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

My compost bins are so much more than just a place where compost happens. The area beside the three wire and wood bins is place where I often feel my father’s spirit – he was raised on a farm, and though he became a professional, gardening was in his blood, and he spent much of his spare time in his garden and his orchard.
 

Yet, it is not just the reminders of my father or the sense of his hovering spirit that gives meaning to my compost bins. They are symbolic of so much – which may be more the truer reason that I think of my father whenever I take out the compost.

We gardeners deposit plant food wastes, garden trimmings, and chopped up leaves into our compost bins. We let the rains come to add water, and from time to time we add a bit of soil. Then we let nature take its course, and before too long, all of that “waste” has turned into dark, crumbly humus that will enrich the soil of our garden. The leaves, the banana and orange peels, the corn husks – all this and so much more has been transformed from something seemingly useless, a by-product, into something good, useful, and enriching.

And when my heart is feeling heavy, and I sit quietly beside my compost bins, I, too, get transformed. The grief and sadness in my heart are lifted, and I find myself once again able to be useful, to myself and to others. I am able to forge ahead into new territory. My relationship with the Holy One of Blessing has deepened.

This, in essence, is what teshuvah is about, turning the excess materials of our hearts and souls – those feelings of sadness, anger, jealousy, and more – into a deeper and closer relationship with G!d – re-turning to G!d – and in the process finding ourselves enriched.

It has been, I believe, through my connection with my father, who passed away almost 40 years ago, that I have learned to grieve. But grief is complex, it is not a one-time endeavor, it is a mosaic, and it returns, often when we least expect it. It shows up in new ways in response to new losses, so that frequently throughout our lives, something new and different needs to be transformed.

Thus it is for all of us, and thus it is in life. And so, our tradition provides the vehicle of the month of Elul leading up to Rosh HaShanah and all the days of the High Holidays, to give us the opportunity to let our compost be transformed, let our grief, fear, and despair be released, and let our hearts open wider, in an ever deepening relationship with the Mystery That Is.

Compost happens. May our transformation also happen.

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 also the co-convener of the Jewish Climate Action Network and the co-creator of Gathering in Grief: The Israel / Gaza Conflict.

Ever since the first breath of creation, time has unfolded in cycles of seven. Six days reach their crescendo in the seventh day, Shabbat – the Sabbath, the day of rest. Six years reach their crescendo in the seventh year, Shemittah – the sabbatical, the year of renewal. Seven cycles of seven years reach their crescendo in the Jubilee year, the ultimate enactment of re-creation.

All three call forth nostalgic images of Eden, when humanity lived in abundance, peace, equity and ease.  All offer a way of partial return. But there are differences among them: Jubilee is more fantasy than experience, more vision than practice. And while it remains part of our sacred narrative, it has nonetheless fallen out of our sacred calendar.

Shabbat, on the other hand, is a constant presence. It is celebrated weekly, as time apart, 25-hours of a lived dream dimension. We enter Shabbat by leaving the work-a-day world and cross into a domain that is edenic, “a taste of the world to come.”  We are at leisure, eat well, avoid strife and pretend to create one world, diminishing the boundaries that daily divide us.

Shemittah sits between these two. Neither a fantasy nor a constant presence, it is both a vision of a new reality and a practice to be lived in here-and-now. It happens in the same time and space as all other years, only we are to live this year differently, more equitably, more fully, more intentionally than the six years before. It is a year of harmony and celebration with the earth, when the land of Israel rests from the agricultural labors imposed upon her yet when she yields sufficient goodness for us all to thrive. It is a year of commonplace manna, when food is ours for the taking, but modestly, temperately, with a deep sense of gratitude and awareness; when debts are forgiven and there is equity for all; when property boundaries are suspended and all becomes once again part of the Commons. It is, in short, a year of rebooting, recalibration and realigning our assumptions about property, land use, economic justice and social equity. Not as a dream but as a reality.

Rosh Hashanah 2014 marks the next shemittah year (the Hebrew year 5775).  Jews around the world are seeking ways to enter into the laws and spirit of this sabbatical year as they have never done before. They are extending its message beyond the boundaries of Israel to wherever they live; and extending the thrust of its ethic beyond the agricultural sector. To mark this moment, to help us begin this historic revisioning, renewal and re-imagining of the ways to live a year of shemittah, we offer this Rosh Hashanah seder. It is modeled on the Jewish tradition of new year’s simanim, symbolic food, like the traditional apples dipped in honey, that represent the blessings we hope will be ours.

The seder consists of six small cups or bowls arrayed on a decorative base plate.

This base plate represents the whole, the sweep of time, the sphere that encompasses and defines every 7-year cycle. For shemittah is not just one segregated year, as Shabbat is not one segregated day. It is the year that frames and gives shape to all the other years, both those just past, and those yet to come. Upon this foundation plate rest the six cups or bowls. Together they represent the six attributes that define the essence of the shemittah year, and a life lived in goodness, sacred striving and delight.

Slices of apples (and other perennial delicacies of your choice) are arrayed in the center of the base plate. These recall the fruits of Eden that sustained us, and the Tree of Knowledge that launched us on the irresistible human enterprise of curiosity, desire, exploration and pursuits. And it represents the perennial foods (fruits, nuts and berries) that grow on their own during the shemittah year and that we gratefully eat at a time when we do not plow, sow, reap or commercially harvest the produce of the field.

On this base plate set the following:

Cup One: Honey representing Sova – Enoughness. Sova is the feeling of fullness without being stuffed; of contentment through what was given and not wanting anything more; of maximum satisfaction with minimum consumption and disruption. This first cup is filled with honey. Pass around the cup for all to dip the apples in the honey, say:

“In this year of shemittah, may we know no hunger, either spiritual or physical. May we be as readily sated with the delights of life as this cup is filled by these drops of honey.”

Cup Two: Wine (consider fruit wine, including Passion Fruit Wine from Israel or homemade date wine)* signifying Hodayah – Gratefulness. Hodayah is the feeling of gratitude, of deep satisfaction and elusive peace with what we have received. Wine is the age-old symbol of celebration, an expression of shared gratitude. It takes years for the vineyard to grow and produce grapes and time enough for the wine to ferment. On the human side, this requires steadfastness, peace, stability, and longevity; on nature’s side cool and heat and sun and rain and rich soil all in the right amounts – surely things to be grateful for. This cup is filled to the rim with the wine. (Wine cups at everyone’s place may be filled with this too.) Hold it up and say:

“In this shemittah year, may we know peace and be strangers to disappointment and disruption. May the earth find renewal amid its rest. And may gratitude fill us all as the wine fills this cup.”

Cup Three: Figs representing Revaya – Abundance. Revaya is the awareness of the vast resources of a healthy world, the earth’s ancient capacity of growth and self-renewal, and our call to keep it going. Figs are not like most other fruit crops. The fruits on one tree do not ripen all at once but one by one, each in its own time. They offer abundance without surfeit. This cup is filled with figs (either whole or cut, fresh if available though dried figs are fine too), speckled and spangled with seeds. Pass around the cup for all to take from it and say:

“In this year of shemittah, may we recognize abundance and know no waste. May we celebrate the vast goodness that lies within even the most modest cache of life; may we reverently receive life’s abundance and, like the continuous fruiting of the fig tree, give what we can, at the time that is right.”

Cup Four: Raisins representing Hesed – Goodness, Kindness, Generosity. Hesed is a response to our gratitude for the varieties of gifts we have received in this world. Having received we are moved to give. Such is the nature of the gift. The raisins heaped in this cup signify the sweet, satisfying substance that can be given even after other extractions of goodness have been taken. They recall the leaves, the juices, the wine, the vinegar, the shade, the wood and delight that are all gifts of the grape. In response to all that we have been given, we are moved to give more. Pass around the cup for all to take from and say:

“In this shemittah year, may we know no greed. May we recognize the gifts we have received and in return realize the manifold ways of giving that lie within each of us.”

