"If you ask "What will we eat in the seventh year?" [Behar 25:20]
The year 5719 [1958-1959] was a shemittah year. With the encouragement of the great Chazon Ish [R' Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz], a special committee was formed in order to assist shemittah-observant Jews. Despite their endeavours, however, there was a noticeable shortage of onions.
One mornin, an ownerless cargo ship sailed into the Jaffa seaport. Amazingly, the ship was fully stocked - with onions!
After a thorough investigation, it turned out that the ship was an Egyptian carrier that had been on its way to Egypt. The captain had made a navigational error, and had mistakenly sailed the ship into Jaffa. When he realized that they were nearing the coast of Israel, he and his crew abandoned the ship in a panic.
That year, there were plenty of onions for the shemittah-observing farmers - "The strong warriors who do His bidding, to obey the voice of His word" [Tehillim 103:20]
Source: Rabbi Yisrael Bronstein
1 comment:
What a great story, just another indicator how H' takes care of us. If the Torah says there will not be a shortage of food to eat because of the shmittah year, somehow it will so be. Hard to understand how some don't want to see the obvious.
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