Controversy crops up in Israel over Biblical edict

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- When Israelis use the phrase "cucumber-picking season," they are usually talking about the slow days of late summer when nothing much happens.

But this year the cucumbers themselves are at the center of a growing debate surrounding Judaism's ancient "shmita" laws which command that the fields of Israel lie fallow every seven years.

Shmita begins on the Jewish New Year on September 30 and promises to affect thousands of farmers, restaurants and families as a stricter interpretation of the ritual law is enforced by Orthodox religious leaders.

"Before we had shmita, the religious hierarchy who make laws for the community allowed some leniency," said Yehoshua Polak, chairman of the Jerusalem Religious Council.

"They were allowed to use the land because there was not enough food for the country," he said. "But now with technology, it's very easy to get food from other countries and there are more options. It's a little difficult, but people can survive."

Shmita is based on a Jewish law recorded in the biblical book of Leviticus as a God-given command to Moses on Mount Sinai. It says Israelites cannot till, plant or harvest their fields during the shmita year because it is the land's sabbath rest.

In recent times, Israel's religious and government leaders have employed compromise solutions that allowed Jewish farmers to honor shmita while avoiding financial disaster. Israelis were able to eat their products, which were deemed kosher.

One response has been for Jews to sell their land symbolically to Israeli Arabs for the year and receive a permit that approves produce as kosher because it was not technically grown on Jewish land.

But other Jews believe the land transfer -- however symbolic -- violates a different religious law banning the sale of Israeli land to non-Jews.

Adding to the debate, land in the West Bank viewed by some religious Jews as being inside the borders of "biblical" Israel, is regarded by other Orthodox Jews as being outside Israel for shmita purposes.

Liberal voices among Israel's rabbinate have indicated they consider the rigid interpretation to be extreme, an anachronism out of touch with a "new Israel" where secular Jews are far less dogmatic and the economy relies more on data than on date trees.

Polak and his supporters disagree, arguing that an economy that is less dependent on agriculture is precisely one that can afford a more careful observation of shmita.

Furthermore, the technology Polak speaks of -- including a type of greenhouse where plants grow without ever touching the ground -- does exist to make shmita easier.

But Shlomo Leshem, economic chairman of the Agricultural Centre, an umbrella union for farmers, said that half of the 24,000 farmers in Israel's $4 billion agriculture industry will be affected negatively.

"Only 12 percent of the population is very (devout)," Leshem said. "We understand, and they can import their products. But we and the moderate religious people are fighting against this."

Leshem supports a continuation of the flexible compromises that protect farmers and said that if the ultra-Orthodox rabbis win, they will create not only a new shmita, but a new kind of Israel. Religious leaders shrug off this kind of criticism.

"Everyone believes there should be shmita," Polak said. "Some would interpret it with more leniency than others, and that's where the difference lies."

It is hard to imagine anyone in Jerusalem who won't be affected by the rabbis' decision to enforce shmita strictly.

Even the simple act of tending flowers will be proscribed. Israeli officials have said the gardens kept on government land at parliament will be left this year to benign neglect in deference to the stricter shmita law.

Hotel and restaurant managers who want to comply with Jewish dietary laws and keep their kosher certificates will have to import their produce from surrounding Arab lands.

Consumers may face soaring produce prices.

Health officials have expressed concern that imported tomatoes, cabbage, lemons and lettuce will rot as the food waits for overburdened agricultural inspectors.

And everyone seems to worry about yet more evidence of the tense secular-religious divide that plagues Israeli life with blurred definitions of what "law" means in a modern state.

Whatever the outcome of this year's shmita observance, the issue itself is emblematic of the long-term internal conflicts that Israel must resolve as the country continues to weigh its Jewish identity against the demands of a pluralistic culture.

And as cucumbers go, that may prove to be the real pickle.

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