Join friends for routes through pine forests, farmland, and local villages, culminating in a barbecue lunch of kosher, pasture-raised meat from Grow and Behold, followed by an interactive marketplace of local, sustainable vendors, swimming and boating, children’s programming from Teva, and more! Your participation supports Hazon Philadelphia in running innovative Jewish programming on food, health, and  sustainability.

Not a cyclist? The Ride wouldn’t be possible without our dedicated crew, who support and cheer on riders, help behind the scenes, and then enjoy the lunch and afternoon with their rider friends. Registration sold out last year, so sign up today! hazon.org/phillybike

Last chance to help us make Israel a greener, environmentally healthier land: Until the end of April you can vote online for the upcoming World Zionist Congress. The results determine, among other things, the division of power at the Jewish National Fund’s international board.

For the past decade I have sat on the JNF board, largely because of the support and intervention of the Green Zionist Alliance – a wonderful group of young environmentalists who decided to get involved and improve Israel’s environmental performance. This support has allowed me to represent them and pursue any number of important green initiatives which include:

· creating new sustainable forestry policies for the JNF,

· putting bike lanes on the organization’s agenda,

· creating a brand new “affirmative action” program to systematically reach out to Israel’s Arab minorities to finance environmental projects,

· increasing the organizational commitment to green building and solar energy,

· leading the fight to prevent JNF funding over the green line,

· expanding funding for forestry and agricultural research as well as river restoration projects, and

· fighting for good government and transparency.

There is a lot more that needs to be done. Whether or not I can continue depends on whether the “GZA” – or Aytzim as they call themselves these days gets enough votes. It only takes ten dollars to register and 3 minutes online to vote. (The polls close this Thursday April 30th). Here’s a link to Vote Green Israel: www.worldzionistcongress.org

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. And thanks to all of you who have already voted green for the support. – Alon Tal

(Considered by many to be the leading environmentalist in Israeli history, Alon Tal is a co-founder of the Green Zionist Alliance)

Download the free “Haggadah of the Inner Seder” (18 pp.). PDF, RTF, and DOC versions, along with a brief guide to the haggadah’s features, can be found at: http://neohasid.org/zman/pesach/InnerSeder/.
You can also go to neohasid.org for Omer Counter apps, and for information about David Seidenberg’s new book, Kabbalah and Ecology: God’s Image in the More-Than-Human World, published by Cambridge University Press.

You can support the Israel you want to see. All American Jews can vote in the World Zionist Congress election going on right now. One of the most common questions, we get is why it costs $10 to vote. As Mirele Goldsmith, a Green Israel slate member answers: “The American Zionist Movement has contracted with an independent company to run the online election.  This is to insure that the election is fair.  The registration fee is being used exclusively to pay for the election.  It is not a donation to the WZO.  I wish there was no fee, but it is a small price to pay to make a real difference in the future of Israel.”

Green Israel Platform: Peace for All • Green Energy • Sustainable Development • Diaspora Relations • Air Quality • Ecological Ecology • Animal Rights • Food Justice • Water Conservation • Schmita • Recycling • Encourage Environmental Start-Ups

Green Israel Slate: Eli Bass, Ellen Bernstein, Fred Scherlinder Dobb, Karin Fleisch, David Fox, Matthew Frankel, Ilana Gauss, Brett Goldman, Mirele Goldsmith, Wendy Kenin, David Krantz, Frances Lasday, Evonne Marzouk, Hody Nemes, Morgan Prestage, Shira Rosen, Richard Schwartz, Jacob Schonzeit, David Sher, Garth Silberstein, Marc Soloway, Lawrence Troster, David Weisberg, Eric Weltman, Laurie Zoloth

Please vote Green Israel. Go to http://jewcology.org/2015/03/votegreenisrael/ or worldzionistcongress.org for more info.

About Eden Village Camp: Eden Village Camp aims to be a living model of a thriving, sustainable Jewish community, grounded in social responsibility and inspired Jewish spiritual life. By bringing the wisdom of our tradition to the environmental, social, and personal issues important to today’s young people, we practice a Judaism that is substantive and relevant. Through our Jewish environmental and service-learning curricula, joyful Shabbat observance, pluralistic Jewish expression, and inspiring, diverse staff role models, we foster our campers’ positive Jewish identity and genuine commitment to tikkun olam (healing the world). Our 3 acre educational farm and orchard are based on principles of permaculture, sustainable and organic farming. We produce annual vegetables, perennials, and tend educational gardens as well as animals.

About the Farm Educator Apprenticeship: This is a paid six-month apprenticeship for young adults seeking hands-on experience. In the Spring build your knowledge based on agriculture, farm-based education and Jewish community. In the Summer, work at our 8-week intensive summer camp as Jewish Farm Educators. In the fall, take ownership and integrate your new skills by diving deeper into independent projects.  Live on-site at our beautiful camp, one hour north of New York City. By joining the farm staff at Eden Village, apprentices will hold two main responsibilities – tending our growing spaces and educating in our all of our programming through the spring, summer and fall. Apprentices will also have an opportunity to dive deeper into one of four focus areas: perennials, annuals, animals, and educational gardens. In these specialties apprentices will gain a deeper understanding of certain aspects of farming and will take on leadership and special projects to booster their learning and the learning of campers and program participants.

Details: April 14th, 2015 – October 22nd 2015, Apprentices receive full room and board at Eden Village, as well as a modest stipend. Extensive experience is not necessary but experiential curiosity is required. We recommend you explore our website thoroughly to get more information about our apprenticeship, farm, camp, and more at Eden Village Camp.

More questions? Explore the FAQ page. For all other questions, contact farm@edenvillagecamp.org

This ia a free opportunity for young adults 19-29 to come together in an interfaith setting for Jews, Christians and Muslims to live, farm and study together from June 1st – July 23rd 2015 at the Stony Point Conference Center in Stony Point, NY, with time for mentoring and vocational discernment. It is a Multifaith, Peace, Justice and Earthcare program. We seek students who are grounded in their religious tradition, serious about spriiuality and the state of the planet, and open to learnig and living in an intentional community setting. This is our 6th annual program run by the Community of Living Traditions on the Stony Point Center 32 acre campus.

For more details and to apply go to: www.stonypointcenter.org/SummerInstitute Deadline is March15, 2015

17 Cricketown Rd, Stony Point, NY 10980 845-786-5674

Reviewed by Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D.

Currently most Jews eat meat and other animal products and relatively few Jews seem concerned about the cruel mistreatment of animals on factory farms and in other areas. However, David Sears landmark book, now in its just released second edition, with its many examples of Jewish teachings about compassion for animals, has the potential to change all of this.

The Vision of Eden is a compilation of translations from various sources, ranging from the classic texts of Judaism to contemporary rulings in Jewish law, much of which has never before been translated to English. It also includes a number of essays by Sears that serve as prefaces to the translations and provide general overviews that discuss and analyze the source material. It is a companion volume to the author’s  book, “Compassion for Humanity in the Jewish Tradition: A Source Book,” which was published by Jason Aronson, Inc., in 1998.

This book has great potential to start a respectful dialogue on vegetarianism, the proper treatment of animals, and related issues in the Jewish community. Here are some reasons:

1. Rabbi Sears has the background, wisdom, sensitivity, compassion, and commitment to effectively raise the consciousness of the Jewish community concerning Jewish teachings on animals. As a Breslav Chassid, his commitment to Jewish law and tradition cannot be challenged. No one can claim that he is just one more animal welfare advocate who doesn’t care about Judaism and is not concerned about human problems.

2. The author’s knowledge of Hebrew and Kabbalistic, Chassidic, and other Jewish sources has enabled him to find teachings that are not commonly known. His book will enable religious communities to discover the rich treasures of material about compassion to animals that will challenge them to live up to the highest ideals of Judaism.

3. His book goes beyond those of other Jewish scholars who have written about Jewish teachings on animals because he combines his extensive knowledge of Judaism with an awareness of how far realities related to how society treats animals differ from the demands of Jewish teachings, and he is committed to making others aware of the need to end these discrepancies.
4. Because of its scholarly merits and firm grounding in Torah and rabbinic tradition, The Vision of Eden will be a respectful but powerful message to the Jewish community that it will not be able to easily ignore.  Because of the authenticity and authority of his sources, no intellectually honest person who reads his book would be able to say,  “Animals, animals — why don’t you worry about people first?”  While not a polemic (in working for completeness and objectivity, Sears discusses some passages that favor meat-eating), his book shows that the vast majority of Jews, including those who take Jewish law seriously, are negligent with regard to important Torah teachings related to animals. Many in the Jewish community will be interested in the book because of the uniqueness of a Chassid writing about Jewish teachings on animal welfare. Hence, it has the potential to raise the consciousness of the Jewish community with regard to animal-based diets, wearing fur coats, animal experimentation and other animal-related issues, and to get these issues onto the agenda of the Jewish community.

4. David Sears’ book also has great potential to eventually influence other religious communities and the general public.

As Rabbi Shear-Yashuv Cohen, Chief Rabbi of Haifa, stated in an approbation in the book, “Every reader of this unique and holy book will benefit extensively from it. Indeed, this book, The Vision of Eden, makes one feel that he has been handed a key to open the closed gates of the Garden of Eden that were shut to us ever since Adam was expelled …”

It is essential that rabbis, Jewish teachers, and other influential members of the Jewish community and other communities become aware of the teachings in Sears’ book and put them into practice. The revitalization of Judaism and the sustainability of our imperiled planet depend on it.

Richard H. Schwartz, Ph. D, is the author of Judaism and Vegetarianism, Judaism and Global Survival, Who Stole My Religion?, and Mathematics and Global Survival. He has over 200 articles on the Internet at www.jewishveg.com/schwartz, and frequently speaks and contributes articles on environmental, health, and other current issues. He is professor emeritus of mathematics at the College of Staten Island, president emeritus of the Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA), and president of the Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians (SERV).

• 4 days of kosher farm-to-table food in a pluralistic Jewish community and a rockin’ New Year’s Eve “Butterfly Masquerade” party
• Rabbis and leaders in Jewish thought bringing to life history, ethics, Jewish text, meaningful prayer, and more
• Expert cooking demonstrations and hands-on learning with renowned chefs
• Homesteading workshops with farmers and city folk for backyard chickens and beekeeping
• Conversations and take-home resources about food justice that will engage you in questions such as: How do poultry and pollinators affect what we eat, and how does what we eat affect them? What governmental policies are supporting or detracting from our ability to uphold our food values? And how does being Jewish fit into all these foodie issues? Learn from the experts and you will never look at eggs, bees, or food prices the same way again!

On this third night of Hanukkah, we light three candles and continue to add to the “Litany of Harm” and the “Call to Action,” and we provide a third action to our personal list of ways in which to increase the sanctity of our lives and the lives of those around us.

Hanukkah Night 3:

We continue the Litany of Harm:

For all those in island nations, where rising sea levels and superstorms threaten their very existence. We stand in witness!

