Tzedakah, the Jewish Market, and Maxie's Garden

When we hear the word “tzedakah,” many of us think of the word “charity,” or recall placing our parents’ pocket change in jangling boxes (known as a pushke in Yiddish)  in Hebrew school or at synagogue.

In fact, the word tzedakah is translated as “justice.” Maimonides lists eight levels of tzedakah — the highest level is to empower the individual, by offering a loan; assisting people with finding employment; or helping people establish businesses. While giving charity to the poor through donations is noble, and makes Maimonides’ list in several forms, it often chains the needy to a system of relying upon external groups to sustain themselves. This is generous, but not necessarily just — empowering individuals to sustain themselves is the highest degree of Maimonides’ concept of tzedakah.

At Shoresh, everything we grow is donated — the Kavanah Garden produces over 500 pounds of fresh vegetables annually for distribution in the community. We have always donated our harvest to tzedakah including organizations such as Ve’Ahavata and Jewish Family & Child  (JF&CS). In 2014, we adopted a new approach to tzedakah and what unravelled was the launch of Maxie’s Garden — a story that begins in Kensington Market.

Market harvest 

Dave Pinkus has lived on Nassau Street since 1927.

At the close of the 1920s, Toronto was home to a burgeoning population of Jewish immigrants, highly concentrated in the Kensington neighbourhood. Just a few years later, vendors had set up food and goods, lining the street in what came to be known as the Jewish market. It closed on Friday nights each week as the bustling crowds would disappear into their homes to observe the Sabbath, coming to life once again on Saturday nights and flooding the streets with members of the surrounding immigrant community doing their shopping throughout the week.

Jewish Market Day on Kensington Avenue, 1924. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

Today, we know this area of Toronto as Kensington Market. The majority of the Jewish population that once enlivened its storefronts and alleyways moved north — but not Pinkus.

The same year that he came to the neighbourhood, the Kiever Synagogue was established at 25 Bellevue Avenue. His parents were founding members of the shul that remains in its original location to this day. The Kiever remains active today, and Pinkus serves as its president.

In 2014, Shoresh began to set roots in downtown Toronto and were looking to start a new community garden in the area.  Through a variety of connections, Pinkus heard about Shoresh’s interest and generously offered up the backyard of his 90-year-old Nassau Street residence. The project was called Maxie’s Garden, after Pinkus’ late brother.

For 23 weeks, 5-10 clients of JF&CS came to the garden to learn how to tend to the land, guided by Shoresh Director of Community Outreach Sabrina Malach from seed to harvest. The group was called “Back to Our Roots.”

In the shadow of the vibrant Jewish market of nearly a century ago, coloured by the produce of downtown vendors, the group grew fresh produce in Kensington to take home and to donate to the community. In the rich soil, invested in several years earlier by Pinkus, the group grew carrots, beets, radishes, herbs, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, chard, chives, zucchini, beans, garlic, flowers, and more.

Pinkus, an incredible community leader and a living library of the history of Toronto’s Jewish community, engaged with the group throughout the program.

“I really enjoyed myself both for the learning factor but also in having the true privilege of meeting David and getting to know him somewhat and in marvelling and also being amazed at his vast knowledge and memory,” one participant described, “What a true mensch and wonderful, wonderful man. I loved hearing him speak of my uncle and family that he knew. It is very rare to be in the company of such a gifted and kind man who possesses such a razor sharp memory and accurate too.”

Participants with Pinkus and Shoresh and JFCS staff in the garden.

Several participants found the experience of working in the garden healing, and many expressed that they enjoyed the collaborative, social nature of the work.

“I love the garden more every time I come,” said one participant, “I find it therapeutic and it makes me feel proud.”

Food justice

“After learning from Maxie’s Garden, I planted my own garden,” said one participant of the JF&CS-Shoresh collaboration.

A flower in the garden.

Describing the highlights of her experience in the program, another participant describes, “taking home the harvest, [having] access to organic food, [and] knowing that I was a contributing hand.”

Looking ahead to the next iteration of the garden, Shoresh and JF&CS hope to incorporate cooking classes to provide even more practical skills to program participants.

Tzedakah is not the only Hebrew concept that is sometimes mistranslated — we often think of “mitzvah” as meaning “good deed,” but in fact, it means “obligation.” Tzedakah is a mitzvah — and social justice, more than a commendable endeavour, is an obligation upon the Jewish community.

At Maxie’s Garden, the Maimonidean principle of the highest degree of tzedakah as social justice is seen in action — participants learn to plant, weed, and harvest their yield, so that they can nourish themselves independently. Beyond this, they also have the opportunity to socialize; to meaningfully work with and learn from others; and to engage in the ineffable healing and empowerment of gardening.

As one participant noted, “the process of seed to the table is truly divine.” 

Shmita 101

On the side of a highway in southern Israel, a field of dried out sunflowers likely strikes observers, initially, as abandoned — a sprawling, desolate pasture, unattended and still except for the inaudible decay of the remaining brown blooms.

Before the field stands a large, yellow poster, with green Hebrew letters declaring, “We observe the shmita year.”

A fallow field in Israel during the 2007/2008 shmita. Courtesy Yaakov via Wikimedia Commons. 

This seventh year of the Jewish agricultural cycle, where we are called to rest the land and to forgive any outstanding known as the shmita, represents an opportunity to refocus, to strategize, and to ask: what will our community look like seven years from now? Indeed, several commentators suggest that It is the years that lead up to and follow shmita that matter far more than the year itself. It is a period to reflect on the past, and to vision forward.

Shmita is not without its challenges, and not only for those Jewish farmers who seek out loopholes to get around the commandment. The term is translated as “release” — and, realistically, it’s not always easy to let go. Carving out time to rest, to reflect, and to plan can be difficult to prioritize.

