Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Is This Possible?

From the news:-

Meanwhile, the head of the Chief Rabbinate's Shmita Committee, Rabbi Ze'ev Witman, has completed the bill of sale to Colonel (res.) Hamada Ganem of Mgrhar. Ganem paid NIS 70 billion with a post-dated check to the Israel Lands Administration last week for 1.75 million dunams (440,000 acres) of agricultural land leased to kibbutzim, moshavim and private farms.

Ganem wrote another check yesterday for NIS 1.5 billion to another group of private farmers. The checks will be returned to him at the end of the year.


I know that there a legal loopholes to get out of Shmittah but my question is: if the fellow doesn't have the money at all even to one-third cover the check he has given, does the halacha allow him the status of even a potential purchaser?

In other words, if there isn't the faintest rational financial possibility that Ganem can even come up with a small part of the sum, why should this transaction be considered legal?

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