The following is an assorted listing of articles and reading resources curated by our team for those looking to deepen their understanding of racial equity work across the corporate, education, and advocacy sectors.

Cycles of Rest, Release, and Liberation In Partnership with the
Institute for Jewish Spirituality

The Hebrew word shemitah literally means “release.” In its biblical origin, Shemitah was a year of rest, in a seven-year cycle of Jewish life, that gave the land a rest from farming, forgave all debts, and instituted agricultural and economic adjustments. Now as then, Shemitah calls us to take steps to ensure the maintenance of an equitable, just, and healthy society. This Jewish year, 5782, is a Shemitah ‘Sabbatical Year.’

We invite you to join Cycles of Rest, Release, and Liberation: Antiracism and Shemitah as Spiritual Practice — a transformative, contemplative learning journey that will combine Jewish text, antiracism teaching, and opportunities to reflect. Over the course of six months, we developed a curriculum to help you connect your inner essence to the journey from Hefker to Hekdesh — the reassignment of human value from being rooted in commodities and ownership to the potential for individuals and communities to be rooted in shared power, shared resources, and deepened connectivity.
This series will offer you a chance to release the rhythms and behaviors of survival-mind, domination, and control. Through four sessions and cycles of contemplative reflection, each featuring a keynote webinar and optional caucus group meetings, participants will be welcomed to connect Jewish textual sources on Shemitah and antiracism resources and practices for:

Session I ​

Restoration & Repair​

Session II

Release

Session III

Transformational Visioning

Session III

Transformational Visioning

This experience will be an opportunity to open your mind, body, and spirit to the liberating abundance of BEing. Throughout the four sessions, you will begin or continue to unlearn racism, and you will learn and practice:

What comes with engaging in cycles of rest and labor

Living in “right relationship” with the land and its inhabitants

Engaging in reciprocity with people and communities

Revaluing the diversity of life and living on this planet

Resisting othering in community, and supporting systemic equality through the enactment of legal and social standards that promote inherent human dignity and value.

What will this shemitah year look like for you? How might this opportunity to engage in Torah wisdom and social justice practice expand your capacity for skillful responses to the economic, environmental, and social systems that perpetuate the ongoing existence of racism in our lives?

Videos

SESSION I

Shemitah & Antiracism Practices for
Restorative Justice and Repair

SESSION II

Shemitah & Antiracism Practices for
Restorative Justice and Repair

SESSION III

Shemitah & Antiracism Practices for
Restorative Justice and Repair

SESSION IV

Shemitah & Antiracism Practices for
Restorative Justice and Repair