Are you considering ways to make shmita real in your life? There are many ways to make 5775 different from other years – a year apart. Look for ways to incorporate shmita values into your life: more rest, a deepening of the connections among one another, to one’s self, to the community, and to the Earth. This page shows some ideas that others will be working with and which may speak to you.
Please share your own ideas. Also, take a look at Shmita Eco-Actions, a monthly series of focused practices around Shmita and the Earth produced by Akiva Gersh.
Nedivut Tzedek / GENEROUS JUSTICE is an intergenerational network of Jewish learning circles for just giving. We catalyze a renewal of the Jewish values and practices of heshbon—spiritual and financial accountability—through study, storytelling, supportive action / reflection, and cultural development. Participants learn how we vote with our daily money choices for the state of our world, and how to mobilize the power of those choices for social change as well as for greater personal fulfillment.
Learn more about Generous Justice
“I was deeply moved at the Siach Shmita summit in May of this year by the variety of ways people around the world were looking to explore, expand, and bring meaning to their lives through Shmita. And they inspired me to want to make this coming year meaningful for us as a UK Jewish community (which the Jewish Social Action Forum will help us do with campaigns around food banks) but also for me on a personal level. How can I embody release, rest, just economics, healthier relationships to consumption, freedom, and a year that would bring balance to help me begin the next cycle with renewed vigour, as Shabbat does every week!”
Find out what she has decided to do…
A Shmita Manifesto – Rabbi Debbie Young-Somers
“It’s ancient biblical law meets digital detox movement. Or, what does laying off the land have to do with kicking your Facebook habit?
Inspired by the religious practice of shmita, which requires Jewish farmers in Israel to give their fields a rest every seven years, these digital device addicts are taking on an ambitious challenge at the onset of the Torah-mandated agricultural sabbatical: living more of life offline.”