The Esrog tree, also known as the Citron, has special sets of rules regarding shmitta. They did not apply this past sukkos, because the crops had all grown and were mostly picked in the 6th year of the cycle.

This coming sukkos, which is really in the 8th year of the cycle, is when the esrog will have shmitta issues.

Esrog is different than other fruit. There are different time periods for different fruits/vegetables as to when shmitta takes effect on them. There is grown a third, there is blossoming, there is harvesting, and more. Esrog has different charchteristics and therefore we are machmir using more than one category.

Right now I do not remember all the details, so I will not get into it. As sukkos gets closer, I will brush up on the matter and post more details.

We do have one exception. While this post is titled Shmitta: the Esrog, it is not really a shmitta post. It is really a political post.

The one exception is the political/media esrog.

The police this evening announced that they have recommended the case against the PM Ehud Olmert in the Bank Leumi corruption affair be dropped due to lack of evidence. This is the same cas ein which the police had previously said we have never had a case of such a high level of corruption ever before. This is the case in which the police until very recently have spoken about the great amounts of evidence they have collected. This is the case in which the police had said there would be no choice but to indict due to the serious evidence against the PM. Yet all of the sudden they are recommending against indictment due to a lack of evidence.

Obviously the Prime Minister's recent diplomatic moves, including his fire sale at Annapolis, has made an exceptionally fast growing and harvesting esrog.

The Esrog, as defined in israeli political terms, is when a politician is handled with special care and all scandals and corruption issues are ignored as he is coddled due to his left wing advances.

The esrog concept was created when Ariel Sharon was in office. He was involved in the Greek Island affair which is the premier example of high level corruption in recent Israeli history. yet everyone else who was onvolved in that case was brought down, while Ariel Sharon was given a free pass. This was because of his adopting left winf politics while destroying settlements and turning on those who brought him to power.

The media later admitted that they had created the Esrog concept for Sharon and had ignored all his issues in order to help advance those policies.

This case is highly reminiscent of the Greek Island affair. A very high level of corruption. The police were leanign to indict. Suddenly the PM makes a bold move with a new initiative, leaning much further to the left than ever before, and suddenly all remnants of the affair disappear. "Not enough evidence to indict". What a joke.

Anyway, so as the rules of shmitta go, now that the esrog has been grown and harvested all during the shmitta year, Olmert will need to be treated with k'dushas shviis. He can no longer be thrown away, he cannot be treated with less than special respect, etc.

So in this Esrog we have the exception. We have the 7th year esrog with k'dushas shviis.