שמיטה-וואר | shmitaware, est. 2018

Shmitaware is an interactive and utilitarian ritual artwork that centers food, farming and nourishment in a Jewish context, and more specifically, in the context of the shmita year. Shmitaware as a name and object reflects the values and lessons embedded within the Jewish teachings and practices in a shmita year. Not only is this cycle in the Jewish calendar year one of release and rest for the land, it is a year of rest, of pause, for everyone who depends on the land. That is, all creatures. The shmita practices offer a model for alternative economies, for addressing food in/justice, for evaluating our relationship to labor and to rest.  

Shmitaware offers a starting point for these conversations  and for these celebrations of gathering. The hand stamped flatware, playfully named, “Shmitaware,” elevates the ritual of a daily, Shabbat or holiday meal to one of active dialogue and contemplation. Shmitaware is as much a prompt to conversation about the joys and complexities of sharing food in our contemporary food systems as it is hiddur mitzvah, an aesthetic elevation, of the commandment to sanctify our meals.

To order a set of Shmitaware for your home or institution, contact Shoshana.