Episode 287: The Shmita Project - Hannah Knibb Henza, Sarah Zell Young

The Shmita year is a once-every-seven-years occasion. For an entire year, the land is given its own Shabbat -- a chance to rest. And it's not only humans' relationship to land that gets "reset." It is also a Biblical commandment for debts between human beings to be forgiven when the Shmita year rolls around. In this first episode devoted to the topic of Shmita (the next Shmita year begins on Rosh Hashanah, in less than a month!), Hannah Knibb Henza and Sarah Zell Young, from The Shmita Project, join Dan and Lex to consider what Shmita has been in the past and what Shmita could be moving forward. In doing so, they name the centrality of art, and creativity, as we re-invigorate this ancient practice. They also underscore the opportunity we have, as Jews and human beings, to align Shmita with a variety of contemporary fights for social and climate justice.