EXOD406 The Torah sets forth a time-tempered rhythmic process of economic, ecological, and political action that is intended to preserve abundance and that warns of utter disaster if the balance is undone. When we look for what we might call the "eco-Judaism" of biblical Israel, one of the most notable teachings about the relationship between the human community and the earth is the teaching of Shabbat (the Sabbath), the shmitah or Sabbatical year, and the Jubilee year. Every seventh day, every seventh year, and the year after every seventh cycle of seven years (the fiftieth year), the human community is to pause from work, not merely to rest from physical labor, but also to renew itself, to achieve "release" for "self-reflection" or "detachment" or "holiness."– And as the community rests, so does the earth--animals and vegetation are also released. Indeed, it is almost impossible to disentangle the implications of this whirling spiral of Shabbats for adamah, the earth, from its implications for adam, the human community. The Bible connects this rhythm both to revitalization of the earth and to human freedom and equality. As we have already seen, the Shabbat of the seventh day comes first into human ken, along with manna, just at the liberation of the Israelites from slavery. When the Torah describes the second revelation of Shabbat--the one at Sinai--it gives two different ways of understanding. One (Exod. 20:8-11) focuses on Shabbat as a reminder of God's Creation of the entire "natural" world, in which the cosmos itself needs and celebrates rest and renewal as an organic reality. In the second version (Deut 5:12-15), the main reason for the existence of Shabbat is said to be as a reminder of liberation from slavery in the Narrow Place, Mitzrayyim, Egypt. It is a way of making sure that even in a society where some become indentured servants, "Your male and female servants may rest as one-like-yourself." (By Arthur Waskow, "Jewish Environmental Ethics: Intertwining Adam with Adamah")