| dc.description.abstract | The UN sustainable development goals acknowledge the connections between ecology and social justice. However, such realizations are not new. This article focuses on the relationship between, on the one hand,
ecological issues pertaining to agriculture and, on the other hand, economic issues of social justice. The article traces the understanding of such a relationship from biblical times to our own day in the laws of Shmita (also known as the year of release, the seventh year, or the sabbatical year). The first part of the article focuses on the biblical texts, using primarily literary analysis to identify the nuanced stances taken to the ecology and economy of Shmita in Exod. 23.10-11, Lev. 25.1-7 and Deut. 15.1-6. The second part of the article shows how early and mediaeval Jewish writings have received these biblical texts, particularly in terms of agricultural and economic legislation, separating ecology from economy. The final
part of the article discusses the reception of the biblical texts in Jewish green movements of our own time, analysing how some of the main actors revive Shmita and through this revive the interconnections between ecology and economy. | en_US |