Cup Five: Pomegranate representing Poriyut -  Fertility. Poriyut is the creativity, the dynamism, the fecundity that characterizes the majesty of nature. It is what allows us to eat during this year of fallowness and renewal. It is the dormancy that bursts forth, in the right conditions, inspiring the human gifts of imagination, discovery and awe. This cup is filled with pomegranate seeds, symbols of overflowing fertility. Pass the cup around for everyone to taste and say:

“In this shemittah year, may we know no barrenness, no emptiness. May this year of material enoughness bring forth overflowing acts of discovery, delight and spiritual bounty.”

Cup Six: Dates representing Otzar – The Commons. Otzar is earth’s shared resources, owned by none and gifted to all. It is the storehouse of the ages, the fundamentals of life that we all depend upon. It is the stuff of earth and society, natural and cultural, that we share now in our lifetimes and leave behind for others. Our stories, our knowledge, our goods, our homes, our earth. This cup holds stuffed dates, signifying all that we share in the giving to and taking from the Commons. (Another option: put a few symbolic dates in the center cup but in addition, array dates – pitted and sliced – on the outer edge of a serving plate, surrounding a center mound of stuffing: chopped almonds, walnuts, pistachios or pine nuts that have been soaked in honey and wine. Let everyone fill a date with the sweet filling and give it to someone else at the table.) Everyone takes a date and says:

“In this shemittah year, may we know no isolation, no loneliness, no selfishness. May we recognize that we are joined in partnership to the earth, and to one another through our common heritage, the Torah, our past and our future that bind us to one another forever, throughout the cycles of space and time.”

Then wash it all down with a drink of l’chaim.

Note: This multi-layered seder is a tradition that can be adapted to mark every year of the shemittah cycle. On Rosh Hashanah of the shemittah year (the seventh culminating year), all the cups are filled, celebrating the completion of one shemittah cycle. The following year, the first year, only the first cup with the  honey – and the apples – appear on the plate. The second year, the first two cups; the third year, the first three, and so on til the completion of the cycle and the celebration of the next shemittah year.

Biblical shemittah texts:

Exodus 23:10-11

Leviticus 25:1-7

Leviticus 25:20-22

Deuteronomy 15:1-6

* Only wine that includes grapes qualifies for the Kiddush blessing: borei pri hagafen, who creates the fruit of the vine. “Shehakol nihiyah bed’varo” is said over

fruit wines without a grape base. If the blessing over wine (Kiddush) and bread (Hamotzi) have already been said at the beginning of the meal, no additional blessings need to be recited over the foods of the seder plate.
This seder is meant to be a template to be used and adapted as celebrants desire. Please do share any adaptations, improvements, suggestions, etc with me. Nina Beth Cardin, ncardin@comcast.net.

Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin is the co-founder of the Sova Project and the founder and director of the Baltimore Jewish Environmental Network, an organization dedicated to greening her local Jewish community; the founder and director of the Baltimore Orchard Project, an organization that grows, gleans and gives away urban fruit; and a co-founder and chair of the Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake, an interfaith organization that works on behalf of the health of the Chesapeake Bay watershed and all its inhabitants.

Using the site is pretty simple.

Click on login  — but your password from the old site won’t work, so the first time you use the new site, click on “lost password” to set a new password:

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It began in trickles, in private thoughts that I thought I could never share. It began with wondering: where do I want to be in ten years? If I continue the way I’m going, will I end up there? It began with wondering if there might be more that I could do, if I had the courage to make a move.

And for a time, those thoughts remained so secret I was embarrassed even to say them out loud.

After all, I’m a young Jewish leader. What do young Jewish leaders do? Clearly, as I’ve been taught, they start organizations and lead them.

Leaving might mean "failure." It might seem like quitting. At first, I wondered if I would ever be able to hold my head high inside a Federation building or synagogue again.

And it’s not as though my work as a Jewish innovator hasn’t been a great privilege and a gift. In the last decade I’ve had the opportunity to set the agenda for a small organization and use that platform to make a big wave of difference. Materials I’ve created or edited have reached tens of thousands of people. I’ve spoken in front of many hundreds. I’ve trained dozens of young interns. I’ve had young Jewish environmentalists see me at a conference and be awed into shyness because I’m one of their heroes. (I couldn’t believe it when it happened.) I’ve had the opportunity to interact with the leaders of my field and help shape the agenda for that field.

Most importantly, I’ve had the opportunity to raise consciousness about environmental sustainability, a topic I genuinely feel is the most critical challenge of our time, and to learn and teach a wide range of Jewish texts and commentaries about it – in an eleven year journey that has made a meaningful contribution to the Jewish community.

There is no off-ramp from that kind of work, or so it seems. Where is the Jewish program to teach young leaders when and how to exit, as if this too is a matter of leadership and innovation? Why would a person even want to step away from such an opportunity?

And yet the voice in my head started talking a bit louder. When I thought about my life, there were other things I still wanted to do, yet undone. Other identities to explore, in what could be a still-long career. I didn’t want to be here in ten years or twenty. And I feared if I didn’t stop now, I might be.

I began to wonder about the true meaning of leadership: if it might include knowing when it’s time to go.

I told my board president I was ready to conclude my term as director of Canfei Nesharim. We began the process of planning a transition. And it wasn’t long after that, miraculously, other dreams began to emerge. Thank G-d, I discovered soon after my decision that I’m pregnant and due (G-d willing!) at the end of June.

I still don’t know exactly where I will go, or who I will be next. I’ve always said that I would complete this journey with a crazy mishmash of skills and attributes, but they can be narrowed down: to project management, team leadership, writing, public speaking, website building. Jewish learning. Strong vision and clear values. My commitment to building a sustainable world. At least that’s a start on a curriculum vitae.

I'm so very grateful to the people who want to continue the work I've begun with Canfei Nesharim and Jewcology in the years to come. It's a reminder to me that I don't have to do everything by myself. Which is a good thing, because building a sustainable world is certainly going to take a village. I hope I'll get to be a meaningful part of it.

I’m proud that I started this journey, and proud that I’ve had the courage to complete it cleanly, with open eyes and without regret. And to all my friends, colleagues and partners, I wish you blessing and hope our paths with cross many more times in many years to come. I wish you success in all that you do. I wish that together, wherever we go, we will be a part of the great turning of this world toward integrity, responsibility and sustainability. I look forward to seeing you in that journey, whatever hat I’ll be wearing.

With my great devotion and appreciation,

Evonne

One of the lovely things about being on an interfaith webinar is getting to interact with a group of people with shared values and different perspectives. I felt honored to be able to participate and share about my efforts in the Jewish community, while also having the sense of coming together with a much wider group.

Joelle Novey, director of our chapter of Interfaith Power & Light, explained it well: when we all come together to make a difference, we start to feel like the kind of difference we can make may just be on a big enough scale to address today’s huge sustainability challenges.

My presentation included details about the Year of Jewish Policy Engagement on the Environment, and my process of realizing that learning and action – while important – are not enough. We have to claim our power as citizens, and use our democracy, or we will lose it to other interests who are more than willing to take it away from us.

I also shared my own experience of working as a faith-based leader in my local community, and participating in the Interfaith Power & Light campaign for offshore wind power in Maryland. That experience helped me to understand the difference that a small group of committed activists can make in state politics.