But shmita is process-oriented — it is a proactive project of critically analyzing our behaviour towards implementing positive changes. This can be a personal process, reflecting on the way we go about our lives — where our food comes from, what we eat, or how we relate to the environment, for example. But it can also be communal, asking big questions about our community and how we can implement systemic changes with broad impact.

Shoresh is participating in the shmita, and we’re certainly not alone. In this blog post, we take a look at how other organizations are approaching the seventh year, as well as gather some essential resources on the subject with the hopes that you can incorporate some of the deep wisdom of shmita into your life.

Diverse contemporary approaches to shmita

The Shmita Project — This collaborative initiative by American organizations Hazon, 7Seeds, and the Jewish Farm School aims to increase awareness and understanding of shmita and its modern applications, and to foster a global network of Jewish organizations and individuals towards implementing shmita values into communities worldwide. The project provides comprehensive educational resources on shmita, programming ideas, and several online networks for participants to connect with one another.

Give it a rest: Shmita, social action, social justice — A campaign by the Jewish Social Action Forum (JSAF) in the UK offering educational resources those wishing to participate in the sabbatical year and hosting related events. The theme of the JSAF’s campaign is inequality, drawing attention to stark income gaps in the UK and encouraging individuals to donate to local food banks.

Israeli shmita — A nation-wide coalition based in Israel organized by Teva Ivri, with the goal of ensuring that every person in Israel knows that shmita is happening. The campaign also aims to provide tools for interested individuals to incorporate shmita values into their lives. Their projects include establishing community volunteer banks wherein community members can withdraw or deposit volunteer time; swap markets; free entrance to 15 nature reserves; and advocating for a moratorium on fishing in the Kinneret.

How is Shoresh participating in Shmita?

To honour the Shmita year and its ethic of rest, release, and balance, we are devoting the fall and winter months to strategic planning for our young, small, not-for-profit organization.  In order to do this, we have limited the amount of educational programs we are running and have put the annual Shoresh Food Conference on hold until 5779 (2016).

Produce for sale at an Israeli shmita store. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

Discover shmita: Resources for understanding the sabbatical year

The Shmita Sourcebook — A free, comprehensive resource put together by Hazon containing biblical, rabbinic, and modern texts on shmita, accompanied by commentary and discussion questions.

What is shmita and where did it come from? — A brief, easily digestible history of shmita from Ha’aretz featuring some interesting insights into how ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel observe it.

Envisioning sabbatical culture: A Shmita manifesto — A short collection of poetry, art, and brief essays from 7Seeds that delves into the mythic symbolism of shmita and questions the depth of potential that shmita offers modern Jewish communities. 

Shemita as a Foundation for Jewish Ecological Education — A helpful article from Jewish Education News to understand the connections between shmita and environmental issues.

Rav Kook’s Introduction to Shabbat Ha’Aretz — “What the Sabbath achieves regarding the individual, the Shmita achieves with regard to the nation as a whole,” writes Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, in his 1909 essay in which he offers a halakhic framework for shmita. For this year, Hazon has a released a new translation of the work.

More shmita resources can be found at Hazon.

5 ways you can get started with shmita

1. Join the conversation on social media by sharing articles and thoughts on Facebook and Twitter with #shmita. Hazon also hosts both a network and a Facebook group for those participating in their Shmita Project.
2. Host a potluck shmita Shabbat or, looking ahead on the calendar, a shmita seder, using locally-sourced perennial or wild ingredients and preserves. Hazon offers a guide containing sources and discussion questions for hosting a shmita seder.
3. Organize an exchange meet at your home or synagogue to trade anything from items like clothing, books, or food; to skills, like sewing a button back on a sweater or fixing a wobbly table leg. Rather than buying new or outsourcing assistance, share what you have to offer with your community in the spirit of the shmita principle of local collaboration.
   
4. Create a shmita book club with texts focusing on sustainable agriculture and Jewish approaches to environmental issues.
   
5. Start your own shmita project — whether it’s planting a garden of perennial plants, or developing long-term 7-year personal goals.

Want more ideas? Check out 100 ways to get started with shmita from 7seeds.

Photo courtesy Yaakov via Wikimedia Commons. 

More shmita facts: 

• A line from Leviticus referencing the shmita year can be found on the Liberty Bell in the U.S.: “Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”
• Stefan Sagmeister, a New York-based graphic designer who has designed album covers for the Rolling Stones and Aerosmith, closes his studio to clients every seven years for the sabbatical to “experiment” and refresh his creativity and that of his staff. He gave a TED talk about it called “The power of time off.” 
• In Israel, low-income families can have their debts cancelled this year if they participate in a finance management course as part of the Israeli Shmita initiative.

Danielle Klein is a student at the University of Toronto studying literature, history, and Jewish Studies. She is interning at Shoresh through a service-learning course offered by the Centre for Jewish Studies at U of T called "Community and Identity," which explores Jewish social philosophy.

Shoresh Food Conference 2014: State of the Onion

Shoresh Food Conference 2014: State of the Onion
By Risa Alyson Cooper, as presented during the Plenary Session

Good morning everyone and welcome! Welcome foodies, farmers, chefs, rabbis, students,
nutritionists, bakers, and lovers of cholent! Welcome to the third annual Shoresh Food Conference, where we bring together community members from across the many spectrums that make up our diverse community sowe can explore together the intersections between Jewish tradition, food, and contemporary life...so we can collectively engage with the question “what does it mean to eat Jewishly today?”

I want to start today with what we at Shoresh call a State of the Onion…essentially a State of the Union with a vegetable twist – it’s a brief look at the food challenges we face, the successes we are celebrating, and the future of the Jewish Food Movement.

