It is forbidden to live in a town that does not have a green garden.

(Jerusalem Talmud, Kiddushin 4:12)

The whole thing began with a little seedling of an idea at a Social Action meeting long ago. We’d build raised beds, tiny hands would sow the seeds, blossoming flowers could be cut and grace the bima on Shabbat.  Most importantly, harvested vegetables would donated to the heading Home Shelter in Medford. The children in the Hebrew school voted on a name for the garden. How appropriate that they called it Gan Tzedakah.

Despite some torrential downpours that we thought might drown our young plants, they survived and are thriving. We have little tomatoes, peppers, squash, and cucumbers and all the seeds we planted are coming up. In fact it is time to thin the radishes. The flowers that Nate, Rebecca, and Jonah planted are blooming, and the beans and peas Benjamin and Fiona planted are shooting up.

We are conserving water, too. Our water source is coming from two large barrels which will collect rain water that we will use for watering.

The weather is beautiful.  Take a walk out and see how our beautiful garden is growing.

Every part of the vegetable world is singing a song and bringing forth a secret of the divine mystery of creation (Rav Kook)