"Rabbi Tarfon says: The day is short, the task is abundant, the laborers are lazy, the wage is great, and the Master of the house is insistent." -Ethics of the Fathers 3:20

"Then He (Yeshua) said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest." Matthew 9:37-38

A few years ago I won an award in a contest put on by the Saskatoon Public Library. It was for this poem, inspired by this passage from Matthew:

Harvest Field Rag

Awake ye patrons of good will,
Where ye here slumbering lie;
Let's see your mercy manifest,
For pity's not worth a dime

Come out, come out, wherever ye are,
Bless these bleeding children of men
If ye have two coats, give one away,
And the sun will shine again.

Oh, let your love be made full,
And make your joy complete;
For the Kingdom of God can't come to earth,
When the workers of the harvest field sleep.

By Joel Paul

So here's the poem, for all the world to read. I haven't written much poetry since then. Back then, I was able to collect four whole poems that I considered respectable enough to enter in the contest. Maybe one day the Spirit of God will inspire me to write poems again....

Anyway, I found that teaching from Ethics of the Fathers (or to my Hebrew readers, Pirkei Avot) during Sukkot, and I noticed immediately that it bears a remarkable resemblance to what Yeshua said in Matthew.


Our little dog, Eddie, was barking at the newly-fallen snow this morning. So cute. He hasn't seen snow since we got him last spring. Maybe he's never seen snow.