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

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.

As we enter the Shmita / Sabbatical Year, we may be asking what its content might be. We can begin, just a few days before Rosh Hashanah, joining the several dozen Jewish organizations that will take part in the People’s Climate March in New York City, Sunday Septembr 21, beginning at 11:30 am.

Then on Rosh Hashanah (which can mean “New Year” or “Start of Transformation”), we might celebrate what the tradition sees as the birthday of the world, or of the human species (adam) as we emerged from Mother Earth (adamah). On Yom Kippur, we might enrich the Avodah service by prostrating ourselves on the grass of Mother Earth as our forebears did at the Temple in Jerusalem, murmuring to ourselves the sacred name of YyyyHhhhWwwwHhhh by simply breathing, as the High Priest did on that day when he emerged from the Holy of Holies.

And on Sukkot, the Festival of fullness (Full Moon of the sabbatical/ seventh month, the harvest time of full abundance), we might draw on a powerful line from our evening prayers: “Spread over all of us a sukkah of Your peace.”

What is a “sukkah”? It is a fragile hut, fragile in time and space. Its leafy, leaky roof must be open to the stars and the rain. It stands for only a week –– a festival week called by its name, Sukkot, to celebrate the harvest, to pray for the rain that will make the next harvest possible, and to implore God’s bounty not for Jews alone but for all the nations of the world.

This is our proposal for active hope, hopeful activism: On the Sunday and (Columbus Day holiday) Monday that fall during Sukkot this year — October 12 and 13 — let Jews invite into their sukkot, those leafy, leaky, vulnerable huts, the actual people and the explicit intent of celebrating peace, welcoming all peoples, and healing the Earth.

That intent calls us to merge the joy of Sukkot – which is called “The Festival,” “the season of our joy” – with determination to end the militarization of our lives and the extreme, quasi-military, exploitation of our Earth.

Examples of this militarization abound, but for Jewcology let us focus on :

• The quasi-military destruction of mountains, the creation of asthma epidemics, and the overheating of our planet for the sake of profit-hungry Big Coal.
• The quasi-military fracking and poisoning of our water, the burning of towns along the railroad tracks, the despoiling of land along the pipelines, and the overheating of our planet for the sake of profit-hungry Big Oil.
• The quasi-military forcefulness of global scorching that imposes on the Earth and on the human community – especially on the poor – the droughts that make for famine, turning poverty into hunger and hunger into starvation, and the superstorms and rising sea levels that flood our cities and our homes.

How do we make the sukkah into both a joyful affirmation of peace and a challenge to purveyors of such violence?

To begin with, why does the prayer not call for a Temple of peace, a Palace of peace, a Fortress of peace, even a House of peace — but instead for the most vulnerable of all dwellings, a Sukkah of peace? Precisely because it isvulnerable. The sukkah is in itself a teaching that peace cannot be achieved with steel walls, lead bullets, fiery bombs –- but only with a sense of welcome, of compassion, and of shared vulnerability

In fact, as the attack on the Twin Towers on 9/11 showed, despite all our efforts to storm Heaven by building towers to scrape the sky, we all actually do live in sukkot, vulnerable to attack unless we turn our enemies into friends.

But that implicit quality of the sukkah is not sufficient to challenge the explicit forces of destruction that we face.

So — Jews who honor the traditions of Sukkot could invite those who are likeliest to be the targets and victims of this attack against the Earth — African-Americans, Hispanic immigrants, Appalachian poor whites — to join in sukkot on October 12 and 13 to sing, dance, tell each other stories of our different lives, pray, discuss the needs we all have for sustainable sustenance and equal justice, and make sure that we all vote in the elections that will come a few weeks later.

Besides hundreds of such peacemaking sukkot across our country and the world, perhaps a sukkah should be built during those days in Lafayette Park across from the White House, in the USA; in Independence Park, in Jerusalem.There we could challenge the US government –

• to end the heating and poisoning of our country and all Earth by Big Carbon,
• and to seek peace and pursue it in a myriad other contexts – our cities and our neighbors overseas.

And so may we ourselves “spread over all of us the sukkah of shalom, salaam, paz, peace”!

This ebook is the most comprehensive study in English of how Jewish traditional sources teach us to protect our natural resources and preserve the environment. From food to trees, energy to water, wealth to biodiversity, the book studies eighteen topics where Jewish tradition has a relevant lesson for today's environmental challenges. All materials were comprehensively studied and reviewed by scientists and rabbis before printing.

These materials were originally created for the Canfei Nesharim/Jewcology Year of Jewish Learning on the Environment in 2012, and were released between Tu b'Shevat 5772 and Tu b'Shevat 5773. The materials were shared widely throughout the Jewish community, reaching more than 50,000 people. Source sheets, podcasts and videos are also available separately for each topic.

The ebook can now be ordered for your Kindle or Ebook device.

Podcasts now available: Another exciting release from the Year of Jewish Learning on the Environment: all podcasts from our series are now available on iTunes! To see the full series, simply search “Canfei Nesharim” in the itunes store, or go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/canfei-nesharim/id646475293?mt=2. You can listen to the podcasts right there, or click "view in iTunes " and then click subscribe to have them appear in your iTunes podcast library.

Don’t have itunes? All items are also available for listening or downloading at http://canfeinesharim.podbean.com/.

Check out all the materials, including source sheets and videos, at www.canfeinesharim.org/learning or www.jewcology.com/learning.

The Urban Adamah Fellowship, based in Berkeley, CA, is a three-month residential training program for young adults (ages 21–31) that combines urban organic farming, social justice training and progressive Jewish learning and living within the setting of an intentional community.

