Bumped crop

Israel | Jewish law in this sabbatical year has farmers looking not to lie fallow but to fight | Jill Nelson

Modern-day Israel prides itself in "making the desert bloom." In recent times the land flowing with milk and honey has more resembled a vast wasteland, but the region now boasts pomegranates with exceptional flavor, massive melons, and enough flowers and produce during the winter months to earn the nickname, "Europe's greenhouse." Farming has flourished into not only an economic but also an ideological pillar of the nation's existence.

That's why a rabbinical attempt to strictly enforce this year's agricultural sabbatical—a biblical law requiring Jewish farmers to "let the land rest and lie fallow every seventh year"—has sent a wave of panic through many of the region's farmers and created a showdown between the nation's orthodox religious Zionists and ultra-orthodox Haredi.