"We are commanded to sustain the world."
- Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin & Rabbi Avram Resiner

“They shall forever inhabit this earth, the result of My planting, the work of My hands in which I glory.” (Isaiah 60:21)

• The shmita verses: Exodus 23: 10-11, Leviticus 25:2–7, Leviticus 25:20–22, and Deuteronomy 15:1–3
• "Shmita Live" PDF with panelists' names & links (for download)
• Shmita explanation on Wikipedia

• Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin of St. Mary's Seminary, and MDEHR 
• Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb of Adat Shalom, Interfaith Power & Light, and COEJL
• Dr. Mirele Goldsmith of Jewish Earth Alliance
• Simcha Scwhartz of Wilderness Torah
• Rabbi Laura Bellows of Dayenu
• Nati Passow of Dayenu, and Jewish Farm School
• Shmita Project Northwest's Deirdre Gabbay
• Hazon's Sarah Zell Young
• National Wildlife Federation's Naomi Edelson
• AllCreation.org's Chris Searles (moderator)

• 0:00 Preroll
• 0:08 Welcome & Introductions -- by Chris Searles (moderator), AllCreation.org 
• 3:35 "Shmita 101" by Deirdre Gabbay (co-host), Shmita Project Northwest

• 6:30 Naomi Edelson, senior dir., National Wildlife Federation. references: Deuteronomy 30:19 (the life verse), and -> Sacred Grounds <- "Sacred Grounds" is National Wildlife Federation's native plant program for congregations. 
• 9:39 Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin, conservative rabbi, St. Mary's Seminary; exec. dir., Maryland Campaign for Environmental Human Rights (MDEHR). references: The Kotzker Rebbi ("We are here to hold up the heavens."), Shabbas candles / Luminous light of Creation. 
• 13:22 Rabbi Laura Bellows, dir. of spiritual activism, Dayenu. references: The Talmud, The Boat story, With All of Our Might (Dayenu program). 
• 17:00 Sarah Zell Young, dir. of strategic partnerships, Hazon. references: Hazon's Shmita Project, Shmita Prizes, Shmita Sourcebook. 
• 19:45 Simcha Schwarz, dir. of development and communications, Wilderness Torah. references: Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Center for Earth-based Judaism
• 22:10 Deirdre Gabbay, co-fndr, dir., Shmita Project Northwest. references: Washington Interfaith Power & Light.
• 23:58 Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb, rabbi, Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation, chair, Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL), board member, Interfaith Power & Light. references: Sacred Grounds, Mussar (enlightenment ethics), Anavah (humility), "Taking up the right amount of space," Chesed (loving kindness), Kavod (honor).
• 26:29 Dr. Mirele Goldsmith, co-fndr, co-chair, Jewish Earth Alliance. references: "messes that we're in": filthy air, mountaintop removal, fracking watewater.
• 40:57 Nati Passow (arriving later), opr. mngr., Dayenu. references: Jewish Farmer Network, Nati's pdf "Shmita year by year" (coming soon).  

• 29:00 Deepening connections
• 43:12 Shmita practices this year
• 51:00 The Dominion Question
• 61:47 Quick wrap-up on Shmita today
• 64:50 Q&A
• 71:15 GOODNIGHT

“Shmita comes with a promise and a warning: Do this and you will live in security and abundance, and If we don’t there will be consequences that will manifest through an increasingly hostile environment.” — Deirdre Gabbay, re: Shmita 101

"We need to change how we take care of our yards; change them to put in native plants that will help people and wildlife." — Naomi Edelson

“We have a disconnect with each other, but also Nature and wildlife. This whole reflection gives us hope that we can reset ourselves… to remind that the world is good.” — Naomi Edelson

"The way we can be the very best that we can be is engaging in the external world and seeing how it is beautiful and yet how it needs to be improved." — Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin

“Shmita and Shabbat are that moment of getting to say, "You know what? We’re in a raging sea right now, but we have to sometimes release in order to find the people who can carry the enormity of it with us."" — Rabbi Laura Bellows

"We see Shmita as something to strive for, something where we can really think about the world we want to live in." — Sarah Zell Young

“Shmita is (also) an economic consciousness, it’s saying, "Hey, stop, slow down. It’s not about necessarily the accumulation of wealth. Let’s just rest for a moment, let some debts free, and step back and reevaluate.” — Simcha Schwarz

"Shmita is not just waking up on the seventh year and saying, "It's Shmita."" — Simcha Schwarz

“We’re doing Shmita on a multi-faith basis.” — Deirdre Gabbay

"What transformational projects can we envision and then begin to work with when we have a long time horizon, like six years, to prepare for going into the next Shmita cycle?"  — Deirdre Gabbay

“Shmita is the grand unification theory of all of our great values.” — Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb

“Shmita is a year dedicated to sustainability. It’s about caring for Earth and caring for people. It’s the Jewish version of the social, the environmental, and the economic going together.” — Dr. Mirele Goldsmith

“Shmita is in your Bible, too." — Dr. Mirele Goldsmith

"When we were very small... Genesis I's "blessing of domination" worked. But when we hit the capacity we have now, and the numbers that we have now, and the technology that we have now, Genesis I theology ends up being a destructive theology. Which is where Genesis II comes in. Genesis II talks about humanity being in service to the land... Genesis II is actually an antidote to that vision that we are here to dominate the Earth... As we build this glorious civilization that we want to build, let's be careful how we do it and make sure that we don't do it in a dominating and destructive way. I see Genesis II is a corrective to Genesis I." — Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin

"Shmita points back into the Edenic way of life... So Shmita kind of keeps that memory alive; reminds us that we were not always farmers... It's a reminder that we're animals..." — Nati Passow

"We are born loving and creative..." — Naomi Edelson

"If we think of the Creator as creating all of these things with love, wanting them to fill the Earth and to be fruitful and multiply, and admiring their beauty and reflecting on their goodness... that form of "dominion" looks very different... Like, "You're the babysitter of my children, I give you dominion over my household," and it doesn't mean that you're going to whip my children, I want them to be taken care of..."  Deirdre Gabbay

“The letter of the Torah, in a world of eight billion people, may not be the thing to do anymore. The Spirit of the Torah: Shmita consciousness, is the lodestar for almost everything we’ve been talking about.” — Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb

"Props not just to the people trying to help Orthodox farmers in Israel this year... But actually to think in the interconnected whole we are a part of... And maybe we can do that in the human sphere and maybe we can do that in the ecological/agricultural sphere." — Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb

"Imagine a world where Tech and the laws of the biosphere are integrated successfully."  — Chris Searles

“There’s so many things we need to do and can do… We are at the beginning of how we think about how we live together on Earth.” — Chris Searles