At Eden Village Camp's farm, a farm apprentice explains to visitors the uses of the many different herbs we grow fresh on the farm and use every day in our foods and teas.
Right now, Rabbi Ben and I are staying at Eden Village Camp. Much more than just a camp, it is an active, working farm. For the last few days the rains have poured down. Some fields have flooded, new seeds have floated away into a puddle, and the roots of young plants have begun to ferment in the too-wet ground. Seeing firsthand the damage that too much or too little rain can do brings to life G-d’s promise to “provide rains in their time,” and for the land and trees to yield their produce if you behave… and His threats that “your land will not give its produce and the tree of the land will not give its fruit” if you don’t. And this is even more sobering when you realize that, as a nation, our actions are judged together and we are all responsible for deserving both the blessings and the curses.
This week’s parsha is full of blessings and curses. Most of them sound really distant and unrelated to our own modern lives. After all, at no point does G-d threaten to shut down Facebook or Twitter as a punishment! The blessings and punishments all seem to be about either agriculture or war… and while these things might affect some people personally, it’s still pretty distant for most of us. It’s hard for most of us to visualize how these blessings and curses could really come alive.
Volunteers help plant vegetables at Eden Village Camp's farm. The fence behind them is necessary to keep deer and groundhogs from getting to the veggies first. Recent heavy rains now threaten the lives of these young plants.
Here at Eden Village, I’ve watched as some foods go from the farm to our table. We pluck fresh herbs almost every day. We collect fresh, organic eggs from the 10 free-range hens that happily scratch about. In the summer, when the plants are all mature, foods from the farm will include everything from radishes and asparagus to tomatoes and eggplants. Most of us don’t think about it, but although we don’t see it happen, this is the same process that eventually brings food to our grocery stores. Yet without the cooperation of G-d, none of that food would ever arrive. If G-d so decides, we can have a good year and have abundant, inexpensive fresh produce… or we can have scanty, expensive produce.
Ultimately, we learn, it is up to us. If we serve G-d and perform his mitzvot, He will make it easier for us by filling our bellies, so we won’t be distracted by the pangs of hunger. But if we feel like we’ve got better things to do without our time, G-d will remind us that He’s there. He’ll send us… not really curses, but more like reminders, that He’s the one who’s really in charge. This week as we sit down to our Shabbos meals, let’s try to look at our food in a whole new light… and let’s use the energy it provides to do even more mitvot than the week before. Let’s become partners with G-d and start a positive feedback loop!
