Judaism’s Next Great Gift To Human Kind

Rabbi Micha Odenheimer calls attention to the potency and profound need of Shmita, and challenges us to begin exploring this vision however we can, as an offering to the world.

This Rosh Hashanah will mark the beginning of a Shmita or Sabbatical year. According to the Torah — as featured in this week’s Torah reading, Behar — every seven years the land must be allowed to rest “a Sabbath for YHVH.” Working the land is forbidden; so is harvesting more than what you immediately need. Property rights are suspended, an amnesty on debt is enacted, ownership is transcended — equal access to the land and all its bounty is the rule of the day for all, human beings and the beasts of the field alike.