Food today is complicated. There are a lot of questions we need to ask if we want to be informed,
intentional eaters. Is our food organic? Is it locally grown? Does it contain genetically modified ingredients? Was the farmer who grew it paid a living wage? How were the animals raised? How were they slaughtered? How is it packaged? How is it distributed? Is it too expensive? Is it not expensive enough? Is it kosher? Does it have a heksher? Is it gluten free? Oy vey!

In our food system, even with a polar vortex outside, you can eat fresh strawberries in January. Today,
the average North American meal travels 2400 km to get from field to table and contains ingredients from at least five other countries. A head of broccoli can travel more of North America than the average North American.

In our food system, it is illegal to purchase raw milk. Our provincial government will guarantee my
right to buy cigarettes, but not my right to access unpasteurized dairy products (because those might kill me).

In our food system, the pesticides we spray to “protect” some of our crops are in turn decimating our
pollinator populations. Insect pollinators are necessary for the reproduction of 90% of flowering plants and one third of human food crops. Here is just a sampling of crops that are dependent upon or benefited by insect pollination.

In our food system, genetically modified ingredients do not need to be labeled as such. Despite the
fact that 60 other countries have mandated the labeling of genetically engineered foods, Canada has yet to pass legislation guaranteeing our right to know what we are eating.

In our food system we often depend on certifying agencies to tell us if something is organic, fair trade
or kosher. Now that our food is often grown, raised, packaged and prepared out of sight, certifications have become the new standard for consumers wishing to make informed food choices. But our certifying systems were designed for and cater to corporate food businesses, leaving many small-scale artisanal food producers off the table, so to speak.

In our food system, there are people in our own community who are hungry, not because we have a
problem with food production, but because we have a real problem with food distribution. Each year, the average single-family household in Toronto discards about 275 kilos of food (over 600 pounds). And, for the 5th year in a row, GTA food banks have seen over one million visits, with an increase of nearly 40 per cent in Toronto’s former inner suburbs since 2008. Joel Salatin, who runs Polyface Farm, a beyond organic grass-fed farm in Virginia (and is prominently featured in Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivore’s Dilema) published a book in 2011 called “Folks, this ain’t normal: A Farmer’s Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World.” In it he critically examines
our industrial food system and continually arrives at the inarguable conclusion that our systems “aint normal” and that with every bite we take we are either healing or hurting our soil, our animals, our bodies, our neighbours, and ultimately our world.

So, how do we navigate the challenges created by an abnormal food system, one that obscures our
relationships and connections with our food, that hides the environmental, social, and health costs of modern food production? Where do we turn to find a modern food ethic? In Judaism, there are rules that govern our relationship with food – how we grow it, how we prepare it, how we eat it, and how we share it with others. Jewish ethical and legal systems actually promote sustainable agriculture techniques, uphold social justice, and inspire the paradigm shift required for creating an equitable and sustainable food system. The laws of kashrut tell us what to eat; the Jewish agricultural laws outlined in the Torah, such as leket, peah, ma’aser, instruct us on how to share our harvest with those in need; the collection of laws known as tzaar ba’alei chayim ensure that we prevent the unnecessary suffering of animals; and brachot/blessings help us to eat with intention and gratitude, to give just a few examples. Food today may be complicated, but our community has been exploring the nature of our relationship with food for thousands of years and with the support of our texts and teachings, and by drawing on our rich agricultural and culinary history, we can navigate what and how to eat in a way that is best for our selves, our community and the globe.

While the relationship between Judaism and food is not new, the growth of a movement of individuals who are exploring this relationship in a contemporary context and advocating for Jewish food justice is a relatively recent phenomenon. Shoresh, in its current incarnation, was only established in 2009, and now we reach close to 4500 individuals annually through our educational programs at the Kavanah Garden, Bela Farm, in schools and shuls across the city, and at the Shoresh Food Conference. In the last handful of years, we have seen the birth and growth of a Jewish Food Movement, with regional one-day Jewish food conferences being just one piece of the puzzle. Today’s gathering is not happening in a vacuum – while we are exploring what it
means to eat Jewishly in Toronto, our cousins are having similar conversations in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Denver, and San Francisco.

Not only are the Jewish communities of North America thinking about Jewish food ethics, they are
putting Jewish ethical teachings around food into practice. In the last decade, we have seen the exponential growth of Jewish Community Supported Agriculture Programs (or CSAs) in North America. More and more of our community members are committing their purchasing power to local, sustainable food systems. In Toronto alone, there are over 350 members of Jewish CSAs between the Shoresh’s Kavanah Garden, Holy Blossom Temple, and the First Narayever Congregation, all three offering year-round fresh, local, organically grown veggies and eggs. Many of the vegetables featured in today’s lunch have been generously donated by our friends at Highmark Farms, our partner for Shoresh’s CSAs. For more information about our CSAs (including information about additional pickup sites this spring), make sure to check out the Shoresh info table at some point today.

And the search for ethical food does not stop at beets and potatoes….in the age of contemporary
factory farms, more and more people are demanding kosher meat that holds to Jewish ethical standards, not just the laws of kosher slaughter. In the shadow of the Agriprocessors Kosher Slaughterhouse scandal of 2008, where hundreds of cases of animal cruelty as well as the gross mistreatment of illegal immigrant workers were documented, we have seen the creation of a sustainable kosher meat industry. Tiferet, based in Montreal, offers organic chickens and now organic beef as well. We have discussed accessing kosher sustainable meat at previous food conferences, and we are thrilled to have our friends from Grow and Behold Meats with us today, all the way from New York, to discuss creating a Toronto buyers club for their products. For more information about Judaism and ethical meat eating, please check out today’s session From Field to Fork:
Raising Animals for Consumption and participate in the Round Table discussion with Grow and Behold Meats this afternoon.

