Shmita, the “year of release,” is also sometimes referred to as the “Shabbat for the land.” Just as God worked to create the world in six days and then rested on the seventh, we are called to do this ourselves each week on Shabbat. In the Book of Exodus (23:10 – 11) we are invited to do the same every seven years, through the practice of Shmita. The next Shmita falls in the Jewish year 5789, which begins on Sept. 20, 2028.
These laws were interpreted by the rabbis as pertaining only to those living in the land of Israel. Therefore, Shmita was not observed during the almost 2,000 years in which most Jews lived in diaspora. Very recently, Jews around the world have begun reclaiming the concept of Shmita, including aligning the practice with the growing environmental movements of our time. (For more on the roots of this movement see The Hazon Shmita Sourcebook to learn more. Hazon was an American environmental organization aimed at creating healthier and more sustainable communities in the Jewish world and beyond. Hazon is now part of Adamah, dedicated to cultivating deep connections between people and the planet through Jewish wisdom and traditions.)
Starting with the most recent Shmita Year (5783/2021-22), Lex Rofeberg and Wendie Lash have produced Elul Unbound, an annual mini series podcast in the month leading up to the High Holidays. Each season has included an episode exploring where we are in the Shmita cycle. They challenged listeners to consider: “What does it mean to hold on to the lessons of the Shmita cycle within every year over the seven year cycle?” They inspired me to start my own annual deep dives into that question. This year I’ve started sharing my reflections and talking with others about what that might look like in our kehilah. This Rosh Hashonah (5787/2026), was the beginning of Year 5 of the current seven year cycle.
How Do We Perceive Time?
By embracing and exploring aspects of each year of the Shmita cycle, we invite ourselves into another spiral of the time ahead of us, expanding our minds to think about where we have been and where we are going in a new way.
We most often think of time in hours, days, sometimes weeks or even years, but rarely in larger spans. In examining the Shmita seven year cycle, we align with this notion of Jewish time that also connects us to the rhythm of the earth/climate/nature, so one component of that exploration might prioritize our relationship with related earth-based themes and issues. In one of the Elul Unbound conversations from 2025, Lex says “our society is falling short because we are unable to think on [so] large a scale (especially on the front of climate change). We lose sight of the larger flow.”
We often perceive time as linear, but there are so many ways in which it cycles or spirals. Spirals are powerful and captivating. From the swirl of a seashell to the unfurling of stars in their galaxies, there are myriad examples of them all about us. Spirals are present throughout nature, and in many cultural and religious traditions. A spiral path circles itself while also heading somewhere. Spirals open our imaginations to moving in patterns, with some continuity, but with the opportunity for something new with every iteration.
Imagining Years as Days of the Week
As part of their exploratory discussions on Elul Unbound, Lex and Wendie talk about the meaning of the number for each year in the cycle – “What is one?” “What do we associate with two?” etc. They also think about each year as aligned with a day of the week. The Jewish week runs from Sunday through Saturday/Shabbat, so Year One is Sunday, Year Two is Monday, and so on. This fall of 2026, we are moving into Thursday.
What does it mean to be in the “Thurs-Year” of Shmita? We are more than halfway through the cycle, tipping closer to arrival at Shabbat for the land. In the metaphor of a week, by Thursday we have started thinking of who will be with us for our Friday night meal, what we will prepare, what shopping and meal prep we need to do. At work we may be joking about passing “hump day” and looking forward to the weekend.
In my own exploration of each year, I have also overlaid the number/day of the week with the parallel day of creation and with the Kabbalistic Sephira traditionally aligned with that number. I have then used writing, meditations, affirmations and other prompts related to qualities associated with that number/day/sephira to explore what this particular year means to me, what it might bring for me, and what I might learn from it.
The Days of Creation
One source I draw from is the work of rabbi and environmentalist Ellen Bernstein. In her book The Splendor of Creation, Bernstein summarizes each day of creation into a word or a few words, based on what Genesis tells us God created that day. Bernstein’s word for Day One is Light. Day Two is Air, Day Three is Water, Earth and Plants, and Day Four is Planets and Time.
Day Five – the “day” we’re in as I write this – is Water and Wind Creatures. In Bernstein’s translation of Genesis, the opening words for Day Five are “And God said, ‘Let the water swarm with living swarming soul(s), and let flyer(s) fly above the earth in the expanse of the sky.’” So, the fish and the birds. (Did you remember that while we get these creatures on Day 5, land animals and humans arrive together on Day Six?) I especially love Bernstein’s realization that we are given not just the fish and birds, but their place and their motion – they are not in isolation, they are fish in the water, moving fish – swarming – and birds in the air – moving – flying. They are in their natural environment and they are expanding, exploring, inhabiting the space they find themselves within.
And there is more! The text goes on to say “And God created the great sea monsters!” In Psalm 104 we find the sea monster, Leviathan, is “the one with whom God frolics in the sea.” Bernstein writes that some “say that the sea monster was especially created as a playmate for God” and goes on to write extensively about the value and importance of play, especially play outdoors, which “can help us develop our own organic relationships with nature so that environment becomes a part of the everyday context of our lives and a regular part of our thought.” From this I take encouragement and invitation to elevate outdoor play, building our joyful connections to the land as we move closer to the next Shmita year, the time when we will be again centering our care for the rest and restoration of the Earth.
Embracing Your Year Five!
There are lots of other ways to engage with what it means to be in Year 5. What comes up for you in thinking about five? I think of the five digits of our hands and feet, doing a celebratory “high five”, 5pm as the end of the work day. Lex and Wendy spend some time talking about the Jewish tradition to read Torah in community on Mondays, Thursdays, and Shabbat. While most of us no longer have that tradition, it is part of our history and perhaps there are ways we might echo that practice in this “Thurs-Year” in our community. What other associations do you have with Thursday?
I’ll leave you with this final prompt: For those already familiar with or interested to learn about the key elements/sephirot of the Kabbalah, they are sometimes associated with numbers; in the counting of the Omer, Week Five is associated with the sephirah of “Hod” – often associated with Awe and Humility, Gratitude, and Thanks (among other qualities). Exploring alignment with those concepts during this year could become deeply meaningful.
We have a whole year! Set some time aside to explore and play with being in Year Five!