Two Minute Torah Podcast

Eikev 5769 by Rabbi Shalom Kantor

Shalom, my name is Shalom Kantor and I am the KOACH-Hillel Campus rabbi at Binghamton University in Binghamton New York. Welcome to KOACH's Two-Minute Torah; a project of the College Department of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

Last week I we took our family blueberry picking, which was very exciting. You might ask what is so exciting about rows and rows of berry bushes on a quiet New York farm... Well, at every new bush we would come to, my daughter Rena would scream with absolute delight, "Abba, look how many there are all for Rena."

What was so exciting for me was that my daughter was learning to appreciate that blueberries do not come from a plastic container that we purchase at the supermarket, but rather actually come from a bush that grows in the ground.

Much of the Torah is based on an agricultural society, and hence is not completely accessible to those who don't have an understanding of how things grow, and where our food actually comes from.

Towards the end of Parashat Eikev we find Moses explaining the difference in agriculture between Egypt and Eretz Yisrael. Moses explains "For the land that you are about to enter and posses is not like the land of Egypt form which you have come. There the grain you sowed had to be watered with your legs, like a vegetable garden; but the land you are about to enter and posses, a land of hills and valleys soaks up its water from the rains of heaven."

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki of 12th century France, otherwise known as Rashi, comments on the idea of "watering with your legs" that "The land of Egypt required bringing water from the Nile by foot in order to water it; you had to rise from your sleep and toil..."

Modern Biblical research combined with an understanding of ditch irrigation has pointed to a slightly different understanding than Rashi had. When Moses mentioned that "the grain you sowed had to be watered with your legs..." what he was referring to was a type of irrigation where one moves small piles of dirt with their feet to direct water from larger ditches to smaller furrows in order to spread water over certain parts of a field.

Whether you understand Moses' reference through the eyes of Rashi or through the modern explanation, without some knowledge and perhaps even hands on experience it is difficult for us to relate to and understand what Moses is referring to.

For us, in the 21st century to really grasp and internalize the agricultural elements in the Tanach, then we all must find a way experience agriculture. May we all be blessed to be able to dig in the dirt, experience the smell of the farm and country, and pick a few blueberries before the summer is over.