For all coastal cities and villages, where storm swells and flooding put lives and homes at risk. We stand in witness!

For all those who suffer from tropical diseases, and those at risk from spreading diseases and heat waves. We stand in witness!

For farmers and all who eat, as droughts ruin crops, incomes, and food supplies. We stand in witness!

For people of color around the world, who are at risk from climate change and environmental injustice. We stand in witness!

For the human populations, plants, and animals who are losing or have lost access to enough fresh water.*

We continue our Call to Action:

We’re ready to act because we have a favorite place on earth that we want our great-grandchildren to experience. With love in our hearts, Compassionate One, move us to action.

We’re ready to act because somewhere we heard John Muir’s voice, reminding us that in the beauty of nature we see the beginning of creation. With beauty in our hearts, Creator, move us to action.

We’re ready to act because someone in our life once shared something with us – something we needed; something we could not live without – and we want to do the same for the next generation and beyond. With generosity in our hearts, Holy One of Blessing, move us to action.””

And we add a third item for increasing holiness.

For the third night, we focus on our responses to people of color. Do we see the differences in how white people and people of color are treated? Do we see how our days are different from those who are different from ourselves? Are we ready and able to recognize and acknowledge our white privilege? And what do we do about all of this?

Here are my thoughts for this third night of Hanukkah:

Our G!d and G!d of our ancestors, give me strength on this third night of Hanukkah, and help me to re-dedicate myself to remembering that I am created in the image of the Holy One of Blessing, to eating organic, local food, and to speaking out about racism.

What do you feel moved to add to your list tonight?

Chag Urim Sameach – Happy Hanukkah,

Rabbi Katy

* by Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman

** by Rev. Jim Antal

As we head into winter, the light changes and creates changes inside of us. Dusk descends upon the Earth earlier and dawn arrives later.  An evening walk takes us through luminous pockets of blue, white, red and green. For some, winter light brings a melancholy and longing for bright summer sunlight. For others, the candles and iridescent colored bulbs bring excitement and nostalgia.

It is with this consciousness of light and its effects on the human condition that the Jewish people observe Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights.

During Hanukkah, we commemorate the triumph of the Maccabees over the Greeks in the 2nd century BCE.  When they rededicated the desecrated Temple, the Maccabees found only one cruse of oil left to light the ceremonial lamp.  That cruse of oil was only expected to last for one night; however, it lasted for eight days.

What meanings can we glean from the miracle of the oil? Perhaps it is that no matter how abused or degraded an individual or a group may be, there is the capacity in it for more fire and light than one could ever imagine. Or maybe it is that triumph over oppression illuminates what is good.  We have what we need even if it doesn’t seem as though we have enough.  We can enter darkness in our world and in our souls knowing that we will endure, and that world has what it needs to illuminate truth, beauty and goodness.

Congregation Har Shalom is getting ready to construct its outdoor hanukkiah, which we light each night in front of the synagogue.  What will be different about this year’s Hanukkah Festivities at Har Shalom?

Generally the custom on Hanukkah is to light one candle for the first night, and one additional light each night until the eighth night when the hanukkiah is aglow with all eight branches burning brightly.  This custom was the custom of the School of Hillel.  A lesser known form of the ritual – that of the House of Shammai- is to light eight lights on the first night and one fewer each night until one candle remains lit.  This year, since it is a shmita or sabbatical year in which we allow fields to lie fallow as instructed by the Torah, our community has decided that we will light our public hanukkiah according to the lesser known tradition. This mirrors the shift away from production and cultivation of land which in our times can be construed as increasing consumption of energy and natural resources.  The lights of the universe and beyond will be felt most profoundly on the culminating 8th night instead of eight lights that are humanly constructed and lit.

The sabbatical year occurs every seven years and provides the opportunity for a shift in perspective towards humility in which we can explore the non-dominant approach.   Our usual way of doing things is interrupted and we take some time to retreat into stillness.  From there, new approaches to address old problems arise, a welcome opportunity in this challenging year.  We hope you will join us in staring into the night sky and that you will be blessed with discernment, and the lights of awareness and new hope.

Rabbi Shoshana Leis is co- rabbi of Har Shalom Center for Jewish Living.  Jennifer Geraci is the Vice President of Spiritual Practice at Har Shalom. Visit congregationharshalom.org for information on Hanukkah activities and more.

World leaders will be meeting in Lima, Peru, on December 1-12, for the UN Climate Change Conference (COP20/CMP10). They’ll be working to establish the fundamentals of a strong, global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – an agreement that we hope will then be finalized in Paris in 2015. These leaders need to know that we’re holding their work in our thoughts, meditations and prayers. As they start their work, join us in a vigil calling for meaningful progress toward a world safe from climate change.

Please send a representative to light a candle on behalf of your community or congregation. The candle is a symbol of hope that the negotiations in Lima will be carried out in a spirit of love, compassion, and caring.  To sign up to represent your faith community, please contact n.lorence2013@gmail.com andcatherineskopic@yahoo.com

Spread the word on facebook and announce this vigil in your newsletter and at your services.

Vigil on December 7, 2014 at 4:00 pm in Union Square

Young Urban Moshav is thrilled to have the opportunity to create a demonstration garden at the JCC of the East Bay. The garden is intended to serve the after school program’s garden curriculum and to function as a Jewish outdoor learning center for the community. The project site design will integrate best urban garden practices with Jewish cultural items such as traditional holiday foods and the fruits of Israel. The space will accommodate groups of learners and holiday activities. Young Urban Moshav’s participatory approach includes support with community engagement, from communications content and crowdsourcing to strategic connections with other Jewish green initiatives.

Artisan Katherine Gulley of Raised Bedlam Woodworks (left), Green Educator Ezra Ranz (center), JCC East Bay Berkeley After School Director Cassie Brown (right) enjoy the new beautiful redwood garden furniture that arrived in November.

Young Urban Moshav, a new Jewish food start-up, has been accepted into the Hazon CSA network and aims to develop a residentially-based Community Supported Agriculture program. The JCC East Bay garden will be an example of garden design and implementation that Young Urban Moshav is offering for other institutions and private residences as it embarks on its goal to grow a system of interconnected urban agriculture sites across the East Bay.

In developing this exciting demonstration garden, Young Urban Moshav is sourcing labor and products from within the community whenever possible. As of the end of November 2014, exciting progress has been made. The garden has received its first major contribution from Katherine Gulley at Raised Bedlam Woodworks in Berkeley. A beautiful redwood table and bench, including end planters and a garden box, are already on site! Katherine makes custom outdoor and reclaimed furniture. She herself grew up in Berkeley attending the JCC and proudly claims that she was at her after school program at the JCC when the big earthquake of ‘89 hit.

Chuck Weis (left), Jory Gessow of Gessow Landscaping (center), and Garden Educator Ezra Ranz (right) scope out the site for grading upgrades.

The garden site, an alley between the southwest corner of the JCC building and the adjacent commercial CVS building, is being graded during the month of December so that the main area in use will be flat. Approval has been obtained for a retaining wall and ramp, to be constructed by community member Jory Gessow of Gessow Landscaping. You might recognize Jory from the annual Tikkun Leyl Shavuot events as he is an avid participant of many years!

JCC After School Director Cassie Brown has been overseeing the project. Green Educator Ezra Ranz has been coordinating between the JCC and Young Urban Moshav on a volunteer basis while already growing some starts with students in small boxes on location (pictured in the featured image of this article). Facilities Supervisor Chuck Weis is managing construction details regarding the building site. Front Desk Supervisor Selena Martinez has been filling an insightful and exemplary advisory role. The garden design has been developed by Young Urban Moshav volunteer Talya Ilovitz, who now is updating the drawings to include the newest developments.

Next major steps include construction of raised garden beds and installation of drip irrigation as well as a spiral herb garden and worm bin. Material contributions are being graciously accepted, from lumber to soil, garden equipment and planters to irrigation supplies, seeds, plants and even worms! Please contact youngurbanmoshav@gmail.com if you would like to contribute to this exciting Jewish community garden.

Connections. Everything is about connections. Connections across space. Connections across time. Connections in thought and spirit. Connections between. Connections among. Just connections, nothing else. That’s what prayer is about. That is what faith is about. That is what life is about.

In this week’s parashah, Chayyei Sarah, “Isaac went forth to [lasuach] in the field toward evening.” (Gen 24:63) The rabbis teach us that lasuach has the meaning, “to pray,” and they provide a connection to Psalm 102:1, which begins, “A prayer for a poor man when he enwraps himself [lishpoch sicho] to pour out his heart before the One.” Isaac was pouring out his heart, pouring out his words, his conversation (sicho) to G!d.; he was praying.

As Isaac prayed a deep heart-felt prayer, the medieval commentator, Sforno, says that “he turned away from the public path so as not to be interrupted by wayfarers, and went into the field to pray, even though he had already prayed in Be’er lachai-ro’i. But before he prayed he was answered.”

What!? Yes, Sforno is saying that Isaac’s prayer was answered even before he spoke it. Wow! What is the basis for this ancient teaching? What does this mean? Could our prayers also be answered before we speak them?

The answers begin with a connection to the previous verse, “Isaac was on his way, coming from Be’er lachai-ro’i” (Gen. 24:62). Just prior to his wandering in the field, Isaac had been in a place whose name, according to another medieval commentator, Rashi, (Gen. 16:14), means, “a well upon which a living angel appeared.” The name by which Hagar calls G!d in the previous verse, Gen. 11:13, is El Ro’i, “the G!d of seeing,” connecting thus the name of the well also to the Divine Presence. This place through which Isaac passed is the same place where Hagar’s prayers were answered, where she experienced G!d seeing what was happening to him, and where G!d told her that she would conceive and give birth to a son, Ishmael. (Gen. 16:11)

Is there something special—magical almost—about this well? Is Be’er lachai-ro’i a place to go to when we want our prayers answered? Maybe. After all, since prayers were answered for Hagar, the rabbis reasoned that therefore prayers could be answered in the same place for Isaac, too.  And maybe for others as well?

The sages cite other evidence that Isaac’s prayer could already have been answered—evidence from other people for whom this happened. They remember the prophet Daniel, who reported on his vision: “And he said to me “Fear not, Daniel, for since the first day that you set your heart to contemplate and to fast before your God, your words were heard;” (Daniel 10:12) They cite Isaiah, “Thus G!d said to Isaiah that it will one day come to be:  ‘And it shall be, when they have not yet called, that I will respond; when they are still speaking, that I will hearken.’” (Is. 65:24) If prayers could be answered before they were spoken for Daniel and Isaiah, why not for the patriarch Isaac?

