I was among the original founders of the Komemiyut agricultural settlement in southern Israel. At first we lived in tents, in a barren wilderness. The kibbutzim nearby were associated with the left-wing Shomer Hatzair movement: Gat, Gilon, and Negvah. Several of our members worked at Kibbutz Gat, while most worked in our fields, planting wheat, barley, rye and legumes. I drove a tractor. We sold our produce from the 4,000 acres allotted us, to bakeries and factories.

At that time, water pipes did not yet reach our moshav, and we had to contend with what could be grown in dry rugged fields. Every few days we traveled out to Kibbutz Negvah, 20 kilometers away, to fill large containers with drinking water.

Our second year, Fall 1950-Summer 1951, coincided with the "Shmitah" Sabbatical year, the seventh year, like the present year 2001,when the Torah forbids agricultural work.

We were among the few settlements in Israel then who observed the Sabbatical Laws. We refrained from working the land, concentrating instead on building, completing much of our permanent housing that year. Our moshav gradually developed and expanded, families moved in, and by the end of the year we were eighty people.

As the Sabbatical year drew to a close, we prepared to renew our farming. We needed seed to grow crops, but could only use wheat from the sixth year preceding Shmitah, for the Seventh Year's produce is forbidden. We visited the agricultural settlements in the area, seeking good quality seed from previous years, but found none.

All we could find was old seed in a shed at Kibbutz Gat. No farmer in his right mind would consider using such poor seed for planting. The kibbutzniks burst into laughter when we told them we were actually interested in this infested grain that had been rotting for a few years in a dark, murky corner.

"If you really want it, take all you like! It's free," they offered in amusement.

We consulted with our Rabbi Mendelson, who encouraged us. "Use it. The A-lmighty who causes wheat to sprout from good seed, will bless your inferior seed as well."

Having no alternative, we loaded the old infested seed and returned to Komemiyut.

The Shemittah laws forbade us to turn over the soil till after Rosh Hashana, the beginning of the eighth year, so we didn't actually sow the seed until November, -two or three months after the other farmers completed their planting.

That year, the rains were late in coming. The farmers from all the kibbutzim and moshavim desperately waited for the first rain, but the heavens were unresponsive.

Finally it rained. When? The day after we completed planting our thousand dunam of wheat fields with those wormy seeds, the rains poured down on the parched earth.

We were nervous in anticipation, but strengthened our faith and trust in G-d. And it didn't take long time for the hand of the Al-mighty to be revealed.

The wheat fields planted during the Seventh Year, months before the first rain, sprouted small weak crops. At the same time, our fields, sowed with the old infested seed long after the appropriate season, were covered with an unusually large and healthy yield.

The story spread quickly. Farmers from all over our region came to see the "Komemiyut miracle" with their own eyes. When the farmers from Kibbutz Gat saw the bountiful wheat flourishing in our fields, they demanded payment for the tractor-load of old rotten wheat they scornfully gave us for free.

We brought the case to Rabbi Mendelson. After serious study he judged that we should pay. He explained that the reason they gave it for free was because they thought it worthless, while in truth it really worked out. We were astonished by his ruling, but we complied.

It was a clear fulfillment of G-d's promise in the Torah (Leviticus 25): "Six years you shall sow your field, ...and gather its fruit. But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest for the land, ... And if you shall say: "What shall we eat in the seventh year? ... I will command my blessing upon you..."