What a beautiful metaphor for the garden circle of life! I linked to you in my spiritual gardening blog, thanks for sharing! Shabbat shalom to you too.

Can you share the songs to memorize the names of every Torah portion, every book in Tanach, and every book of the Mishna? Songs are the easiest ways for us to memorize anything.

What a great vignette, Amy. I tend to say when going to my garden that I’m going to synagogue because my garden is the place outside of my home where I feel most deeply spiritually connected. When I’m out there, there’s nothing between me and G-d except air and blue sky, so there’s nothing standing in my way of communicating with G-d. And when I see the wonderful things growing up all around me, I further realize G-d’s power. Thanks for sharing your unique and humorous perspective.

Memory is a gift. The fact that we can “look it up” is irrelevant. Having it stored in the mind means that unlikely elements will bump up against each other chemically and produce something totally new. That is where creativity comes from. So memorize as much as you can, and require your children and your students to memorize too, although passages from Bible and Shakespeare and Talmud and even the periodic table or the Latin roots of unfamiliar English words or the fine points of Hebrew grammar or the structure of the human genome are all better choices than the lines from a kindergarten play.

This is the best explanation of this putrid verse I have heard. You should run a Jewish Food Conference in western Mass. All the rabbinical students would come in for it and learn a lot from you.

Yay! I love my compost pile (click the link to see it). And yes, tending it – and the rest of the garden – does feel like a very Jewish activity.
It says in Pirkei Avot, “If someone is walking on the road and reviewing the Torah he has learned, and breaks off his study to say, “How lovely is that tree; how beautiful is this meadow,” Scripture regards him as though guilty to pay with his life.”
I recently read that it doesn’t mean it’s BAD to look at the trees and whatnot. It means you must see the trees and meadows as PART of Torah study, as part of the unbelievably amazing world God has made.
Thanks for this!

did your husband convert..and are u raising your kids with a jewish environment..a day school??

Ali, no my husband did not convert. Our daughters are Jewish (he is a devout atheist). One attends day school and one will begin next year.

I think, you will find the correct decision. Do not despair.

burberry brit