But perhaps the answer is deeper. The verses about Hagar’s prayers, Genesis 16:11-14, give us connections to Ishmael as well as to Hagar, for this is the place where the reality of his conception entered Hagar’s consciousness. In this instance, the connection to Hagar and Ishmael is through the place, Be’er lachai-ro’i. But the sages make another connection between Isaac’s prayer and Hagar and Ishmael with Gen. 21:15, when Hagar and Ishmael have been sent away by Abraham at Sarah’s behest, and in Hagar’s despair she “cast the child [Ishmael] under one of the bushes [hasichim].” The two words lasuach and sichim, have the same three-letter root. They have different etymologies, and different meanings, but because of the similarities, the rabbis find meaning, as they often did, by noting and strengthening the connection, in this case connections within the family.

Isaac’s meditation in the field has a connection to his father, too. From the Talmud (Berachot 6b), we learn that Abraham instituted the morning prayers, Shacharit, Isaac the afternoon prayers, Mincha, and Jacob the evening prayers, Ma’ariv. But the Biblical commentators (e.g. Rach, Gen. 24:63) don’t credit Isaac alone for bringing the Mincha prayer service into being; they tell us that the Mincha prayer originated with Abraham, but was brought to fruition and named through Isaac. The innovation of the afternoon prayer had to be passed from one generation to the next in order to secure for the tradition a place into the future. Connections to past generations.

Connections to the past don’t end with Hagar and Abraham. They go all the way back to Creation. Rashbam, in his commentary on “Isaac went forth to pray in the field [lasuach basadeh] toward evening” focuses on the words lasuach basadeh, and he refers us to Genesis 2:5 and the creation of every “bush/herb of the field (siach hasadeh),” for which he provides the association, “to plant trees and to see the fruits of his efforts.” The fruits of the planter’s efforts, the answers to the pray-er’s prayers—the connection to Creation offers additional evidence that our prayers, our pouring out of our hearts in time of need, are answered.

The verse Rashbam comments on comes from the second creation story and in its entirety it reads, “Now no tree of the field was yet on the earth, neither did any herb/bush of the field yet grow, because the Lord God had not brought rain upon the earth, and there was no man to work the soil.” (Gen 2:5) It is followed by, “A mist ascended from the earth and watered the entire surface of the ground.” (Gen 2:6) Two verses later, G!d “planted a garden in Eden” (Gen 2:8). Although we understand from the ancient rabbis that there is no “before” and “after” in the Torah, nevertheless, here in this narrative we find that even before rain began falling, there was mist rising to water the plants!

How often do we understand the rising mist as the answer to our prayer for falling rain? When rain has not yet been created, we must expand our minds and our hearts to be able to see that the rising mist may indeed be how our prayer is answered. A mist that rises from the ground may be the precursor to the rain that falls from the sky, or it may even have the same function.

So can our prayers be answered before we speak them? What would it mean if they were? The answer I believe,  is ultimately about allowing connections. Isaac was physically alone in that field, but in his heart and mind he was connected across time and space to Hagar, Ishmael, a special well, G!d, Earth, and Creation. And, perhaps most importantly, his heart was open to receive a message, the message that G!d was ready to send him.

When we open our hearts and allow ourselves to be connected to those in our lives—living and dead, near at hand and far away—to G!d, to the Earth, to the past, to all of this and more—then our prayers are answered. We may not always see and recognize our answers as easily as Isaac did—he lifted up his eyes and there was Rebecca coming toward him, his new love, his wife to be. But if we listen closely to our hearts and souls, if we keep them open, despite whatever obstacles get thrown our way, if we stand beside a well with a seeing or seeable angel upon it, then, we, too, can feel or see or hear an answer coming to us, too.

Many prayers of petition are built into our tradition, such as the blessings of the weekday Amidah (Shmoneh Esreh) and the prayer for healing recited during the Torah service. Many of the petitionary blessings end with a chatimah, a closing signature, sort of a summary of what the blessing is about.  However, if we look closely at these, we see that they are, in essence, statements of what G!d does. For example, the morning blessing for the body ends with “Blessed are You, Adonai, healer of all flesh and worker of miracles.” This is a statement of who and what G!d is and does, as much as, or more than, it is a request for what we hope will be.

Hope, what does this word really mean? Dictionary.com defines the verb “to hope” as “to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence,” but also as, “to believe, desire, or trust.” If we take all those closing signatures of blessings as statements of reality, they can give us faith, faith without an indirect object. Not faith IN something or someone, just faith—the sense, the knowledge, the understanding, the trust, that whatever happens, there will still be meaning, we will still be able to find meaning and well being and self-integrity. We will, on some very basic and fundamental level, be OK.

This, I believe, is what it means to have our prayers answered before we pray. Our prayers are not a request for something to happen, but a statement of our faith, and therefore they are answered even before we say them, for if not, we wouldn’t even say them.

What makes it possible for us to have this kind of faith? Lawrence Hoffman in his book The Art of Public Prayer, discusses patterns. The anthropologist Gregory Bateson spoke of “the pattern which connects” and described the patterns upon patterns that are present in the living world, their increasing complexity, and how they all connect. Lawrence Hoffman refers to Bateson’s description of the levels of patterns  He asks us to think of connections between patterns in the universe and, as we compare more and more sets of patterns, how quickly they become so complex that they are beyond the capacity of the human mind to fathom. He suggests that these infinite levels of patterns are not only evidence of order in the universe, but are also a way of seeing a Divine Presence in the universe.

Faith is about connecting all the patterns, and trusting that those we cannot understand really exist. It is about certainty and knowing, combined with humility, something we feel in the pit of our stomach. It is about knowing our smallness in the vast sweeps of space and time that constitute the Universe—and beyond. It is about knowing our importance and the difference we can make in this world when we say YES to the still small voice we hear within us. Faith is about feeling the rightness of that choice in the deepest recesses of our soul.

Faith is about knowing—through the myriad connections between us and all that surrounds and encompasses us—that we are part of, not separate from, all of Creation, the natural world that surrounds us.

Patti Ann Rogers, in her poem “The Family Is All There Is,” begins: “Think of those old, enduring connections found in all flesh–the channeling wires and threads, vacuoles, granules, plasma and pods, purple veins, ascending boles and coral sapwood (sugar- and light-filled), those common ligaments, filaments, fibers and  canals.” She goes on to lyrically express all kinds of connections with the world around us that wouldn’t have come readily to my mind, reminding us that we are very much a part of all that is, and not separate. Faith is about opening our hearts to all these unseen connections and trusting that they—and others exist.

Faith is about embracing the Butterfly Effect, the concept in chaos theory that a small change at one place in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere. It is about believing that there is meaning in our lives and in our existence, and that we have a meaningful impact.

Faith is about the “Supposition” Pattiann Rogers writes about: “Suppose the molecular changes taking place in the mind during the act of praise resulted in an emanation rising into space….Suppose benevolent praise, coming into being by our will, had a separate existence, its purple or azure light gathering in the upper reaches, affecting the aura of morning haze over autumn fields, or causing a perturbation in the mode of an asteroid. What if praise and its emanations were catalysts to the harmonious expansion of the void? Suppose, for the prosperous welfare of the universe, there were an element of need involved.” Faith is about knowing that our own faith has a positive impact on the Universe.

We need to pray, not so that we will get what we pray for, but in order to understand that the answers—the connections—are already present, which is why the answering of our prayers is in the praying. The answers are in the connections, and they are always available for us to see, understand, and accept into our hearts and souls. All we need to do is open our eyes, as Hagar did, our hearts, as the poor man in the Psalm did, and our bodies and minds, and as Isaac did when he walked out into the field, under the open sky, surrounded by G!d’s creatures, where the connections could flow without impediment. For, as Pattiann Rogers tells us: “I’m sure there’s a god in favor of drums…. [and] the heart must be the most pervasive drum of all. Imagine hearing all together every tinny snare of every heartbeat in every jumping mouse and harvest mouse, sagebrush vole and least shrew living across the prairie; and add to that cacophony the individual staccato ticking’s inside all gnatcatchers, kingbirds, kestrels, rock doves, pine warblers crossing, criss-crossing each other in the sky, the sound of their beatings overlapping with the singular hammerings of the hearts of cougar, coyote, weasel, badger, pronghorn, the ponderous bass of the black bear; and on deserts, too, all the knackings, the flutterings inside wart snakes, whiptails, racers and sidewinders, earless lizards, cactus owls; plus the clamors undersea, slow booming in the breasts of beluga and bowhead, uniform rappings in a passing school of cod or bib, the thidderings of bat rays and needlefish.” Faith is in connecting to all these heartbeats, our own, and countless others across space and time.

Faith is knowing that our prayers are answered. Before we speak the words.

Rabbi Katy Z. Allen is the founder and leader of Ma’yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope inWayland, MA, and a staff chaplain at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. She is the co-convener of the Jewish Climate Action Network, a member of the Jewcology.org editorial board, a board member of Shomrei Bereishit: Rabbis and Cantors for the Earth, and the co-creator of Gathering in Grief: The Israel / Gaza Conflict.

There is a place in Shabbat tefillot where we should have “Yemima bat Avraham Avinu haKadoshah” in mind together with all who died Al Kidush HaShem. It’s the part called “Av HaRachamim” found before Ashrei of Musaf.

Karen Yemima Mosquera Barrera, 22, was buried on the Mountain of Olives in the Holy Land this week. The story of Yemima’s life is becoming known during these days preceding the anniversary of the death of our matriarch Rachel.

Sabrina Schneider stands behind Yemima’s mother Rosa Cecilia Barrera and sister at the funeral. Source: Metro Ecuador

“She was buried at midnight of Oct. 27th – on the Mount of Olives. The cemetery facing the Old City of Jerusalem – the site famous for being the place where the righteous ones will first be resurrected at the End of Days,” wrote Chaya Lester, co-founder of Shalev Center, spoken word artist, and tour guide in the Holy Land in the Jewish arts online publication Hevria.

“It is the greatest spiritual aliyah that any man or woman has ever attained in the history of Am Yisrael, granting her the privilege of being buried on the highest point of the Mount of Olives and earning her the title ‘HaKedoshah Yemima bat Avraham Avinu, H”YD,’”wrote Sabrina Schneider, women’s health and childbirth worker and relative of Yemima. “Among many other things that were said in her hesped, one Rebbe said she will be the first to rise from the dead.”

Schneider’s posek, Talmid of HaGaon Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, t”zl advises all of Am Yisrael that there is a place in Shabbat tefillot where we should have “Yemima bat Avraham Avinu haKadoshah” in mind together with all who died Al Kidush HaShem. It’s the part called “Av HaRachamim” found before Ashrei of Musaf.

Schneider has been posting updates to her facebook wall since the senseless tragedy at Ammunition Hill light rail station October 22, 2014, where the first to die was 3 month old baby Chaya Zissel Braun. A look into on Yemima’s background was published in Voices Magazine blog when she was in critical condition at Hadassah hospital October 24. Reports included information for praying, offering charity, or doing other mitzvot for her recovery.

The Foreign Ministry of Israel flew in Yemima’s family from Ecuador following the attack. The Jerusalem Mayor and the Ecuadorian Ambassador to Israel were at the funeral, but no state representatives attended.

