This year we are living through both a shemitta year and a pandemic in Israel, and exactly 120 years ago these same conditions were also present as the Jewish inhabitants of Ottoman Palestine faced the threats of a shemitta year and a terrible wave of pandemic cholera.
To read a new essay published at TraditionOnline about how the Jews of the First Aliyah faced that terrible year, and how it differs from the present shmitta-pandemic conjunction, click here.