Some other highlights from the webinar:

• The session began with a reflection from Shantha Ready-Alonso from St. Camilllus Catholic Church in Silver Spring, MD. Shantha pointed out that so many of us find it uncomfortable to engage with environmental advocacy because our society has become so polarized politically that it’s rare we ever have the chance to speak respectfully and meaningfully with people who disagree with us. I have heard this often from lay leaders in faith communities.
• But Shantha pointed out a positive perspective: that our faith communities are sometimes the only place left where we can have conversations with people of differing political views, and still feel a sense of community. This ability to have dialogue is truly key to successful democracy and is one of the reasons that engaging the faith community to address environmental sustainability is so important.
• The session continued with Jose Aguto, of the Friends Committee on National Legislation. He made a compelling argument for the value of continuing to engage Congress on the topic of climate change. He said that so many organizations have given up on Congress that they don’t often even hear about addressing climate change from their constituents, getting the unfortunate message that people don’t care about this topic.
• As Jose expressed, we can’t let our resignation prevent us from meaningful democracy! It’s certain that our Congressional legislators are hearing from people who don’t want to address climate change, both with their voices and their dollars. And as the faith community we have a special voice to add, because our message is distinctive, and because legislators don’t expect to hear this concern from us.

I hope that over time, the Jewish community can become more involved in this type of meaningful advocacy work with others who share our commitments in the faith community. When we all come together, we can have a big voice!

We are blessed to live in a democracy like the United States, which gives us the power to influence our politicians by our votes. No matter how much money is poured into politics, it won’t rule the day if all citizens take their responsibility seriously, learn the issues, speak their mind and vote their conscience. Unfortunately, many of us have been cowed by confusion and perceived corruption, and distracted by entertainment and day-to-day pressures. If we give our power away, there are many who will be glad to take it from us.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to express this view on Sunday, March 9 at the closing plenary of the 6th Annual Pearlstone Beit Midrash. We had spent the weekend learning Torah on each of the days of the creation of the world, including some explorations of our own opportunities for individual action. At the closing plenary, the continuation of action on “Day 8,” we took the next step by exploring our own advocacy potential.

We began with a dvar Torah from Rabbi Fred Dobb of Adat Shalom Congregation in Bethesda. Then, we looked at what makes advocacy seem hard, such as uncertainty about how and when to get involved, disagreement on specific issues within our communities, and the need to fight against other powerful interests. We also looked at why advocacy is so important, and realized that we can make a real difference if we join together as a community – but if we don’t claim our power, others will.

Joelle Novey, from Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light (GWIPL), explained the opportunity to become an ally community as part of other, broader campaigns. She invited participants to build relationships with other environmental organizations, such as Interfaith Power and Light, that are working in their local region, so that they will hear about the most important activities where their communities can make a difference. These ally relationships have the benefit of creating trust so that we don’t have to learn every detail about every single topic, or run our own independent campaigns, but be deployed in larger campaigns where our participation can make a meaningful difference.

I shared a story of my experience working with GWIPL in my local community in Silver Spring, MD, which spoke directly to this point. Here is that story, in part:

In 2010, I decided to create a “sustainability circle,” a group of people in my local Jewish community who care about the environment. It was a kind of book club where we would talk about different environmental topics – and a kind of support group for environmentalists. We learned about local recycling rules, composting, and community supported agriculture. We heard from local members who were raising goats and chickens. We formed connections with each other and created a place in the community for these dialogues. We also formed a relationship with the local Interfaith Power and Light, led by Joelle Novey.

One day in the fall of 2011, Joelle came to me and said we had this amazing opportunity. There was an important Offshore Wind Power bill in committee in the Maryland House of Delegates and our local representative, Delegate Ben Kramer, would play an important role in the committee vote. We just needed to use our existing community networks to encourage people to support wind power. We had a presentation from someone in the Maryland Energy Administration. We made calls at the key time. I was able to speak, representing our community, at a Town Hall Meeting. And then, in 2012, we sent Del. Kramer his first ever Tu b’Shevat card, thanking him for his support of sustainable energy. The news was even covered in the Washington Post. That year, Del. Kramer changed his position to supporting the bill. The next year, the wind power bill passed, and we’re on our way to having offshore wind in MD.

What I learned from this process is the difference that can be made when I build networks in my own community, and offer them as an ally community to be deployed as part of a larger campaign.

At the end of the session, Rabbi Baruch Rock of Gesher Jewish Day School in Fairfax, VA, facilitated an exercise in which each person recognized the difference that they have made through their actions. We realized that although sometimes we think it’s difficult to have an impact, we’re actually touching people’s lives and bringing goodness into the world with so much of what we do. If we’ve been able to do that without even trying, imagine what we could accomplish if we joined together!

I’m so grateful to the coordinators of the Pearlstone Beit Midrash, who welcomed the opportunity to begin the conversation about advocacy with participants who had spent most of the weekend learning Torah. It’s a recognition that while Jewish learning and action are very important, if we are truly committed to environmental change, we also need to be willing to think bigger. I hope this is a direction into which the Jewish environmental movement can continue to grow in the coming years.

Learn more about the Basics of Advocacy for Jewish Environmentalists, and sign up for our latest webinar on March 31!

Jewcology is partnering with the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life in 2014 for a Year of Jewish Policy Engagement on the Environment. This coming year, you’ll have the opportunity to:

• Get to know your elected representatives
• Engage your community to advocate for meaningful environmental change
• Learn about key opportunities to make a difference
• Act at the critical moment

Watch the video to learn more about our partnership!

Why are COEJL and Canfei Nesharim partnering in the Year of Engagement?

COEJL brings advocacy experience, skills and connections empowering Jewish individuals and organizations to take meaningful political action on energy and the environment. Canfei Nesharim brings experience with community organizing and a broad base of Jewish environmental activists across the Jewish and political spectrum.

Together, we will organize Jewish campaigns throughout the year to help you learn about opportunities to make a difference on key environmental issues at the national and state level, to get to know your elected representatives, and to engage your community.

At the end of this Year of Engagement, participating individuals, communities and organizations will have:

• A stronger understanding of the legislative and regulatory processes
• Relationships with their elected officials and community leaders
• Engaged in environmental action campaigns with a meaningful impact
• Learned to use tools and learning materials to help their communities understand the Jewish values that teach us to protect the environment.

How can Jewish environmental advocacy make a difference?

Jews have a long history of championing support for Israel and social justice causes, including successful mobilizations on civil rights, Russian Jewry, Darfur, and other issues. For the last twenty years, the Jewish community has been learning and changing our behaviors to protect our environment. To address one of today’s most important global challenges, it is now time for the Jewish community to unite in support of sustainable policies that reflect our Jewish interests and values, to make a meaningful impact at the state and national levels and beyond.

And the religious and spiritual communities of our planet have the wisdoms and the tools to do the healing.

Judaism is especially relevant because, unlike most world religions, we preserve the teachings of an indigenous people in the biblical tradition –- the spiritual wisdom of shepherds and farmers. And yet as a world people, we can now apply the earthiness of our origins to the Whole Earth.

That does not mean simply repeating the ancient practices. For instance, the ancient code of kosher food does not take into account that we now “eat” coal and oil and crucial minerals like lithium. Is there an “eco-kosher” way of eating them, as well as caring for vegetables and fruit and kosher animals in ways traditional kashrut did not? Can we shape our ways of celebrating Sukkot and Passover and Tu B’Shvat and life-cycle ceremonies so that they embody social action as an aspect of spiritual deepening?

For The Shalom Center, this transformation in our reality calls for action in four aspects of reality:

1. Spiritually, the creation of new forms of prayer meditation, and celebration that draw us into fuller awareness of the interweaving of all life: for instance, “pronouncing” and understanding the Sacred God-Name “YHWH” as YyyyHhhhWwwwHhhh, the Interbreathing of all life – rather than Lord or King. Ruach ha'olam, rather than melech ha'olam.

