{"id":89354,"date":"2021-02-23T18:23:53","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T16:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=89354"},"modified":"2021-02-23T18:23:53","modified_gmt":"2021-02-23T16:23:53","slug":"purim-truths-revealed-over-the-past-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/purim-truths-revealed-over-the-past-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Purim: Truths Revealed Over The Past Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"89354","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":89352,"related_cahpter":"1137","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"A key lesson we can draw from COVID-19 is that we need intentional, punctuated rest periods to avoid future burnout","content":"<header><\/header>\n<section class=\"entry\">\n<p>Many of us anticipated this Purim as the year-marker since our lives changed unimaginably. There\u2019s something apt about the holiday that highlights the topsy-turvy nature of life bookending the beginning \u2014 and hopefully the beginning of the end \u2014 of the corona virus in the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Purim represents a time of finding happiness and hopefulness amidst great existential uncertainty. It\u2019s also about hidden truths being revealed to us. In the early months of the pandemic, many of us found joy, paradoxically, in hearing tales and seeing images of rejuvenation and rebirth occurring in nature due to the sharp drop in our own activity. With humans in temporary retreat, wildlife proliferated in abandoned habitats and occupied urban spaces. As traffic plummeted, a dramatic decline in carbon and nitrogen emissions allowed all life to breathe more easily again. We got a glimpse of what it would look like to give the land a long-deserved Shabbat, a respite from our anthropocentric reign. Maybe we caught a glimpse of the truth that\u2019s been drowned out by the busy-ness of our typical, frenetic lives: that slowing down is good for the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A key lesson we can draw from COVID-19 is that we need intentional, punctuated rest periods to avoid future burnout, especially for our food system. The regulatory concept of Shmita has enormous relevance and potential for us today. What would it look like to establish a regular cycle of leaving the land fallow for one year every seven years (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sefaria.org\/leviticus.25.4\">Lev. 25:4<\/a>), to release loan recipients from all their debts (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sefaria.org\/deuteronomy.15.2\">Deut. 15:2<\/a>) and to include animals both domesticated and wild in the Sabbatical practice (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sefaria.org\/leviticus.25.6\">Lev. 25:6<\/a>)? Would such a system naturally curb humans\u2019 exploitative tendencies? Could it instill in us a sensitivity to our own power in relation to land, animals, and others in society? Might we come to a more holistic understanding of who and what comprises community, and how to sustain it?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Wherever we are, Shmita is a metaphor for allowing people and the more-than-human world to recalibrate and revive. Pandemics like COVID-19, abetted by humans pushing natural ecosystems and industrial food systems to their limits, highlight how necessary this reprieve is.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Although conceptually Shmita applies only to those who own and steward land, expanding and implementing a Shmita-like practice today doesn\u2019t necessitate owning it. In a time when we have done our best to divorce ourselves from our food system, perhaps the most direct way we can participate in a Shmita-like practice is by supporting agricultural production that accommodates and centers these limitations: by eschewing factory-farmed products, by buying from farmers that employ regenerative practices, and by sourcing food that destroys the least wild habitat. We can be agents of Shmita by making choices that put the least amount of strain on people, animals, and the land.<\/p>\n<p>One year later, the chaotic side of Purim\u2019s topsy-turviness still hasn\u2019t left us. But one truth that will be continuously revealed to us, even as we emerge from this pandemic with hope and healing, is our interdependence with \u2014 and responsibility to care for \u2014 all land and those who dwell upon it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The next shmita year begins next Rosh Hashanah 2021, almost a year from now. We have time to prepare. As we move through 5781 we invite you to join us in preparation for the upcoming shmita year \u2013 a sabbatical year for the Earth but also for ourselves, our communities, and our world. Each week we will share thoughts on how the weekly parsha can help guide our thinking around shmita themes of work and rest, wealth and debt, responsible land use, fair labor practices, private and public property ownership, and physical and spiritual revitalization.<\/p>\n<p>Join us for the journey.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/hazon.org\/shmita-project\/hazon-shmita-blog\/\">See here for more information on the Hazon Shmita project, and its blogs.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","image":{"ID":81608,"id":81608,"title":"shmita","filename":"shmita.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/bereishit-the-sabbatical-paradigm\/shmita\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"shmita","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":81605,"date":"2020-10-15 14:26:00","modified":"2021-02-01 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