Ari Zivotofsky

Special to JTNews

An Israeli girl goes beyond the party and gifts to give something to others

Ari Zivotofsky

Special to JTNews

Why were a gaggle of pre-teen girls bent over or kneeling in a beet patch, pulling beets out of the ground under a late afternoon sun following a full day of school? For many, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs are opportunities to celebrate, party, and receive gifts. But for an ever-increasing number, it is also a time to give.

I am proud of my daughter Shlomit, who celebrated her Bat Mitzvah just before Shavuot and had been informing us for over a year that as part of her celebration she wanted to do a “chesed” (charitable) project. We were glad to oblige, but stymied for the right activity we searched for a meaningful project that would produce a tangible result. We organized an activity that combined an educational component and a product that was of significant benefit to others.

As part of the preparation for her Bat Mitzvah, Shlomit studied all of the mishnayot in the order of Zeraim, the order that details the agricultural laws that for the most part apply in the land of Israel and includes obligations to give many gifts to the poor, the priests and the Levites. Having heard about an organization called Table to Table, we contacted them about doing volunteer harvesting.

Table to Table was founded in February 2003 by Joseph Gitler, a recent immigrant from the United States. He observed that many Israelis were regularly going to bed hungry while corporate cafeterias and catering halls were wastefully discarding excess food every night, and he thought it might be a good idea to collect from the latter and deliver it to the former. Initially alone, but quickly with a group of other volunteers, every evening he traveled to catering halls to collect the remaining food, which was

stored overnight and then delivered in the morning to non-profit agencies that serve the hungry.

In December 2004, Table to Table added another component to their food rescue and distribution services with the introduction of Project Leket. For a variety of reasons, many farmers cannot or do not harvest their entire fields, leaving large quantities of fruits and vegetables at risk of simply rotting on their stems.

These farmers informed Table to Table that if the organization could provide volunteer pickers, whatever they would harvest would be theirs to distribute. Table to Table currently collects more than 10,000 meals every week, 30 tons of fruits and vegetables, and over 20,000 fresh products, which it then distributes to over 70 non-profit agencies serving the hungry and needy located throughout Israel. As part of Project Leket, over 35,000 people have voluntarily harvested over 2000 tons of fruit and vegetables.

We told Table to Table we were interested in bringing 40 6th-grade girls, along with several other children and adults, to spend an afternoon harvesting. Depending on the season they have different fields available. Late spring, we were told, was perfect to go to a field near Rehovot and harvest beets. A bus was ordered and Shlomit’s friends were picked up from school in Beit Shemesh and taken to the field, a half hour drive away. After being re-energized with snacks, they headed out to harvest. They were also fortunate to meet Sandy Colb, the owner of this particular field and a leading Israeli intellectual property attorney, who happened to be visiting the field.

Why does an attorney have a farm, and what was he doing there on a weekday? That is what makes Sandy Colb unique. He and his wife Paula made aliyah from the U.S. in 1973 and always dreamed of getting to know the land of Israel up close and dirty. As his day job prospered, so did his hobby of farming and giving away the produce.

He now farms several hundred dunams of land, funds all of the farm work, and then donates all of the produce — upwards of 60 tons a week — to charitable causes. Some of the food is harvested by Table to Table volunteers who include college students on birthright trips, students spending a semester or a year in Israel, or my daughter’s 6th-grade class.

It turns out that, if done for a limited time, harvesting beets is not difficult work and can be a lot of fun. They grow partially protruding above the surface and thus can be uprooted by pulling on the stalks and then merely twisting them off. Of course this results very quickly in dark purple hands — most of the girls were duly dirty and tired after a little more than an hour, at which time we re-convened to admire our work (many, many heavy crates of beets), eat more snacks (it seems that is something 6th-grade girls enjoy), and for a more formal educational part of the program.

At this point Shlomit gave a short speech, aided by drawings on a whiteboard, explaining the fundamentals of how the various tithes are separated from produce in modern Israel. Her presentation was occasionally interrupted by the sound of the tractor preparing the beets for their transfer to those who need them.

It is hard to think of a more fulfilling day in the sun: teaming up with Table to Table and Sandy Colb to help my daughter celebrate her Bat Mitzvah by both sharing the theoretical knowledge she acquired through a year of study and sharing with her classmates a true chesed experience.