Yavneh Academy middle school students participated in Shemitah Day. Dressed as farmers, students and faculty participated in a day of interactive experiences to learn about shemitah. The day began with tefillah followed by an introduction to the event.

Students traveled by assigned groups to activities throughout the school campus. Following each activity, students reflected on their experience by answering prompts in their shemitah journal.

The shemitah activities during the day included a shiur with textual sources, a hashkafa discussion about emunah and bitachon, making wheat and and making grape juice, watching an Israeli shopping at Machane Yehuda shuk for Shabbat and learning about the different types of food and their shemitah classification. The students were also able to review the ideas and halachot of shemitah through games, including a Chopped competition.

Students adorned the walls with Post-it notes about how they connect with Hashem outside of Eretz Yisrael. The program also included a seven minute pause so students can experience a stoppage of work during the day. Of course, no farming experience is complete without a hayride and shemitah songs!