The last few years have also seen the incredible growth of Jewish farming projects across the United
States, and with Bela Farm, now in Canada too. The experiential land-based programs offered at these sites are immersive, transformative and are helping a generation of young Jews get back to their Jewish roots in real and meaningful ways.

• Adamah, a three month Jewish farming fellowship in rural Connecticut at the Isabella Freedman
Jewish Retreat Centre, where fellows are changing the world one pickle at a time
• Urban Adamah, an educational farm and community center in Berkeley, California that offers a
residential fellowship program for young adults that combines organic farming, progressive
Jewish living, and social justice internships.
• Pearlstone Center in Reisterston, Maryland, which each year hosts a Beit Midrash, house of
study, giving participants an opportunity to delve deeply into Jewish environmental and
agricultural teachings
• Yiddish Farm in Goshen, New York…where you farm…in Yiddish….
• We are honoured to have our friends from Eden Village Camp with us today from New York,
and we encourage you to talk with camp founder and director Yoni Stadlin to learn more about
Eden Village, the first Jewish overnight farm camp that is literally changing the lives of its
campers, staff, and greater community through their farm to table camp program.

Clearly the Jewish Food Movement is doing radically amazing things ….and the broader Jewish
community is taking notice. No longer just a marginal player in the Jewish communal world, Jewish Food initiatives are now receiving funding from major North American granting agencies and donors. Shoresh alone has received funding and recognition from Slingshot (a resource guide profiling the 50 most inspiring North American Jewish projects, which has listed us twice), Covenant Foundation, Joshua Venture Group, Natan Fund, SixPoints Jewish Venture Philanthropy Fund, and UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. Add the incredible awards and achievements given to our sister organizations in the U.S., and it is clear that not only are we doing incredible things for the Jewish communities of North America, but also that what we are doing is no longer on the fringe…the Jewish food movement has gone mainstream and the greater Jewish community is
looking to us as leaders in engagement and innovation in Jewish life.

Within the Jewish Food world, there are three different access points for engaging with Jewish food
ethics, three different spheres of action, which are reflected in the sessions offered at today’s conference:

First, there are personal connections. Each of us here is on our own personal food journey. When I was 18 a friend of mine and I drove across Canada for a summer. We ended up a little low on funds in Nelson, British Columbia and found ourselves one night at a free church dinner for the homeless and the many transient community members such as ourselves who flowed through the local youth hostel. The church dinner was entirely vegan and the reverend explained to me that he believed that night’s dinner was a fulfillment of Jesus’ ethic of compassion…for people, for animals. And that was one of my most profound ahha moments…that religion, spirituality, tradition might inform the food choices we make. I had grown up in our community going to day school, Jewish camp, Jewish high school….and it was in a church on the other side of our country that I first realized that eating “Jewishly” could be more than eating mandelbroit, or having a Passover seder. And so, in many ways began my personal food journey…which led me to farms in western Canada, the north east United States, and Costa Rica…which led me to vegetarianism, then veganism, then vegetarianism, then veganism…then to participate in a goat shechting (or kosher slaughter) (which incidentally made me decide that under the right circumstances and with the right Kavanah/intention, that I could seemyself eating meat again)….and now I am at a crazy stage in my food journey whereby I am now a food
source….while pregnant and now through breastfeeding, everything that I eat sustains not just me, but is exclusively what is sustaining my growing daughter. And that is crazy….and miraculous….and a constant reminder that I am what I eat…physically….energetically….spiritually.

So, wherever you are on your own personal food journeys, there are sessions today to help you grow and expand your skills and awareness: DIY workshops such as How to Make a Sustainable Shabbat Dinner, Kosher Cheese-Making, Growing in Small Spaces, and Fermentation and Microbiology. And workshops on bringing more intention and awareness to your food practices: Eating as Tikun, and The Exile of the Jewish Body.

Second, there are regional connections. Each region faces unique food challenges and has its own set
of resources to draw on. Pick up a copy of Edible Toronto and the Golden Horseshoe to learn about our local foodshed….taste the delicious locally made products available today from our friends at Ozery Pita Break, Sunflower Kitchen, Sweets from the Earth, Limonana and our lunch lovingly made by Mo and Lo Organics….talk to other conference participants between sessions, at lunch, and learn about the amazing things people are doing and working on in our own community. Go to today’s session on Jewish Farmers of Ontario, which will highlight our community’s rich agricultural history in this part of the world and explore the core values that are guiding a resurgence of rural Jewish community in Ontario through the genesis of Bela Farm.

And third, there are global connections. Many of the challenges that we face as a result of our
industrial food system have global implications. Global climate change is real and it is frighteningly clear that the choices we make (notably food choices) have environmental consequences. Typhoon Haiyan tore through the Philippines last year, Australia and California are experiencing record breaking rain deficiencies, a polar vortex paralyzed our city and destroyed 20% of Toronto’s tree canopy. What are the teachings we can draw on within our tradition to navigate global issues such as climate change? What actions can we take as a community to prioritize and ensure environmental sustainability? Today there are a number of sessions that offer Jewish perspectives on some of the biggest global issues we face. Check out Not So Many Fish in the Sea, a look at eating fish in an age of overfishing and climate change or Canola, Corn, Soy…OY!, a multifaith look at
genetically modified foods.