“My daughter died in God’s name. I don’t want her death to be in vain,” said Yemima’s mother Rosa Cecilia Barrera at the funeral. “Her dream was to come to Israel to start her life. I am heartbroken. No one can heal my sorrow.

“It pains me that these terrorists are so full of hate and they set out to murder innocent people… She was murdered just because she was Jewish.” In fact, Yemima was murdered on her way to study Torah.

Rachel Cries for her Children

Mothers of the then-kidnapped boys Rachel Frenkel, Bat Galim Shaer and Iris Yifrach appeal to the United Nations. Source: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs Website

Earlier this year, we heard from the mother of a kidnapped boy, when she spoke at the United Nations in defiance of a request from the government of Israel appealing for the safe return of her son and the two other abducted boys. Rachel Frankel, director at the Jewish women’s studies institute Advanced Halakha Program at Matan and Jewish law instructor at Nishmat, continued on as a spokesperson for the missing and then murdered children.

Rachel Frankel said kaddish at the funeral for her 16 year old son Naftali Frankel on July 1, 2014. It was the first time most Israelis and Jews on the planet saw and said “Amen” on a blessing spoken by a woman. “Rachelle Fraenkel became a public leader, a national heroine and, just as important, a religious heroine as well, over the 18 days that her son and his friends were missing,” wrote Haaretz reporter Yair Ettinger.

Rosa Cecilia Barrera and Rachel Frankel are two of many mothers grieving the loss of their children to violence, terror and war. May these mothers and all the mourners be comforted.

Our great matriarch Rachel Imeinu cries, in the Jewish bible, the book of Jeremiah, grieving the exile of her children. And the Creator annuls a decree against the Jewish people in her merit, promising that they will return home.

Avi (C) and Rachel (R) Frankel and their son (L), recite Kadish close to the body of their son Naftali Frankel, 16, (unseen) during his funeral service in the Jewish settlement of Nof Ayalon, in the Israeli West Bank, on July 1, 2014.(AFP PHOTO/DAVID BUIMOVITCH)

Heart and Prayer of the Jewish Matriarchs

As we read in the book of Samuel during Rosh Hashana, Hashem “remembered” Chanah and blessed her with a child after her heartful pleas. The way that Chanah prophetically prayed at the holy site became the basis for how Jewish people pray the Amidah – sober and standing, with their lips forming their words from the heart.

We have a story about Yemima praying Shemona Esrai, and it serves as another model for devotion. Yemima prayed the Amidah so devoutly that she did not notice that a 7.1 Richter earthquake hit, describes Varda Epstein in her blog post after attending Yemima’s funeral. This experience as well as a dream that her mother had, propelled Yemima to go to Israel from Equador, her country of origin. “She would bring her mother and her sister over to Israel and help them follow in her footsteps,” Epstein wrote.

In a report in Israel HaYom, Yemima’s teacher compared her to another great biblical woman, Ruth. “She was like Ruth the Moabite, who came here and sought to be part of the Jewish people… She really loved Israel, and was connected to it in an exceptional way.”

Yemima converted to Judaism 5 months ago. Like so many people across the Americas today whose ancestors were forced to convert to Christianity or die, many descendants of Converso Jews have retained some rituals, and Yemima’s mother had inherited the customs of lighting candles Friday nights, and covering mirrors in the home after the death of a family member. Yemima is not alone in her passion to return to her Jewish spiritual roots, a phenomenon among Conversos from the American Southwest and southward. In Jewish tradition, converts are highly regarded for making the incredibly heroic life transformation.

A week after her burial, next Monday night November 3, 2014 is on the Hebrew calendar 11 Cheshvan 5775 the yarzeit of Rachel Imeinu, also referred to as Jewish Mother’s Day. Customarily, Jews around the world honor the anniversary of the Matriarch Rachel’s passing collectively and individually.

The Grace of Rachel Imeinu

“Take me to Israel! That’s my country! That’s where I’m going to marry and have children, and that’s where I’m going to die and be buried,” Yemima’s mother heard her exclaim one night while she stayed up late studying Torah at home in Ecuador, according to Sara Yoheved Rigler who wrote about Yemima’s tragic death on Aish HaTorah’s website. Yemima worked hard and travelled far to reach her spiritual status and eventually the sacred site on the Mountain of Olives where she was buried.

“My dream is to be buried on the Mount of Olives, because when Moshiach [the Messiah] comes, I will be the first to rise up and be in the Holy Temple. Can you imagine that?” were Yemima’s words, her friend Yael Barros recounted of their walks outside the Old City walls.

Various blogs quoted NRG news’ report that Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat at the funeral described Yemima as, “a delicate soul and guardian of peace who fought to be a Jew.”

“A modest, perfectly righteous convert sacrificed her life for her people, in the Holy City,” writes Varda Epstein of Yemima. Yemima and Rachel Imeinu both exemplify the grace of a Jewish woman, and they both died tragically young.

“At her funeral, one Rebbe said that Yemima is the modern-day prototype for TODAY’s righteous woman… Just by learning about her life, we as women elevate ourselves spiritually,” Sabrina Schneider posted to her facebook wall.

“She was known especially for her tzniut (on ALL levels not just clothing),” in other posts, Schneider described Yemima’s outstanding character. “She was fearless, patient, strong, silent, wise, gentle, compassionate and respectful of others… not to mention, smart.”

Wendy Kenin (left) and Chaya Kaplan Lester (right) visiting Rachel’s Tomb, Summer 2011. Kever Rachel is the 3rd holiest site to the Jewish People.

Yemima travelled far to reach her exalted resting place on the Mountain of Olives, just as Rachel Imeinu travelled far before she was planted in Bet Lechem – the third holiest site to the Jewish people. Yemima worked hard to attain her Jewish life, as Mama Rachel struggled spiritually for years before Hashem blessed her with children.

Yemima succumbed to injuries on the second day of the Jewish month Cheshvan. A week after her burial, next Monday night November 3, 2014 is on the Hebrew calendar 11 Cheshvan 5775 the yarzeit of Rachel Imeinu, also referred to as Jewish Mother’s Day. Customarily, Jews around the world honor the anniversary of the Matriarch Rachel’s passing collectively and individually. Thousands visit Rachel’s Tomb, and more gather around the world to learn Torah in her merit. Saying blessings, giving charity, and doing mitzvot are some of the customs that can be performed individually.

“It is to this beauty of Jewish nature and character that we return during the month of Cheshvan by reconnecting with our matriarch Rachel, with our own Jewish nature, and with ourselves,” writes Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh on the Chabad website, who says that Rachel is described as the most beautiful woman in the Torah. In contrast, he makes reference to terrorism in relation to Jewish nature. “True Jewish beauty and grace destroy the enemy indirectly by leaving him void of any beauty or grace himself, making him irrelevant and powerless.”

Yemima’s life demonstrates the spiritual growth and pure aspirations that can be achieved by each person, and should serve to inspire and increase the prayers, devotion, and grace of the Jewish people as we cry and pray for peace. May the memory of the holy be a blessing.

Sabrina Shneider articulates about Yemima’s passing:

Am Yisrael has gained a great soul in shamayim along with our great patriarchs and matriarchs. A tremendous warrior for peace. She is a tzadika amitit, more alive now than ever. B’zchut her mesirut nefesh to give her life al kiddush HaShem all of Am Yisrael along with the entire world should merit to see a geula shleima karov v’yameinu!

We lived with the wild animals once, rather than carving out separate spaces for us and our domesticated fellow travelers. According to the Torah, that is the real truth, and all the owning and property and buying and selling is an illusion. We can return to that truth during Shmita, when we get to root ourselves in a real way in the land – not by owning it by being with it. Not by fencing it but by taking down fences. Not by hoarding but by sharing everything, with all the creatures.

Here are the relevant verses about eating:

In the garden of Eden, “God said: Here, I have given to you all every plant seeding seed which is on the face of all the land and every tree which has in it tree-fruit seeding seed, for you all it will be for eating, and for every wild animal of the land and for every bird of the skies and for every crawler on the land in which there is a living soul (nefesh chayah), every green plant for eating. And it was so.” (Genesis 1:29–30)

In the story of the flood, “God said to Noah: …from all life from all flesh, two from all you will bring unto the ark to keep them alive with you, male and female they will be. From the bird by their species and from the animal by her species from every land crawler by their species, two from all you will bring unto you to make them live. And you, take for you from all the food which is eaten, and gather unto you, and it will be for you and for them for eating.” (Genesis 6:19–21)

And in the laws of the Shmita or Sabbatical year, it says, “YHVH/Adonai spoke unto Moshe in Mt. Sinai, saying: You all will come into the land which I am giving to you, and the land will rest, a Shabbat for YHVH/Adonai…And the shabbat-growth of the land will be for you all for eating: for you and for your male servant and for your female servant and for your hired worker and for your settler living-as-a-stranger with you; and for your animal and for the wild animal which is in your land, all of her produce will be to eat.” (Leviticus 25:6–7)

There is a debate among the the earlier rabbis, about whether the tree fruit in Eden was just for the human beings and the grass for the animals, or whether it was all for all of them. Nachmanides says that humans dined separately, but Rashi says that it truly was one family sharing one food supply. As for the ark, according to the midrash Noah had to create one great store of every kind of food, because each animal needed its own sustenance, and Noah and his family had to spend every hour of the day feeding the animals, since some ate at dawn and some during the day, some at dusk and some at night.

After the flood, in between the ark and Shmita, comes the tragedy of human history. The wars and usurpations, enslavements and empires, the amassing of gold and land by some and the impoverishment of others. And in between the two are also the tragedies of our relationship to the wild animals: not just using but abusing, extinguishing whole species, and losing touch with our own wild selves.

That’s reflected in the flood story: when Noah and family emerge from the ark, they are told that “a terror of you and a dread of you will be over every wild animal of the land and every bird of the skies, everything which crawls the ground and all the fish of the sea, into your hands they are given. All that crawls which lives, for you it will be for eating – like green plants I have given all to you all. Just don’t eat flesh with its soul, its blood.” (Genesis 9:2–3)

This is no blessing but a curse. And it is no dominion: according to one interpretation, the meaning of dominion in Eden was that when Adam would call to the animals, they would come to him. Now it would be the opposite – they will run away in terror. (“Rashi” on B’reishit Rabbah 34:12)

One question for us today, in this year of Shmita, is: how can we get ourselves back to the garden? Back before our fellowship with the animals was lost? That can’t mean turn the hands of the clock back on history. Shmita answers a slightly different question: how do we get back to the garden as grownups, after having eaten from the tree of knowing good and evil? It’s not about feigned or renewed innocence, but rather about knowing our power to destroy, and not exercising that power. It’s about finding fellowship with the land and the other animals. And above all, it is about finding rest – rest from ourselves, and rest with each other, with all the other ones that inhabit the land.