2. Intellectually, the absorption of ecological science into what we teach and learn as sacred Torah, just as Maimonides integrated the best science and philosophy of his day into Torah. Ecology takes seriously both each distinctive niche of each life form and the flow that connects them. It does what Kabbalah yearns toward: reintegrating the two Trees of Eden — the Tree of Flowing Life and the Tree of Distinction-making — into One.

3. Relationally, our recognition of the varied ethical, religious, and spiritual life-paths as necessary and valuable unfoldings of the varied “organs” of human civilization and planetary life – as different from each other and as equally necessary to each other as the brain, liver, heart, and lungs in a single body. To heal our planet in the present crisis, we will need to draw on the wisdom and commitment of every human culture. So we need to move beyond interfaith dialogue into the pursuit of interrelational work among the different communities.

4. Vigorous action to confront the modern Carbon Pharaohs that are bringing plagues of drought, flood, war, and famine on the Earth and all Humanity – action that might include lobbying, voting, rallies, vigils, nonviolent civil disobedience, organizing counter-institutions like coops, organic farms, etc., and economic action to Move Our Money/Protect Our Planet (MOM/POP) – moving our money from corporate investments and banks that endanger Mother Earth to companies, banks, coops, etc. that protect and heal her.

As we move forward in all these aspects of the world, we create a Judaism that heals and transforms itself in order to heal and transform the world. We learn anew what ancient Torah teaches: – “Sh’sh’sh’shma! Hush’sh’sh’sh and Hear, all you who wrestle with the Ultimate — Hear the still small sound of almost-silent breathing: the Breath of Life is ONE

If I’m going to try to save the world, I don’t think I can be satisfied until the whole wide world is fixed. I’ve always thought that was virtuous, but now I’m realizing it might simply be a recipe for banging my head against a wall.

Here are some of the numerous environmental problems that I’ve recently confronted:

• Prenatal Exposure to Pollution Raises Risk of Autism in Kids
• Meet the Town that’s Being Swallowed by a Sinkhole
• Fukushima leak is much worse than anticipated (in which we learn that 75,000 gallons of irradiated water pouring into the Pacific EVERY DAY may be an underestimate).
• And don’t even get me started about the mercury polluting our oceans and contaminating our food.

With these issues, I’m not even talking about climate change, which I agree with other environmentalists is the greatest challenge of our time. (And it is… but are we letting all of these other challenges build up unnoticed while we struggle and fail to deal with greenhouse gasses?)

It’s enough to make me cry. Which I’ve done. Several times, while thinking about the futility of it all.

Tomorrow we celebrate the anniversary of the March on Washington, when bold activists and the engaged public stood up for something that really mattered to them – their freedom. Those people made a true difference for our nation. But even their work wasn’t permanent. It requires constant vigilance, as we learned from the Supreme Court this year.

Or as Rabbi Arthur Waskow once said to me, “Every generation needs to take out the garbage.”

If Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his entire movement couldn’t fix the world permanently, how can I possibly expect to? And if I can’t, is there a point to my efforts to try to make a difference?

Usually at this point in the conversation, someone brings up Pirkei Avot 2:21, about how it’s not our job to complete the work but we also can’t desist from it. I feel pretty sure that the rabbis in the Mishnah weren’t referring to saving the environment, but it’s a good message.

Still, it’s a struggle. How do we ever know that what we did is enough? And if we’re type A leaders, driven to results, how is a world of perfection to be pursued without burning out completely, feeling we never got there?

How can we ever feel we “got there”?

I’ve been thinking that somehow, the only answer is that the world is OK as it is. There is no “getting there,” there is only “being here.”

Hard as it is for me to imagine, hard as it is for me to confront, this is the world we have. It’s not a match for my values, but it is exactly what it is – not some other world that I imagine, but this world that we have. The fact that it doesn’t match my values gives me the golden opportunity to try to express my values, to aim to bring the world a little closer to the picture I hold dear. And that’s one of the greatest gifts of life.

As an activist, as a human being, how have you dealt with the question, how much is enough? I want to know. Please tell me what you think in the comments.

MAKE AN ELUL DONATION TO SUPPORT JEWCOLOGY NOW!

With your support, in 2014 Jewcology and COEJL will partner on a "Year of Jewish Policy Engagement on the Environment," which will provide tools to help Jewish environmental activists and local leaders become more involved in environmental action at the policy level. COEJL will provide advocacy guidance and connection with mainstream Jewish institutions. Jewcology will provide our active audience of grassroots Jewish environmental activists.

It's a match! All donations in this campaign will be matched by a grant from the ROI Community, up to $5000. Now is the perfect time to support our work!

You can follow the success of the campaign, and share this exciting opportunity with your family and friends, at http://igg.me/at/engagement

Watch this short video to learn more from the Jewcologist and COEJL-er:

On Thursday, June 14, I had the privilege of leading the Jewcology Public Narrative Training at the Teva Seminar on Jewish Environmental Education. With my amazing team of co-facilitators, we organized a full-day training which taught 12 Jewish environmental leaders to tell their leadership story. Videos from the different parts of the training – including model stories – can be found on Jewcology’s website at http://www.jewcology.com/content/view/Videos-From-the-Recent-Jewcology-Public-Narrative-Training.

For me, this was the first time I’d ever led a full-day training. I’ve led dozens of 45 minute, one hour, hour and a half sessions on Torah and the environment, on Jewcology, and a wide range of related topics.

But a full day training is a different kind of animal, and I was fully aware of it. It’s kind of like the difference between writing a short story and a novel. You think a novel is just longer, but if you try to write a novel you will discover that it’s not just the length – it’s also the level of complexity. You have to figure out not just what you want to teach but how to structure it, and when to reveal what. In a full day training, you have to think of the day-long experience of the participant.

In my preparation, I ended up with 19 pages of notes and more than 30 slides. Just creating those materials was a great thought journey for me. As they say, you never really know something until you have to teach it, and I felt myself grow in understanding of public narrative through the preparation process.

I had a personal breakthrough in the process of preparing for that training, and I’d like to describe it for you in case it is valuable for you. In general, I’m a perfectionist, and one of the things that drives my perfectionism is a fear that I might not be enough. I try to be perfect in order to prove that I’m enough. That process – trying to be perfect and trying to be enough – is stressful and exhausting. Of course, I’m never perfect no matter how hard I try – providing more evidence that I’m not enough!

A few days before the training, I was in a personal development class organized by Landmark Education, sitting with a friend and exploring what was predictable as I headed up to Teva to lead this program. What I saw was that I’d be anxious about the program beforehand, successful but nitpicky about the experience, and exhausted and burned out after leading it.

I was looking to see what was missing – what other way I could be that might be more helpful. And suddenly I saw it – it was so simple! – what was missing was just believing in myself. I had to believe that I could do it. Instead of fearing that I wasn’t enough and trying to be perfect, I had to take on that I was fully capable of doing this.

That might not be a surprise to anyone else. For weeks my coach in the process of preparing the training had been telling me I knew this material and could do it, and I didn’t need to worry. I listened, but I didn’t really believe her. But that night, seeing that I could just believe in myself, was a big realization for me! Finally, I took on that “I’ve got this” – that I’m capable and I don’t have to try to be perfect or worry that I’m not enough.

Leading the training from this place was totally different from previous experiences. Instead of worrying that I wasn’t enough, I believed in myself and I did what needed to be done. It was amazing because I didn’t feel stressed or worried. I felt relaxed and competent. Even when stressful and unexpected things happened, I was able to go on without getting upset with myself or other people. I was just there, in the moment, leading the training.

The training wasn’t perfect, of course. But, we accomplished what we set out to do. (Being perfect wasn’t the point, anyway.) So I was able to feel that it was a success even though it wasn’t perfect. This was, after all, my first time leading this sort of training. Of course there is plenty I can learn for next time… and that doesn’t take away from the accomplishment we had.

