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From And The
Word of G-d From (Isaiah 2:3) |
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Fertilizing
a field during Shmitta by Rabbi Michael Unger The
next example of restrictions on agriculture is fertilizer, discussed
in tractate Moed Katan
4b: "A person can make his field a storage place for fertilizer. R' Meir
forbids this unless he digs 3 handbreadths or elevates the ground 3
handbreadths. If the field already had some manure on it he can add to it. R'
Elazar ben Azaria forbids that unless he digs 3 handbreadths or
elevates the ground 3 handbreadths." During the shmitta
year it is forbidden to fertilize as we learned on page 3a. Their fertilizers
were natural from manure and the farmer is interested in saving the manure
until next year. Therefore he collects the dung from time to time and moves
it to a field for storage. Our Rabbis apparently were concerned that this
constant movement of manure by every single farmer could sometimes become a
fancy way to fertilize fields during shmitta.
Therefore they put limits on the storage process. The manure should be stored
at a different level than the rest of the field or on top of a rock. R' Meir,
knowing that too much fertilizer is not beneficial, allows the farmer to pile
up on a field that already had manure on it. R' Elazar
ben Azaria forbids this,
perhaps because quantity of manure spread out on a field is difficult to
measure and control. The Rambam (H. Shmitta veyovel ch. 2 h. 2) wrote the opinion of R' Meir. |
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Diaspora
Yeshiva
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