Sunday, June 12th from 1:00 to 4:00 at Over the Fence Urban Farm
Shavuot, one of the three pilgrimage festivals in Torah, has its roots in agr
iculture, although it is liturgically and, in celebratory customs, linked to the revelation of Torah on Mount Sinai. Torah teaches of a holy celebration on Yom HaBikurim ~ the day of first-fruits is to occur at the time of the Festival of Weeks (Shavuot), the completion of counting the seven weeks of the Omer (barley harvest)*. The express purpose of this celebration is gratitude for the abundance of the season’s wheat harvest.
As an agricultural people, the ancient Israelites experienced Shavuot as an opportunity to honor the connection between earth, God and human labor. However, with the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E., our land-based People became dispersed among nations. Over time, Shavuot was “reconstructed” by our great sages to serve as a celebration of the revelation of Torah at Sinai rather than a land-based, Temple ritual less relevant to a land-less People.
A great gif
t of our wisdom tradition is the encouragement we are given to read and reread, interpret and reinterpret Torah, finding the relevance within the wisdom both in its black letters and the white open space that surrounds them. In this expanse, we can, once again, reconstruct this festival of celebration and gratitude with room enough for BOTH agrarian appreciation and Divine revelation.
In our kehilla and in our neighborhoods and surrounding lands, many of us garden or connect to the earth in a significant way. If we don’t have our own farm, we may attend a farmers’ market and connect with someone who directly sows, grows, and harvests the food we eat or the flowers that beautiful our homes. We are in tune with the rhythms of the environment as we learn, once again, to pay attention, care for, and appreciate the Earth. This is the Torah of the Earth .
In this spirit, we will gather on
Sunday, June 12th from 1:00 – 4:00 pm
at the
urban farm and home of Little Minyan member, Jodi Kushins,
in Clintonville
.
Over the Fence
Urban Farm
,
with its first fruits (and vegetables and chickens), is the perfect place for us to open to the revelation and gifting of Torah. There will be an opportunity to help in the garden too, so bring your favorite gardening gloves!
Please bring “fruits” to share (veggies, fruit, cheese, and other snacks) with all who gather. In addition to food, you are invited to bring any variety of your “first fruits” to share with the gathered community. A poem, a song, a story, a piece of artwork, or a treasured gift that has inspired you.
See you at Sinai!
