Being.


And the farm is a part of living and the boy is a king on the tractor turning up the earth; a Ben Hur driving the horse and wagon (chariot) to town! a Jacob watching through the night waiting for the cow to calve, tending, nursing, worrying; a Benjamin guiding the stumbling steps of the baby calf, feeding the pet goat, cuddling the litter of puppies; A Job resigned to the kicked over pail, lugging, hauling, dragging, pulling sugar beets as big as watermelons, watermelons as big as boulders, heavy as lead! A boy picking vivid flowers in the field, watching wheat pile up in the silo, tickling baby chicks in the incubator, urging fighting cocks in the coop. chasing ducks waddling in the yard, a boy loving every green growing thing.

And the workshop is a way to living: The endeavor of the men can be seen in the effort of the boy. The loom painfully threaded, the rat-at-at of the shuttle back and forth, the jangle jangle of the electric machines. the cloth slowly becoming whole. the design of the designer emerging.

The whirr of wheels in the machine shop, the smell of grease, the click of the ruler, the hesitancy of the pencil, the guidance of the instructor, the glint of metal, the swing of the hammer, the straight edge, the perfect circle, the smooth surface.

Becoming.

And the schoolroom? And the playing field?

And the "bull session" and the dancing and the singing and the scolding and the crying and the laughing - the living-the being and becoming the people of Israel

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This material is ©1998 by Grace Hollander
3 Keren Haysod st,Ramat Ilan, Givat Shmuel, Israel 51905

Permission to distribute this material, with this notice is granted - with request to notify of use by surface mail
or at gracehollander@usa.net.