Time for a different kind of harvest*
where first fruits are seeds
stored for an unknowable future.
Time for a different kind of time
when days are long and lunar,
when we cannot punch our clocks,
can scarcely safely measure
our shadows.
Time for a different kind of different
diffident, disposed,
where the heroes are heroes
because they stay home
and the essential who enter the world
are the winged and fragile messengers
of God.
There is no RuthAn important female biblical character with her own book. The Book of Ruth, read on Shavuot, tells the story of Ruth’s devotion to her mother-in-law, Naomi, and their return to Israel. Ruth’s story is often read as the first story of conversion. Ruth is the grandmother of King David. here, no Naomi.
We journey no longer,
belong only to our own. It’s
time for a different kind of harvest
where we reap and reap
but know not what or whether
we sow.
* The line “Time for a different kind of harvest” comes from Rabbi Rachel Barenblat’s poem, “The Handmaid’s Tale (Ruth).”
This poem originally appeared in Miknaf Haaretz: A ShavuotShavuot is the holiday fifty days after Passover and commemorates when the Israelite liberation from Egypt culminates with the giving of the Torah. Traditionally, Jews study in an all-night study session, eat dairy products (one interpretation is that the Torah is like milk to us), and read both the Ten Commandments and the Book of Ruth. Zine.
