Owner of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope
Rabbi Katy Z. Allen is the founder and leader of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope, a congregation without walls that meets outdoors all year long. She is the co-convener and coordinator of the Boston-area Jewish Climate Action Network, and the founder of the One Earth Collaborative, a program of Open Spirit in Framingham, MA.
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Day Two: Gevurah b’Chesed
by Rabbi Judy Weiss Gevurah: strength and courage in service of loyalty Midrash: Genesis Rabbah 5:6 At the beginning of creating the world, God decreed ‘Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place.’ Whatever God brought to pass, is so humans will fear God (Ecclesiastes 3:14). Compare this to a country that rebelled against its king. The king sent a strong army and encircled them, so the ...
Day One: Chesed b’Chesed
by Rabbi Judy Weiss Chesed b'chesed: the purest form of loyalty The beginning of the Omer period is marked by mourning customs, born from innate human anxiety about springtime grain production: will food production provide enough to sustain us or will weather aberrations ruin our crops? Midrash: Exodus Rabbah 21:6 When Israel stood at the edge of the Red Sea terrified by the approaching Egyptians, God commanded Moses to lift up his rod ...
Preparing to Count the Omer
We are counting down the days to Passover, to our journey out of slavery and into freedom. And then, on the second night of Passover, we will begin counting in a serious way, we will begin counting the Omer. With the Counting of the Omer count seven weeks of seven days - 49 days - from crossing into freedom to receiving the Torah, from redemption to revelation, from Passover to Shavuot, from the Sea of Reeds to the Mountain of Sinai, from ...
Loss and Transformation – Earth Grieving
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen I teach a class called Loss & Transformation: Connecting Sacred Texts to Family Stories to Help Deal with Loss, in which I set forth a theology of how our losses can lead us to be transformed, and how the joining of the stories of our familial ancestors with texts of Jewish tradition can provide a useful tool in transforming our grief into a deeper relationship with the Sacred and bringing us to a place of ...
Hanukkah Day 8 – Treasuring Grief and Moving Forward with Peace
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen And so we arrive at the last night of Hanukkah, we fill the hanukkiahwith candles, eight candles for eight nights, plus the shamash, or helper candle. Once again we kindle the shamash, and then we kindle all of these eight candles. Our homes and our hearts fill with the light from so many candles. Shining together, the light of each individual candle multiplies and is magnified by the others around ...
Hanukkah Day 7 – Healing Hurts and Promoting Well-being
Hanukkah Day 7 - Healing Hurts and Promoting Well-being by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen Jewish tradition teaches that we are each to light our own hanukkiah - or Hanukkah candelabrum, and that even children should have their own. Lighting the hanukkiah is one of those mitzvot (commandments) that we can only do for ourselves. Unlike Shabbat candlelighting and many prayers, no one else can provide for us the fulfillment of thismitzvah. ...
Hanukkah Day 6 – Resisting Jealousy and Strengthening Gratitude
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen A major aspect of the Hanukkah story is the message about identity - who was willing and ready to go with the flow of the surrounding culture and who was willing to fight in order to retain a Jewish identity and all that went with it. Hanukkah sends an enduring message about not assimilating. So many are the ways we can become assimilated into the mainstream culture! Some of them are indeed ...
Hanukkah Day 5 – Understanding Anger and Cultivating Compassion, Contentment, and Joy
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen Another aspect of the observance of Hanukkah is that the lights from the hanukkiah are considered sacred, and we are not permitted to make ordinary use of them. (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 21b) In other words, we shouldn't sit in an otherwise darkened room and read by the light of the candles from the hanukkiah. We are not to make "ordinary use" of the candles. We must instead make ...
Hanukkah Day 4 – Diminishing Despair and Growing Trust and Faith
Hanukkah Day 4 - Diminishing Despair and Growing Trust and Faith by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen Jewish tradition teaches us to take our time when we recite a blessing before doing a mitzvah (commandment). "Time should be taken to pause and consider the kindness of G!d or the gift of a mitzvah opportunity in which one is about to be involved." (Mishnah Berurah, Siman 5:1) On this fourth night of Hanukkah, we first ...