After I completed the training, I realized that everyone else had known I was capable for a long time. It was only me who had been doubting myself. I had been playing a game with myself, of believing that I wasn’t really enough and then being *amazed* that I pulled it off. No one else was amazed. They simply knew I could do it. It had gotten to the point where I was sometimes disappointed that people weren’t amazed! Really, that was the highest compliment of all: that they knew I could.

Now that I know myself as capable, there is so much more that I can take on and so much less worrying about trying to be perfect. I realized that not being enough was like a stick I used to prod myself into action – when really “believing I can” is a much better motivator! When I know I can, I will – without the suffering that comes from trying to be perfect and to be enough.

Thanks for listening – and please let me know if this story can be helpful to you in your life, too!

Genevieve tells her story of self:

Cindy shares her full leadership story:

Story of Us/Now, modeled by Ora Berman:

JR shares his story of self:

Sybil shares her Full Leadership Story:

Josh shares his Full Leadership Story:

In this week-long, service learning experience, participants will explore the relationship between Judaism, agriculture and contemporary food justice issues. This unique seminar will include farm work, text study and meetings with activists, community leaders, and business people. On the farm, you will gain hands-on experience in sustainable agriculture techniques such as planting, harvesting and soil building. In the bet midrash (study hall), you will explore a variety of Jewish texts relating to contemporary environmental and food justice issues such as food security, worker rights, and land stewardship.

When: Sunday, June 3-Sunday, June 10, 2012
Where: Sustainable farms in the Greater Boston Area and Hebrew College, Newton, MA

Who: Anyone interested in food, farming and Judaism.
How: Tuition is $1000 + transportation; generous fellowships are available.

*College credit available for interested participants*

To apply click here.
To find out more about Fellowships available contact Rabbi Or Rose, 617-559-8636
To find out more about this program contact Rabbi Jacob Fine, (877)-537-6286 x3
Application Due: May 1st, 2012

Introducing an online, college-accredited course on Judaism and the environment! The course, ‘A Jewish Perspective on Environmental Sustainability,’ relates to contemporary environmental issues from the lens of Jewish teachings. The units covered include the Garden of Eden and a stewardship paradigm; Jewish sources on agriculture and globalized food production today; and the Torah’s injunction not to waste in regards to food and energy waste in modern society.

The course is being offered by the New York-based Theological Research Institute, and has been accredited by the national PONSI accreditation agency in New York. Please contact the course instructor, Rabbi Yonatan Neril, MA at yneril@jewishecoseminars.com if you are interested or would like to receive the course syllabus. The course materials draw heavily on materials developed as part of Jewcology.

“…I felt empowered to tell my story… and I felt the intense writing sessions forced me to focus in on the most important aspects of my story. I fully intend to use what I've learned in ‘the real world’!” – Jewcology Leadership Training Participant

“It taught me to articulate my motivations, and the importance of doing so to engage others in change.” – Jewcology Leadership Training Participant

With the support of the ROI Community of Young Jewish Innovators, Jewcology hosted three leadership trainings in 2011, utilizing the Public Narrative Methodology developed by Harvard professor Marshall Ganz. The trainings took place at the Kayam Beit Midrash (March 14), the Teva Learning Center (June 2), and the Hazon Food Conference (August 21).

This training is based on the famous Hillel dictum: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? And if not now, when?” (Pirkei Avot 1:14) The training is organized around three different “stories” which one defines for oneself and the group: the story of self, the story of us, and the story of now. The three stories answer fundamental questions about oneself and the community one is engaging, based on a foundation of shared values.

• Self: Why have I been called to this work?
• Us: Who is here with me and what common experiences and values do we share?
• Now: What do we need to do together, now?

A total of 48 Jewish environmental and social justice leaders were trained in the course of the three sessions. 75% of attendees filled out evaluation surveys within 2 weeks of each training. The results of the training are as follows:

• 91.7% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that as a result of this session, they were more empowered to speak to their target engagement audiences.
• 75% agreed or strongly agreed that as a result of this session, they were more empowered to speak to people who do not share the same Jewish or environmental values.
• 88.9% agreed or strongly agreed that they planned to use this model in speaking to one or more of their primary engagement audiences.
• 88.9% agreed or strongly agreed that what they learned would enable them to be more effective in their community engagement efforts.
• 97% would recommend this session or methodology to a friend or colleague with similar commitments.

Participants indicated that they intended to use this tool with a wide range of audiences. The most mentioned were synagogue members, educators, and potential funders.

In our third training, evaluations also asked how likely people were to change their actions as a result of this training.

• 90% of respondents were more likely or much more likely to speak publicly about their passion for the environment and social justice;
• 90% were more likely or much more likely to overcome a fear of public speaking;
• 90% were likely or much more likely to understand and express their motivations for environmental and social justice change;
• 80% were likely or more likely to ask others to take actions that make a difference in their cause; and
• 70% were more likely or much more likely to build partnerships and teams to educate their Jewish community about the environment and social justice.

As a next step, Jewcology will train prior participants to be small group coaches of this training, so that we can internalize this expertise in the Jewish-environmental movement and replicate it ongoingly. Stay tuned for upcoming trainings in 2012!

In the meanwhile:

See pictures, participant guides, and recent blog posts of participants , and join the ongoing Jewcology Leadership Training conversation in the Leadership Trainings Community.

See Marshall Ganz explain public narrative in the video below!

Marshall Ganz, Professor at the Kennedy School, long time organizer, has this to say in his course outline where he teaches the tenants of it:

The questions of what am I called to do, what my community is called to do, and what we are called to do now are at least as old as Moses’ conversation with God at the burning bush.

Why me? asks Moses, when called to free his people. And, who – or what – is calling me? Why these people? Who are they anyway? And why here, now, in this place?

Public narrative is the art of translating values into action.It is a discursive process through which individuals, communities, and nations construct their identity, make choices, and inspire action. Because it engages both “head” and “heart”, narrative can instruct and inspire – teaching us not only how we should act, but moving us to act.

It is a very powerful experience to sit in a room with other Jewish environmental activists and talk about times we have been disheartened, rejected, ostracized or belittled. It’s exciting to then talk about when we’ve been supported, boosted up and empowered. But the real movement forward is when we are able to take others with us. Our movement grows as we build community and momentum together.

I have found public narrative is a tool for community engagement as much as it is an opportunity to clarify and convey my purpose and vision. As one who recently started a Jewish environmental organization, it was been a helpful process of contemplation, clarification and articulation. As I better understand why I do this work, I am better able to call upon my community to join me.

More than we need to feel empowered by discussing areas of hope, we need to act to engage and empower others in our movement. Public narrative is a way to do that.

For those of you who haven’t seen the film, Murray plays Bob Wiley—a man so overcome by obsessive-compulsive fear and anxiety that he can hardly make it through his morning hygiene ritual, let alone face the world outside his front door. At a certain point in the movie, Bob is offered the opportunity to go sailing with his psychiatrist’s daughter, and—despite his fear of just about everything having to do with boats and water—Bob agrees to give it a shot.

Cut to Bob wearing a bright orange life vest– wind blowing through his hair, smile plastered across his face—shouting with joy: “I’m sailing! I’m sailing! I’m sailing!” The camera pulls back to reveal Bob strapped to the boat’s mast—literally harnessed with several yards of rope—additional life vests securely fastened around his legs for added measure.

Back on the dock, Bob excitedly relates his “progress” to his exasperated psychiatrist: “Dr. Marvin, guess what? Ahoy! I’m a sailor! I sail! Isn’t this a breakthrough? I mean, that I’m a sailor? I sail! I sail now!”

