(Courtesy of Adama613) It has been 2000 years since the Jews lived in Israel and developed the land that was given to us, and now that the opportunity exists again. Many of us dream about moving to Israel or owning a piece of land in Israel, but apartments are expensive and we aren’t there often enough to justify the cost. Sure we can visit, but one-sixth of the Torah and mitzvot is based on agriculture and not hotels.
To that end, a new company has opened in Israel called Adama 613. It has secured some of the scarce, private land in the middle of Israel and has subdivided it. It is now offering it for sale to enable us to fulfill all of the mitzvot that depend on the land of Eretz Yisrael. In the Adama613 project, one buys the privately owned land and then the company management takes care of everything, including plowing, fertilizing, planting and reaping the produce according to halacha. It takes off the tithes and gifts to the poor as your representative, or you may go to your own plot of land with your children and grandchildren and pick the fruits or harvest the grain and take off the tithes yourself.
Obviously we aren’t opening a fruit store, but the fruit goes to the poor and, if desired, some is sent to your family members in Israel. Many of us give charity and 1/10th of our money to maaser. Note the Talmudic statement of aser tasser, give maaser, and it will make us wealthy, however the Torah is really referring to the maaser of wine, olives and wheat. This new project is a chance to really make that Talmudic drash come true.
Some of the perks of this project is picking your own arba’a minim for Sukkot, and using your own olive oil for Chanukah and wine for kiddush from your own field. As Rav Israel from Ruzin said, “In truth, it is a great thing that the fruit of Israel helps one with fear of heaven.”
It is unheard of nowadays for people to fulfil the commandment of gifts to the poor on a Torah level, but Adama, using hand and sickle, has a system to pick up the gifts for the poor, turn them into wheat and bring them to the poor personally.
How amazing would it be if all of us still living in America can fulfill mitzvot that even people living in Israel haven’t yet fulfilled?
Never before has such an opportunity come about, with an easy way to fulfill these important mitzvot without owning a field or even being in the country. Adama613 is under Israel’s top rabbinic authority and is being touted as a novel idea for committed Jews to accomplish what has heretofore been impossible for them.
For more information, visit www.adama613.com or email [email protected].
Rabbi David Ziering is the director of Aish Hatorah in Tel Aviv.
