The times, they are a-changin'...

Had a great Shabbat with the family-- it was so incredibly good to see them! We had a fantastic time at the farm-- services and dinner on Friday night, sleeping in and a great hike of the loop trail on Saturday, and a good time harvesting this morning and going into Baltimore for the great, if sweaty, Farmer's Market. The boys popped right up this morning and helped pick peas, which was so fun! Here's some pictures from that harvesting:

Aren't they handsome?

Tonight, we met with the five folks who have come for the Kollel for this week. The Kollel is actually why I"m officially here, now that I'm more than halfway through my time. The idea is that, starting tomorrow, we'll work in the field until noon, and then study Jewish text related to agriculture in the afternoon.

So far, the folks I've been living and working with have been the Fellows who are working both at Kayam and the adjacent JCC Day Camp, plus the paid staff of Kayam. Now, things are changing; these new, great folks have come in, and as of tomorrow, camp starts-- the fellows will mostly be there, and I'll mostly be with Kollel group, which will change week to week as some folks are here for much of the summer, and some are here as short as one week.

Each week we'll be studying a Jewish text related to agriculture; I'm "captaining" this first week, which is based on the Talmudic text called Brachot. It's been more than a little humbling to put together study materials for this group-- most of the other folks have been in yeshiva or at least have Jewish day school backgrounds. Hopefull the study materials I've assembled will serve as a valuable jumping off point for each chevruta's (learning pair) study.

I've not been so intimated in a long time; hopefully it will go well. This being way out of my league, too, is a different experience-- hopefully a good one!

Off to try to sleep before the big day!

Note-- I've just (finally) added some photos from the watershed pilgrimage to that posting-- check 'em out!