah is a Sabbath of the
soil. You're telling people not to
work the land."
This is reinforced by the
translation of shemitah, a re-
lease. In addition to restrictions
on the produce of Israel, the
Bible also mandates the forgiv-
ing of debts at the end of the
seventh year. This aspect of the
shemita is known as shemita
kesafim, a release of money.
Ownership, whether of land or
money, is not absolute.

Fruits of the Land
"The
Torah
forbids
maalacha, an act of showing
mastery over the land by the
constructive use of intelligence,"
explained Rabbi Heinemann.
The regulations of shemitah
prohibit the stimulation and en-
hancement of growth, as well
as deriving profit from produce
falling under the shemitah re-
strictions. Thus, Jewish produce
that was sown, pruned, reaped
or picked in ancient and con-
temporary Israel during the
shemita year would be un-
kosher.
'We're not affected much, ex-
cept for imported food," said Dr.
Avram Pollack, president of the
Va'ad HaKashrut, a Baltimore-
based kosher supervising body.
"It might be a little more diffi-

cult to get that Jaffa orange."
But that will pose minor
problems, at worst, for local con-
sumers looking for Jaffa or-
anges when next year's batch of
fruit cannot be harvested. "I
don't see any major impact,"
said Hershel Boehm, owner of
the Seven Mile Lane Market in
Pikesville. "Next year's produce
will be canned ahead of time."
He estimates about 2-5 percent
of his stock would be affected.
A quick look around the store
showed brands such as Ossem,
Telmah, Rokeach, Elite, Mili
products, as well as Israeli sun-
flower seeds, soups, and jams.
"For the American consumer,
any of those products you can
do without. If you can't buy Is-
raeli pickles, you buy American
pickles," said Mr. Boehm.
Other products might be less
obvious however. "If a compa-
ny is buying tomato concentrate
from Israel, the American cer-
tification would automatically
make sure it would not be from
shemita," said Rabbi Rosen.
"It's an interesting phenom-
enon where a small percentage
of consumers of the country who
keep kosher have a large affect
on the food business way be-
yond their actual number. Any
company wanting to export
products to the U.S. would have
to have certification," he added.
"We're talking about Heinz,
General Foods, General Mills,
Kellogg's, all the really big food
companies."
Israeli wines are also being
monitored. "The agreement
with O.U. (the Orthodox Union)
is to put the year of vintage on
the bottle. Hit doesn't say 1994,
it won't be a problem," said Rab-
bi Heinemann. "Olive oil applies
the same as wine."
Because of the produce's
sanctity, it must be disposed of
in a proper way as well. "Hu-
man consumption must be
mafkir, or the highest level,"
said Rabbi Heinemann.
That means allowing fruits
and vegetables to rot before
throwing them out if there is
anything useful. "If you have
any edible parts of the fruit, you
cannot actively destroy it. It has
to rot by itself," explained Rab-
bi Rosen. People in Israel can
expect to see "shemitah bins" to
for this purpose.

Forgiving Debts
In biblical times, because of
the agrarian nature of the He-
brew society, when somebody
fell on hard times, loaning mon-
ey was considered an act of

