Rabbi David's Blog Subscribe
Out of the ark and into the garden: The story of Noah in the Sabbatical year
There are three places in the Torah which talk about human beings and the animals – including wild animals – sharing one food supply. In Eden, in the ark during the flood, and in the Sabbatical year or Shmita. There’s a lot more to these stories, but you don’t really need to know much more to understand the basic message of the Torah. We lived with the wild animals once, rather than carving out separate spaces for us and our domesticated fellow ...
The MAP: Sukkot (and Shmita) Resources and Events
SUKKOT AND SHMITA RESOURCES AND EVENTS contributed by all the organizations and initiatives on “the Map” http://jewcology.org/map-of-initiatives/ Here’s a quick bit of Sukkot Torah to start us off: “The four species of the lulav represent the four types of ecosystems in the land of Israel: desert (date palm), hills (myrtle), river corridors (willow), and sh’feilah, the lowlands (etrog). Each species has to be fresh, with the very tips ...
Climate on Rosh Hashanah – an existential threat to Israel
Protecting Israel doesn't just mean getting off of Arab petroleum, it means getting off of all petroleum. If you're not advocating for that, you might as well be calling for the destruction of the state.
Rainbow Day is coming this Shabbat! Celebrate, learn, create!
I'm excited about Rainbow Day this Shabbat and I hope you are too. Go to jewcology.com/resource/Rainbow-Day for incredible resources. This is our second year presenting this curriculum, and it's a real labor of love. A dozen Jewish environmental organizations participated in making it!
Here are three things to do for Shabbat Noach!
Here are three very simple things you can do for Shabbat Noach to honor God's covenant with all life: 1) Learn and teach the rainbow blessing: "Barukh atah Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha`olam ZOKHER ET HABRIT -- Blessed be You, Hashem...who remembers the covenant!" And -- you can remember that the first covenant in the Torah wasn't just for humanity. It was a convenant with all animals and with the land itself. 2) Say a prayer ...
Rainbow Day coming up soon!
Rainbow Day, יום ברית הקשת sunset May 30th through May 31st ~ make it beautiful! Celebrate Rainbow Day! We have prayers and liturgies, lesson plans about seed-saving, learning from Hoshea and Ezekiel, Kabbalah and midrash, and project ideas—36 in all—that you can use to celebrate Rainbow Day and to remember God’s covenant with all creation. Download "RainbowDay-ideas_texts_project...
Rainbow Day is coming! Celebrate, learn, create!
I'm so excited to let people know about Rainbow Day – May 30th-31st, the 27th of Iyyar, and the 42nd day of the Omer. For a few years now I've been dreaming of making Rainbow Day a reality in the Jewish world. Rabbi Arthur Waskow first came up with the idea of using the dates of the flood story in 1981. But now I think we (the Jewish world) are ready to make it happen. I've been collecting prayers and rituals, lesson plans ...
