Today, we are diving into the month of Shevat, specifically focusing on Tu B’Shevat which starts tonight! It is on Thursday — Wednesday night to Thursday and if you’re anything like me, Tu B’Shevat is kind of a holiday you acknowledge, but maybe gloss over on a deeper level. This year, I am putting a stop to it.
There is so much meaning in the month of Shevat and the holiday of Tu B’Shevat and it’s such a fun one to be interactive with with kids without the pressures of a yom tov so it’s really a great opportunity to take advantage and I just did not want it to pass me by this year.
To help me do so, I reached out to Mrs. Yehudit Refson. She is the director of grounds, arts and renovations at Neve Yerushalayim. She is an amazing person who has totally transformed Neve’s campus in the time since she moved over there. We actually did an interview nearly four years ago for the Chai on Life website which I am linking in the show notes where you can learn more about how and why she got into the entire gardening journey and how she transformed the earth into a space that was beautiful already, but now is bursting with plant and animal life.
Photo credit: Rebecca Kowalsky
Now, the girls at Neve don’t just learn Torah inside the classroom, they really enhance their learning outside of it. Instead of just learning about shemitta, they’re living it with the plants around them. On Rosh Hashanah, they’re touching actual pomegranates and other simanim from their own garden. They’re doing tashlich in their own pond. They plant the arba minim for Sukkot. It’s really a full interactive experience that undoubtedly leaves you with so much more than you would get just from hearing about these things.
In our conversation, we go even deeper. She speaks about the land’s connection and parallels to women which was really beautiful and interesting, something I had never heard before. She speaks about the root word of land in hebrew, adamah and how the word itself shows our connection to the earth. We talk about the power of being in nature in regards to our five senses and the impact on our mental health as a result. We go deep into Shevat as I referenced and how the energy of this time is all about renewal and at the end, we discuss practical ways to live a cleaner, greener life and how to just jump into gardening if it’s something you’re interested in.
I left our conversation feeling really excited and invigorated to get started with something when it comes to gardening and actually being with the earth and I have a feeling you may feel the same way afterward. I love this episode so much and can’t wait for you to hear it. So now, without further ado, let’s get into my conversation with Yehudit.
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