Working on a farm would be wonderful! I always wanted to work with the fresh ground. To smell dirt, put my hands in the dirt and find mud on my face after a hard day of work. That’s when I found out about the farm at Eden Village. And there I was; weeding, harvesting fresh vegetables and planting seeds into their beds. All this…. In the hot sun, and when it rained, in the chilly rain.

I wasn’t too comfortable, I have to say. And I thought I wasn’t a city girl! I wasn’t one of those girls who thought of dirt as dirty but working on the farm was hard.

On the fourth day of work on the farm, my pretty painted nail chipped and that’s not all, I started to get the feeling of what it’s really like to work on a farm. Being with my farmer friends all day, I got to see what real farmers are like. When you work on the farm you become one with it. Those farmers work hard in the steamy sun or the cold rain. You shower when the day is done.

I learned a lot from the farmers. Ben taught me to talk sweetly to a little plant as you place it into its bed, so that it would grow beautiful, happy and strong. Daniella told me to be patient, that I can’t judge the farm after just three days. And seeing Casey appreciate the little things on the farm helped me appreciate little things too. A carrot that grows inside the ground, who would think of a bright orange color!

-Bruria Halevy, August 2013

We’ve grown a lot together here. For one, it has been the most productive season ever on the farm. We’re well on the way to reaching our goal of 3,000 pounds of produce for our farm-fresh kitchen. I’ve seen campers grow as well, blossoming as farmers, learners and chefs under the tutelage of our amazing crew of Farm Education Apprentices. And we’ve grown as a farm team. I can say that I’ve certainly learned a thing or two about guiding (and being guided by!) the organic entity that is the farm and the farm staff.

The truest indicator of our progress is the vibrant productivity of our fields and education program: we’re going into the fall a hive of educational energy. Our staff meetings, particularly those about educational programs, contain the rare, precious mix of creative energy and listening that good education thrives on. I can’t wait to see how our plans unfurl as our fall guests arrive at our programming, like water falling on seeds in soil.

And, thank heavens, we’ve got even more room to grow here at Eden Village! Every year this place gets a little bigger, a little better. My dream for Eden Village is that we nurture our ability to slow down even as we speed up. How can we establish routines that let us do things better AND deeper? How can we nourish that fire, that vital spirit and excitement that have powered this young Jewish environmental dream? Maybe we can hold a vision of the future that resides comfortably in the present.

So for all of us, I have a blessing in the spirit of the current Hebrew month, Elul. Elul is a time of forgiveness, of perspective and kindness in anticipation of the high holy days that are approaching in Tishrei. My blessing is this: as we all grow this coming fall, may we also incorporate the lessons of a busy summer and a generative spring. May we strike that balance between vision and action, between introvert and extrovert, that mirage-like trail that appears, paradoxically, as we walk it.

- written by Jonathan Billig at Eden Village Camp, 8-19-13, 13th of Elul 5773.

This is a question that young Jewish professional pose for themselves when they enter the work force, be it secular or Jewish. To be Jewish, or the act of being Jewish rather, can mean so many things to many people in many ways. For my college years, I felt the most connected to Judaism through farming. The outdoors was my synagogue, growing food to feed others was my tikkun, and creating plant life was acting in G-d’s image! Since I was in school, farming felt sacred to me because my livelihood was not dependent upon the success of the growing season both financially and nutritionally. For that reason, I believe I was able to pray to G-d with my hands in soil. So again, how can we develop a work attitude that honors G-d humbly?

During my time with the Jewish Farm School and Eden Village, the answer became sustainability. G-d created the world holy and completely. G-d’s divine design is a closed system that takes care of itself. When left alone, nature’s systems can be self-sustaining and self-regulating. It is the human’s mitzvah to be a steward of the earth: to see to it that G-d’s divine design is upheld. In this way, we are mere facilitators in ensuring that nature is protected for it too was created in G-d’s image. To me, this understanding that “G-d saw it was good and it was good…” our job is to preserve the goodness not just for ourselves but for all those involved in its closed systems. Therefore our attitudes should be such: sustainability is fairness. If we model our work ethic after G-d’s work ethic, where the waters were created above and waters created below, than we see that it not just differentiating that fosters a Jewish approach to making work meaningful but also a balance of all that we juggle. This balance can help us reach a fair level for sustainability in our selves, for each other, in our work and in our reminders to G-d that we love and fear with each breath.