Hanukkah Day 3 – Eviscerating Guilt by Responding with Action
Hanukkah Day 3 - Eviscerating Guilt by Responding with Action by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen The rabbis of the Talmud were concerned that the miracle of Hanukkah be publicized, so the tradition grew up to put thehanukkiah (Hanukkah candelabrum) in the window, for all to see. But the family is also to gather together, each one lighting his or her ownhanukkiah, in order to publicize the miracle inward, to the family. The miracle ...
Hanukkah Day 2 – Acknowledging Greed and Encouraging Generosity
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen In the Talmud (Shabbat 21b), the rabbis discuss how to light thehanukkiah - the Hanukkah candelabrum. The famous sages Hillel and Shammai disagree as to whether we should start with eight candles and day by day diminish the number we light until on the last day of Hanukkah there is only one candle (plus the shamash, or helper candle) burning, which is the view of Shammai, or, if we should startwith ...
Hanukkah Day 1 – Dispelling Fear and Finding Courage
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen This week's Torah portion is Miketz -- we are smack dab in the middle of the Joseph story, a sure sign that Hanukkah will soon begin, as we always read this portion during Hanukkah. In addition, this week's Shabbat candle-lighting time is almost as early as it gets (next week will be one minute earlier), even though the actual shortest day of the year is weeks away. It is a dark ...
Earth Etude for Elul 29 – Shana Tova
Photos by Gabi Mezger Words by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen G!d made a promise never to destroy the world again. We see that promise in every rainbow that arcs across the sky. We see it, too, in rainbows all around us. G!d had the power to make the waters of the flood recede. We have no such power. May we make a ...
Earth Etude for Elul 28 – I Am My Beloved and My Beloved Is Me
by Daniel Kieval I have a friend who reads people's auras. He sees all sorts of colors like green & red & purple. He says anyone can do it. All it takes is forgetting everything you think you know & just looking. I've tried it & even though I haven't seen any colors yet, everyone I meet looks so beautiful when I stop knowing everything, that it's pretty hard to go back to the old way. ...
Earth Etude for Elul 27 – Sunrise Sunset – Evening the Frayed Edges of Our Lives
by Rabbi Jeff Foust Sunrise and sunset are special liminal times calling forth awe and mindful awakening to spiritual realities we otherwise might totally miss. It’s no accident that the main traditional prayer times for Jews are sunrise and sunset. This simple profound reality is especially moving me this year as I prepare for the Teshuvah/Realignment/Renewal work of Elul before Rosh HaShanah. I’ve been reflecting ...
Earth Etude for Elul 26 – Teshuvah and Eden
by Rabbi Robin Damsky I am sitting in my yard as I write this, amidst the din of cicadas singing their love songs to one another, with the wind lusciously blowing around the 93-degree day. Although hot, the garden is nevertheless my favorite place. To my left are the grapevines yielding their first crop of grapes. To my right is a series of raised beds forming a giant U: lettuces under their shade cover, two compost bins, onions, carrots and ...
Earth Etude for Elul 25 – Circling Home
by Rabbi Kaya Stern-Kaufman Turning, always turning To every turn, a season To every season, a spirit To every spirit, a soul To every soul, a home Ani l’dodi v’dodi li I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine Elul pours forth a call Turn as the earth Around your sacred truth, Hold to your center but move from your place. See from a new angle, Who ...
Earth Etude for Elul 24 – The Humility of Rabbits
by Leora Mallach I am an educational vegetable gardener, that is to say, I facilitate learning about food and grow vegetables for people to eat. Vegetable gardens don’t happen by chance, but are manicured and maintained on a regular basis. There is pre-season planning, worry and hope as things sprout, groups of students to program with, volunteers to direct and family picnics to coordinate. When I first saw evidence of ...
Earth Etude for Elul 23 – Adonai, Adonai
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen Adonai, Adonai, G!d, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abundant in goodness and truth, showing compassion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin. (Ex. 34:6-7) G!d speaks the Divine name twice! Wouldn't once be enough? Whose attention is G!d trying to reach? The medieval commentator Rashi teaches that “Adonai” is G!d's attribute of compas...
Earth Etude for Elul 22 – For Lifts
by Nyanna Susan Tobin I am helped by...Remembering that where ever I sit or stand, it is sacred ground. Sometimes it is hard to believe this wisdom. But, If I can re-remember my roots, and my strong belief that we are all apart of the on-going cycles of creation and of unraveling, then I can wake up and realize the miracle of this moment. One of my goals for this summer was to slow down, and honor my desire for living closer ...
