Monthly Archives: September 2014

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Reflections on Al Chet / Missing the Mark – for a Shmita Year

sunThe section of High Holiday liturgy known as al chet has always been fascinating to me because it is a collective rather than an individual confession of sins. I ask forgiveness for these sins each year even though I know that I am guilty of some but not all of them. But I repeat them all every year. Why? Is there a sense in which each of us, on some level, is responsible and accountable for the sins of our community? Of the world?

Is the recitation designed to absolve us of our sins? Or to focus our awareness on them as sins? Should it be a prompt toward changing our own personal behavior? Can it also be an opportunity to inquire how we can participate in strengthening the community as a whole?

Below you will find some of the additional sins I will contemplate as I spend a portion of my time this year focused on my relationship with the Earth, the sacred medium through which we receive the blessings of health, well being, and ultimately, peace.

For the sin which we have committed before You out of hopelessness, believing that we are powerless;

For the sin which we have committed before You because we are distracted and overwhelmed by choices;

And for the sin which we have committed before You on account of having become resigned to what seems inevitable.

For the sin which we have committed before You by failing to raise our voice;

For the sin which we have committed before You by failing to lift our pen;

And the sin which we have committed before You by allowing despair to sap our will.

For the sin we have committed against You by taking more than we need;

And for the sin we have committed against You by creating systems that make waste easy and invisible.

For the sin we have committed against You by failing to let the land rest.

And the sin we have committed against You by introducing poisons into the food chain of all life.

For the sin we have committed against You by ignoring what happens to our waste once it leaves our hands;

And for the sin we have committed against You by blocking from our minds the consequences of our actions.

For the sin we have committed against You by destroying the birthing places, in the sea, in the sky, and on the land, which are the source of new life;

For the sin we have committed against You by benefiting mutely from systems that violate our conscience;

And for the sin we have committed against You by of elevating efficiency as a value above compassion and justice.

For the sin we have committed against You by failing to go out into nature each day to reflect on Your magnificence and Your compassion for everything which holds the breath of life;

For the sin we have committed against You by failing to learn the names and life stories of the plants and animals who are also our neighbors;

And for the sin we have committed against You by failing to teach our children about the majesty of Your Creation and the joy to be found in loving and caring for it, as beings created in Your image.

For the sin we have committed against You of valuing the present above the future.

For the sin we have committed against You of destroying Your magnificent creatures, not to fulfill our own need for life, but to make trinkets and objects for our pleasure;

And for the sin which we have committed against You by failing to weave our lives more seamlessly into Your great cycle of birth, life, death, decay and absorption into new life.

For all these, God of pardon, pardon us, forgive us, atone for us.

Actions, The Food System, The Land, The People

The Puget Sound: Deepening Our Connection to Local Abundance

There is simply no way to get around the fact that shmita is deeply concerned with food, as a source of life, of health, of well being, and ultimately, of peace. The shmita year compels us to express and embody our latent awareness that the true source of food is not with us. Food comes as a gift from the Creator by way of the land. And significantly, through shmita laws, the Creator infuses the distribution of food with a concern for justice and compassion for each and every being.

Shmita imagines a food system so well integrated with natural processes that it can be left to run on its own one year out of seven and still ensure enough for all, including wild nature. Furthermore the sources of these foods will be so woven into the physical environment where we live that we will be able to harvest them ourselves as needed, without the need for commercial harvesters. Surely this is a powerful vision of a return to life in a garden!

A shmita food system is local – so that we can personally access and pick from the farms where our food is grown. It is chemical free – if the food is to be shared with wild creatures, it cannot be laced with poisons. And everyone has direct access to sufficient amount to eat to contentment, “sova”. There is no waste and no stockpiling. According to Dr. Jeremy Benstein, director of the Sova Project, “the fact that our globalized agricultural system is highly unsuited to local decentralized community based solutions says a lot more about the ills of the system than about shmita and its relevance.”

To my great surprise and delight, there is a body in the Seattle area that is expressing great sensitivity to the way that a strong local agricultural system is a foundational element of community and individual health and well being. graphicThe Regional Food Policy Council is looking holistically at the interaction between local government, education, health, equity, environment, agriculture and economic development. It is made up of a broad range of local stakeholders including farmers, policymakers, academics, native tribes, people concerned with availability of food within vulnerable populations, restauranteurs, and food processors. They meet downtown monthly and the public is welcome to attend. Register at their site to receive agendas and meeting materials.

Actions, Texts, The Food System, The Land, The People

Sabbath of the Land – Foraging in the Wild

“Now the Sabbath-yield of the land (is) for you, for eating, for you, for your servant and for your handmaid, for your hired-hand and for your resident-settler who sojourn with you; and for your domestic-animal and the wild-beast that (are) in your land shall be all its produce, to eat. ” – Leviticus 25: 6-7

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The shmita year invites us to explore and rediscover our relationship of interdependence with the plants and animals that inhabit the margins of our lands and our hearts.

As we shift from eating commercial harvests purchased at market to what we gather for ourselves, we may find ourselves looking beyond the planted fields and cultivated gardens into the wilderness, the marginal lands, and the forests that border our communities.

