Sefirat HaOmer – the literal counting of seven week’s days in Jewish tradition- is drawing to a close with the upcoming Shavuot holiday (Tuesday night). Reflecting the Biblical commandment to sacrifice a measure of the new barley harvest at Shavuot, the period is rich in mystical, historical, and material significance. It’s a time of meditation, of  self-refinement. See our eco-rabbi’s insights on how to raise your spiritual level, in his post on Parshat Naso. A time of mourning cut through with rejoicing. A time to remember the past and to plan ahead. A significant period in the Israeli agricultural calendar.

On Passover, the Jews experienced the redemption from slavery in Egypt. During the following 49 days, the nation prepared itself for redemption from idol-worship and other spiritual traps. The culmination of this period came on Shavuot, when Moses brought down the Torah from Mt. Sinai.

In the Torah is written the commandment to bring an omer sacrifice of barley flour from the first harvest to the High Priest.  (An omer is a a dry measure whose volume is about that of 42.5 eggs. “Omer” also refers to this offering.) This took place on the second day of Passover.

Barley, in ancient times, was animal fodder. Wheat, which was brought as a sacrifice in the shape of bread on Shavuot, is supremely a human food. The comparison is that of raising our animal nature to the human, who yearns to connect with the Creator by refining himself through the commandments.

A mixture of sadness and joy run through the Omer period. We remember the deaths of Rabbi Akivah’s 24,000 Torah students from a plague and the pivotal fall of Beitar to the conquering Romans. Less talked of were the pogroms of the First Crusades in Germany, 1046, and the Chmielnicki Massacres in Russia, 1648-49. They also occurred during the Omer. Until the 33rd day of the Omer (Lag B’Omer), Jews neither  listen to live music, hold weddings, or shave and get haircuts.

Suddenly, on Lag B’Omer, joy reigns. The plague that killed the Torah students was lifted on that day. The death anniversary of the great Kabbalist Rabbi Shimoh Bar Yochai also occurred on Lag B’Omer – it is said that on the day he died, he taught the Kabbalah the entire day, and his house was filled with an extraordinary light. The light died at the end of that day, and the great Rabbi’s spirit traveled to its reward.

To mark those events, all mourning is over and people pour out in their thousands to Mt. Meron, where Bar Yochai is buried. Bonfires, music and dancing and rejoicing rule. Little boys get their first haircuts and brides and grooms joyfully  stand under the huppa.

I’ve gone to many Lag B’Omer weddings, and will not forget my own son’s first haircut on Lag B’Omer, when my late father settled his little grandson on his shoulders and danced.

The remaining time of the Omer are marked, as on every night, with reciting a blessing and counting the days and weeks of the period. Come Shavuot night, those able to stay up all night attending Torah classes – men and women. (I confess I haven’t done a Shavuot all-nighter in many years.)

In the morning, there are prayer services followed by a hearty dairy meal, in memory of the Jews abstaining from meat those 49 days that they anticipated the Torah. (For a dairy meal idea, see our spinach and mushroom quiche).

The ever-useful Wikipedia has more information on Sefirat HaOmer. And for in-depth articles, go to Torah.Org.

More on Jewish holidays at Green Prophet:

• Recipe for Shavuot: New York Cheesecake
• Celebrate Purim the Old-Fashioned Way
• Have a Sweet and Green Rosh HaShanah

:: Wikipedia

:: Torah.Org

Photo by uberculture via Flickr.

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This light, creamy cheesecake fits into your green Shavuot, especially if you make it with organic cheese and eggs. It’s also light on sugar.

The ancient Romans left a simple cheesecake recipe: ricotta cheese, honey, and eggs.  Pour into a clay saucer. Bake over coals. That still works, but for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, we favor this recipe. It’s  got just that hint of lemon and vanilla that makes you feel like you need another slice now, before someone else lays hands on it. And it fits into your domestic Jewish eco-activities, because it’s home-made – much healthier and more delicious than margarine-laden bakery products.