So what’s next? How do we continue to grow in our relationship to our food, in our Jewish identities,
as a Jewish community? This Rosh Hashanah, we enter into the next Shmitah or Sabbatical year. In Sefer Shemot, the Book of Exodus, immediately following revelation at Sinai, G!d presents the Israelites with a set of moral codes to live by. Included in the collection of ethical teachings meant to guide our ancestors as they prepared to settle in the land of Israel, is the commandment to observe Shmita, a biblically mandated “Sabbatical year” of rest and release.“For six years you are to sow your land and to gather in its produce, but in the seventh, you are to let it go [tishm’tenah] and to let it be [u’nitashta], that the needy of your people may eat, and what remains, the wildlife of the field shall eat. Do thus with your vineyard, and your olivegrove” Shemot 23:10-11.

From this and other passages, our rabbis learned that during the Shmitah year, the soil was
neither seeded nor tilled, all private land holdings became open to the commons, every Israelite had
equal access to food through stores and wild harvests, and that foods were not sold as a commodity in
the marketplace. Not only that, but all debts were forgiven and all indentured servants were released.
Shmitah teaches us that there is a definite link between sustainable agriculture and sustainable
economy and that our systems are in need of regular readjustment in order to ensure a more
equitable, just, and healthy society. While observance of Shmitah is only mandated in biblical Israel,
the great equalizing that is at its core is more relevant today than ever. The entire occupy movement
is in response to the growing inequality that our societal structures perpetuate. Shmitah is the next big
thing in the Jewish Food Movement because it’s not just an agricultural ethic…it’s a full ethical
system…reminding us that while food is a big piece of creating a just society, it’s not the only piece and we need to think critically about the systems that order our world if we want to uphold the Jewish
ethic of tzedek/justice. We need to ensure that everyone in our community has fair and equal access
to resources.

Hazon, the largest Jewish environmental organization in North America, has initiated the
Shmita Project, which aims to create a network of individuals and organizations who are exploring the practices and values of Shmita, while also encouraging the broader study of Shmitah through the
sharing of teachings and resources. As a member of this network, Shoresh staff and partners are
committing to studying Shmitah deeply over the coming months and to creating a calendar of
programs for community members to study up to and during the next Shmitah year. And we’re
thinking big picture to – what would it look like to design the growing spaces at Bela Farm with the
next Shmitah cycle in mind? What would a Jewish farm in southern Ontario look like if we wanted to
live exclusively off what we produce at Bela Farm for the Shmitah year in 2021? What changes would we need to see in our greater community to make this possible? You can begin your own engagement with Shmitah texts and teachings, by participating in today’s session Shnat Shmitta: A Shabbat for the Land.

Just before the next Shmitah year begins this fall, I will be ending my own period of personal
Shmitah…of release. While on maternity leave, I have been released from my normal modes of
engaging with Jewish food issues as the Executive Director of Shoresh….I don’t have to send e-mails, or think about the logistics of feeding 100 Jewish foodies….it is a real gift to be here today as a participant, not an organizer. As someone who knows though how much work goes into an event like today’s food conference, I want to close by thanking, deeply, everyone who made today possible. Inparticular, the Shoresh staff….Tamar, Sabs, and Bluth…each of you is a gem in your own right….kol hakovod.

According to Pirkei Avot, the Ethics of our Ancestors, “It is not upon us to finish the work, but
neither are we free to desist from it.” Our food system “aint normal” and we have a responsibility to
do what we can to bring about real and meaningful change for ourselves, our communities, and our
world. Thank G!d we have tools…we have a tradition that is rich in food wisdom…deep teachings that can guide us in figuring out what it means to eat “Jewishly” in our contemporary food system. And we have community – in many way today’s gathering is a giant community potluck, with every person in this room bringing her or his skills, knowledge and experience to the table to share with us all. So thank you to our organizers and thank you to all of you for coming to learn, teach, and feed your curiosity. I want to bless you all with a day of deep delicious connections and nourishing moments.

Thank you.

Kavanah Garden Grand Opening Address to the Community

So, welcome to the forever home of Shoresh’s Kavanah Garden on UJA’s Lebovic Jewish Community Campus!

 My name is Risa Alyson Cooper and I am the Executive Director of Shoresh Jewish Environmental Programs, the organization that founded and coordinates the Kavanah Garden.

For the last four years, we have operated our pilot phase of the Kavanah Garden on a small plot of land on the other side of this ravine.  When we began, there was nothing here.  No houses, no schools, no rush hour traffic.  And at the time, in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere, we started growing.  On about ¼ acre, we built a small greenhouse, planted a few seedlings, walked a pathway down to the stream.  We invited schools to come visit the garden, and when they said yes, we quickly developed some curriculum, some activities to engage their students.  We began hosting a free family drop-in program every Thursday afternoon and with the influx of families and volunteers who visited during those hours, we carved out more growing spaces, began exploring the meadow surrounding the garden, identifying the turkey vultures, the great blue herons, the leopard frogs, even the wild turkeys who shared our space.  We began harvesting and formed some amazing partnerships with Ve’Ahavta and the North York Harvest Food Bank so that the food we produced would get to the most vulnerable in our community.  And each season, we got bigger – we added more growing spaces, we hosted more programs, we logged more volunteer hours.  We developed materials, activities, curriculum, that highlight the rich ecological wisdom inherent within our Jewish tradition.  We developed programs that highlight the agricultural significance of the Jewish holidays, that teach Jewish ethics (like tzedakah and bal tashchit/not wasting), that incorporate Hebrew language, that actively engage community members from across the many spectrums that make up our vibrant and diverse community, and that offer participants hands-on, meaningful ways of exploring their Jewish identity.  By 2012 (our fourth season), we were hosting over 1500 individuals each season, donating over 500 pounds of fresh, local, organic produce to community members in need a year, logging over 1600 volunteer hours, and were listed in Slingshot’s Resource Guide to Jewish Innovation as one of the 50 most inspiring and innovative Jewish projects in North America, the only Canadian initiative listed in that year’s edition.

