Word: shemittah
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Neither. The deed of sale is a ritual that the rabbis carry out every seventh year on behalf of Orthodox Jewish farmers who intend to observe Shemittah, the sabbatical "year of release" that began last week on Rosh Hashanah. During the year, according to the Law, all land owned by Jews in Palestine must lie fallow.* That way lies bankruptcy; so Jews have resorted to the legal maneuver of giving full title to their property to a non-Jew, who is not bound by the Halakah. This enables the Jews to work the land with a free conscience...
...After Shemittah is over, three assessors representing the rabbinate will meet the sheik and hand him a revised bill of sale purportedly representing the true value of the land-which would be several million pounds more than he bargained for. Sheik Abdullah will do his part gracefully. He will protest his inability to pay, demand his release from the bargain, and return the deeds of ownership. The rabbinate will then give him back his $17, and the Israelis once again will own their land...
...Arabs, who lost their land to the Israelis, last week got it back-symbolically. Reviving the ancient tradition of shemittah, or sabbatical year ("And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof: But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still"- Exodus, 23:10-11), Israeli rabbis turned over all the Jewish land to an Arab for the new Jewish year which starts Oct. 1. The land transfer has no legal standing...