The joke, of course (evident to anyone who’s actually seen the film; I apologize if my description falls flat) is that merely being on a boat (and strapped to the mast, no less) hardly qualifies Bob as “a sailor”. Yet, it is impossible to deny that Bob has, in fact, made serious progress—maybe he’s not captain of the ship, but he took that first step and got on the boat.

So, what does any of this have to do with me, or with the Jewcology Public Narrative Training?

Well, at this point I must confess: unlike many of my fellow Public Narrative Training participants, I am not yet an environmental or social justice activist in any meaningful sense of the term. True, I’ve been an enthusiastic passenger on many Jewish leadership boats (so to speak), but I’ve hardly had the courage to swab the deck or hoist the sail, let alone plot the course or take the wheel. Like Bob, I’ve often found myself so paralyzed by fear and anxiety that I’ve failed to fully engage in the causes and communities that matter to me most; like Bob, I am still only a “sailor” in the sense of having been on board.

Which is why—after feeling truly empowered to find my voice in a room full of actual activists—I have to refrain from shouting: “I’m an activist! I’m an activist! I’m doing brilliant work on behalf of all humankind now!” Unlike Bob, I know it is not so; I still have a long way to go… one baby step at a time.

Thanks to the Jewcology Public Narrative Training, I now have a wider variety of tools, a broader community of supportive peers, and a deeper well of inspiration to get me there.

(to be continued…)

As a frustrated young adult, I personally felt confused. I felt I had been raised to have these ideals. It was the adults around me who talked about peace and justice, who taught me to recycle, who bought me “rainforest” coloring books. My mother was even fairly radical, and she brought me to rallies at Planned Parenthood and we boycotted Nestle and Dominos Pizza. They wanted me to be concerned, to be a moral person, and to live by an ethical code that involved caring for and caretaking of the people and earth around me. But as I grew more radicalized in my environmental and social politics, I was met by backlash and disinterest. Mercy towards animals was a lovely concept, and having a Save the Manatees Club was wonderful but becoming vegan was not. Recycling was a given but asking people not to use paper, plastic, and Styrofoam dishes was too much of an imposition. Maintaining a rosy “colorblind” multiculturalism was important, but challenging family members to explore deeper racial and ethnic prejudices was rude. I began to feel as if I was surrounded by hypocrisy.

Listening to the stories of my workshop compatriots, I felt some of these old emotions arise, and this time I did not feel alone. They had also been mocked and teased for some of their ideals. They had also felt confusion about what the adult world around them was trying to teach. They had also shed tears when they realized that the people they cared about the most did not share the principles that so deeply resonated with them.

I am not sure what draws people to become activists. All I know is that oftentimes we just can’t imagine any other way of being. The injustices that we see glaring at us when we look out at the world show us that we are not free to be otherwise. We do it not because we imagine ourselves to be better than others, or in a position to criticize, but because the pain we see in the world feels personal. It is OUR pain. We are sensitive to environmental degradation and it feels sometimes literally painful to us. We cry for the earth because we empathize with her. We have a spark within us that connects us to the world outside of our immediate selves, and we feel the call to transcendent action. It is the way that the energy of G-d manifests within us. HaShem demands that we act as stewards and that we attempt to inspire those around us to do the same.

And so, lucky for us, Jewcology has hooked up with amazing trainers to create a Leadership Training to give us greater tools to be witnesses and beacons. Creating a personal narrative, exploring the things that connect me to my greater communities, and brainstorming my vision for manifesting an actualized society is helping me to become a more effective leader and a more complete person. This training is half therapy, asking you to get clear for yourself in why you think your ideals are important and where in your personal life those inspirations came from, and half learning a new tool to use in actualizing those ideals. Activist culture can often encourage us to be harsh in judgment of ourselves and others, but this training asks us to be gentle. It asks us to recognize that being vulnerable and sharing of ourselves is actually the first step towards the healing we want to create.

I highly encourage everyone to attend when the opportunity arises!

We learned how to inspire and motivate others with stories, and to overcome our own fears and burnout by finding continual inspiration from our passion and purpose.

More details about the training results will be coming soon, but in the meanwhile we wanted to share some photos from the training. Congratulations to all who participated!

To see the participant guide, visit the Leadership Trainings community

The institutions being approached are:

* Palestinian Imam training institutions

* Al Qasemi Academy

* Sufi Centre, Nazareth

* Ecole Biblique Archeologique Francaise

* Tantur Ecumenical Institute * Studium Biblicum Franciscanum

* Latin Patriarchate Seminary

* Beit Morasha of Jerusalem * Pontifical Biblical Institute

* Hagia Maria Sion (Dormition) Abbey

* Cremisan Theological College

* Mosaica

* Sulaam Yaakov Rabbinical School

* Hebrew Union College

* Mar Elias College

* Jerusalem University College

* In Israel, we provide experiential, guided programs in English, Spanish, and Hebrew on a range of subjects and places for groups, couples and individuals.

* In North America, we deliver dynamic talks, classes, and activities on Israel-focused Jewish environmental topics to a range of Jewish institutions.

* We also offer free distance learning classes on Jewish environmental teachings through an online platform.

www. a r a v a . o r g

The Arava Institute is offering two $1000 scholarships for fall 2011 semester.

Suitable candidates must

Be North American

Be accepted to the Fall 2011 semester.

 Be able to demonstrate leadership accomplishments.

 Have a passion for environmental issues.

As part of the application process to the Arava Institute you are required to provide two

letters of recommendation and a personal essay. To apply for the grant:

1. One of your letters of recommendation must address your leadership skills and

accomplishments.

2. Your personal admission essay should highlight:

a. Your goals in studying at the Arava Institute.

b. Your personal and professional aspirations.

c. Your leadership achievements.

The recipients of the grant will be required to work with the Program Director on

community based projects during their semester at the Arava Institute.

Apply to info@arava.org

Application forms can be found at the Arava Institute website How to Apply

Final Due Date: July 20, 2011

The Arava Institute is the premier environmental teaching and research program in the Middle East,bringing together students from the Middle East

While we’ve made some headway as a movement, we certainly have not mastered environmental motivation in the Jewish community.

The key to understanding motivation is that it comes from the heart, not from the head. We touch people at the level of values not by sharing sources and facts and actions, but by sharing stories.

With the support of the ROI community, on June 2, Jewcology hosted our second Jewcology Public Narrative Training at the Teva Seminar on Jewish Environmental Education. Utilizing the “leadership story” techniques developed by Harvard Professor Marshall Ganz , participants learned how to identify and tell powerful stories that can express our purpose, unite our community and inspire meaningful shared action. The training is based on the famous Hillel dictum:

“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? And if not now, when?” (Pirkei Avot 1:14)

The training was a part of Teva’s “Eco-Change Makers Track.” Rachel Konforty, an experienced trainer in the public narrative methodology, led the training along with Matt Lewis and Evonne Marzouk. The training was similar to the one offered on March 14 at the Kayam Beit Midrash, but also incorporated the excellent feedback provided at that session: additional time focusing on the Jewish environmental context and applications of this tool, and additional Jewish context to ground us in our tradition.

The essence of the training was organized around three different “stories” which one defines for oneself and the group: the story of self, the story of us, and the story of now.

• Self: Participants were invited to identify their own personal story so that they can explain how they because committed to Jewish-environmental activism.
• Us: Drawing upon common values with the group in the room, each participant had to identify a “story of us” which would resonate with the values of all the people there.
• Now: Finally, participants were asked to identify a story of now: one single, specific, urgent action that could be requested of all the participants.

Following the session, attendees completed an online evaluation suvery. 100% of respondents indicated feeling more empowered to speak to their target engagement audience, 90% indicated that they felt more empowered to speak to people who do not share the same Jewish or environmental values; and 90% indicated that they planned to use this model in speaking to one or more of their primary engagement audiences. 100% also indicated that they would recommend this model or this training to a friend or colleague.

