The garden speaks during Shmita
Ruth Mason
About Ruth Mason
I am a journalist, social activist and parent educator. I have the privelege of having a garden in Jerusalem and we let it observe shmita every seven years. It’s an orgainic vegetable garden and I like the break myself! I recently retired from Shatil, a social change organization in Israel and am now working on a family memoir. I established a music scholarship program for Ethiopian Jews at the Jerusalem Conservatory Hassadna and produced and directed a documentary film on Ethiopian Jewish names. I study and teach Dr. Emmi Pikler and Magda Gerber’s revolutionary approach to baby and toddler care. I’m a mom of 3 and grandmother of 2. I recently wrote my first song!
About The garden speaks during Shmita
I don’t even know if you will accept this because it is quite short – a haiku. I love the idea of shimta, of releasing the garden do what it is meant to do, rather than cultivating and in a sense controlling it. I feel that if we could apply shmita to ourselves, as human beings, then perhaps we would be able to “express what is deep within: us and “let our wild beauty burst forth” and so live the lives for which we were destined. I have a photograph that goes along with the haiku, which I guess I will submit separately.
The garden speaks during shmita
For six years I long
To express what’s deep within.
Wild beauty, burst forth!