Israel is counting down with anticipation and excitement to the upcoming shemitah year—commencing this Rosh Hashanah, 5782.

Jonathan Gruenhut, originally from New York and living with his family in Jerusalem said, “In our family, we’re preparing by starting to teach our children the various halachot and learning massechet Shvi’it. The illustrated Koren edition is very helpful for explaining each mishna.

“We also signed up for Otzar Ha’aretz (when the bet din takes ownership of the produce and distributes it),” Gruenhut continued. “We prepaid for each month of shemitah, and we’ll get coupons to buy produce sourced from farmers who are shomrei mitzvot. At home we rely on the heter mechira (when the land is sold to a non-Jew to avoid transgressing the complex shemitah laws) as well, but it’s important to us to support local halachic agriculture, especially as so many Jews in Jerusalem will prefer to buy imports.”

Ha’Rav Yosef Rimon, rabbi of Alon Shvut in Gush Etzion and leading rabbi in the religious-Zionist community, has been sharing guidelines to help households prepare.

“We should make an effort to purchase fruit and vegetables and drink wine with kedushat shviit (holy produce of the seventh year)—using the otzar beit din (also termed otzar ha’aretz) method. We live in Eretz Yisrael and it’s a real privilege to be able to consume kedushat shviit in the shemitah year.”

Rav Rimon continued: “Those who live in apartments and share their garden area should meet with their neighbors and ensure the laws are kept. With regard to plants—indoor and outdoor—we need to understand how they should be maintained.”

Finally said Rimon: “We should give charity to those farmers and organizations who are making an effort to maintain all the laws of the shemitah year—they need our support.”

Rav Yoni Rosensweig, rabbi of the Netzach Menashe community of Bet Shemesh said: “Israelis will soon have to make some interesting decisions, as they do every seven years. The decisions of the consumers are: Do we use the heter mechirah, which contains legal loopholes to avoid the hardships shemitah brings with it? Or do we keep Otzar Beit Din, thereby conserving at least something of the sanctity of the fruit in this special year? Every household and individual makes these decisions for himself/herself.”

Moving beyond households, how do farmers and those who work in agriculture prepare?

“Farmers are faced with two options,” said Rav David Kidron of the Katamon Shteiblech, in Jerusalem. The Israeli Chief Rabbinate has issued a call for farmers to decide whether they want to sell their land to a gentile under heter mechirah—this sale permit gets rid of the holiness of the land, or use the otzar beit din approach, which maintains the sanctity of the land.

“Farmers need to know there are three options households have open to them when purchasing produce in the shemitah year,” Kidron continued. “The first is to rely on the ‘heter mechirah.’ The second is for them to buy ‘otzar haaretz’ or ‘otzar beit din.’ The third is for people to buy produce from non-Jews—known as ‘yevul nochri’ (produce from outside of Israel which does not have kedushat shvi’it.) This option is less popular as there is the concern that this produce is from the Gaza Strip—and one may be supporting terrorists.”

Rabbi Moshe Bloom from the Torah VeHa’aretz Institute, which is the main religious-Zionist organization in Israel advising and deciding on issues pertaining to the shemitah year, says that those farmers who use the otzar beit din approach are preparing to sow huge amounts of vegetables in Elul, and cultivate them according to the beit din guidelines.

In this way, Rabbi Bloom said that during the first few months of shemitah they will have vegetables with kedushat shevi’it. This year, farmers are preparing to extend the tomato growing season, so in February, and perhaps even March, there will be tomatoes with kedushat shviit available that were planted before Rosh Hashanah.

Rabbi Bloom explained that advanced technology facilitates store a greater variety of fruits and vegetables for longer periods. Vegetables that grew during the sixth year, which are stored in special refrigerators for several months, are released to the market throughout the shemitah year.

Today this technique is employed for apples, carrots, potatoes, and more. At the Torah VeHa’aretz Institute, in preparation for the upcoming shemitah year, they discovered a method to store cabbage heads for three months in a special refrigerator.

Rabbi Bloom went on to say that shemitah laws do not apply to plants growing in unperforated planters with a maximum volume of 330 L, growing indoors. Nurseries bring all of their saplings into special hothouses with non-porous nylon sheets on the ground, under close rabbinic supervision, so they can continue to provide saplings while observing shemitah laws.

Thanks to the Torah VeHa’aretz Institute, a major portion of public gardening in Israel is performed in accordance with halacha during shemitah. Over the past months, the institute’s agronomist, Dr. Motti Shomron, met with decision makers in charge of public gardening in dozens of municipalities and cities, and in local and regional authorities, to explain how to properly observe the shemittah year.

In principle, public gardens should move from annuals to perennials and perform all of the seasonal treatments on trees and plants prior to shemitah. During shemitah, it is permissible to preserve and maintain existing plants.

Sowing is generally performed in early winter, and is forbidden during shemitah, explained Rabbi Bloom. There are farmers who sow triticale (a hybrid of wheat and rye used for animal fodder) early, before Rosh Hashanah. The concern is that if the grain sprouts too early and there is a dry spell, the sprout will die.

For this reason, farmers sow the seeds deeper than usual, add more seeds per hectare, and avoid watering them after sowing. In this way, the seeds will only sprout after the early rains of the year.

Rabbi Bloom explained that even farmers who rely on heter mechirah, and need to sow during the shemitah year, make efforts to perform as many agricultural activities as possible prior to shemitah. For instance, they plow before the shemitah year begins.

The Tzomet Institute developed a device called shemiton, which facilitates sowing with a gerama (indirectly) during the shemitah year.

Finally, Rabbi Bloom said that etrogim for Sukkot are harvested before shemitah to avoid performing forbidden melachot during the shemitah year.

As we approach the upcoming shemitah year, both layman and farmers alike are preparing to keep the various laws, while at the same time, engaging with the produce of the shemitah year and eating and drinking the holy produce of Eretz Yisrael.

On the land, as described above, Torah VeHa’aretz and Tzomet have devised various techniques and devices to help farmers upkeep and maintain the land and produce during the shemitah year.