Speak to the Israelite people and say to them:

When you enter the land that I am giving to you and you reap its harvest, you shall bring the first sheaf of your harvest to the priest.

(Leviticus 23:109)

In the spring, after Passover, when Jews began to harvest barley, the first sheaf (omer) of the harvest was dedicated to the community.

Giving and supporting the community was part of the agricultural cycle; recognizing that your bounty comes from God and part of it goes to support community institutions.

At Beantown Jewish Gardens we’ve found, even in greater Boston in 2018, maintaining a connection to these agricultural cycles provides a vibrant entry point to contemporary Jewish community life. We’ll be doing that at the Boston Jewish Food Conference on June 10, at Sukkot on the Farm on September 30, and in other Jewish food and agriculture events we are planning throughout the coming growing season.

And we, too, need a little bit of the harvest. Raising money now means more than we can plan and do more for the rest of 2018, from public events about growing your own food to building partnerships with local Jewish institutions to expanding our capacity for the future.

What Jews call “counting the omer” is marking off the 49-day period between Passover and the next pilgrimage holiday, Shavuot. Our goal during this time is to get 49 donations averaging $49 each. We’ll update you in our newsletters during this period with our progress and other numbers to show how Beantown Jewish Gardens makes a difference in our community.

Can we “count” on you? Donate today.

 

In gratitude,

Board of Directors: Rachel Lawent, Hannah Levine, Leora Mallach, Marc Stober, Jake Wilkenfeld-Mongillo