Topic: Shmita

by Yigal Deutscher Jewish culture arose and took shape primarily as a land-based tradition, directly linked to a particular piece of land. Many of the laws, rituals, and beliefs of Jewish faith are directly connected to the seasons, plants, and harvest cycles of the land of Israel. So, over 2,000 years ago, when the Jewish peoplehood began to take shape and root outside of Israel, many of the commandments did not follow them to their new homes. The ‘land-dependent’ laws remained dormant in Israel, while all the other mitzvot served as the foundation for Jewish life in the Diaspora. Shmita, in terms of its laws relating to release of farmland and cessation of agriculture, is within the category of ‘land-dependent’ mitzvot that are only official halacha (Jewish law) when they can be observed on and within the soils of Israel. During the thousands of years that Jewish culture developed outside of Israel, Shmita was never something that was practiced. In most communities, the memory of Shmita, as a core part of Jewish tradition, faded away. The few Rabbis who were still teaching and writing of Shmita did so in a romantic sense, portraying Shmita as a mystical utopian dream, which […]

by Yigal Deutscher Many of us, even if we are Jewishly knowledgeable, know less about Shmita than we do about other Jewish traditions. Today, Shmita does not define Jewishness like other popular rituals or time-based traditions, such as Shabbat, Yom Kippur, or Passover. Within Jewish education and community, our teachers, parents and Rabbis do not necessarily bring up Shmita, and, when this tradition is recalled, it is usually referred to as an archaic notion or simply brought up as romantic idealism. Shmita, to a certain extent, has become a ‘lost’ piece of the Jewish worldview. Traditionally, Shmita applied in the land of Israel alone. So for over 2,000 years, since the time the Jewish people were separated from the land of their origins, Jewish faith and culture developed separately from the necessity to observe and practice Shmita. During this time, the vision of Shmita faded deeper and deeper into the background of our collective Jewish subconscious. There was no primary need for Jewish communities to wrestle with this tradition, as they had to do for other parts of our culture & faith, in determining what rituals like Shabbat, Kashrut, and holiday observance meant for modern, changing times. It has been […]

Cycles of time are central to Jewish life, and they are amongst the most significant of our contributions to the world around us. The modern weekend of western tradition is simply the extension of the Sabbath from one day to two; without the Sabbath there would be no weekend. And without the Torah, and the Shabbat of Jewish tradition, there would be no Sabbath. In practice, today, Shabbat remains central to Jewish life, though Jewish people observe Shabbat differently from each other. But it’s literally impossible to imagine Jewish life without Shabbat. And just as Shabbat punctuates the week, so too the chaggim – the holidays – punctuate the year. Tu b’Shvat and Purim and Pesach herald the spring. Shavuot marks early summer. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur provoke self-reflection as a new Jewish year begins. Succot celebrates the harvest and the end of summer. Chanukah offers light in the darkness and the knowledge that a new natural cycle will shortly begin. In recent years there’s been a flowering of interest and awareness in the rhythms of the calendar. The every-28-years blessing of the sun was a big deal when it happened in 2009; I hope I’ll be around to […]

While we have been working to raise Shmita awareness and organizing here in the states, there is much simultaneous work happening in Israel. Much of this is being organized by our partner, the Israel Shmita Project, which is hosted by the organization, Teva Ivri. Here is a recent post from Einat Kramer, the director of the Israel Shmita Project, about the recent movements and momentum that the project is having in Israel:   Dear friends, We are about to celebrate Tu B’Shevat, the New Year for Trees, the Jewish equivalent of “Earth Day”. Tu B’Shevat has taken on various forms over the years. Its beginnings originated from the special mitzvot which are only kept in the Land of Israel regarding fruit from the trees, as a date that reminds us to share the bounty given to us by nature with those who don’t have it. In the long years of exile when we couldn’t practice these mitzvot, Tu B’Shevat became a time of longing for Eretz Yisrael, as well as a time for coming closer to God and to ourselves, through eating fruit and making special blessings over it. With our return to our country, Tu B’Shevat took on a […]