A midrash says that during the twelve months in the ark, Noah “did not taste the taste of sleep, not in the day and not in the night, for he was busy feeding the souls that were with him.” (Tanchuma Kadum Noach 2) Another midrash, says that when God was setting up the world, the earth heard God say, “It’s not good, the human being alone” and she realized this meant that human beings would begin to reproduce. Then the earth “trembled and quaked”, saying, “I do not have in me the strength to feed the flocks of humanity.” God promised the earth to feed humanity at night with sleep, and so share the burden with her. (Pirkei d’Rabi Eliezer ch. 12)

In our society, where almost everyone is racing to keep their jobs or make money or outcompete, we don’t really let ourselves sleep. As a society we never rest. We don’t get enough of this divine food. And it’s not because like Noah we are feeding all the creatures. But here’s what this midrash teaches us: a humanity that never rests is a humanity cut off from the unconscious, cut off from its divine sustenance, and it is a humanity that will destroy the earth.

It is time for us to rest, and to dream, as a whole society: Shmita.

It says in Proverbs 11:30, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and one who acquires souls is wise.” These souls are the animals, the midrash teaches, and it was because Noah was capable of caring for them that he was worthy of being saved from the flood. (B’reishit Rabbah 30:6) Are we worthy?

It also says in Proverbs 12:10, “A righteous person knows the soul of his animal.” It is time to practice this righteousness. Not just with the other animals, but also with ourselves. How will we know the soul of this animal within us? How will we make peace within, with each other, and with the land? How will we dream our animal dreams again? That is the door Shmita opens for us. That is the ark Shmita builds for us. And I believe that is how we get back to the tree of life in the garden.

Just before Yom Kippur, I posted Al Chet – Confessional for the Earth. So many are the deeds, misdeeds, and non-deeds in relation to the Earth for which we must confess, and then, hopefully, do teshuvah. With this post I begin a series of suggestions for how to implement changes that can help to make our confessional meaningful beyond its words, into actions.

I begin with a response to this phrase:

For the sin we have committed against You by believing we are doing enough.

Do you believe you are doing enough? I think many of us feel we are not. Maybe we even have in our heads ideas of what we should be doing, but we have a hard time getting motivated. Maybe we are scared, or just stuck, or overwhelmed by the many options running through our heads or coming at us in email blasts and other social media.

How do we find our own path? For it is our own path we must follow – the on-going process teshuvah is a very individual one, and that is what we are talking about – re-turning to G!d in a way that really alters our actions.

So I offer for you a meditation to help you solidify your understanding of your way forward to a more complete relationship with the Holy One of Blessing and the Earth.

Meditation for a Stronger and More Active Earth Connection

• Step outside.
• Make yourself comfortable in a comfortable place. Give yourself a few minutes to settle in.
• Relax your breathing. Breathe in deeply. Breath out, slowly exhaling. Repeat, using the breathy word Yah - G!d – the Breath of Life.
• Now feel the Earth beneath your feet. Focus on the connection between your feet and the ground beneath. Feel your connection to Earth flowing up from below. Then feel the Earth’s connection to you flowing downward from yourself.
• Return to a few breaths of Yah.
• Look upward at the sky. Feel your connection to the heavens – the Sun, the stars, the Moon. Focus on that connection. Allow the energy of your connection to the heavens to flow down from above. Then feel the sky’s connection to you flowing upward from yourself.
• Breathe deeply.
• Close your eyes. Visualize your connection to beloved places, to important people in your life, to other living things. Allow their connection to you to flow inward to your heart. Allow your connection to them to flow outward in return.
• Breathe deeply.
• Use your own language and images. Feel a sense of gratitude. Ask G!d for strength and direction.
• Hold the silence. Hold the stillness. Hold the strength. Let the answers come.
• Breathe deeply.
• When you are ready, open your eyes.
• Feel yourself blessed and energized.
• When you are ready, move onward to what is next.

You may wish to repeat this, to modify and make it your own. Perhaps you want to add words – or a word – of prayer. Play with it until you feel a new sense of resolve and strength and courage to move forward.

Remember that the Confession for the Earth ends with these words:”we are the ones we have been waiting for.”

You can do it. I can do it. Together, we can do it.

And we will.

Rabbi Katy Z. Allen is the founder and leader of Ma’yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope in Wayland, MA, and a staff chaplain at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. She is the co-convener of the Jewish Climate Action Network, a member of the Jewcology.org editorial board, a board member of Shomrei Bereishit: Rabbis and Cantors for the Earth, and the co-creator of Gathering in Grief: The Israel / Gaza Conflict.

Cranberry Shabbat 

Saturday, October 25,  Raindate, November 1

Wachusett Reservoir, Boylston

Join us for our annual Cranberry Shabbat. We will intermix songs and prayers with wild cranberry picking, and share a picnic lunch at the end. Please bring something to share and your own drinks and utensils. (Warm soup sounds good for a picnic in October!) Also bring containers for the cranberries. Most of our pickings will be given to a homeless shelter for their Thanksgiving dinner. There may be muddy spots, so be prepared footwear-wise, and it could be windy and chilly along the water. Please RSVP to Ma’yan Tikvah for details.

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 intact – they can’t be dried out, because they hold the water of last year’s rain. Together, they make a kind of map of last year’s rainfall, and together, we use them to pray for next year’s rains.” I hope everyone enjoys the wonderful array of activities and ideas we are generating. We are a strong and beautiful network. Please add more to this list if you like: write to rebduvid86@gmail.com and I’ll update this page. I will also be updating the format and fixing the fonts — I don’t have time Erev Yom Kippur to do more than simply share this content. Thank you to everyone who shared, and g’mar chatimah tovah! Rabbi David Seidenberg, neohasid.org

Resources

from Judith Belasco, Hazon

http://hazon.org/educational-resources/holidays/sukkot/ Hazon also has an incredible array of resources on Shmita linked at: http://hazon.org/shmita-project/educational-resources/resource-library/

from the Religious Action Center

“Eco-Friendly Sukkot”  http://resources.rj.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=1369

“Table Texts about Food Justice” http://rac.org/pdf/index.cfm?id=23602

from Max Arad and Rabbi Carol Levithan, The Rabbinical Assembly

“The Sukkah as Shelter: A Source Sheet” http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/sites/default/files/public/jewish-law/holidays/sukkot/sukkah-as-shelter.pdf See also: http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/jewish-law/holidays/sukkot

 from Jeffrey Cohan, Jewish Vegetarians of North America

“Sukkot, Simchat Torah, and Vegetarianism” http://www.jewishveg.com/schwartz/hlydysu.html

from Rabbi Katy Z. Allen, Ma’yan Tikvah

Ushpizin for an Ecological Sukkot by Laurie Levy https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzF1ISt_50TyVG9lWE0zOXJpd1k/edit

from Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Shalom Center

14 articles on Sukkot at: https://theshalomcenter.org/treasury/114 including “Reb Zalman’s Prayers for the Earth on Hoshana Rabbah” and “Spread over all of us a Sukkah of shalom, salaam, paz, peace!”   from Rabbi David Seidenberg, neohasid.org “How-to Build a Sukkah For Under $40” http://www.neohasid.org/sukkot/a_simple_sukkah/ more links at: http://neohasid.org/zman/sukkot/ including “Eco-Torah for Sukkot”, “Hoshanot, the Original Jewish Earth Prayers”, and “Egalitarian Ushpizin with a Prayer for the Earth”

 from Canfei Nesharim via Rabbi Yonatan Neril

resources can be found at http://canfeinesharim.org/sukkot/ and on Jewcology http://jewcology.org/resources/sukkot-shemini-atzeret-resource-and-program-bank/

 also from Rabbi Yonatan Neril, for Jewish Ecoseminars

http://www.jewishecoseminars.com/let-the-land-rest-lessons-from-shemita-the-sabbatical-year/

 from Nati Passow, Jewish Farm School

Two resource sheets for Shmita to be posted on Jewcology – look for them on Monday before Sukkot

 from Anna Hanau, Grow and Behold Foods

Recipes (meat): http://growandbeholdblog.wordpress.com/tag/sukkot/

Events

We have three big regional festival events going on, Sukkahfest, Sukkot on the Farm, and Sukkahpalooza, and lots more local events:

 from Judith Belasco, Hazon/Isabella Freedman

Oct 8-Oct 12, Sukkahfest at Isabella Freedman Retreat Center http://hazon.org/calendar/sukkahfest-2014/

 from Pearlstone

Oct 8-Oct 12, Sukkahpalooza http://pearlstonecenter.org/signature-programs/sukkot/

 from Sarai Shapiro, Wilderness Torah

Oct 9-Oct 12, Sukkot on the Farm, Green Oak Creeks Farm, Pescadero CA http://www.wildernesstorah.org/programs/festivals/sukkot/   local events and projects:

from Hazzan Paul A. Buch, Temple Beth Israel, Pomona CA

Our synagogue will break ground during Sukkot on a 1/2 acre urban farm on our property, in cooperation with a local NGO. The farm will be fully managed by the NGO at no cost to us, and all workers are paid a living wage. The produce grown will be available for purchase to our congregation and sold at farmers markets in the area. A portion will be dedicated to those who are food insecure. Question for everyone: Do you know of any other synagogues who have dedicated their land in a similar way?  Please note this is not an urban garden, but a functioning not-for-profit commercial project.

from Becky O’Brien, Boulder Hazon

Oct 6, at 5:30 pm, family sukkot program, in partnership with the south Denver JCC Oct 12, at 4:00 and 7:00 pm, screenings of “Road to Eden”, co-sponsored with the Boulder JCC Oct 16, Sukkot Mishpacha, a program for young families at a local organic farm Rabbi Julian Sinclair stopped in Denver/Boulder on his recent book tour promoting Shabbat Ha’aretz; we hosted five programs with him earlier this month. We are leading a shmita hike for local staff of Jewish organizations to help them decompress from the hectic time of the high holidays. We expect that many shmita-related programs will arise throughout the year but we don’t yet know what they will be.

from Helen Bennet, Moishe Kavod House

Fri Oct 10, Shabbat in the sukkah Tues Oct 14, Sukkot Festival dinner, co-hosted with Ganei Beantown (Leora Mallach). Moishe Kavod is planning to run a series of learning and DIY sessions on shmita starting in November, with focuses on economic justice, food and ag system, and chesed/caring community principles.

 from Gail Wechsler, St. Louis Jewish Environmental Initiative (JEI)

Sun Oct 12, 4-6 PM, screening of the film “Fire Lines”, about joint Israeli and Palestinian fire fighting efforts during the Carmel fire of December 2010. The film includes environmental themes as part of the reason for the fire was overforestation of the affected area. The director, Avi Goldstein, will speak after the film.  In partnership with the Jewish Community Relations Council, Webster University and the JCC.

followed by:

Sun Oct 12, 6-7:30 PM, organic potluck Sukkot dinner. In partnership with the JCC and its Garden of Eden, a community garden that grows organic fruits and vegetables to benefit the clients of the nearby Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry. Both events at the Jewish Community Center Staenberg Arts & Education Building.