When we are asked to join with those whom we may, in other years, consider “other,” those who work “for” us, animals, and wildlife, to share the Sabbath-yield of the land, with all of us as equals, we are invited to get to know one another. What tender herbs does the “resident sojourner” use? What insights, what recipes, what medicines? What are the names of his children? By learning and teaching one another, and by sharing our knowledge and culture with one another, how will the web of relationships within our community grow and change?

How will our perception of wildlife change (and let’s include all wildlife, mammals, but also birds, fish, and insects)? As we see with our own eyes their ways of life, their needs, their relationships with the land and one another, how will we respond? If we are asked to share with them, this surely implies that we will not begrudge them their portion with netting, or try to eradicate them with poisons. Maybe we will even look to our own marginal spaces, the edges of our property, public spaces near us, and feel moved to choose plants and shrubs for those spaces that will meet the needs of these new friends of ours for shelter and food.

During this shmita year, we should learn about and surround ourselves with the richness and abundance that we may otherwise fail to notice or appreciate, but which is all around us. Here are a few suggestions as to how to do this.

Please share your thoughts on other ways of responding to the text above.

Actions, The People

A Share-based Economy – Join a Time Bank

First of all, what is a timebank and what does it have to do with shmita?

The shmita year is a year of enforced interdependence among members of the community. During the shmita year, we learn to depend more upon one another and less upon the money-based economy. Dependence on the money economy is actually completely suspended when it comes to the procurement of life’s most basic necessity: food.

During the shmita year, food that is not directly gathered from the field or wilderness by an individual for his or her own immediate consumption is stored in a food bank-like public storage area, to be drawn upon by each when it is needed. Waste of food, or even its diversion to non-food uses, is prohibited.

During this period of extreme interdependence, the wealthy are not protected by their wealth, but stand as vulnerable and dependent as any other member of society when it comes to food. The role of “giver” and “receiver” are erased. The only “giver” is God, as it were. Everyone alike stands aware of his or her dependence upon God’s providence alone, each equal in her dependence on that which is outside of her control. From that awareness arise empathy and trust, in God as the ultimate provider, and in one another.

The timebank builds on the same concept, by creating a “marketplace” in which people can trade their skills, an hour at a time.

By connecting people who have something to give with people who have a something they need but cannot do for themselves, it too levels the economic playing field. Moreover, the underlying premise, that everyone has something to give and also a lack that can be filled only by reaching out and allowing oneself to become dependent on another, is beautiful and both practical and deeply spiritual.

I first read about the idea of the timebank in this article published by RealChange, the Seattle area’s homeless newspaper. I learned that the Seattle/Puget Sound area already has many functioning timebanks. They are found in the Central District, on the Eastside, north of Seattle, on Mercer Island, in West Seattle, and on Vashon Island. To learn more about how to join, TimeBanks of Puget Sound has a website.

I hope to learn more about timebanking over the coming year. I would love to hear from anyone who has participated in a timebank and can share news of what it’s like from the inside.

Participating in a timebank could be one action we might take during the shmita year.

Texts, The Land

Sabbath of the Land

“The Lord spoke to Moshe at Mount Sinai, saying: Speak to the Children of Israel, and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land is to cease, a Sabbath-ceasing to the Lord.

“For six years you are to sow your field, for six years you are to prune your vineyard, then you are to gather in its produce, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of Sabbath-ceasing for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord: your field you are not to sow, your vineyard you are not to prune, the aftergrowth of your harvest you are not to harvest, the grapes of your consecrated-vines you are not to amass; a Sabbath of Sabbath-ceasing shall there be for the land!

“Now the Sabbath-yield of the land is for you, for eating: for you, for your servant, and for your handmaid, for your hired-hand and for your resident-settler who sojourn with you; and for your domestic-animal and the wild-beast that are in your land shall be all its produce, to eat.” (Leviticus 25:1-7)

Texts

Shmita and Exile

“Exile comes to the world on account of idol-worship, sexual promiscuity, murder and the failure to leave the land fallow on the sabbatical year.” – Pirkei Avot

What do idol-worship, sexual promiscuity, murder, and failure to leave the land fallow in the sabbatical year have in common?

Why is exile a punishment/consequence?

What is “exile”?

Texts, The Land

Whose Sabbath is it?

“The Lord spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, saying: Speak to the Children of Israel, and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land is to cease, a Sabbath-ceasing to the Lord.

“For six years you are to sow your field, for six years you are to prune your vineyard, then you are to gather in its produce, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of Sabbath-ceasing for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord: your field you are not to sow, your vineyard you are not to prune, the aftergrowth of your harvest you are not to harvest, the grapes of your consecrated-vines you are not to amass; a Sabbath of Sabbath-ceasing shall there be for the land!”  – Leviticus 25:1-5

Whose Sabbath is it? (Hint: what is a “Sabbath”?)

Whom is it “to”? Whom is it “for”? (Note: in Hebrew these are both indicated by the same preposition in this text.)

Who (or what) is to do the resting?

How would you describe the role of the people in fulfilling this period of rest?