Have three bowls at hand, 1 large, 1 medium, 1 small. Prepare a cake pan either with baking paper or by greasing it with sweet butter and coating it with flour.

And do not preheat the oven: you want to start baking cold.

New York Cheesecake

6 servings: double the ingredients and bake in a larger pan for 12 servings.

Ingredients:

6 eggs

3 Tblsp. sugar, plus 6 Tblsp. later

500 grams – 1 lb. – 2 cups –  soft, creamy white cheese – here in Israel I use 9% white cheese

1 tsp. vanilla essence

Juice of 1 lemon

6 Tblsp. sifted flour

Method:

1. Separate the eggs.

Keep the whites in the large bowl.

Put 3 of the yolks in the medium bowl; in the small bowl, the other 3 yolks.

2. In the medium bowl, beat the 3 yolks with the 3 Tblsp. sugar and all of the cheese. Mix well till smooth.

3. Whip all the egg whites till stiff.

4. To the whites, add the 6 Tblsp. sugar and whip till the whites make smooth peaks.

5. Add the flour, the lemon juice, the 3 yolks from the small bowl and the vanilla.

Mix very well. This is the batter.

6. Pour 2/3 of the batter into the baking pan.

7. Mix the remaining third of the batter into the cheese mixture. Mix well.

8. Pour this new mixture straight into the center of the batter in the pan.

Bake at  300°F – 150° C for one hour.  Turn the oven off, but don’t remove the cake: just open the oven door a crack and let the cake cool inside. Once cooled down, store the cake in the fridge.

Enjoy!

More Green Prophet recipes for your Shavuot meals:

• Creamy Eggplant Soup
• Majadra: Middle-Eastern Lentils and Rice

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With only one week left until Shavuot (this vegetarian’s favorite holiday since she can eat everything on the table), many of us may be preparing in different ways.  Some of us may be considering making homemade ricotta cheese and baking organic whole wheat bread (in which case, please check out Hamutal’s easy to follow recipes), some are preparing to eat the cheese and bread that their loved ones have made, and others might be looking for some outdoor activities that will help them get in touch with nature.

If the outdoor activies are more your thing, keep on reading.  There are plenty of options all over the country for outdoorsy, green fun during Shavuot.

Eco Holiday in Kfar Blum:  Visitors to Kfar Blum usually go for the kayaking, but this Shavuot visitors will also be able to take part in a variety of green activities.  On May 29th, the activities will include a workshop in recycled paper construction, scientific activities for kids, a shredded paper pool for little ones, and a green riddle station.  For more information check out the Kfar Blum website.

Ecological Festival in Rishon Lezion: Rishon Lezion’s Park Hashikma will be hosting green workshops for kids on May 29th and 30th.  Those going to the festival will be greeted by Nesi the Monster, the Loch Ness Monster’s long lost Israeli cousin who is made out of recycled plastic bottles.  Activities will include making dolls out of pinecones, making personalized comic books out of recycled newspaper, building a large environmental sculpture together, and plays about the environment will also be performed for young children.  For more information, call Park Hashikma at 03-9650063.

Shavuot at the Vertigo Eco-Arts Village:  There are plenty of Shavuot activities for kids out there, but what about the grown ups?  The Vertigo Village will be hosting a variety of outdoor dance workshops, in addition to a Shavuot picnic on Thursday the 28th from 6:30pm – 8:30pm (and the menu looks delicious.  For more information, check out the Vertigo website.

The Tel Aviv Urban Options:  Too lazy to leave the city?  Don’t have a car?  Convince yourself that it’s greener to stay local and take advantage of some of the urban options in Tel Aviv.  On Thursday the 28th from 10am-3pm, there will be lots of green activities on Ben Gurion Boulevard including a tent full of various butterflies, a milking and cheese making workshop, a pita-baking workshop, farmer’s market, performances for children and more.  Otherwise, you could check out the Shavuot activities at Tel Aviv’s Farm in the Yarkon Park on the 29th and 30th, where there will be a parade of the season’s first fruits, a treasure hunt, recycled papier mache workshops and more.  See their website for more information.