from Michael Rosenzweig, Boulder JCC

We have a great event each year called Sukkot Mishpacha, where we partner with a local farm so the children and families can learn about environmental issues, do fun arts and crafts projects, and pick their own gourds. http://www.boulderjcc.org/events/2249/2014/10/14/boulder-jcc-events-calendar/sukkot-mishpacha/ Note: I have not included narrative detail in general here, but I found Rhonda Ginsberg’s description so delightful to imagine and I just didn’t think I could condense it. So here is what she wrote to me, with some minor editing:

from Rhonda Ginsberg, teacher, Carmel Academy, Greenwich CT

For Sukkot we do a 4 year rotation focusing on different aspects of the holiday.  The first year of the cycle we invite the ushpizin and have the 7 species at a festive meal.  The second year we look at wind with kite flying as a major activity, the third at rain and water, and the last year at stars and shade. Each exploration is done both from the Judaics side with text study and from the science/experiential side. This year we are looking at water.  For the K to 3rd graders, teachers act out the story “Why Does it Rain on Sukkot”, MS. Frizzle (science teacher) comes to teach about rain & why it’s needed, then students rotate through stations that are led by 4th graders and teachers.  At the stations they investigate kosher tops for pipework sukkot, create rain sticks, have various water activities & races, sing songs & learn the dance “Mayyim”.  For the 5th to 8th graders, they start with an appropriate text study.  Then, the 6th through 8th graders become the instructors teaching the other grades about the aspect of water that they researched and created a project for.  6th graders look at the water cycle, which they present through posters, dioramas, etc.  They also perform a song and skit on the water cycle.  7th graders research water pollution – causes, effects, and possible solutions.  8th grade engineering students investigate flooding – causes, effects, how engineers have created solutions.  8th grade honors biology students investigate droughts, concentrating on trouble spots in the Western US, Israel & the Middle East, and Africa.  They also look at causes, effects, & possible solutions.  Then we have a Simchat Beit HaShoava – the biblical Water Libation ceremony which took place during Sukkot in Temple times, with students singing, dancing, juggling, filling pools with golden pitchers, etc.

This time of year always seems a hurricane of activity: coming back from vacation to reams of email, or starting school, or dealing with all the pent-up housework that went blissfully ignored during the easy summer months.

Traditionally, Jews see this time of year very differently. Like typical Americans, this period is for them both an ending and a beginning: a recognition of the waning of life and an invigorating harbinger of new possibilities. But in place of the chaotic hurricane that starts for us after Labor Day, many Jews launch a period of quiet, internal reconstruction four days earlier on the first day of Elul.

Leaving mental space and physical time for self-reflection—and doing it now, precisely because this is such a busy time of year—represents an excellent discipline that can preserve mental and physical health throughout the year.

The change of seasons also teaches about of the amazing balance in the Earth that gives us food, clean air, and all good things. We don’t need to lament the end of warm weather and the reminder that in a few months we will be buried in snow. Snow is one of the great blessings of God–not just because we enjoy winter sports, but because it forms the perfect storage medium that, when the climate works right, preserves the water coming from Heaven that is needed months later for the plants that sprang up on the third day of Creation.

We don’t have to approach Elul through the traditional obsession with the S-word (sin). We can look back at what we wanted to accomplish during the year, and measure how far we have come. We can recall what unanticipated challenges and woes came up, congratulate ourselves for making it through them, and give a thumb’s up to the greater force that might have helped. We can ask why it is (if so) we do more Jewish stuff during High Holidays than the rest of year, and consider incrementing our Jewish practice and thinking year-round. And most of all, we should take a vow to devote part of the year to the preservation of the Earth, so that our descendants can enjoy High Holidays three thousand years from now.

Andrew Oram is an editor and writer at the technology company O’Reilly Media, a member of Temple Shir Tikvah of Winchester, Massachusetts, and an activist in the Jewish Climate Action Network and other local
(This is adapted from an article originally published in the newsletter of Temple Shir Tivkvah, Winchester, Mass.)

http://pcillu101.blogspot.com

danbloom@gmail.com

bubbie.zadie@gmail.com


LOS ANGELES — With films like “Noah” and “Into the Storm” and “Snowpiercer” — and
“Interstellar” coming in the late fall — Hollywood has seen the
handwriting on the wall and embraced climate themes in full
technicolor. Call the movies ”cli fi” or disaster thrillers,
whatever. There’s more to come in the film world.

But while Hollywood and studio marketing people (and online social
media reporters covering new film releases) have welcomed ”cli fi” into
the fold, the entrenched powers in the literary world controlled by
book editors in New York and London seem to be aloof to all this and
show little interest in the rise of the cli fi genre term.

I am not sure why, but maybe it has to do with literary critics and
book section editors feeling that literature is a ”sacred calling”
and only the all-powerful editors — as ”gatekeepers” — can decide
what’s real and what’s not in the literary world. So be it.

The more I thought about the disconnect between the literary world of
the book industry compared with the open arms in Hollywood, the more I
began to realize that the print novel is basically dead — in the
rising waters of global warming — and has little power anymore to
influence people or impact society.

The New York and London book review section editors are for the most
part just a bunch of gatekeepers
and the gatekeepers don’t seem to care about climate change. They have
their own agendas. Like
being cool and trendy and avantgarde and the like. Climate change is
apparently not on the menu at the hip restaurants where they dine in
Manhattan and London.

So I now feel that the real power of cli fi to change the world, to wake
people up lies in Hollywood and world cinema, indie cinema as well.
Print book are basically dead in the water, dinosaurs. And Hollywood
and the media covering Hollywood, much more than the
literary gatekeepers in New York and London and Washington and Los
Angeles, are getting the cli fi message much better and much more
directly than the print media gatekeepers.

A sea change is happening: Hollywood and the media covering Hollywood
have really embraced cli fi and that is where the real wake-up call
power of public awareness now lies.


Novels about climate change still will have a place in our culture but
a very limited one, and one getting smaller day by day in this digital
world of 500 channels and multiple YouTube distractions. Speculative
fiction and eco-fiction novels still find readers. Look at Margaret
Atwood; look at Barbara Kingsolver; look at Kim Stanley Robinson; look
at James Vandermeer; look at David Brin.

I’ve noticed this sea change as Hollywood directors and PR mavens have
recently become much more with it, in terms of “getting” the cli fi
message. When Time magazine did a three-page cli fi spread on summer
cli fi movies in its May 19, 2014 issue what went worldwide, I began
to notice the way the print and online media were handling the new,
mushrooming cli fi genre.

After the Time article by Lily Rothman came out, the New York Times
”Room for Debate” forum picked up the Hollywood angle for cli fi
movies, assigning academics and experts to talk about films such as
“Snowpiercer” and “Into the Storm” and the upcoming “Interstellar.”

So I came to realize that Hollywood is where cli fi can have its
biggest impact, since print novels are dead in the water (see above)
and the few that do get published by the major publishers are reviewed
only by the gatekeepers at the New York Times and the Guardian in
London.

I see a big future of cli fi movies in Hollywood. Big.


Look around in the social media world: From Time to the New York
Times, from Mashable’s Andrew Freedman to the New York Post’s Page Six
gossip column, there has been more ink about Hollywood and cli fi than
anywhere else.


The Big Six book industry is blind to cli fi. Books are dying. Few
people read anymore, on a large scale. Novels have little impact
anymore. Movies reign supreme, and this is where I see cli fi blooming
now: in Hollywood. Hollywood players get it, the Hollywood media gets
it, and books are dead and movies rule the day now. Publishers Row is
dithering. London, too.

So I am following my gut instinct and my media radar and hoping to see
cli fi genre turn into a real bonanza in the realm of Hollywood film
directors and producers and writers. There is a big future for cli fi in
Hollywood.

Movie directors get it and they want to wake up the world. And make a
little spare change along the way, sure. It’s a business. So cli fi
has found its true home not on Publishers Row in Manhattan but in
Hollywood, and just in time. And this is a good
development.

Cinema has the power to impact the world over important issues of
climate change and global warming. Novels have no such power anymore.
Print is dying, cinema is alive!

Of course, speculative fiction novels and eco-fiction novels still
have a place in our culture, and many of these novels will be adapted
as screenplays and see the light of day as popular movies, so writers
still have a role to play in all this.

As a climate activist and PR guy, I take the cli fi genre very
seriously, and I now see that Hollywood is where cli fi belongs, front
and center.

Do the math: movies reach millions. Most midlist novels reach 3,000
people, if that many.

1. Tisha B'Av (the 9th day of the month of Av) commemorates the destruction of the first and second Temples in Jerusalem. Today the entire world is threatened by destruction by a variety of environmental threats, and modern intensive livestock agriculture is a major factor behind most of these environmental threats.

2. In Megilat Eichah (Lamentations), which is read on Tisha B'Av, the prophet Jeremiah warned the Jewish people of the need to change their unjust ways in order to avoid the destruction of Jerusalem. In 1992, over 1,700 of the world's most outstanding scientists signed a "World Scientists Warning to Humanity," stating that 'human beings and the natural world are on a collision course," and that "a great change in our stewardship of the earth and the life on it is required, if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated." Vegetarians join in this warning, and add that a switch toward vegetarianism is an essential part of the "great change" that is required.

3. On Tisha B'Av, Jews fast to express their sadness over the destruction of the two Temples and to awaken us to how hungry people feel. So severe are the effects of starvation that the Book of Lamentations (4:10) states that "More fortunate were the victims of the sword than the victims of famine, for they pine away stricken, lacking the fruits of the field." Yet, today over 70% of the grain grown in the United States is fed to animals destined for slaughter, as an estimated 20 million people worldwide die annually because of hunger and its effects.

4. During the period from Rosh Chodesh Av to Tisha B'Av known as the "nine days," Jews do not eat meat or fowl, except on the Sabbath day. After the destruction of the second Temple, some sages argued that Jews should no longer eat meat, as a sign of sorrow. However, it was felt that the Jewish people would not be able to obey such a decree. It was also believed then that meat was necessary for proper nutrition. Hence, a compromise was reached in terms of Jews not eating meat in the period immediately before Tisha B'Av.

5. Jewish sages connected the word "eichah" (alas! what has befallen us?) that begins Lamentations and a word that has the same root "ayekah" ("Where art thou?"), the question addressed to Adam and Eve after they had eaten the forbidden fruit. Perhaps failure to properly hear and respond to "ayekah" in terms of stating "Hineni" – here I am, ready to carry out God's commandments so that the world will be better – causes us to eventually have to say and hear "eichah."

Vegetarians are also respectfully asking "where art thou?" What are we doing re widespread world hunger, the destruction of the environment, the cruel treatment of farm animals, etc.? Perhaps failure to properly hear and respond to "ayekah" in terms of stating "Hineni" – here I am, ready to carry out God's commandments so that the world will be better – causes us to eventually have to say and hear "eichah."

6. The book of Lamentations was meant to wake up the Jewish people to the need to return to God's ways. Since vegetarianism is God's initial diet (Genesis 1:29), vegetarians are also hoping to respectfully alert Jews to the need to return to that diet.

