This shmita year (5782), the Deep Water Initiative is launching Project Hakhel – an open invitation for people to creatively reflect upon how religion and ecological engagement can intersect. They are asking that individuals submit creative projects that demonstrate how they are being inspired to take ecological action during the shmita year.
From the project site:
We have [also] just entered a shmita year (5782), otherwise known as a Sabbatical Year, which occurs just once every seven years. Shmita quite literally means “release” and its observance requires that the human being alter their use of the land. It instigates a “letting go” of various systems – agricultural or otherwise – that have become concretized within the human approach to nature. Given that, outside of the land of Israel there is no obligation to observe a shmita year, we have a great opportunity (in the diaspora) to use shmita as a lens – even a metaphor – for our ecological engagement. This gives us a wonderful framework to develop a deeper relationship between ourselves and our environment. And we can work with this framework, over the course of the coming year, to expand our understanding of what it means to participate in a Sabbath of the Land (Shabbat haAretz).
Go here for more information and to submit your creative project.
Email contact@dwinitiative.org with any questions.