Amir

03/27/2023

APPLICATIONS ARE STILL OPEN TO BE AN AMIR FARMER THIS SUMMER!

Grow your Jewish agricultural wisdom and farming skills at our week-long Training Seminar and share these skill and values with campers at one of our partner camps this summer.
Clink the link in our bio to learn more and apply, or copy/paste the link below (apply by April 10th):
http://www.amirproject.org/application

03/13/2023

APPLY TO BE AN AMIR FARMER!! Our Application for Summer 5783/2021 is still open!

Grow your farming skills and help connection young people to the earth, food and Jewish agricultural wisdom this summer at one of our partner camps!

Clink the link in our bio to learn more and apply, or copy/paste the link below (APPLICATIONS DUE MARCH 31):
http://www.amirproject.org/application

Through our training and summer-long oversight, Amir Farmers become Jewish, earth-based social justice educators with a strong base of agricultural knowledge. Join us!

03/06/2023

Our Application for Summer 5783/2021 is still open! With the support of Amir's week-long Training Seminar and ongoing mentorship, help campers at one of our partner camps build a connection to the land, grow food, and access the beautiful and nourishing world of Jewish agricultural wisdom

Clink the link in our bio to learn more and apply, or copy/paste the link below:

http://www.amirproject.org/application

02/10/2023

Our Summer 5783/2023 Job Application is still open!

Apply to be an Amir Farmer this summer if you're interested in sharing the inspiring world of Jewish agricultural wisdom and cultivating a garden with campers at one of our partner camps.
All levels of experience with growing food, Jewish agricultural wisdom and youth education are welcome-you'll gain these skills at our week-long Training Seminar and with ongoing mentorship.

DEADLINE TO APPLY IS MARCH 15th:
Clink the link below to apply: http://www.amirproject.org/application

01/26/2023

Apply to be an Amir Farmer this summer! With the support of Amir's week-long Training Seminar and ongoing mentorship, help campers at one of our partner camps build a connection to the land, grow food, and access the beautiful and nourishing world of Jewish agricultural wisdom

Clink the link below to apply (priority deadline is February 12th!): http://www.amirproject.org/application

10/28/2022

Shabbat Shalom & Chodesh Tov, friends! With this week’s new moon, we enter Cheshvan, the second month of 5783, and the second month of this brand new Shmita cycle.

At Amir, we are grounding ourselves in this transitional time by integrating all the powerful wisdom we gleaned from the Shmita portal of 5782.

Our team will be taking the coming fall & winter months to reflect, create, and vision Amir’s future in a way that celebrates the wisdom of Shmita, bringing its lessons into the fore.

We’ll be mostly-quiet on Instagram while we immerse ourselves in integration, but stay tuned for various updates as the growing season approaches here in the northern hemisphere!

With blessings for a transformational, healing, and liberatory 5783,
The Amir Team

08/15/2022

As landscapes here in the northern hemisphere start to display their final pops of technicolor summer hues, we’re thinking about Hiddur Mitzvah- the tradition of putting extra time, style, or resources into a mitzvah so that it is performed as beautifully as possible.

Hiddur Mitzvah, often shortened to just “Hiddur,” can include any instances of being ‘extra’ about Jewish ritual or mitzvot, which includes making beautiful hand-made ritual objects, baking challah with special fillings or toppings, decorating the table for a holiday feast, wearing special outfits, singing prayers in wonderful tunes, or arranging agricultural gifts in beautiful baskets.

Mitzvot are meant to be celebrated and done with pleasure, not trudged through reluctantly. Adding beauty to our mitzvot, and to our everyday lives, reminds us to celebrate life.

Want to integrate Hiddur Mitzvah into your lives or gardens? Here’s when you can lift up this value:
🌈Any time you’re being extra
✨Any time you’re being slow and intentional and/or thorough with work (when doing the bare minimum would take less time
🌼When making special Shabbat items from the farm (picking flowers for bouquets, tea for Shabbat, picking herbs for challah, nature-art ritual items)
🍇When designing a crop plan, optimizing for beauty and wonderful smells

How do you channel Hiddur Mitzvah?

08/12/2022

Shabbat Sha Compost, friends!

Today, we’re feeling inspired by the campers at , who built a gorgeous new compost bin from scratch, to ponder the overlaps between building balanced compost, and balanced lives.

Our lives, just like compost, are made up of a delicate yet adaptable balance of work & rest.

Throughout the week, we layer many kinds of work onto our lives.

On Shabbos, we add in a thick layer of rest. All those layers stew together, churning into a richly integrated experience of life.

From all of us at Amir, we are sending blessings for a Shabbat that balances your being, for optimal health and the ability to nourish your communities.

07/29/2022

“How proud we often are of our victories in the war with nature, proud of the multitude of instruments we have succeeded in inventing, the abundance of commodities we have been able to produce. Yet our victories have come to resemble defeats. In spite of our triumphs, we have fallen victim to the work of our hands; it is as if the forces we have conquered have conquered us. The Sabbath is the day on which we learn the art of *surpassing* civilization.” -Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath

These magical sun-ray dappled trees from remind us of what’s possible when we decide not to wage war with nature, but to sit in awe of it/her/them.

From all of us at Amir, we’re sending blessings for a peaceful Shabbat ✨

07/27/2022

Have you ever heard of the term “pe’ah”?

Pe’ah is about the corners, but is central to the Jewish agricultural system!

Pe’ah refers to the unharvested corners and edges of the field or farm; This portion of the farmers’ yield is “hefker,” ownerless (see our hefker post from last week to learn more!). All who seek to eat, including (and especially) humans without access to land ownership, may come to glean their own food.

Pe’ah is on the edge so that people can easily access it without needing to walk through the farm, and so that everyone can see what’s happening in the pe’ah zone. This keeps farmers accountable, and makes it easy for people in need to know when to come and harvest with dignity and privacy.

Unlike philanthropy, charity, or even food donation, nothing is “given” in pe’ah.

Pe’ah operates under the assumption that the corners of the field never belonged to the farmer, even though the farmer planted and tended them.

Pe’ah is just one part of a robust system of agricultural gifts to ensure that everyone in the community eats, and eats well.

Have you ever tended a farm or garden with a pe’ah practice?

07/22/2022

Shabbat Shalom from farmer Natalie at URJ Eisner Camp, located on ancestral Mohican and Schaghticoke land in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

In the words of farmer Natalie, Eisner is “such a beautiful and magical place.”

We agree- especially when baby birds find home in the garden! 😩😤🙏🏼

These baby birds are a wonderful reminder of the ‘hefker’ (ownerless) elements of our gardens.

Check out our post from Monday to learn more about hefker!

May your Shabbat be full of the magic of hefker ✨🪱🦋🪶🌳🌘