American Jewish History, Mitzvot of Field and Vineyard

 

 

6th Grade's Toughest Questions" on God and Judaism:   Brainstorm!

----------------------------------

1- Mitzvot bli shiur?  What do you think?

2- The President's challenge. 

The President has decided to make you Secretary of Agriculture, and in 48 hours he wants your 3 top ideas  to make America’s food supply more just and more accessible and affordable for the poor.   What are your three ideas?

3) Mishnah, Rambam. 

 4) Modern Modes of Mitzvah? 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCRnQgpLzMQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zYwXkhVvmU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWC6Me41-c8

5) Maqlouba? 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IIhS1wYg-M

 

 

MISHNAH, PEAH, 1:1

אֵלּוּ דְבָרִים שֶׁאֵין לָהֶם שִׁעוּר. הַפֵּאָה, וְהַבִּכּוּרִים, וְהָרֵאָיוֹן, וּגְמִילוּת חֲסָדִים, וְתַלְמוּד תּוֹרָה. אֵלּוּ דְבָרִים שֶׁאָדָם אוֹכֵל פֵּרוֹתֵיהֶן בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה וְהַקֶּרֶן קַיֶּמֶת לוֹ לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא. כִּבּוּד אָב וָאֵם, וּגְמִילוּת חֲסָדִים, וַהֲבָאַת שָׁלוֹם בֵּין אָדָם לַחֲבֵרוֹ, וְתַלְמוּד תּוֹרָה כְּנֶגֶד כֻּלָּם!:

A) These are the things that have no fixed limit:
·       The Pay’ah/Corners of the field set aside for the poor ;
·       The Bikurim/First-fruits donated to the Mikdash;
·       The Re’ayon/”Being Seen” offering on pilgrimage to Beit Ha'Mikdash  in Jerusalem;
·       Gemilut Chasadim/acts of loving kindness; and
·       Talmud Torah/Torah study.

 

 

B) The following are the things for which a person enjoys the fruits (the interest)  in this world while the principal (the act itself) remains  (invested) for that person in Olam Habah/The World to Come:
·       Kivud Av Ve’Eym/ Honoring one’s father and mother,
·       Gemilut Chasadim/acts of loving kindness,
·       Hava’at Shalom Beyn Adam Lechavero/the making of peace between a person and their fellow,
·       And the study of Torah is equivalent to any of these!

 

 LEKET, SHIKHHAH, AND PE’AH 
(Heb. לֶקֶט, שִׁכְחָה, וּפֵאָה; "gleanings, forgotten produce, and the corners of the field"), are the Talmudic designation of three  mitzvot  of the harvest where the farmer was commanded  to leave food for the benefit of the poor and the stranger. These mechanisms to fight poverty are among the mitzvot that work to build a more just food supply.  Pe'ah ("corner") and leket ("gleanings") are commanded in Leviticus 19:9–10:

ט  וּבְקֻצְרְכֶם אֶת-קְצִיר אַרְצְכֶם, לֹא תְכַלֶּה פְּאַת שָׂדְךָ לִקְצֹר; וְלֶקֶט קְצִירְךָ, לֹא תְלַקֵּט.	9 And when you reap the harvest of your land, you will not fully harvest into the corner of your field, neither will you gather the last little bits of your harvest.
י  וְכַרְמְךָ לֹא תְעוֹלֵל, וּפֶרֶט כַּרְמְךָ לֹא תְלַקֵּט:  לֶעָנִי וְלַגֵּר תַּעֲזֹב אֹתָם, אֲנִי  ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם!	10 And you will  not pick bare your vineyard, neither will gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you will leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am Adonai your God!

 Shikhḥah ("forgottens")  is a mitzvah found in Deuteronomy 24:19–21:

יט  כִּי תִקְצֹר קְצִירְךָ בְשָׂדֶךָ וְשָׁכַחְתָּ עֹמֶר בַּשָּׂדֶה, לֹא תָשׁוּב לְקַחְתּוֹ--לַגֵּר לַיָּתוֹם וְלָאַלְמָנָה, יִהְיֶה:  לְמַעַן יְבָרֶכְךָ  ה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, בְּכֹל מַעֲשֵׂה יָדֶיךָ.  {ס}

19 When you reap your harvest in your field, and you have forgot a sheaf/bundle in the field, you will not go back to fetch it; it shall be for the stranger, for the orphan, and for the widow; that Adonai your God may bless you in all the work of thy hands. {S}

Corresponding to leket in grain is peret in the vineyard. So if during the grape harvest one or  two grapes fell to the ground, they constituted peret for the poor (Pe'ah 6:5). The olelot ("small clusters with few grapes") in the vineyard also belonged to the poor (Lev. 7:4), in accordance with the verse, "You will not pick bare your vineyard, neither will you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you will leave them for the poor and for the stranger."  The word for vineyard,  kerem,  includes orchards as well,  which means olives were also covered by these mitzvot. 