Heard of other cool events going on next week?  Please share them in the comments section below.

Read more about last year’s Shavuot festivities::

Heschel Center’s Online Environmental Shavuot Webinar

Green Shavuot Activities (Because You’re Gonna Need a Break From All That Cheese)

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Writer and part-time pig farmer, Jeff Yoskowitz, was at the recent Shavuot Slow Food market in Tel Aviv – and had mixed feelings about the artisan cheeses, meats and organic veggies on offer. 

The Carmel Market shuk in Tel Aviv that so many travelers love — the idyllic market which people see as representative of the simpler way vegetables and other foodstuffs were once sold — is actually the source of so much frustration for me.

Aside from the problem that all of the produce is fully conventional, I spend most of my time there yelling at vendors, being bumped (and bumping back) and trying my best not to be cheated.

While my blood pressure rises and I suffer the consequences of a thick American accent, I wax nostalgic about the farmers markets I frequented in Providence, Rhode Island, before I moved to Tel Aviv.

Now those are markets.

The vendors are usually the farmers themselves or their workers (or the people they hire to sell their stuff), and people are nice to you. They even smile. In fact, rather than the dog eat dog milieu of the shuk, the farmers market represents an eating community where people all respect each other for their role in this chain, from the grower to the cook to the consumer, etc.

In so many ways I saw the shuk as a symbol of Israel, with all its frustrations, and the farmers market a symbol of my beloved America, in all its splendor, and in comparing the two I observed just how irreconcilable they were.

Then, on behalf of the Jewish harvest festival, Shavuot, Tel Aviv had to go ahead and start a Slow Food inspired farmers market…and further confound my already uncertain identity issues around food in Israel. When my neighbor told me about this new market I was jubilant; I actually canceled all my plans for Friday afternoon. I biked with my neighbor to what I hoped would be the very bridge between my old home and new home. It wasn’t.

I spent two hours there and left with new questions and two conflicting feelings. The first was that it felt like home, both for better and worse. There were artisanal meats and cheeses, fair trade olive oils and vinegars and coffees, loads of incredible looking fresh and mostly organic fruits and vegetables, as well as some of the farmers themselves.

People knew about their food and products and could have intelligent conversations about farming methods and fair trade policies. I felt like part of the farmers market community I had felt a part of in Providence. It was a beautiful sight as well because the market was held at the old Tel Aviv port, with the Mediterranean as an uncanny backdrop. And it just felt nice to be shopping with a backpack and a tote, not guarding myself or my money as I do in the shuk, just casually tasting cherries and blueberries, wines and olives.

And yet, the other feeling I had was one of disappointment with Israel. While it’s just a start to the movement here, this farmers market just did some things plain wrong and contrary to so many of my own values and those that I attribute to the farmers markets of home.

For starters, the meat wasn’t kosher and I couldn’t eat it. When this happens in the US I understand it, but if there’s one place I should be able to buy kosher home-prepared pastrami I’d expect it to be this particular venue. There were also coffee stations where fair trade organic coffees were being sold in disposable plastic cups, with plastic lids and straws.

A pickle vendor (the only one) sold lacto-fermented pickles in cheap plastic containers which certainly leached plastic into the brine and probably the pickles as well. I asked the man why he didn’t use glass and he said, with disdain, “this is what we have.” Then I inquired about his lemonade (also sold in wasteful plastic cups) and it cost ten shekels a pop, with no promise of it being organic or low sugar or anything special. As thirsty as I was I would not pay a fortune for a few sips of lemonade when at the shuk fresh lemonade, which is not too sweet, costs two shekels.