7. Rabbi Yochanan stated "Jerusalem was destroyed because the residents limited their decisions to the letter of the law of the Torah, and did not perform actions that would have gone beyond the letter of the law" ('lifnim meshurat hadin') (Baba Metzia 30b). In the same way, perhaps, many people state that they eat meat because Jewish law does not forbid it. Vegetarians believe that in this time of factory farming, environmental threats, widespread hunger, and epidemics of chronic degenerative diseases, Jews should go beyond the strict letter of the law and move toward vegetarianism.

8. Tisha B'Av has been a time of tears and tragedy throughout Jewish history. Animal-based diets are also related to much sorrow today due to its links to hunger and environmental destruction.

9. Tisha B'Av is not only a day commemorating destruction. It is also the day when, according to Jewish tradition, the Messiah will be born, and the days of mourning will be turned into joyous festivals. According to Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook, the Messianic period will be vegetarian. He based this view on the prophecy of Isaiah, "The wolf will dwell with the lamb . . .the lion will eat straw like the ox . . . and no one shall hurt nor destroy in all of God's holy mountain" (Isaiah 11: 6-9).

10. The readings on Tisha B'Av help to sensitize us so that we will hear the cries of lament and change our ways. Vegetarians are also urging people to change their diets, to reduce the cries of lament of hungry people and of animals.

11. The first Temple was destroyed because the people committed three cardinal sins: idolatry, immorality, and bloodshed (Yoma 9b). Animal-based diets today have links to these sins; (1) we have made our stomachs an idol and will do almost anything to appease it; (2) a diet that wastes so much grain and other agricultural resources while millions of people lack adequate food can be considered immoral; (3) there is much bloodshed from the 9 billion farm animals that are slaughtered annually in the United States alone to satisfy people's appetites for meat.

12. After the destruction of the second Temple, the Talmudic sages indicated that Jews need not eat meat in order to rejoice during festivals. They stated that the drinking of wine would suffice, (Pesachim 109a)

13. More than a day of lamentation, Tisha B'Av is also a day of learning – learning essential lessons about our terrible past errors so that they will not be repeated. Vegetarians believe that if people learned the very negative realities related to the production and consumption of meat, many would change their diets so as to avoid continuing current errors.

14. After the destruction of Jerusalem, while sighing and searching frantically for food, the people proclaimed, "Look God and behold what happened to me because I used to be gluttonous!" (Lamentations 1:11). Today too, gluttony (excessive consumption of animal and other products) is leading to widespread hunger and destruction.

15. The Book of Lamentations ends with "Chadesh yamenu k'kedem – make new our days as of old." We can help this personal renewal occur by returning to the original human diet, the vegetarian diet of Gan Eden (the Garden of Eden), a diet that can help us feel renewed because of the many health benefits of plant-based diets.

16. The Book of Lamentations has many very graphic descriptions of hunger. One is: "The tongue of the suckling child cleaves to its palate for thirst. Young children beg for bread, but no one extends it to them." Today, major shortages of food in the near future are being predicted by the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington DC think tank, and others, and one major reason is that people in China, Japan, India, and other countries where affluence has been increasing are moving to animal-centered diets that require vast amounts of grain.

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Reisterstown, MD – May 5, 2014 — Pearlstone Center is holding its 4^th annual Nevatim-Sprouts Conference, Sunday, July 13^th through Wednesday July 16^th. This professional development conference brings together early childhood, day school, and religious school educators from around the country for training in Jewish garden and environmental education. Participants learn the basics of educational garden design, share lesson plans and Jewish, environmental curricula, tour the state’s premier outdoor classrooms, harvest and prepare farm to table meals, and walk away with the tools, resources, and professional network needed to develop Jewish, environmental programming at their schools.

This year, in response to past participant feedback, an additional day was added to the conference to provide more opportunities for interactive lesson-plan modeling and group brainstorm. Hands-on sessions explore how to integrate an educational garden into your institution and bring the outside into the classroom to teach about the Jewish calendar, social justice, stewardship and responsibility, among other Jewish values. Pearlstone’s skilled staff utilize the center’s 4-acre organic farm, small animal pasture and trails throughout the conference. Continuing education credits (CEUs) from the Maryland Department of Education are available to participants.

Conference partners this year include RAVSAK, Pardes Institute, The Jewish Montessori Society, United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism, Schechter Day School Network, Early Childhood Educators of Reform Judaism, PARDeS Day Schools of Reform Judaism and the Louise D. and Morton J. Macks Center for Jewish Education. “This opportunity to partner with such a diverse and impressive list of Jewish networks and institutions of Jewish education speaks to the impact this conference makes on educators and their schools. Participants arrive with challenges and questions and leave inspired and excited to ignite passion in their students for Judaism and our relationship with the land,” reported Neely Snyder, Pearlstone Center’s Director of Signature Programs and Nevatim Conference organizer.

4^th Annual Nevatim-Sprouts Conference
July 13-16, 2014
Pearlstone Center, Reisterstown, MD

For additional information, visit pearlstonecenter.org/nevatim

The Pearlstone Center ignites Jewish passion. Our retreat center, farm, and programs enable and inspire vibrant Jewish life. Engaging Jewish, faith-based, and secular organizations, individuals, and families, Pearlstone serves all ages and backgrounds throughout Baltimore, the Chesapeake region, and beyond.

Monday, June 9 – Friday, June 13, 2014 at Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center

Join us for a week dedicated to renewing our relationship with the earth, gaining garden education skills, and studying eco-Torah. The Teva Seminar is the premier annual professional development opportunity in the field of JOFEE: Jewish Outdoor, Food, and Environmental Education. Featuring leaders in the JOFEE field: Nili Simhai, Mordechai Leibling, Jakir Manela, Cara Silverberg, Brent Spodek, Arthur Waskow, plus a team of talented educators from Teva, Jewish Farm School, Eden Village, and many more.

Now in its 20th year, this multi-day, hands-on training program is designed for educators, camp counselors, community leaders, and anyone who is seeking training in the emerging JOFEE field. Participation in the Teva Seminar will enhance the work of your community ­– whether your organization is just getting started in this field, or you’ve been wanting to add goats to your camp’s nature center, take a field trip with your Hebrew school to the farm, or offer a kosher foodie series or farmer’s market at your JCC. Each workshop is accessible to people with all levels of experience in gardening,wilderness skills, culinary arts, and/or experiential Jewish education.

• Learn to infuse Camp, Hebrew school, synagogue, or JCC programming with JOFEE-based activities
• Build new skills in Jewish environmental education
• Get trained to lead hikes and outdoor games within a Jewish context
• Take home resources to use in your community

Use code WELOVEU50 for $50 off. Generous scholarships available.

Presented by Hazon, Adamah and the Jewish Farm School, in partnership with: 7Seeds, Baltimore Jewish Environmental Network, Canfei Nesharim, COEJL, Eden Village Camp, Ganei Beantown, Green Zionist Alliance, Jewcology, Jewish Farm School, Jewish Greening Fellowship, Moishe House International, Neo Hasid, Pearlstone Center, RAC, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Shalom Center, Shoresh, Urban Adamah, Wildnerness Torah, Yiddish Farm

The Rav was regarded as a seminal figure in the modern Orthodox community. Over a nearly 50-year career, he ordained almost 2,000 Orthodox rabbis, and served as a mentor, guide, and role model for tens of thousands of Jews.

Given the Rav’s great respect and influence among so many in the modern Orthodox community, his strong support for vegetarianism is very significant.

That strong support is indicated in his statement, “There is a distinct reluctance, almost an unwillingness, on the part of the Torah to grant man the privilege to consume meat. Man as an animal-eater is looked on askance by the Torah. There are definitive vegetarian tendencies in the Bible.”

Based on Genesis 1:29, God’s initial strictly vegan dietary regimen, the Rav indicated that people were initially to eat plant foods. But, he pointed out, people overreached and “acquired new drives and began to display new demands,” so “God … gave in and compromised with man,” and permitted the eating of meat. Thus, according to the Rav, “Man-animal became life-killer, an animal-eater. He became bloodthirsty and flesh-hungry,” and “a concession was made [by God] to an evil drive [in people].”

The Rav points out that, consistent with the concession God made to allow people to eat meat, the Torah displays a dislike for meat eaters, and associates the strong desire for meat with ta’avah, lust and “illicit demand.” He stresses that when the Israelites cried out for meat in the desert, God reluctantly supplied quail, but while the people were about to chew on the flesh between their teeth, a great plague broke out and many people died at a place named Kivrot ha-Ta’avah, “the Graves of Lust.” When the Israelites were in the desert after the exodus from Egypt, meat could only be eaten if it was part of a sacrificial service. Later, when their borders were expanded, permission to eat meat was expanded, but the meat was called basar ta’avah, the “meat of lust.” According to the Rav, “while the Torah tolerates [meat-eating], it is far from fully approving it.’

In summary, according to the Rav, vegetarianism is the ideal, and to be most consistent with Judaism, Jews should be vegetarians. However, he acknowledged that, because of their lust for flesh, most took advantage of the Torah’s reluctant permission to eat meat.

Unfortunately, most Jews are unaware of the Rav’s teachings on vegetarianism, and relatively few Jews are vegetarians. It is the purpose of this article to increase that awareness with the hope that many more Jews will apply the Rav’s teachings and become vegetarians.

Why is this important? Several reasons:

• Jews would be adopting the diet most consistent with basic Jewish teachings on preserving human health, treating animals with compassion, protecting the environment, conserving natural resources, and helping hungry people.
• Jews would be showing the relevance of Judaism’s eternal teachings by applying them to our diets.
• Jews would be healthier, because animal-based diets have been linked to heart disease, several types of cancer, and other killer diseases.
• Jews would be contributing toward a healthier planet, since animal-based agriculture is a major contributor to climate change, soil erosion, rapid species extinction, deforestation, water pollution, and many other environmental threats.
• It would, according to some Jewish sages, hasten the coming of the Messiah when, according to Isaiah (11:6-9), “the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, …, the lion will eat straw like the ox, … and no one shall hurt nor destroy in all of God’s holy mountain.”

The Rav was one of the most influential Jews in modern history. If his influence expanded to convincing many Jews to become vegetarians, it would arguably be his greatest contribution, because it would result in a healthier, more compassionate, just, peaceful, and environmentally sustainable world.

Despite his strong support of vegetarianism and other factors mentioned above, the Rav was reportedly not a vegetarian. It is puzzling why he would act contrary to his own teachings, so it is hoped that this article will result in Jews who worked with and studied with the Rav coming forward to throw some light on this apparent mystery. The fact that the Rav’s vegetarian views were not published until 2005 (in the book, “The Emergence of Ethical Man,” edited by Michael S. Berger (Ktav), from which the quoted statements above were taken) may be a factor.