Professor Rabbi Moses Maimonides of the University of Fez in Morocco notes: Similarly, with regard to leket: If one transgresses and gathers them - even if ground them into flour and baked them, one must give it to tone poor, as it states there: "Leave it for the poor and the stranger." If this produce is lost or consumed by fire after one gathered it, but before one gave it to the poor, one is liable for lashes! Similarly, if a person is binding sheaves of wheat into bundles,  and one transgressed and gathered it - even if one ground it into flour and baked it, one must give it to the poor, as it states: "They shall be for the stranger, the orphan, and the widow."

 

Foods that are not seasonal and do not grow from the ground are not obligated in these mitzvot, and do not apply outside the land of Israel. The challenge for us today is this:  how do we insure a more just and accessible food supply to those in need?

 

What game do forests like best? Jepoartree!

 

Authorship:

1)     Quick survey.

2)    The chart-  

3)    The other chart- 

Tubishvat

           

                           TREE JOKES!

                    counting  to TU!

              

Is someone lying TORF!

            5 Texts

            Video: Tu Bishvat Seder in 4 minutes

                     Timeline

                       Jeaportree? 

 

            Timeline

Torah: No mention of the date, but the commandments of Tithes, Orlah, and Shevi’it  are given.

Mishnah: date of Tubish established.

Geonic-  midrashim about the environment written down

Medieval:  kabalistic seder created

Modern:  1880’s- tree planting in Israel. 1960’s Environmental awareness.  

 

What did the tree do when the bank closed? It started its own branch.

How do trees get online? They just log in. 

How do you properly identify a dogwood tree? By the bark! 

How does a coniferous tree get ready for a date? They spruce themselves up.

 You want to hear a joke about trees? Nah, it’s too sappy. 

Which Canadian city is a tree's favorite? Montreeal! 

Would you ever try the acorn diet? No way! It sounds nuts! 

What is a pine tree’s favorite radio station? Anything that plays the poplar hits. 

A Tu Bishvat Seder explained in under 4 minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRHLw9jr9lY&t

FIVE SHORT  TEXTS FOR TU BISHVAT

Va'yikra(Leviticus) 19:23-25

Now when you enter the land, and plant any-kind of tree for eating,

you are to regard its fruit as orlah (not marked as part of the Brit)

For three years it is to be orlah for you—;

you are not to eat it.

And in the fourth year shall all its fruit be a holy-portion, for jubilation for Adonai;

In the fifth year may you eat its fruit, to add for you its produce;

I am Adonai your God!

Mishnah, Rosh Hashana 1:1

There are four new years. On the first of Nisan is New Year for kings and for festivals. On the first of Elul is New Year for the tithe of cattle. Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Shimon, however, place this on the first of Tishrei. On the first of Tishrei is New Year for years, for sabbatical and jubilee years, for 5 planting, and for [the tithe of] vegetables. On the first of Shevat is New Year for the tree, according to the ruling of Beit Shammai; Beit Hillel, however, place it on the fifteenth of that month.

 

Talmud Bavli,  Rosh HaShanah 15b : Tannu Rabbanan- Our Rabbis taught: If the fruit of a tree blossoms before the fifteenth of Shevat, it is tithed for the outgoing year; if after the fifteenth of Shevat, it is tithed for the incoming year

 

Midrash Rabbah, Vayikra 25: 3   Rabbi Yehudah, son of Rabbi Shimon, began (quoting from Deut. 13: 5), “After Adonai your God, you shall walk…and unto God shall you cling.” Is it possible for a human being, of flesh and blood, to rise up to the Heavens and to cling to the Divine Presence, about whom it is written (Deut. 4: 24), “For Adoani, your God, is a consuming fire”? ….Rather, just as from the beginning of the world, the Holy Blessed One, involved God' self  only in planting (Gen. 2: 8), “And the Lord God planted in the Garden of Eden…,” so too when you enter into the land, involve yourselves only in planting, as it is written (Lev. 19: 23), “When you come to the [promised]  land….”

Midrash Rabbah Kohelet (Ecclesiates) 7:13:1

“See the work of God, for who can mend what He has warped?” (Ecclesiastes 7:13)

 When the Holy Blessed One created Adam the first human, God took him and showed him all the trees in the Garden of Eden, and God said to him: ‘See My creations, how beautiful and exemplary they are. Everything I created, I created for you. Make certain that you do not ruin and destroy My world, as if you destroy it, there will be no one to mend it after you!"

 

  

it was torn, not split; it was reeds, not red.

 

Microgarphy by Menachem Boas.  Uses entire text of the book of Shemot. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqCTq3EeDcY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzRrEgkfhG8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c3QvBYx6qI

and part two

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCIbQ3BSvJk

 and most faithful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX83ed0Tg6g   at 1:26

Videos:  seiche,   the Chief

 

To learn how a seiche works:

 

 

Ivan Aivazovsky  (1817–1900) Passage of the Jews through the Red Sea

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ-9FpISSls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYI1zIjJr4g

The Chief!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xo7Y1nn1cE