THE GREAT OUTDOORS – HERE AND OVER THERE…
Judaism has two major festivals that have their roots in the great outdoors: Shavuot and Sukkot; the early summer and late summer harvest festivals respectively. So, tracing the origins of both these core celebrations of the Jewish year takes us back to the land – the land of Israel.
Until the first chalutzim – pioneers – returned to the land in the late 19th century, both Shavuot and Sukkot lost their agricultural significance for almost two millennia. The implications of this return were brought home to me when I lived on a kibbutz in the Western Galilee over the winter/spring/early summer of 1978-79: the Shavuot celebration entailed each agricultural branch giving a report of its activities. The Seder we had shared seven weeks earlier had been familiar, but listening to people talk about the various kibbutz crops was a real eye-opener: How strange and wondrous, in a – quite literally – down-to-earth kind of way.
To grow crops, you need suitable land. We have all heard the stories about the draining of the swamps in the north – in the Hula valley and around the Kinneret, the ‘Sea of Galilee’ – and about the intensive efforts to make the Aravah, the southern Negev desert, bloom. The festival of Sukkot gives us a little inkling of the realities of life on the land in the Middle East: Our ancestors, Torah relates, dwelt in sukkot – huts – in the desert, while they wandered for forty years (Leviticus 23:42-43). However, the Torah indicates elsewhere that they dwelt in tents (ohalim) – and the mention of sukkot, is most likely to be a reference to the agricultural dimension of the festival: Once our ancestors settled in the land and became farmers, they would erect huts in the fields to shelter themselves from the baking summer sun.
Our ancestors wandered in the desert before they reached the land across the River Jordan, but, as it happens, most of the land of modern Israel is desert, so it’s not only very hot, it’s also extremely arid, with minute quantities of rainfall – usually a couple of days in January each year. Imagine it: 38-45 degrees of heat from June to September, and no rain. And it is in these conditions that you’ll find, not only palm-tree plantations and other hot-climate crop specialities, but Israel’s second largest dairy farm, Yotvata – just thirty minutes north of Eilat. Untold gallons of water are used every day, just keeping the lactating cows cool, let alone hydrated! It’s quite meshuga! (crazy!) No doubt, as the global ecological crisis deepens, all this is set to change… In any event, as we prepare to enjoy the delights of the great British outdoors, this summer – umbrellas at the ready! – perhaps we might spare a thought for our brothers and sisters, experiencing the challenges of a very different kind of summer, over there, in the land of our Israel.
Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah