At HaMeginim (Defenders) Forest near Tel Gezer, I unfurl our red checkered picnic blanket at the edge of a field of tall, green grain stalks. We unpack sourdough bread, white cheese, and a thermos full of hot coffee. Then, as we sit with our breakfast picnic, I take a moment to appreciate the change this woodland has undergone over the past few months. One sunny day back in January, I remember warning our children not to trample over the newly sprouted grain shoots, which, at the time, looked like nothing more than grass.
Now, planted grain is clearly identifiable on this nature trail. Today, we savor our bread and the scenery. As we gaze upon pretty wildflowers and green grain, I think about the upcoming Passover holiday, otherwise known as Chag HaAviv (Holiday of Spring) and Chag HaHerut (Holiday of Freedom).
Here in Israel’s outdoors, these alternate names for Passover make perfect sense. It’s clearly springtime, as evidenced by yellow mustard flowers that bob in the gentle breeze and bees that buzz between fragrant petals. Woven through other parts of this woodland are purple butterfly orchids, showy red poppies, and sweet white chamomile. There’s no doubt about it: The Holiday of Spring comes at just the right time here in Israel.
The celebration of freedom seems a bit less connected to Israel’s great outdoors. Of course, the main cause for celebration is our national freedom from Egyptian servitude. But on a deeper level, we can also celebrate a type of personal freedom, a momentary liberation from the constant need for accomplishment. This type of human achievement is symbolized by the grain-growing and bread-making cycle. It seems fitting to contemplate this over a picnic of bread at the edge of a wheat field in a quiet woodland.
Since man first began to plant and cultivate crops, the bread-making process has been one of the cornerstones of civilization. We don’t think much about this in modern times, when bread is more generally thought of as a dietary no-no than as an object of foundational importance to society. But before humans planted fields and baked bread, they were hunters and gatherers. Planting and harvesting grain allowed us to settle down and create civilization.
Over the past few months, I’ve witnessed the long process of bread-making in action here in HaMeginim Forest. The first step is the plowing and planting of grain. Months later, the tall, green stalks we see here in April will be left out to dry, so they can then be threshed, winnowed, and pounded into a fine flour.
In our human ingenuity, grain is then brought to life once again, with the help of wild or cultivated yeast. The newly formed dough breathes and rises before being exposed to extreme heat during the baking process, which ends the grain’s life cycle for good. Next step: human consumption.
Pausing the process
On Passover, we pause this process in more ways than one. Most obviously, we stop leavening our dough, which represents the second life of grain within the bread-making cycle. But we also take a break from the raw grain product itself on Passover: The commandment of Hadash in Leviticus instructs Jews to let new grain rest until the Omer offering is brought on the second day of Passover. In fact, in the context of this commandment, the Passover holiday itself is referred to as a “Shabbat.”
And what is a Shabbat, after all? On the seventh day, God took a moment to stop and savor after a long week of creation. During our own production of bread from kernel to crusty loaf, we also need to take a break, to emulate God with rest of our own. Passover is that rest.
For modern humans, taking time to pause from the frenetic pace of production is an important part of leading a happy life. Getting out into Israel’s nature is a great way to do just that – to slow down, to meditate on the beauty of our natural world, or to simply contemplate the glory of our homeland and the magnificence of creation.
There’s no better opportunity to head outdoors than Passover, the Holiday of Spring and the Holiday of Freedom. After all, one of the defining qualities of our slavery in Egypt was our inability to take time for ourselves. The request for a three-day break in the desert was the source of contention between Pharaoh and the Jews, at a time when our lives belonged to our Egyptian taskmasters.
Now in our homeland, we can celebrate the Holiday of Freedom on a personal level, by stopping to smell the spring flowers on Israel’s beautiful nature trails.
