Shavuot to me this year has a renewed immediacy and relevance. I see so much each week that feels like a living dialogue with the Book of Ruth, a modern exegesis on the themes of Shavuot: My renewed connection to the agriculture focus existence of my ancestors. Farmers who are meticulous in providing food for those in need, finding modern ways to follow the biblical injunction to donate part of their harvest. The intense personal thanksgiving with every field of wheat that I see among the springtime golden landscapes of the north-west Negev. Profound appreciation for the modern desalinisation and water recycling technologies that mean that despite this year's severe drought Israel is not facing famine and our farms can still grow plenty of produce to feed the country. The loving kindness of people from other nations who have chosen to come to Israel in our time of need to lend a hand wherever needed with such warm smiles and support for our traumatised people. A few modern day Ruths in the process of converting to Judaism because in the wake of October 7 they decided that the right response was to join the Jewish people. The many foreign volunteers from all over the world and all walks of life who one day decided to get on a plane and go to help Israelis because they felt it was the right and moral thing to do after October 7. There are no stereotypes or fixed demographics. I meet people of deep faith and none at all, farmers from all over the world who've come in solidarity to help Israelis farmers, random professionals from all over who on the spur of the moment came out to spend a week or two slogging it out in the potato fields of Nir Oz or the orchards of the Upper Galilee. The religious Jewish volunteers who spend the time bouncing around on volunteer buses deep in prayer, reciting Psalms or studying Torah. Middle aged grandmothers from Paris, London, Melbourne who want to volunteer while visiting their Israeli grandchildren alongside a Californian firemen, a retired Yiddish professor, Chinese university students, Mexican tour guides and Asian Muslims (to protect them I won't say which country they were from, their country doesn't officially approve of its citizens visiting Israel) who were here in Israel to try to reach out to the Israeli people in the hope of building a better future. A woman from the south Pacific who saw the news reports on October 7 and took her life's savings to come and help the people of Israel. Devout Filipino Catholics who come each year to spend Holy Week in the Holy Land and who wanted to do something to help while they were visiting.

Each week I see so much, hear so many stories, learn so much, appreciate all the more the blessings of this land and the humble, determined resilience and dignity of my fellow Israelis, the generosity of strangers from around the globe. It's a view that is so different from my regular urban and suburban central Israeli existence and my whole perspective on our national situation, on the Otef, on the borders is much more nuanced as a result. May all our hostages be freed and our grieving nation know comfort and security.