Over the last four years, as the community around us has grown and developed, the garden has undergone changes that reflect the vibrancy and diversity of the community members who come to our programs, who see the Kavanah Garden as a feature of their neighbourhood.  While there is a bit of sadness in leaving the site that rooted us, literally, to the Vaughan community, we are overwhelmed with gratitude to be establishing ourselves on the east side of the ravine, in our new and permanent home on UJA’s Lebovic Jewish Community Campus.  I will share with you a bit about our full vision for this space in a moment, but before I do, I would like to acknowledge the incredible number of partners and people who played a formative role in creating this space, the Kavanah Garden, to serve as a resource for our community for years to come.

-Shoresh evolved from an older organization Torat HaTeva: The Jewish Nature Centre of Canada, started by Alexandra Kuperman.  Back in 2002, Alexandra, later followed by Shai Spetgang and Ahuva Goldschmit, was laying the foundation that would later support the creation of our pilot garden space in Quadrant C, and that would sustain Shoresh as it grew from organization running the Kavanah Garden to the organization running the Kavanah Garden, an annual downtown Jewish Food Conference at the Miles Nadal JCC, a network of Jewish Community Supported Agriculture Programs, and most recently Bela Farm, a centre for sustainable land-based Judaism in Hillsburgh, Ontario (just 50 minutes northwest of Toronto).  So, Alexandra, thank you….thank you for scouting the land and for preparing the soil.
-Thank you to our community partners.  To the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto which has been incredibly supportive of making the Kavanah Garden a permanent feature of the Lebovic Jewish Community Campus, and which has helped grow Shoresh as a young organization over the years with incredible capacity building and granting support.  Thank you in particular to our friends at UJA who have shared our vision and put their own time, energy, and resources into supporting this venture.  Ted Sokolsky, Bryan Keshen, David Sadowski (who I will say more about later), and Robin Gofine who has been a real mentor to me over the last four years, who has had unwaivering faith in the power of the Kavanah Garden and its programs to build a healthier, more sustainable, vibrant Jewish community, and who has been an advocate and cheerleader for this project every step of the way.  (We have certificates for all of you as well)
-Thank you to the City of Vaughan as well as the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority for being open to reimagining what a natural buffer zone between development and conservation land can look like.  And who helped us cultivate humility and patience through their permitting processes.
-Thank you to the members of the SixPoints Jewish Venture Philanthropy Fund, to its chairs Sam Mizrahi, Noah Godfrey, and Jonathan Bloomberg, to our committee members, Sam Mizrahi, Adam Beder, Michael Kuhl and Ari Silverberg.  Two years ago SixPoints put out a call to our community, looking for the next big idea that would radically change the Toronto Jewish community landscape.  It is with their generous support that we were able to build the infrastructure of our new and forever garden site and it is with their guidance and encouragement that we have developed not just this space, but Shoresh’s longterm vision for how we can help build a sustainable Jewish community while ensuring our own sustainability (We also have certificates for all of you).
-Thank you to our other funders and granting agencies.  The Ontario Trillium Foundation and the EcoAction Community Funding Program through Environment Canada for the grants that got us started…the Joshua Venture Group, the Natan Fund, and the Buckstein Family Foundation for helping us grow.
-Thank you to Mark Malinowicz from UJA for answering all logistics questions regarding the Lebovic Campus, thank you Stephanie Campbell for CosburnNauboris for helping us navigate permits and processes, for coordinating so many of the players and pieces that needed to come together in time for today, and for fielding my thousand and one phone calls and e-mails…always with a smile.  Thank you Michael Tiribelli and your crew from Toronto Landscape Design for getting everything done and more in time for today despite snow in April followed by three weeks of rain.  You have all been such a pleasure to work with and I am radically grateful for your patience and commitment.
-Thank you to the community of individuals that make up the Shoresh team.  Our Board of Directors: Michael Schecter, Alexandra Kuperman, Andrea Most, Len Kofman, Aaron Levy, Ilyse Glickman, David Sadowski and Sam Mizrahi.  Our core volunteers who have supported us with unwaivering commitment over the years: Neil Shore, Debra Anthony, and Marc Levy.  Our teams of interns and volunteers, past and present….none of this could happen without you.  And lastly, the Shoresh staff: Rachel Rosenbluth, our Director of Education, and Tamar Yunger, our Jewish Environmental Educator…who bring the garden and its spaces to life, who reveal the awe and wonder of the plants and creatures that call the Kavanah Garden home, who are helping to shape the future of Shoresh, the Kavanah Garden, and its programs through their creativity and deep belief in the absolute value of experiential Jewish education.  And Sabrina Malach, our Director of Community Outreach….who was one of the original group of Torontonians living in rural Connecticut who began visioning what a Jewish garden space could look like in our community, who joined the Shoresh staff two years ago and has been a powerful force, a source of inspiration and vision, a source of encouragement and energy, and a true partner and dear friend.  Thank you.
-And lastly, thank you to the thousands of community members that visited and animated our old site, that helped us grow hundreds of pounds of fresh, local, organic produce for the most vulnerable in our community, that shared with us their visions for what the new Kavanah Garden should be and how it could reflect the incredible diversity of our Jewish community.  And thank you to all those who will come through these gates, get their hands in this soil, and deepen their Jewish roots for (G!d willing) years to come.

