Artichokes and controversy in Israel
October 4, 2000
At Beit Uziel, Israel, Thai workers prune artichokes. This is the beginning of an agricultural sabbatical year in the country, the result of a biblical decree that the land should remain fallow once every seven years. To get around this, Israeli farmers traditionally "sold" their land to non-Jews in paper transactions so the fields could continue to be farmed. But controversy erupted when a prominent rabbi declared recently that the ancient practice was invalid.
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