In fact, this farmers market was so ridiculously expensive as compared to the shuk that I only bought purple potatoes and blackberries and then left after sampling all the free foods I could. The choice to hold the market at the port, in the North of Tel Aviv, pretty much shows the kind of constituency they’re hoping to develop: yuppie Tel Aviv types.

Had they held the market more in the center of the city perhaps the ideals would spread. Instead I was surrounded by iphone carrying Israelis enjoying a luxury market. At first this upset me because our farmers markets in the US are for everyone, right? And then I remembered that that’s not exactly true.

While the class differences at this Israeli farmers market (and in Israel in general) are more greatly exaggerated, the Providence Farmers markets were mostly serving the East Side citizens who believed in its mission and college students who felt similarly.

I thus left the farmers market dissatisfied with the start of the movement in Israel, and mostly, I believe, because I can see the class distinctions of the movement more clearly in Tel Aviv than I could in Providence where I was more a part of society and less of an observer. I’m happy that such a market exists in Tel Aviv and in time it will hopefully improve, and I will do what I can to help it along. In the meantime, though, I think I’m just going to follow-through with a CSA I’ve been researching and spend less money on good veggies so I can cook them up in my kitchen without dealing with the harsh reality that not everyone can eat the way I eat.

::Shuk Namal

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There are lots of great environmentally friendly outdoor activities to do during the Hebrew holiday of Shavuot, but if you don’t feel like going outdoors (or if you’re in a cheese coma) then the Heschel Center for Environmental Learning and Leadership is hosting an online seminar about Shavuot and the environment.

We applaud the Heschel Center for this creative type of seminar which is super green in two ways: it’s about the environment, and it eliminates all of the transportation needs associated with conventional seminars. This is a seminar on a carbon emission diet.

The Seminar is called Lu’ach Ve’Ru’ach – The Hebrew Calendar, Shavuot, Justice and the Earth and is being hosted by the deputy director of the Heschel Center, Dr. Jeremy Benstein. There are three ways to participate:

Presentation: Take a look at the power point presentation about Judaism, the Jewish calendar and its relation to natural cycles, and Jewish attitudes towards the earth.

Forum Discussion: Participate in the online forum and write your responses to the presentation and any questions. Jeremy will respond to all comments.

Live Q&A: In addition to the online forum, there will be two one-hour forum sessions where Jeremy will be online and respond to comments in real time. Jeremy will hold these sessions on Thursday June 12, 22:30 Israel time and on Sunday June 22, 22:30 Israel time.

Happy Holidays

See also:: Eco Rabbi: The Green of Blessings and The Qu’ran on the Environment

The post Israel’s Heschel Center appeared first on Green Prophet.

Which is why it might be good to get some fresh air at some point and get in touch with Mother Nature, which is what Shavuot is all about.

There are many outdoor Shavuot activities being publicized for this coming weekend, but not all of them are environmentally friendly. So if that’s your thing (and we hope it is), try out these options:

Nature Protection at the Manara Cliffs: The Manara Cliff site in the Galilee is focusing its Shavuot activities on nature protection this year. Activities include a recycling workshop, flower-pot making, and making mobiles out of natural materials. (June 8-9 from 9:30 to 17:00, for more information call 04-6905830)

Organic Shavuot at Kfar Tamar: Kfar Tamar, near the Kinneret, is hosting an organic farmer’s market this Shavuot which will include produce, legumes, organic crackers, and cheeses. There will also be tractor rides in the kfar’s orchards and farm. (June 7-8, for more information call 04-6709954)

Scarecrow Festival at the Hayarkon National Park: Celebrate pesticide-free ways of scaring off those pests at the Scarecrow Festival hosted by the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority. The festivities include a scarecrow building contest, and the best three scarecrows will win attractive prizes. (for more information call *3639)

See also:: Guesthousing It In Israel: Get Your Eco-Farm On and The Sabbatical Year and its Connection to the Environment

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