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[Please note that this is a work in progress as I am seeking additional information about the Rav's vegetarian views and practices. Suggestions and new information always welcome.] ]]> https://beta.jewcology.com/2014/04/the-vegetarian-views-of-the-rav/feed/ 0 https://beta.jewcology.com/resources/tu-bishvat-tremendous-resources-on-neohasid-org/ https://beta.jewcology.com/resources/tu-bishvat-tremendous-resources-on-neohasid-org/#comments Mon, 13 Jan 2014 09:23:03 +0000 http://jewcology.org/resource/tu-bishvat-tremendous-resources-on-neohasid-org/ Location: Boulder CO, Berkeley CA and worldwide

Time: Wednesday, January 15, 2014 5:00PM

Tu Bishvat — the full moon of Shvat — the New Year for the Trees is Wednesday! It's the Kabbalistic celebration of the cosmic Tree of Life, and it's been the focal point of Jewish ecology since the 70's. There are beautiful rituals, and NeoHasid has tremendous resources you can use to celebrate, including 3 different haggadot, source sheets, and the original Tu Bishvat blessing. Go to: http://neohasid.org/resources/tu_bishvat/

Tu Bishvat is the time we pray for the fruit trees to have enough water, sunshine, and love to be able to produce for all of us (all the creatures, not just humans). And it's a time when we reflect on fixing the "sin of the human eating the fruit of the tree of knowing" — which essentially means reflecting on how much and how greedily we take, and how we might change that.

You can get all the resources you need to make a seder/ritual meal (except the fruit) on neohasid.org. You can also get a simple 1-page haggadah/guide on neohasid.org. Here's a list of ingredients for an easy seder: 3 kinds of nuts (like walnut, almond, coconut), 3 kinds of fruit with pits (like olives, dates, avocado), 3 kinds of fruit with edible skin (like apple, grapes, peach, orange, carob), two bottles of white grape juice and one of red. The guide online will tell you how to do it. There's a list below of all the other Tu Bishvat resources you'll find.

And here's a bit of Tu Bishvat Torah, paraphrased from Pirkei d'Rabi Eliezer ch.12. It's from my book on ecology and Kabbalah — which is almost almost completed.

******************

>When God created the first human being, Adam Harishon, and stood the creature up, it was magnificent like one of the ministering angels. God said: "If I let this one be the unique and only human in the world, then all the other creatures will see it and say, 'this one created us'. Therefore, 'it is not good for the adam to be alone'. (Gen 2:8) So God split the human into male and female.

>When the Earth heard that there would be human beings would multiply, she trembled and quaked. The Earth said: "I do not have in me the strength to feed the flocks of humanity." God said: "I will feed humanity at night with sleep, and so share the burden with you."

According to this midrash, humanity must bet fed by our sleep, by our resting, by our dreaming, by being connected to the realm of the unconscious, to the realm of the soul. If we are not fed in this way, we can (will?) overwhelm and destroy the Earth.

What about the way we live now makes it hard to connect to the unconscious? How can we strengthen our connection to it?

*******************

If you're in the Boulder CO area next week, I'll be leading a community-wide seder at Nevei Kodesh. And if you're in the Pioneer Valley of MA next Shabbat (Jan 17-18), I'll be leading Tu Bishvat learning at the Jewish Community of Amherst. And of you're in the Bay area, you can fond out about EcoJews of the Bay's seder at: https://www.facebook.com/events/601539973233485/

********************

Tu Bish'vat on neohasid.org:

Find ideas about leading the seder, commentary on the JNF, the prayer for the trees from the original seder, texts to learn and teach at your seder, and more.

"The works" for Tu Bishvat

Haggadot, brakhot, text study sheets, in one zip file. Direct download — 1 MB.

A simple Tu Bishvat Haggadah

An all-English simple haggadah for Tu Bishvat with intro.

A basic version of the well-known flowchart Haggadah

An haggadah all in English with a smidgeon of Kabbalah, accessible for beginners to Kabbalah or to Jewish practices.

One-page flowchart Haggadah plus more links

A flowchart haggadah on a single sheet, in three versions including. Plus some quick links to other resources.

The Ultimate Text Crunching Sheet for Tu Bish'vat

Study, for many days or for one seder, some of the great Jewish and Kabbalistic texts on fruit, trees and the earth.

Shirat ha'asavim ~ The Song of the Grasses

A rough recording of the well-known Naomi Shemer tune, in time for Tu Bish'vat.

How to make a Kabbalstic Tu Bishvat Seder

Instructions on how to run a seder, how to use the blessing from the first Tu Bishvat seder, and how to use the One-page Haggadah chart.

A Prayer for the Earth – Hebrew and English

Y'kum Purkan Lish'maya: A prayer for the earth, for use in your synagogue, minyan, or havurah; for Earth Day, Rainbow Day, Shabbat Noach, Shabbat Behar/Bechukotai, everyday.

Blessing from the first published Tu Bish'vat Seder

From the 16/17th century seder manual, P'ri Eitz Hadar, based on the Kabbalah of the four worlds. The original seder calls on us to bring blessing to all creation.

The Giving Tree: A Way to Honor Our Vision for Israel

Planting a tree for the future sounds like second nature, a wise investment for both Israel and the planet. But whether you think about doing this at Tu Bish'vat or during the Omer when it's really planting time, it's a little more complicated than donating to JNF…

Birkat Ha-ilanot

Once a year there is Jewish custom is to say a special blessing on flowering fruit trees. It happens in spring, especially during the Omer, but it's also a good teaching for Tu Bish'vat. You'll also find some other good tree texts here.

Longer meditations on Pri Etz Hadar

Imagine a Jewish practice which has the purpose of restoring all the species and creatures, and all the sparks they contain, to the fullness of blessing.

Tu Bish'vat wisdom

Three teachings about how holy eating brings blessing to all life and all creatures, submitted by Jacob Fine.

This statement by the recently elected Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel David Lau, along with his promise to look into the kashrus status of facilities where abuses of animals occur, has the potential to greatly change the ways that animals are raised and slaughtered, as well as the eating habits of Jews.

Chief Rabbi Lau expressed his outrage and concerns after seeing a video shown on Israeli television’s channel 10 Kolbotek program on October 29. The video had undercover footage taken by an activist for Israel’s leading animal rights group “Anonymous for Animal Rights.” It showed widespread abuses at the Soglowek slaughterhouse, one of Israel’s largest kosher chicken and turkey slaughterhouses, where about 30,000 chickens and turkeys are slaughtered daily.

The video showed chickens in filthy, feces-filled, cramped cages, left for up to 19 hours without food or water. Some chickens had their limbs or their heads stuck between the bars of their cages. Chickens were handled very roughly, yanked by their limbs, and tossed onto conveyer belts that took them to the slaughter area, actions that seriously injured many chickens.

Because of these major abuses, the Israeli organizations Anonymous for Animal Rights and Let Animals Live demanded that the head of veterinary services at the Israeli Agriculture Ministry suspend permits for transportation to the slaughterhouse and close the slaughterhouse doors. They also filed a complaint to the police against Soglowek for serious violations of Israel’s Animal Welfare Law. Their complaint stated, “Chickens are falling from their cages onto the conveyor belt, sometimes from a great height – one under the other, one on top of the other, a terrifying mass of flapping wings and flying feathers.”

Chief Rabbi Lau’s outrage about the shocking video scenes is indicated by very powerful statements he made to Ynet, a major Israeli media outlet: “As a human being and as a Jew I was shocked by the footage, by the brutal behavior of those employees toward helpless animals. Such things shouldn’t happen. The Torah forbids us to act in this way and obliges us to be extra vigilant with regard to animal welfare. We cannot remain silent in the face of such things.” He indicated that the severe mistreatment of the chickens made their kosher status questionable. “We will act firmly and sternly against this factory . . . there are also serious problems of Kashrut here. The brutal use of sticks must have caused the birds internal injuries, and there’s no doubt that the dying chickens are not fit for Kosher slaughter . . . we’ll act firmly in this case. We will set up rules regarding imposing sanctions on such companies, and take steps that may even lead to the revocation of the Kashrut certificates.”

Rabbi Lau’s strong statements are very consistent with basic Jewish teachings on compassion to animals, including: (1) “God’s compassion is over all His works [including animals]” (Psalms 145:9); (2) “the righteous person considers the lives of his or her animals” (Proverbs 12:10); (3) the great Jewish heroes Moses and King David were deemed suitable to be leaders because of their compassionate care of sheep when they were shepherds; (4) farmers are not to yoke a strong and a weak animal together nor to muzzle an animal while the animal is threshing in the field; (5) the Ten Commandments indicate that animals, as well as people, are to rest on the Sabbath day; (6) and much more, summarized in the Torah mandate that Jews are to avoid causing tsa’ar ba’alei chaim (pain to animals).

These powerful teachings stand in sharp contrast to the widespread, egregious abuses of farmed animals, including ones raised for kosher slaughter, which occur daily on factory farms in the United States and Israel. Here are just a few examples: (1) Egg-laying hens are kept in cages so small that they can’t raise even one wing and part of their beaks are painfully seared off to prevent them from harming other birds by pecking from frustration in their very unnatural conditions. (2) Male chicks at egg-laying hatcheries fare even worse as they are killed almost immediately after birth, since they can’t lay eggs and have not been genetically programmed to produce much flesh. (3) Dairy cows are artificially impregnated annually on what the dairy industry casually calls “rape racks,” so that they will be able to continue ‘giving’ milk, and their babies are taken away almost immediately, often to be raised as veal under very cruel conditions.

As pointed out by no less a person than Chief Rabbi Lau, these severe contradictions between Judaism’s powerful teachings on compassion to animals and the daily brutal mistreatment of millions of animals on factory farms must soon end. Just as Jews are forbidden to eat non-kosher meat, we should also not eat meat and other animal products from animals that have been cruelly treated. Rabbinic kashrut certification should not be enough if the treatment of the animals is not considered.

Rabbi Lau later decided that the kosher status of the chickens was not affected by the abuses, perhaps partly because it would have made the ovens, pots, dishes, and silverware of many religious Jews non-kosher. But his strong initial statement of outrage should still be a wakeup call for Jews to do everything in our power to stop the violations of Jewish law related to the raising of animals. We should demand that our rabbis and kashrut supervisors no longer turn a blind eye to the mistreatments.

For many years Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA), of which I am president emeritus, has been working to increase awareness of the contradictions between Judaism’s powerful teachings on compassion to animals and the horrible ways that animals are raised on factory farms. We have been urging Jews to shift to plant-based diets, This would not only reduce abuses to animals, but also would be most consistent with Jewish teachings on preserving human health, protecting the environment, conserving natural resources, and helping hungry people.

Shifts to diets based on eating an abundance of fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes are especially important today because animal-based diets are a major contributor to climate change, which could soon spin out of control with catastrophic results, according to climate experts.

Shifts by Jews to more compassionate, plant-based diets can show the relevance of Judaism’s eternal teachings to current issues and help shift our imperiled planet onto a sustainable path.