Holy Bananas!

"Cause I gotta have faith, faith, faith" (GM)

Stop monkeying around - time to
find your faith!

Perhaps the oldest debate in history is that of the true religion. Throughout time, the world's religions have offered their proof to the validity and supremacy of their faiths as they try to earn the right to boast the ultimate prize. Although there are numerous clear arguments that solidify Judasim in this regard, there is one that we just read about in this past week's parsha, Behar - the mitzvah of Sh'mitta. Not only does it prove the primacy of Judaism, yet it also shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Torah was written by Hashem.
The proof is as clear as day. Who in their right mind would promise that if a farmer were to leave his fields fallow for an entire year, then he will experience a mass surplus that will be sufficient to feed him and his family for the duration of that 6th year (the year prior to Sh'mitta), the 7th Sh'mitta year, and the 8th year (which is the year after Sh'mitta, and when the fields are worked to produce crops for the following year)? No human being would be bold enough to make such a claim, that is unless the Torah was not authored by a human after all.
Do you question Hashem's promise? Well, perhaps the following story, which took place three years ago during the last Sh'mitta year, will ease your mind.

Rabbi Shmuel Bloom of Agudath Israel of America is a busy man involved in important matters concerning Klal Yisroel. Why would he, then, spend a considerable amount of hours traveling to look at bananas during his recent trip to Eretz Yisroel?

A completely secular farmer whose produce is bananas decided that he would undertake to keep Sh’mitta this time around. He approached the Keren ha’Shvi’is for assistance and they stipulated that he would be registered in their program if he would also undertake to be personally Shomer Shabbos throughout Sh’mitta. He agreed. Keren ha’Shvi’is undertook to cover his farming expenses in return for which all the produce would become the property of Otzar Beis Din and would be distributed in full accordance with halacha.

Israel has suffered a significant cold spell over the past 2 to 3 weeks.

Bananas don’t like cold. Cold doesn’t like bananas. Needless to say, they don’t get along. When bananas are still growing and get hit with frost, they turn brown and become rock-solid hard.

The hero of our story, the banana farmer, knew he was in deep trouble when the relentless cold hadn’t let up for over a week. He lived a distance from his orchard and hadn’t yet seen the damage with his own eyes. He began to receive calls from his neighbor farmers, who have orchards bordering his, complaining bitterly that their entire banana crop had been destroyed by the frost.

He decided it was time to inspect the damage up close, no matter how painful it may be.

He drove up close to T’verya to inspect his orchard, as well as those of his neighboring farmers. As he passed from one orchard to another, he was overwhelmed by the damage. Not a single fruit had survived, no tree was spared. His neighbors took quite a beating. All the bananas were brown, hard as a rock. He could only imagine how bad his trees must have gotten it.

Yet when he finally got to his orchard, he was awestruck! ALL of his bananas were yellow and green. It’s as if his orchard was not part of this parcel of land. His orchard bordered those of his neighbors, but not a single tree of his was struck by the frost. It’s as if a protective wall kept the damage away. At first he thought he was imagining it, and as he rushed from one section of his orchard to another, the realization that more than the farmer keeps the Sh’mitta, the Sh’mitta keeps the farmer hit home.

He immediately called his contacts at Keren ha’Shvi’is and yelled into the phone, “Karah Nes! Karah Nes!”

A miraculous modern-day manifestation of “v’Tzivisi es ha’brocho!" There is no way to explain this other than that ha’Kodosh Boruch Hu keeps His promises. He says keep Sh’mitta, and I’ll take care of you. He sure does!

Keren Ha’Shvi’is reports that farmers that until now refused to keep Sh’mitta, have been turning to the Keren following the losses suffered as a result of the frost, they are now ready to commit to Sh’mitta observance.

And so, Rabbi Bloom took the time to travel all the way to T’verya and back to witness this awe-inspiring phenomenon. During the previous Sh’mitta (2000-2001) Agudath Israel of America provided over $1,000,000 to Keren ha’Shvi’is. It plans to do even more this time around.

Need any more proof than that?

Say to yourself ten times today:
"Hashem, I believe in You and Your holy Torah! It is all true!"