Within the Shmita Project, we have been exploring many of the complex issues that Shmita touches upon on a societal level. Beyond the societal aspects, however, there is something very personal about the Shmita Year. Indeed, the most common understanding of the Shmita has been the modern manifestation of the Sabbatical Year, that many professionals take throughout their career. In this post, Tehila Eisenstadt, a Jewish educator and community builder, shares about her own journey within her recent one month personal Shmita. In a recent conversation with a wise woman I had just met, I mentioned that I would soon be taking a sabbatical from my job in Jewish communal service. “Oh, you’re taking a shmita,” she said. My mind immediately conjured up an image in sepia tones, shmita, resting overgrown fields in the land of Israel. Her thoughtful framing led me consider my “rest and healing” time as “room for something to take root and grow” time. The truth is, these days, shmita involves a lot of loopholes. These loopholes are for a good cause, to avoid living without a year’s worth of income and insufficient food resources in the year post-shmita. Jewish ritual and religious life also has a weekly shmita or Shabbat built into it. However, most […]

New from the SOVA blog by Rabbi Yedidya Sinclair Original post can be found at http://sovaproject.org/2013/08/19/shmita-as-a-force-for-social-change/ In October 2007, at the outset of the last Shmita year, I was interviewed on NPR, New York, about the Shmita controversy then raging in Israel. It was the latest twist on the century-long heter mechira (permissible sale) story. Rabbis were denouncing other rabbis for their excessive leniency and communities were boycotting other communities’ kosher certifications.  Word of the whole sorry saga reached the US and NPR wanted to know what was up. Somehow they came to me. I tried to explain to the polite, bemused interviewer the complex background (you can listen to my efforts here) – the commandment from Leviticus 25 to let the land lie fallow one year out of every seven, Rav Kook’s compassionate heter mechiraleniency in 1909 allowing the pioneering Jewish farmers to sell the land to non-Jews for the duration of the Shmita year so that they could avoid impoverishment, and the most recent installment in the argument. (more…)

by Yigal Deutscher There is a saying by the Rabbis, ‘Those who prepare before Shabbat will eat on Shabbat; those who did not prepare before Shabbat, what will they have to eat on Shabbat? (Avoda Zara 3a).’ Well, in terms of comparing the Shabbat and Shmita cycle as parallels of one another, we are about to enter, collectively, into the Friday of the Shmita Cycle, as we near Rosh Hashana and the 6th year of this current cycle. Or, if we want to be specific, as days begin in the Jewish calendar at the evening time, we are just about late in the day on Thursday, sunset time. Either way, we are getting quite close to Shabbat. And that comes with it a specific transition point, a moment in time for one process to end, and another to begin. The patterns of the 6 days, the culture of the 6 years, falls away to welcome a whole new way to engage with time and space. Bo’ei Kallah. Welcome, Beloved Bride. And here we are, getting ready to stand under the Chupah. Are we ready for this? What will we have ‘to eat’ on this Shabbat, to feel satiated and sustained […]

New from the SOVA blog by Rabbi Natan Margalit of Organic Torah Original post can be found at http://sovaproject.org/2013/08/05/shmita-the-rhythms-of-life/ What can we, in our present moment of great environmental, social and economic peril and also enormous and exciting potential, learn from the ancient biblical idea of shmita? With its requirement to let all land lie fallow and all debts be forgiven every seventh year, shmita offers us not just an example of progressive social and ecological legislation, but also an insight into an alternative world-view. Shmita tells us to put limits on our activities because we are not the center of the universe, because we are in relationship to something larger than ourselves. One way to look at this is to say that shmita reminds us that whereas the ethos of our times is to move forward unceasingly, in a more sane and inter-connected world there are rhythms. No musician, storyteller or athlete could work without rhythm. Notes and rests, words and silence, sprinting and pacing yourself — these create the beauty, drama and endurance of their craft. The natural world confirms that- all life is filled with rhythm: from our heartbeats to the tides to the seasons, the world pulses […]