Participants indicated that they intended to use this tool with a wide range of audiences, including educators, synagogue members, potential funders, students, and local environmental groups. Attendees also indicated that they would be interested in continuing to use the Jewcology community to support them, including by using the Jewcology "Leadership Trainings" Community to continue discussions, attending follow-up trainings, connecting with the global Jewish environmental community through Jewcology (70%), and meeting with others in their region (60%),

Asked how to improve the session, participants indicated they would appreciate more time, more model stories, and providing more opportunity and resources for follow up. We’ll have the chance to implement these improvements at our third Jewcology leadership training, which will take place on August 21 as a bonus day to the Hazon Food Conference at UC-Davis! We’ll be offering the same training with the improvements described.

This training will help you develop your own personal Jewish-environmental story, connect with the values in a group of others, and ask for meaningful shared action. We hope you will join us there!

• motivating people into action?
• inspiring Jews who don’t have the same values as you?
• or moving a community into activism and shared commitment?

Jewcology is partnering with educators from Harvard University on a new leadership training intended to address these specific issues, in order to empower Jews who are seeking to educate Jewish communities about the importance of protecting the environment.

Date: Sunday August 21

Time: 10:30am-6:30pm

Location: UC-Davis (University of California)

Cost: $60

This leadership training was successfully delivered at the Kayam Beit Midrash on March 14 and the Teva Seminar on Jewish Environmental Education on June 2.

Now, we are bringing the training to the Hazon Food Conference!

The Hazon Food Conference (August 18-21) is the only place where farmers and rabbis, nutritionists and chefs, vegans and omnivores come together to explore the dynamic interplay of food, Jewish traditions, and contemporary life. Don’t miss four days of do-it-yourself food workshops, lectures, discussions, joyful Shabbat celebrations, kids & family programming, and delicious, consciously-prepared food.

The Jewcology Leadership Training will be delivered for the first time on the West Coast, a bonus day to the Hazon Food Conference. In this full-day session, we will:

• learn how to share the experiences and values that have led us to engage in Jewish environmental education and action
• gain skills to help us tell our personal stories in a way that connects us with others and clearly expresses our purpose, and
• practice using these values and commitments to connect with a wide range of individuals and groups, and to inspire a diversity of audiences to take meaningful, collective action.

Scholarships are available to support your participation in this program! Scholarships are available to those attending the full Hazon Food Conference and to Bonus Day participants. Deadline for scholarship applications: Friday, August 5. Apply for a scholarship

• Register for the entire Hazon Food Conference and Jewcology Public Narrative Leadership Training (Don’t forget to include the Jewcology Bonus Day in your registration)
  OR
• Register for the Jewcology Public Narrative Leadership Training ONLY (one day, August 21)

Co-sponsored by UpStart, Urban Adamah, EcoJews of the Bay, Wilderness Torah, Canfei Nesharim, Netiya, and the Graduate Center for Education at American Jewish University.

*This program is generously supported by the ROI Community global network of young Jewish innovators.*

Hazon is America’s largest Jewish environmental group. Hazon creates healthy and sustainable communities in the Jewish world and beyond through transformative experiences, thought leadership and capacity building.

Jewcology is the web portal connecting the global Jewish environmental community. Browse resources, post blogs, and join communities at www.jewcology.com.

At last week’s Jewcology personal-narrative leadership training, as part of the Teva Seminar, we explored the story of us — our own personal stories, and how those stories are connected to the lives and passions of those around us. By telling our personal stories, we can help people connect not just with us, but with our organizations and with our causes. The story of us exists in a place we all can share, in a place with which we all can identify.

“It’s not about ‘Come do my thing,’ ” one of our facilitators explained. “It’s about ‘Come do our thing.’ ”

We can transform the listening experience from being about the speaker to being about the community.

“The power of stories is so strong that it can move whole organizations,” one participant said. “Stories are alive. We can relate to them even after this workshop. They are part of our lives.”

Everyone has a story, but not everyone knows the best way to tell it. That’s where the Jewcology personal-narrative leadership training comes in, helping leaders to better communicate and tell powerful stories.

We all may be working toward the same goals, but we also all have different stories. What is your story of us?

The seminar will take place on Thursday, June 2 at the Teva Seminar on Jewish Environmental Education in Cold Spring, NY. Participating in the Teva Seminar?Sign up for the Jewcology training! If you are not attending the seminar,you can still join us just for the day and take advantage of this excellent training.

In this full-day session, we will:

• learn how to share the experiences and values that have led us to engage in Jewish environmental education and action;
• gain skills to help us tell our personal stories in a way that connects us with others and clearly expresses our purpose; and
• practice using these values and commitments to connect with a wide range of individuals and groups, and to inspire a diversity of audiences to take meaningful, collective action.

To register, make your choice below:

• Register for the Jewcology Public Narrative Leadership Training (one night only, June 1-2)
• Register for the entire Teva Seminar on Jewish Environmental Education (be sure to select the box to register for the FULL DAY Jewcology Leadership Training).

*This program is generously supported by the ROI Community global network of young Jewish innovators. Learn more at www.roicommunity.org.*

The Teva Learning Center is a Jewish environmental education organization that exists to renew the ecological wisdom inherent in Judaism and to renew the Jewish community through connection with all creation.

Jewcology is the web portal for the global Jewish environmental community. Browse resources, post blogs, and join communities at www.jewcology.com.

Remember the Rainbow Covenant on Shabbat Noach, Shabbat Behar and Rainbow Day!

Celebrate Rainbow Day and the Rainbow Covenant with all life!

In the Rainbow Day curriculum, you’ll find Torah, prayers and liturgies, midrashim about rainbows, lesson plans about seed-saving, learning from Hoshea and Ezekiel, Kabbalah and midrash, and project ideas—40 in all—that you can use to celebrate the Rainbow covenant onShabbat Behar and on Rainbow Day (both fall on the same day this year outside of Israel, May 15-16, 2015), and on Shabbat Noach (Oct 16-17 in 2015), and every week. The Rainbow Covenant with all life is the first covenant of the Torah. (You can download in-depth study sheets on the connection between the Rainbow covenant and the Sinai/Shmitah covenant with the land that is found in that week’s parshah here. Go to the Shmita Project to learn more about Shmita.)

Download the Rainbow Day curriculum. It includes: Rainbow and Shmitah covenant Torah texts, poetry for kids, liturgy and midrash, frogs, mikveh, the dangers of triclosan (found in anti-bacterial soap), hydrofracking in Israel, and much more. A table of contents with a list of all 40 modules, along with the ages each is appropriate for, can be found below. Many individual modules have study sheets, articles, and lesson plans that you can download directly below. You can add your ideas to this curriculum too: write to R’ David Seidenberg of neohasid.org (rebduvid86 at gmail.com). Every year we add a link to one of the issues found in the curriculum here: Learn about fracking in Israel. New to this year’s download: all the url’s are live links that you can click. Lastly, don’t leave this page without listening to the Brit/Hoshea song — scroll to the very bottom and hit the play button!

What is Rainbow Day?

On the 27th day of the second month, Noah, his family, and all the animals that were with them left the ark (Genesis 8). Exactly one lunar year and ten days before—one complete solar year—the flood began on the 17th of the second month, the day before Lag B’Omer. When Noah, the animals and his family went out from the ark, God made a covenant, with all the animals and the people, that there would never be again be a flood of water to destroy life on Earth. Rainbow Day is always the 42nd day of the Omer, the day after Yom Yerushalayim. Other days connected the Rainbow Covenant include Shabbat Noach and Shabbat Behar.

Why is the Rainbow Covenant important?

