Shmita in a Nutshell
Raaya Ilovitz and Nava Elias
About Raaya Ilovitz and Nava Elias
Our names are Raaya and Nava. Both our siblings were included in the video, even though we made most of the decisions. We all go to Oakland Hebrew Day School in California. Raaya and Nava are in 6th grade, Maya is in 4th grade, and Elyah is in 8th grade. Raaya and Nava are the ones taking a class on shmita, and we were the ones who had the idea for the video, planned the video, wrote scripts for the video, and hired our siblings to help with the video. We really enjoyed this project, although it did take a LOT of time. In the Elias family, (Nava’s family) there are 3 siblings. Nava and Maya, 11 and 9, and they also have a younger brother, Adiv, who is 3. I just have Elyah, a 13-year-old brother. Both our family’s live in the East Bay, and we are best friends. We don’t have much in common, but there are a few things. We both enjoy reading. Other hobbies we share are sports and acting. We are also both currently learning for Bat Mitzvahs, which are happening this coming year. We worked very hard on our video, hope you liked it.
About Shmita in a Nutshell
Our video is about two friends, Esther and Tamar. Tamar gives out a lot of loans to Esther in the years before the shmita year. She also loves farming and doesn’t like having to take a break from farming during the shmita year. During the video, Ester is falling deeper and deeper into debt, since she has been taking a lot of loans from her friend, Tamar. Esther is getting so poor that she doesn’t even have enough food to eat. She is excited to be able to take a break from farming during the shmita year. We filmed our video using a drone that belongs to Raaya’s brother, Elyah Ilovitz. The narrator is Nava’s sister, Maya Elias. The setting was Raaya’s house, which looks like a farm. We took a lot of time planning what to do in the video, writing scripts, filming, and editing. Filming the whole video took about 6 hours. We almost didn’t finish in time. We had to redo a lot of the scenes, and a lot of the recordings. In the video, we focused on showing how some people enjoy the shmita year, and some people don’t. We also focused on showing how people sink into debt, and how devastating that can be for people. We hope you liked the video.
