The true meaning of Mitzvot

HERJC’s nursery school children helped to harvest the potatoes, beets and peas from their Mitzvah garden.

Courtesy Helaine Ronan

Dr. Larry Gottlieb and Heidi Kreit have devoted many hours to the garden.

Courtesy Helaine Ronan

HERJC’s nursery school children helped to harvest the potatoes, beets and peas from their Mitzvah garden.

Courtesy Helaine Ronan

HERJC’s nursery school children helped to harvest the potatoes, beets and peas from their Mitzvah garden.

HERJC’s nursery school children helped to harvest the potatoes, beets and peas from their Mitzvah garden.

Courtesy Helaine Ronan

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About three years ago, during Hewlett-East Rockaway Jewish Centre’s Year of Mitzvot (a mitzvah is a good deed), they decided to join the home gardening movement by creating a produce garden in the synagogue’s backyard. They thought it would be a nice experience that could engage people of all ages while teaching the children about where food really comes from.

Thankfully, one of the congregants, Dr. Larry Gottlieb, is a master gardener, and with assistance from many volunteers, they suddenly had a garden which produced an amazing amount of vegetables in a relatively small plot. This became a wonderful learning opportunity for the nursery school children who helped harvest.

The Jewish Centre now donates many pounds of fresh produce to The Far Rockaway Outreach Center. HERJC’s Mitzvah Garden was such a huge success that this year, it doubled in size. Their theme for this New Year of 5775 is “Community and Connection,” and we know that our Mitzvah Garden will once again be a strong part of this effort.