{"id":194,"date":"2010-06-04T06:19:53","date_gmt":"2010-06-04T06:19:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/homeshuling\/2010\/06\/compost.html"},"modified":"2010-06-04T06:19:53","modified_gmt":"2010-06-04T06:19:53","slug":"compost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/2010\/06\/compost.html","title":{"rendered":"Judaism comes to my garden (once again)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When I was a student in a Jewish day school in Baltimore, about a million years ago, we had a sixth grade teacher, whom I’ll call Rabbi P, who required us to memorize verses from Pirkei Avot<\/a><\/i> (when he wasn’t busy hurling sacred books at chatty children.)<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
I’m a strong believer in the value of memorization. I know it’s old-school, but as someone who still remembers my lines from my 1973 Kindergarten play about neighborhoods, I recognize that there is a window in time when children can absorb enormous amounts of information with ease, and even with some sort of joy, and they will consider this cache, if carefully selected, a gift later in life. I’m still indebted to Morah Miriam, my fifth grade teacher who taught me songs to memorize the names of every Torah portion, every book in Tanach<\/i>, and every book of the Mishna<\/i>. (I guess I’ve forgiven her for telling us on Yom Hashoah to “never make friends with the goyim,” though perhaps she wouldn’t have fogiven me for going and marrying one.) And I really am indebted to Rabbi P, especially since he never hit me with a chumash.<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
I’m not sure how Rabbi P selected which verses he wanted us to commit to memory. There was one passage that seemed an especially strange choice for a group of ten year olds – here’s an excerpt.<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

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<\/p>\n
 ???? ???? – ???? ?????: ???? ??? ????? – ????? ??? ??? ??????:  <\/span><\/div>\n

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Where did you come from? From a putrid drop. Where you are going–to a place of dust, maggots and worms…..<\/i><\/span><\/b><\/font><\/div>\n

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Perhaps he was trying to instill some humility, or terror, in the students who drove him crazy, day after day. I know it scared me silly. But recently, working in our garden<\/a>, I thought of that mishnah <\/i>again. I was turning the compost heap, surely a place of dust and worms. (I don’t think I saw any maggots.)<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
\"compost\"<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
Then I looked over at my garden, which has been nourished exclusively from the same compost. And I saw this:<\/span><\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

\"IMG_2525.JPG\"<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
and this<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
\"lettuce\"<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
And suddenly, that mishnah<\/i> didn’t seem so terrifying anymore. Thanks, Rabbi P.<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n
Shabbat Shalom.<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was a student in a Jewish day school in Baltimore, about a million years ago, we had a sixth grade teacher, whom I’ll call Rabbi P, who required us to memorize verses from Pirkei Avot (when he wasn’t busy hurling sacred books at chatty children.) I’m a strong believer in the value of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-judaism","category-parenting"],"yoast_head":"\nJudaism comes to my garden (once again) - Homeshuling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/2010\/06\/compost.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Judaism comes to my garden (once again) - Homeshuling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When I was a student in a Jewish day school in Baltimore, about a million years ago, we had a sixth grade teacher, whom I’ll call Rabbi P, who required us to memorize verses from Pirkei Avot (when he wasn’t busy hurling sacred books at chatty children.) 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