Harvest festival holidays are a time to express one's gratitude for the sustenance derived from the earth and labor. The ancients celebrated the harvest, and we carry on the tradition today.
In the United States we celebrate Thanksgiving, the fourth Thursday in November. In the Jewish tradition the harvest festival of Sukkot is celebrated on the 15th day of the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar, Tishri.
Jews are commanded to celebrate the harvest in the Bible, Leviticus 23:40-44, by the Lord through Moses. The rituals of Sukkot are to last seven days. We are to live in booths and celebrate by lifting and shaking a palm branch, three myrtle branches, two willow branches and a citron. The sukkah booth is to be decorated with symbols of the harvest and left open in the roof so that we may sit under the canopy of the heavens and marvel at the stars at night. It is clearly a mystical holiday, one that is to bring us closer to nature so that we can pay tribute to God's blessings for his people.
I think about Sukkot this year in a slightly different light. Recently there has been much written, much talk, about sustainable agriculture. The people of Israel have been able to farm their land for not just centuries, but millennia. Farmers there have taken what nature has provided in a land where the number of arable acres is dwarfed by desert.
In modern times they have been innovative. The Israelites have been farming the southwestern most part of what was the Fertile Crescent of Sumer, for some 7,000 years. They were early innovators, perhaps the first to use plows, beasts of burden to assist in farming and irrigation. They used sickles to harvest small grains, grew tree and vine fruit, and herded and stabled livestock. The people of the region were so successful that they produced an abundance of food that supported cities and led to trade. It has been written that those early agrarians of Sumer should be credited with inventing the concept of farming.
The success of the Israelites millennia ago mirror the success Israel has today. When the state of Israel was founded more than half century ago, almost a majority of its people were engaged in agriculture. Today only 2.5 percent of the Israeli populace farms and they produce an abundance. Thus agriculture products contribute significantly to Israel's export market. They have adopted and invented modern techniques in irrigation, soil amendment, and livestock rearing that have allowed them to make use of long grow seasons and a Mediterranean costal climate, in the face of arid conditions.
In short, farming in Israel has been sustained for 7,000 years, because the people were innovative and good stewards of the land. They took what nature provided, they adopted and adapted, and today are still considered very productive.
So as I read about the gloom and potential doom of modern agriculture I take comfort when reading the history of farming in Israel.
Modern agricultural practices will change with changing climate, resource availability, and other demands. The example of Israeli agriculture over millennia is evidence of what can be accomplished. Agriculture that adapts to changing conditions and adopts new techniques will continue to sustain us. Larry Fox is a member of the board of the Jewish Community of the Palouse.
