REAPING REWARDS

Community Shlicha, Or Ribon, discusses the forthcoming Shavuot festivities.

As a proud “Moshavnikit” (someone who grew up in a moshav – a small village with a communal agriculture and economic system) and later on moved to Kibbutz Malkiya on the border with Lebanon, and Kibbutz Gazit, in the Jezreel Valley –Shavuot is, without a doubt – my favourite holiday of the year.

Elsewhere in Israel, and all over the world, of course, observant families connect with the holiday celebration of the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai by learning Torah throughout the night. Traditional and even secular families gather for dairy meals in a nod to Israelites’ abstaining from meat after receiving the Torah.

In Moshavim and Kibbutzim – most of them being more secular settlements – the focus on Shavuot is more on the other side of the holiday. Another name for Shavuot is ‘The Harvest holiday’, we celebrate the first fruits of the spring, the wheat harvest, and everything that was given to us from the earth – and with our hard work and sweat.

(ה וכק, םיליהת)

There’s a part of Tehillim that says: “Those who sow in tears will reap with joy” – those who put in the hard work will enjoy the fruits of their success.

In the Kibbutzim and Moshavim, one of the highest values is hard work. People get up early in the morning – going out to the fields, working the land in the rain and in the heat, yes, even now in 2023.

On Shavuot we pause to share gratitude for the land, and for each other’s hard work that has paid off. We make a big communal dinner; we dance with the newborns of the year in our hands – the “bikurim” – new fruits of the year and sing and remember the value of hard work and patience.

Chag Sameach! May we always reap in joy the fruits of our sowing…