New from the SOVA blog by Rabbi Arthur Wasow of the Shalom Center Original post can be found at http://sovaproject.org/2013/07/22/sacred-work-sacred-rest-free-time-for-a-free-people/ “Six days shall you labor and do all your work; but on the seventh day you shall rest.” Why? Because this teaches you the deepest truth of the Cosmos, that a rhythm of Doing and Being is part of every molecule and every galaxy, every human and every tree and tiger. (Exod 20: 8-11) Why? To make real your own freedom – and the freedom of the workers who are bound to you. For only slaves must work all the time. (Deut. 5: 12-15) Six years shall you labor and make economic growth, but on the seventh you shall rest, yes rest: Restfulness to the exponential power of Restfulness. (Lev. 25: 1-24). Why? Because the Earth has a covenant with God that requires its right and its duty to rest. If you – that is, WE—refuse to let the Earth rest, it will rest anyway –on our heads. Through drought, famine, flood, plague, exile. (Lev. 26, esp. 31-38 and 43; II Chron. 36: 20-21) (more…)

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow On July 1, with Congress having failed to pass any legislation about student loans, the interest rate on them doubled. As Senator Elizabeth Warren pointed out: “Right now, the government lends money every day to big banks at less than 1% interest. [The interest rate it demands from students was 3.4% till June 30, and is now 6.8%.] Right now the federal government is making a profit from our students. Just last month, the Congressional Budget Office calculated that the government will make $51 billion this year off student loans.” This in a society that has disemployed 14 million people who want and need to work full time. Many of these millions are college graduates who can no longer pay off these loans. What is the solution? Let’s consult a sacred teaching of the Torah — At the end of every seventh year, you shall cancel/ release/ forgive/ annul/ all debts. This is the procedure: Everyone who has lent money to a neighbor writes it off. You must not press your neighbor or your kinfolk for payment: This release comes from YyyyHhhhWwwwHhhh , the Interbreath of Life. (Deuteronomy 15 : 1-2) (more…)

by Yigal Deutscher This past week, the Urban Adamah farm in Berkeley installed an aquaponics gardening system in their greenhouse. Aquaponics is a soil-free farming system that combines hydroponics (growing in a medium of water and dissolved nutrients) and aquaculture (fish farming). In the combined system, the fish add nutrients to the water that is used to grow the food (their waste is high in nitrogen, a much needed plant growth stimulant), and the overall holistic system provides a harvest of both mature veggies and fish. Read more about Urban Adamah’s system here: http://blogs.forward.com/the-jew-and-the-carrot/179511/when-fish-are-farmers-not-food/   This method has become a highly productive farming system in areas where soil quality is low and where land access is limited. It has also become a permaculture technique utilized on farms trying to reduce waste, and create more closed-loop systems. The interesting aspect in regards to Shmita is that aquaponics, at least on the surface level, seems like it can be practiced without alteration during the Shmita year. The agricultural implications during the Shmita year is that no soil can be tilled and no seeds can be sown. Obviously this raises a question of where the food will come from during this year. One stance we are taking at […]

New from the SOVA blog by Rabbi Ebn Leader and Rabbi Margie Klein. Original post can be found at http://sovaproject.org/2013/07/08/the-land-shall-rest-exploring-shmita-in-the-diaspora/ In the Jewish calendar, the next Shmita year will commence in 2014, and Jews around the world are beginning to think about it. In North America for example through the Shmita Project and other efforts, Hazon, the Jewish Farm School, and other groups are embracing Shmita as an opportunity to explore Jewish values around land, food, and sustainability. The Shmita Project encourages people not only to hold study groups, but to plant “Shmita gardens” that follow the Shmita laws in our own backyards and practice alternate economic models that promote collaboration and sharing. The Torah’s mandate to let the land lie fallow for a year raises many serious questions. What would it mean to forgo agricultural activity and the economic structures that follow from it? What would it mean to spend a year treating the fruit that then grows of its own accord as ownerless, so that everyone has the same right to resources of the land? (more…)