CONGREGATION
years ago to make aliyah, he had big
plans.
Fresh off his El Al flight, he
approached the Hava about develop-
ing a community supported agri-
culture (CSA) program, a system he
learned about while working on a
farm in Santa Cruz, Calif. CSAs bring
in a few volunteers to work the fields
and harvest produce for the farmers
themselves, then sell surplus crops
to the local community, giving non-
farmers a source of local, really deli-
cious food grown without synthetic
fertilizers or pesticides.
Bringing the CSA system to the
community made grocery shopping
a real, interactive experience. The
system creates a direct relationship
between grower and consumer.
Organic produce, according to
Solowey, takes up a larger market
share every year. Although the food
is grown in Israel, she concedes that
" most of the produce goes out for
export ... and organic food is still
very expensive in Israel." Depending
on the product, buying organic can
cost up to 10 times more. Buying
directly from the farmer cuts out the
middlemen that drive up the costs.
Yigal says sustainable agriculture
confronts a problem much of Israeli
society is pretending doesn't exist.
"For years, every time a piece of for-
est, hill or agricultural field was paved
over for a road or a building, it was
all celebration. Now [after decades of
population growth], folks are start-
ing to realize Israel only has so much
to offer. It's not just a free-for-all just
because [the Jews] are back. There is
a lot of work to do in re-learning how
to live harmoniously with this land,
especially since we've been gone for
so long."
Part of re-learning is noticing how
much waste we produce. No matter
what we bring on site, no waste leaves
the farm. That means every water
bottle, every plastic bag and every
candy bar wrapper must be hand-
washed and sorted in a recycling cen-
ter. We reuse everything, whether for
arts and crafts with the students or
as insulation in buildings. We live in
geodesic tents and take turns cooking
and cleaning.
Most of our grocery shopping is
just walking out to the field to harvest
the vegetables and herbs we need.
There are moments when a recipe
calls for an egg and I have to wait out-
side the chicken coop for the hen to
finish laying it.
I admit, there have been times
— threshing wheat by hand comes to
mind — when I recognized that some
of our technological advancements
are actually advancements. You can go
blind from threshing wheat by hand.
I know.
I don't plan on living like this forev-
er. It's too extreme. But being here has
taught me the satisfaction in going a
little further out of the way. Whenever
I want bread, I have to make it. I make
the dough five hours before baking,
gather wood to light the stove and
wait an hour for the oven to heat up.
During that hour, I sometimes fan-
tasize about the Dakota Bread challah
available just three minutes from my
parents' house in West Bloomfield.
It's so delicious, fluffy and so easy to
obtain. Then I'd snap out of it and
try not to burn my brick-like whole-
wheat bread that tastes sweeter and
more wholesome than any bagged
breads, even bagels.
SIMCHA DAVEN1
join us for a soulful, carlebach-style davening
"in the round" as we welcome shabbat with spirit & song
6 PM • FRIDAY • NOVEMBER 30, 2007
CONGREGATION SHAAREY ZEDEK WEST BLOOMFIELD
6:00 PM service • 6:30 PM speaker
DE LOY
Bringing Folks Together
Conservation efforts aside, Yigal said
that the ecological movement is also
bridging parts of Israeli society that
long have been segregated.
"Until recently, there was secular
and religious and not much in-
between," he said. "Now there is a new
space created. Lots of permacultur-
ists, mud builders and organic farm-
ers in Israel welcome the total and
ecstatic love many religious Jews have
for the land."
Judiasm is, at its core, a religion of
the land. Although the Hava is secu-
lar, we follow all the Torah's laws that
pertain to farming, allowing most
community members — even the
Orthodox — to feel comfortable buy-
ing our food. Just a few hills over, the
religious community of Moshav Me'or
Modi'in works in a similar way to
grow their own food and use sustain-
able living to define and enrich their
community. The Hava is just five years
old, but the moshav has been working
on this philosophy for more than 30
years.
Haim, a staff member of the Hava,
uses agriculture as a means of peace
activism. He goes once a week to
farm with Arab families just inside
the West Bank. These families' farm-
lands were lost when the separation
wall went up in 2005, and they have
worked since then to recreate their
plots. Haim volunteers his time to
these farmers, forming personal rela-
tionships as they work the ground
Green Movement on page A16
7:15 PM dinner
SHABBAT DINNER: $15 PER ADULT • $8 PER CHILD
FOR MORE INFORMATION, OR TO RSVP FOR DINNER, PLEASE CALL 248/357-5544
SHABBAT LOUNGE
featuring "the love doctor", dr. terri orbuch
8 PM • FRIDAY • DECEMBER 14, 2007
CONGREGATION SHAAREY ZEDEK SOUTHFIELD
Enjoy an adults only, classy, jazzy, soulful
Shabbat experience followed by the "Love Doctor"
TO RSVP, PLEASE CALL 248/357-5544
MULTI-
GENERATIONAL
LAUGHS
GUARANTEED
comedian • ventriloquist • entertainer • musician • actor
PhA • SUNDAY s
,
lnn7
CONGREGATION SHAAREY ZEDEK SOUTHFIELD
$7 PER PERSON BY MAIL • $10 PER PERSON AT THE DOOR
FOR MORE INFORMATION, OR TO PURCHASE TICKETS, PLEASE CALL NV, ,7-5544
GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY STACY & RON KLEIN IN MEMORY OF AGNES (z'I) & BERNIE (z'l) KLEIN :'E
N
November 15 • 2007
A15