Autumn is a transitional season – I look at the delicate balance that defines this time of year as being like a season standing on one leg, trying to stay alight. As anyone standing on one leg, autumn sometimes careens dramatically from side to side.
The main thing that sways – which affects everything else – is, of course, the weather.
Just several weeks ago, we were assured that “from the 15th of Av (August 9^th this year), the sun’s intensity wanes.” But then, as we were suddenly struck by a stifling heatwave, the words of Talmudic sages rang out saying: “The end of summer is harsher than summer itself.”

Indeed, the weather is playing tricks on us, toying with us – swaying from frigid to boiling, from damp to dry, from hazy to clear. In the morning, we come to the field shivering and bundled up in two layers. Two hours later it’s scorching, and we’re even sweating in short sleeves…

Fortunately, this mingling of cold and heat benefits the cool-season crops we’ve planted in the soil over the past month. The warmth and long daylight hours continue to give crops a growth boost, while the cool evenings, nights, and early mornings refresh and help preserve their vitality.

If these crops had been sown or planted earlier in the summer, the temperatures would have been too hot for them, and their brethren that will be sown or planted a month or two from now would grow much more slowly. Garlic, which is planted during this period, enjoys the last bit of warmth to establish itself and take root in the ground before it halts and waits throughout the winter until the warmth and longer daylight hours of spring return at last.