The current year 5782 is a year of remission (שְׁמִטָּֽה, shmita in Hebrew).

Scripture – Exodus 21,23; Leviticus 25; Deuteronomy 15,31 – tells us that every seventh year we should let the land lie fallow; extinguish debts; free bondservants and study religious texts.

Wow! Have you been doing that? Are they even doing that in Israel?

On July 10 at 10:30 AM on Zoom, former Temple Har Zion member Jesse Abraham is offering a presentation that explores the historical context of the practice of seven-year debt release (shmita): when it was adopted, how it was used and how it became un-adopted. It proposes a criterium for what a "shmita consciousness" around household debt might mean today. Two specific modifications to existing US government policies are presented that would move society closer to achieving those objectives. Additional foundational changes to the US economic system will also be discussed.

Dr. Jesse Abraham is the son of Dr. Bernard and Annabel Abraham (z"l) and was a bar mitzvah at Temple Har Zion. Researching debt and shmita is one of the things he’s been doing since his retirement from Wells Fargo as a business economist. He lives in Washington DC (hence the Zoom).

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