Shabbat for the Land: Shemitah in the 21st Century
Ben Dreyfus
Description
The Torah commands refraining from agricultural labor and letting the land rest every seventh year. The shemitah (sabbatical) year is observed to this day in the land of Israel. However, observing shemitah according to a literal reading of the Torah would pose practical challenges in a modern economy with Israel’s population density, and as a result, a number of competing solutions have been devised, reflecting the divisions in Israeli society and leading to a heated Supreme Court case.
Ben Dreyfus teaches physics at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, and has lived in Israel during the last two shemitah years. He blogs at Mah Rabu , Jewschool, and Sefer Ha-Bloggadah.
Notes
Categories
- Text for Everyone
- Contemporary Issues
- Afternoon Course