Israeli farmers observe sabbatical with a wink
So how do modern-day growers reconcile the ancient spiritual practice with a need to feed the country's 8 million mouths?
Most market their produce thanks to a clever workaround: they temporarily sold their farms, valued together at $33 billion, to a 25-year-old non-Jewish telemarketer named George.
The seventh-year sabbatical, called "shmita" in Hebrew, began last month on the Jewish New Year, and extends through the fall of 2015.
Though only a minority of the Israeli population abides by strict Jewish religious law, nearly all Israeli Jewish farmers choose to follow the biblical directive, in part so they don't lose their Orthodox customers' business.
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