The Rainbow Covenant is a time to celebrate the diversity of life on Earth, and to remember our role in God’s covenant with all Creation. It is a time to remember that the first covenant was not with human beings but with all living creatures. It is a chance to reflect on the deep spiritual and religious meaning of diversity, creation, and our role as part of creation and partners with God.

What is the message of the Rainbow Covenant?

The Torah teaches that God has promised never to flood the Earth again. But that doesn’t mean humanity can’t “flood the Earth” and harm life. We live in a time when many species have gone extinct or are threatened with extinction. Our civilization is using so much of the world’s land and resources that we don’t always leave room for the other creatures. And the climate is changing. As the African-American spiritual goes, “God gave Noah the Rainbow sign, no more water, the fire next time!” The story of Noah and the Flood teaches us that we have a responsibility to care for all creation and all creatures, and that caring for all species is a mark of righteousness.

What can you do to celebrate the Rainbow Covenant?

The resources here will include ideas for teachers and educators, for kids and adults, for rabbis and prayer leaders, gardeners and meditators, for Torah study, science study, and for action. Find a venue where you can make a difference and use one of these modules. We suggest that you leave a few moments after whatever activity you use for teaching the traditional blessing for seeing a rainbow:

Blessed be You YHVH, our God. . .who remembers the covenant.

Barukh atah Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha`olam zokher et habrit.

You can use also these materials on Shabbat Noach, Shabbat Beh!r, or other days!

Download the Rainbow Day curriculum!

You can also incorporate ideas you’ll find here into the observance of Yom Yerushalayim, or as part of Lag B’Omer or for anytime of the Omer, etc. Or use them in religious schools in the week following Shabbat Behar or anytime. Whether you do something in a group, a synagogue, with friends or on your own, make Rainbow Day special.

Here is a prayer that you can use for Rainbow Day (longer version with vowels is found below, and this version with vowels is found in the curriculum as well):

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אל מלא רחמים God full of compassion,

זכור בריתך עמ כל החיים remember Your covenant with all life,

ברית מי נח the covenant of the waters of Noah.

ופרוש סכת רחמיםושלום Spread a Sukkah of compassion & peace

עלינו ועל כל מיני החייםover us, over all Life’s species.

הקיף כלם יוחסינו Surround all our relations

בזיו השכינה with Shekhinah’s radiance,

בנחל עדניך תשקם Water them with Your river of delights

בכל מושבותהם in all of their habitats.

ואז ישוב עץ החיים Then the Tree of Life will be restored

לאיתנו הראשון to its original strength,

ונראתה הקשת בענן and ‘the bow will appear in the cloud’

שש ומתפאר בגוונין joyful and beautified with its colors,

ותזכנו אנחנו וצאצינו so that we and our descendants may merit

לישב ימים רבים על האדמה to live many days on Earth,

כימי שמים על הארץ like days of the Skies over the Land.

More thoughts on the Rainbow Covenant:

According to Kabbalah, Rainbow Day is also the day of Malkhut in Yesod, a unity of masculine and feminine that represents a milestone on the way to the revelation of Shavuot. For us, it can represent a chance to commit ourselves to the rainbow covenant, to turn from actions that destroy the earth, to turn our lives away from unraveling earth’s climate and the web of life, from diminishing earth’s abundance.

The rainbow signified a new covenant between God and the land. It’s time for us to imagine a new covenant between humanity and the Earth, including the land and the seas, one that we start to live by as we change our lifestyles and habits. We can use the covenantal vision of the Shmitah year in Leviticus 25 to help guide our steps. And maybe next year it will be time to celebrate that new covenant.

Rainbow Day is pregnant with ritual possibilities related to the elements, to the midpoint between equinox and solstice, to the time between the fire of Lag B’Omer and the fire of Sinai, to global warming, to healing the waters, to the growing wheat crop in the land of Israel, and to all the meanings related to the journey from freedom to revelation. And rainbows are a symbol of diversity: the diversity of colors, of people, and of all life.

♦ Here are some of the organizations that have contributed resources (starred organizations are members of the Green Hevra):

neohasid.org* The Shalom Center* The Teva Learning Alliance* Jewish Farm School* Kayam Farm* Religious Action Center*Green Zionist Alliance*

Thanks also to: Isabella Freedman Retreat Center* Jewish Reconstructionist Movement* Eden Village Camp* Organic Torah Tikkun Schechter Day School Network EcoJews of the Bay Green Zionist Alliance* Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life* Jewish Greening Fellowship* Hazon* Urban Adamah* Wilderness Torah* Adamah*

The beautiful illustration below is “Noah & Naamah” ©1998 by Ilene Winn-Lederer; Prints may be ordered at: http://www.winnlederer.com/finearts/prints2/noah.html or via email to: ilene@winnlederer.com

♦ Jewish Lights is offering a 20% discount on the two versions of Sandy Eisenberg Sasso’s book about Naamah. Naamah, Noah’s Wife, ages 0-4 and Noah’s Wife: The Story of Naamah, ages 4 and up.

Download the Rainbow Day Curriculum!

⇒ Curriculum Table of Contents:Contents (version 4.2):

The Rainbow Blessing

1. Teach the Rainbow blessing and blessing for the trees

Texts from Tanakh

2. The Rainbow covenant in Genesis
3. A Tale of Two Covenants: Rainbow and Shmita
4. Hoshea 2:20 and the Messianic covenant

Songs:

5. A song for Hoshea 2:20

More Texts from Tanakh
6. Ezekiel, and a Kabbalistic interpretation of the rainbow

Midrashim: interpretations of the rainbow sign

7. Noah and environmental responsibility
8. Flood, Ark and Rainbow, R. Arthur Waskow (also for Lag B’Omer)
9. Human responsibility, R. Shlomo Riskin
10. The diversity and unity of all life, R. Shimshon Rafael Hirsch
11. On human moral development, R. Avraham Yitzhak Kook (link)

Biodiversity

12. Learn about biodiversity (link)
13. Pick a rainbow!
14. Study endangered species (focus on frogs)

Science, Culture and Art

15. How many colors are in a rainbow?
16. Do other animals see colors the way we do?
17. Colors and dyes
18. The science of rainbows
19. Art projects
20. Poetry!

Liturgues and Prayers

21. Rainbow prayer for creation, R. David Seidenberg
22. Between the Fires, R. Arthur Waskow
23. Council of All Beings (link)
24. A mikveh meditation, Carol Rose

Current Issues

25. Climate change
26. Keystone XL Pipeline
27. Hydrofracking
28. Fracking in Israel
29. Get active on the Farm Bill!
30. Don’t use triclosan!
31. Tzedakah and justice

Seed Saving, Harvests and Gardens

32. Seed saving and Naamah
33. Read Naamah: Noah’s Wife by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso
34. For the Omer: plant a “grainbow”!
35. Eli Rogosa’s story about finding an ancient wheat
36. “L’Dor V’Dor” seed saving workshops (link)
37. Plant a rainbow garden (link)
38. Count the omer! (link)

The Seven Noachide Laws

39. The seven colors of the rainbow and the seven laws
40. More study — articles by Rabbi Everett Gendler and Calvin DeWitt

The words from the song video are from Hoshea 2:20 (refresh the page if you can’t see it). They are about the messianic rainbow covenant that is yet to come:

V’kharati lahem brit bayom hahu im chayat hasadeh v’im of hashamayim v’remes ha’adamah v’keshet v’cherev umilchamah eshbor min ha’aretz v’hishkavtim lavetach

On that day, I will make a covenant for them with the beasts and the birds, with all creatures that walk on the Earth, that bow and sword and battle will disappear from the land, so that all may safely rest.

You can also hear another exquisite version of this song by Amen (Gaby Meyer and Amir Paiss) here!