Be Fruitful and Save Seeds

S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 W W W. T I K K U N . O R G T I K K U N 31 ILLUSTRATION BY SABIHA BASRAI A utumn is near, daylight is decreasing, and the plants are heavy with fruits. Nature begins her descent back to the ground. Soon, each leaf will have its one chance to dance to the earth’s surface . We are about to enter the spiritual New Year as we cleanse our bodymindspirit from that which no longer serves us. We will look high into the heavens and deep within our souls, and when that’s over, we celebrate the harvest of the first fruits. It is a strange time of year, as modern day Jews, especially when the High Holy Days fall during the middle of the week. How do we really get into the beginning of the school year? How do we balance our work with our prayer? As a Jewish farmer in America, it is also strange. There is much work to be done to bring in the harvest, to prepare the beds with manure and cover crops before they rest for the winter, and to save seeds and store food for the winter. On the other hand, this is a highly spiritual time of year and there is not much time to do all of this physical work. In Chinese Medicine, the organs corresponding to autumn are the lungs and large intestine. We focus on the lungs to help us stand centered between heaven and earth as we take inspiration from above. The colon’s job is to push out the waste, but first it must absorb the essential minerals into the bloodstream. Like the ancient Chinese, we too can dedicate this time of year to that which is truly essential. When we do our work in the world and in ourselves, let us only do the most important tasks, and let the rest go as we celebrate that which we value most about ourselves and our communities. To get a little bit of perspective, let’s imagine what it would be like if we were ancient Israelites getting ready to make a pilgrimage to the Temple. We have worked hard and have been watching our crops grow and our fruit ripen. Instead of eating the first fruits, we will journey with them across the desert to offer them to the Priests at the Temple. When we return, we will build booths in our vineyards and dwell in them so that we can guard our crop and complete the demanding work of the harvest in good time. This lifestyle is drastically different from our modern systems of land ownership, supermarkets , and even Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms. I say there is one act that we can do, to put us back into the shoes of the ancient people. We can save seeds. And I suggest that we learn to do this physically, spiritually, and metaphorically. What is seed saving? It is the process of extracting seeds from the best selection of Be Fruitful and Save Seeds by Rachel P. Kriger 5.Religion:Politics rev. 8/7/07 10:16 AM Page 31 32 T I K K U N W W W. T I K K U N . O R G S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 our favorite, most resilient crops so that we can plant new seeds in the spring. This is what people did before seed catalogues and garden stores. When we lived off the land, we had to ensure that we would have crops every year. Every vegetable crop has its own inner survival instincts, and, as its growing season ends, each plant produces seeds to ensure its life in future generations. Agrarian humans have developed the knowledge to extract the seeds, cure them, and store them. They have even understood how to select for tolerance against pests or weather conditions, or simply for what tastes the bests and has good looks. When we think in terms...