What Seems Like Magic is Actually Practice

For those of us who are not experienced gardeners or farmers, sometimes it seems like growing food is magic. We are not aware of the necessary chemistry to have fertile soil; we do not have familiarity with weather systems that may help or hinder the growing season; we do not understand the concepts of biodiversity and biodynamics. We go to the store or farmers ’ market or get our CSA box and we happily partake in its bounty without much of a clue as to how it came to be. It seems like magic but, of course, it is not; rather it is an in depth science that requires knowledge and experience.

In this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Va’Yeitzei, we read of an incident involving Jacob, which seems, on the surface, to be an experiment in magic. According to the Torah, Jacob peeled stripes into branches of almond, poplar and pane and when certain goats and sheep came forth to drink, he would immerse the rods into the water and this would cause them to mate. And, apparently by means of his “magical rods,” the flocks would bear striped or brown offspring--according to his deal with Laban, his father in law, any blemished of the flock would belong to Jacob while the pure-breed would remain Laban’s. Yet, when Jacob’s flock would mate, their offspring would again be pure rather than striped or brown.

Yet, this was not actually magic, but rather creative selective breeding. Just as a farmer knows their soil and the weather patterns, Jacob (as a shepherd) had an innate understanding of the breeding practices of his flocks and, even if not on a genetic level, had an understanding of how traits were passed on from generation to generation--what we now know as recessive and dominant genes.

In the same way that a shepherd has a deeper understanding of his flocks, so too does a farmer or gardener have that deeper understanding of how food grows and what practices are necessary to have the most productive season so we can benefit from it. Just as Jacob grew wealthy and prosperous from his know-how of creative selective breeding, so too do we benefit from the expertise of our farmers on which we rely for our sustenance and pleasure. It is not magic, while it may seem to be; rather it is knowledge and mastery.