Today is a milestone for Shoresh’s Kavanah Garden and as we celebrate our new home and look ahead, with our vision for this space five years from now, ten years from now, we understand and acknowledge that if our vision is to be sustained, we need to ensure we have the financial resources to support the Kavanah Garden’s transformative programs and initiatives moving forward.  And so, today, we are asking all of you to please consider making a donation to support the garden as it grows…so that the Kavanah Garden can continue to be a resource for our community in the future.  We are handing out donation cards – please take a moment before you leave to fill out the card…any amount helps.  As well, we have a donation jar set out on our information table beside the shed where we are gratefully accepting donations of cash or cheques.  In addition, for individuals interested in making a significant gift to support the Kavanah Garden, we have developed a listing of naming opportunities – opportunities to designate a gift in honour or memory of someone special…someone for whom the Kavanah Garden has/had/ or would have had a special place in their hearts.  These opportunities are listed in this shmancy booklet here – there are a few on our info table, please feel free to take one or to contact me directly about these naming opportunities.

In a few minutes we will move to the official “ribbon cutting” portion of today’s ceremony, afterwhich we invite you to stay and enjoy a tour of the garden, where we will highlight the different features that will ultimately make up the garden including our raised vegetable beds, massive native pollinator garden, outdoor classroom, outdoor kitchen, and perennial fruit trees and berries.  As well, we will have a station for making Havdallah herb sachets, using dried herbs from our old garden site and exploring some of the new herbs we have planted here, as well as a station for making seed balls so you can help us spread wild flower seed in a ridiculously fun and messy way to help attract native pollinators to our new garden space.

Rather than a ribbon cutting, today we are going to be affixing a mezuzah to our garden gateway.  A mezuzah lets people know that this is a Jewish space…that the Kavanah Garden is open to everyone and that our programs, activities, even decision making processes are guided by Jewish texts, teachings, and traditions.  A mezuzah is also a reminder…may it remind us every time we enter the garden of the intentions we have set for how we interact with the land, with the creatures that call the Kavanah garden home, with our extended community, and with our own selves.  The word Kavanah means intention….and our vision for this garden has always been that it reminds us to slow down, witness the radical beauty of the natural world, and act with Kavanah, intention.

And the honour of affixing our mezuzah goes to our dear friend David Sadowski.  David has been the Kavanah Garden’s biggest advocate since day one.  For the last five years, David has been the person who makes things happen…firsts at our original site across the ravine, and then by identifying this space for us on the Lebovic Jewish Community Campus, and bringing together all of the players and pieces necessary to get things moving on the ground (literally).  He has been a mobilizer, a teacher, and a friend, and we are radically grateful for all of the ways he has supported us over the years.  We feel there could be no better person to put up our mezuzah and symbolically welcome the Kavanah Garden community to its new home.

Thank you all again – please join us at the gateway, after which garden festivities will commence.


Risa Alyson Cooper
Executive Director, Shoresh Jewish Environmental Program

What Does Land Based Judaism Look Like?

After a few years of visioning, brainstorming and time on the land, the Bela Farm Creative Team is pleased to share the following details with you so that you can better understand the values and intentions that will inform, inspire and motivate the design, public programs and artisinal products that will make up Bela Farm.

Bela Farm Mission Statement

Bela Farm is a centre for sustainable, land-based Judaism located an hour northwest of Toronto in rural Ontario.  This one-hundred acre farm produces organic fruits, vegetables, and value-added products, offers a full season of public educational programs, merges nature-based art with experimental agriculture, and serves as a laboratory for creative responses to global environmental crisis. A project of Shoresh, the design, goals and activities of Bela Farm are rooted in Jewish values and practices and open to all.

Bela Farm Core Values

Through its landscape design, public programs, products, and working process, Bela Farm will model new ways of approaching longstanding Jewish and global concerns.  As Jews have throughout history, we emphasize the Jewish laws and ethical principles that help us to respond to the pressing problems of our time.

1.     Healing the Earth / Healing Ourselves:  Bela Farm offers a new interpretation of tikkun olam for the twenty-first century.  Using permaculture principles, we observe, respect, and encourage what grows in the particular soil and climate of our farm. We aim to nourish and heal the land and in turn reap sustenance for our bodies, minds, and souls and those of our larger community.   

2.     Wandering Home:  Bela Farm offers a new perspective on diaspora Jewish life in our contemporary context.  In the face of climate change, we recognize that all parts of creation are fundamentally interconnected and interdependent.  Bela Farm celebrates both the productive potential of wandering and the urgent importance of connecting to the land on which we live. 

3.     Holy Land / Sacred Table: Activities at Bela Farm model the organic connection between environmental ethics and the ways in which we grow, prepare, eat and share our food.   We explore biblical agricultural laws, unearthing ancient wisdom we can use to develop innovative twenty-first century farming practices and a land-based approach to tzedakah.  We produce food that is kosher, in the fullest meaning of this term. 

4.     Nature Time / Jewish Time:  At Bela Farm, we attend closely to the intersections between Jewish time – Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh, the holiday calendar – and “nature” time.  We plant both annual and perennial crops, animate our holiday rituals by recognizing their connections to the seasons and the land, and celebrate the phases of the moon and the sun.  Along with Jews around the world, we are working to restore the ancient cycle of shmitah (sabbatical) as a model for sustainable attitudes toward land-use and economy.

5.     Community:  At Bela Farm, we believe in the power of the shared meal. We aim to educate, nourish, and inspire a broad and inclusive community and to foster an effective multi-faith environmental and social justice movement. We encourage visitors and participants from diverse Jewish and non-Jewish backgrounds, consciously designing our programs to offer multiple ways of encountering both the land and Jewish values and practices. 

Bela Farm Activities

Bela Farm is a work-in-progress.  We plan to be fully operational by 2016.  In 2013, we will be planting the Perennial Meadow and expanding our series of public programs.

Spaces

The Perennial Meadow:  This beautiful two-acre meadow will be a demonstration site for innovative agriculture, an art installation, and a space for wandering, discovery, and education about the core values of Bela Farm.  The spiritual, ethical, and aesthetic heart of the property, it will serve as a space of revelation which opens out on to the practical spaces of work.  At one end is the restored barn, which will include offices and workshop space for farm development.  At the other end is a gateway to the farm proper.

The Farm:  The 100-acre farm will include fruit trees, berry patches, grain crops, a varied market garden, chickens (for eggs and meat), goats (for dairy), beehives, fields for hay and pasture, and a few fields for rental to neighboring farmers.  We are committed to restoration of native forest and grasslands on the property where possible.  In addition to the necessary outbuildings to support these activities, the farm will also include a commercial kitchen, a house for the farm manager, offices for Bela Farm staff, housing for interns, and various spaces for programming. 

Programs

Farm Internship: We intend to offer a seasonal internship program for those interested in pursuing in-depth learning about sustainable agriculture, artisanal food production, and intentional Jewish living and learning, while deepening their commitment to the core values of Bela Farm.  

Community Programs:  We offer an annual calendar of events open to the community.  These will include programs such as our annual Sukkot harvest festival, learning sessions throughout the year, and multi-day retreats (for work and study).   

Products

Artisanal Kosher Products:  We intend to produce a line of value-added products from the crops and livestock of Bela Farm.  These will include baked goods, jams and preserves, pickles, and goat milk yogurt and cheese.  All products will be produced according to laws of kashrut.  Our kitchen will be regularly open for inspection for those interested in understanding more about our kosher process.  These products will be distributed through farmers’ markets, specialized retail outlets, and through a CSA program described below.

Holiday CSA:  We envision a CSA subscription program that will follow and support the Jewish holiday cycle.  This CSA will be offered as a supplement to the Jewish CSAs already operating in the city, and will also be offered as a stand-alone option for congregations, JCCs and Day Schools in the Greater Toronto Area.

Bela Farm Creative Team

Mati Cooper:  Mati is currently teaching at Montessori Jewish Day School in Toronto, where he helps organize greening initiatives such as their sensorial and mixed vegetable gardens.   Mati is a former Educator and Program Coordinator at the Teva Learning Alliance.  In Israel, Mati apprenticed at Chava v'Adam Educational Farm and participated in the Eco-Activist Beit Midrash at Yeshivat Simchat Shlomo. 

Risa Alyson Cooper: Risa completed her B.A. Honours at Queen’s University in Comparative Religious Studies, and her M.A. at the Centre for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto, focusing on Contemporary Jewish Environmental Ethics.  Upon graduating, Risa moved to rural Connecticut where she worked as a Jewish environmental educator at the Teva Learning Centre for three years.  She then transitioned into small-scale organic farming as a member of the Adamah Jewish Farming Fellowship where she grew vegetables on a four-acre farm, worked in a raw goat-milk dairy, and dabbled in the art of fermentation.  In 2008, Risa returned to her native Toronto to work as the Executive Director of Shoresh and to establish the Kavanah Garden, bringing together her experience in Jewish outdoor education with her love for Canadian soil and the plants and people that it sustains. 

 Sabrina Malach: Sabrina is Director of Community Outreach for Shoresh.  She participated in the Adamah Fellowship in 2005, graduated from the Eco-Activist Beit Midrash in Jerusalem in 2006, and worked as the program assistant for Hazon from 2006-2007.  Upon returning to Toronto, she helped to create and grow food for the Kavanah CSA as a farming intern at the Cutting Veg Organic Farm and founded The Pollinators Festival at Evergreen Brick Works before taking up her current position with Shoresh. 

Andrea Most: Andrea is Associate Professor of American Literature and Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto.  A local food activist, Andrea headed the Core Group for the Everdale Community Supported Agriculture program at the First Narayever Congregation for six years.  She has been Co-Chair of the Narayever Food Committee and the lead organizer of the First Narayever’s Sustainable Food Initiative since 2009, and has served as a member of the Hazon Food Council since 2011.  She is a founding Board member of Shoresh and one of the main organizers of Shoresh’s Jewish Food Conference.  Her current research project, Holy Lands, focusses on the pastoral dreams of diaspora Jews in the 20^th and 21^st century.     

Rochelle Rubinstein: Rochelle is the owner of the two adjacent properties that make up Bela Farm.  A Toronto-based printmaker, painter, fabric and book artist, Rochelle is also a community arts facilitator and curator of Mon Ton Window Gallery.

Bela Farm Friends and Advisors

Fred Cox: Fred has farmed one of the two properties that make up Bela Farm for the last 40 years.  He is a wealth of information about the history of the land itself and the community of Hillsburgh.

Gavin Dandy:  Gavin is the Director of Everdale Organic Farm and Environmental Learning Centre, located just a few minutes north of Bela Farm.  Gavin is very excited about the partnership potential between Everdale and Bela Farm is helping Shoresh to develop Bela Farm’s first edible food forest.

Marc Levy: Local handyman and Shoresh volunteer extraordinaire!

Gary Lichtblau: Gary is a Toronto-based architect who is passionate about sustainable design.  Gary’s role on the advisory council is to advise about the different structures at Bela Farm.

Gail Oliver: As the editor and publisher of Edible Toronto, Gail is extremely connected with the local food movement in Toronto and its surrounding areas.  Gail lives on a farm around the corner from Bela Farm.

Shamu Sadeh: Shamu is the Director of Adamah and a mentor to the Shoresh leadership team.  Adamah is currently in the third year of developing their edible food forest on Kaplan Family Farm in rural Connecticut.

Stephen Scharper: Stephen is an Associate Professor at the Centre for the Environment at the University of Toronto.  Stephen’s research centres on faith communities and environmental ethics.