Through the operation of Urban Adamah’s one-acre organic farm and internships with social justice organizations, fellows gain significant skills, training and experience in all aspects of sustainable urban agriculture, community building, leadership development and food justice advocacy. The Fellowship’s experiential curriculum is designed to equip fellows with the tools to become agents of positive change in their own lives and in their communities.

Now in its third year, the Fellowship has graduated nearly 100 young adults who have gone on to work in the fields of environmental education and policy, sustainable agriculture, community organizing, Jewish education and social entrepreneurship.

Upcoming Fellowships

Spring: March 2–May 23, 2014

Summer: June 8–August 29, 2014

Fall: September 7–November 25, 2014

The cost of the Fellowship is offered on a sliding scale from $1,300 to $1,800. Program fees are highly subsidized and include room, board and all other program expenses. We accept 12­–14 fellows per season. Admission is on a rolling basis, and we encourage applicants to apply as soon as they’ve made the decision to enroll in a particular season.

Visit the Urban Adamah websitetoday to learn more and to request an application.

www.urbanadamah.org|510-649-1595 | info@urbanadamah.org| See us on Facebook

The Urban Adamah Jewish Community Farm, located in Berkeley, CA, integrates the practices of Jewish tradition, sustainable agriculture, mindfulness and social action to build loving, just and sustainable communities.

——————

My camping tent has seen its fair share of adventure: Caked in the red dust and baked in the summer sun of the Sonoran Desert. Encrusted with the frozen rain of a Yellowstone autumn. Rocked with rain, whipped with wind and sprayed by a skunk while the remains of Hurricane Ivan swept through Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Plateau. Yet through it all, my seam-sealed tent has remained safe and secure, warm and watertight. I’ve enjoyed the pleasures of living in the wilderness while avoiding most of its discomforts.

The Jewish festival of Sukkot, a week-long holiday beginning on the 15th of Tishrei (September 18-26, 2013), delivers a very different experience. The traditional practice of building and residing in a sukkah (“booth”) derives from Leviticus 23:42-43:

You shall live in sukkot (booths) seven days; all citizens in Israel shall dwell in sukkot, so that your descendants will know that I made the Israelites live in sukkot when I brought them out of the land of Egypt—I the Lord your G-d.

The sukkah cannot be just any structure. According to halakhah (Jewish law), the booth must satisfy numerous requirements regarding its dimensions, design, materials and placement. For instance, the Mishnah—a second-century compilation of rabbinic laws—states that “a sukkah that is taller than twenty cubits [approximately thirty feet] is invalid” (M. Sukkah 1:1). A reason for this prohibition is supplied by the Gemara, a later rabbinic commentary on the Mishnah:

Rabbah explained: “Scripture says, ‘So that your descendants will know that I made the Israelites live in sukkot” (Leviticus 23:43). [In a sukkah] up to twenty cubits [tall], one “knows” that one is dwelling in a sukkah. [But in a sukkah] taller than twenty cubits, one does not “know” that one is dwelling in a sukkah, since one’s eye cannot see it. (Babylonian Talmud Sukkah 2a)

Likewise, a valid sukkah must possess the right balance of sun and shade (Sukkah 7b), and its covering must be made from particular types and arrangements of natural materials (Sukkah 12a-14b).

As one might expect, a sukkah is not always the most comfortable shelter. The Mishnah requires that for the entirety of Sukkot, “the sukkah becomes one’s permanent dwelling, while one’s house [becomes one’s] temporary dwelling.” Even if it rains, one cannot seek shelter elsewhere unless the rain is so heavy that it spoils one’s porridge (M. Sukkot 2:9)! At the same time, however, the Talmud declares that one should bring into the sukkah any fine dishes or furniture that one may own. This way, one can eat, drink and relax in the sukkah as one would in one’s regular home (BT Sukkah 28b).

The sukkah is full of contradictions: It is a temporary structure that should be treated like a primary home. It is a thatch-roofed hut with fancy furnishings. It is a place where meals are served on fine china, but where rain must be tolerated unless it spoils one’s food. In short, the sukkah is the ideal structure for reenacting the exodus from Egypt in all its complexity. It is simultaneously liberatory and terrifying, wondrous and grueling. When we step into a sukkah, we blur the boundaries between past and present, wilderness and civilization, hardship and comfort, passion and complacency, vulnerability and safety. We discover nature by inviting it into our home.

1. Sukkot commemorates the 40 years when the ancient Israelites lived in the wilderness in frail huts and were sustained by manna. According to Isaac Arama (1420-1494), author of Akedat Yitzchak, and others, the manna was God’s attempt to reestablish for the Israelites the vegetarian diet (Genesis 1:29) that prevailed before the flood, in the time of Noah.

2. On Simchat Torah, Jews complete the annual cycle of Torah readings, and begin again, starting with the first chapter of Genesis, which contains God’s first dietary law: “Behold I have given you every herb yielding seed which is upon the face of the earth, and every tree, in which there is the fruit of a tree-yielding seed – to you it shall be for food” (Genesis 1:29). Also, the Torah, along with prophetic and Talmudic interpretations, is the source of the Jewish mandates – to take care of our health, treat animals with compassion, protect the environment, conserve natural resources, help hungry people, and seek and pursue peace – that point to vegetarianism as the ideal diet today.

3. Sukkot is the Jewish harvest festival, called the “Feast of Ingathering.” Hence, it can remind us that many more people can be sustained on vegetarian diets than on animal-centered diets that presently involve over 70 percent of the grain produced in the United States being fed to animals raised for slaughter, while almost a billion of the world’s people are chronically hungry and an estimated 20 million people die due to hunger and its effects annually.

4. The Sukkot holiday, including Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, is known as the “Season of Rejoicing,” because people’s worries about the success of the harvest are over. Since one must be in good health in order to fully rejoice, the many health benefits of vegetarian diets and the knowledge that such diets are not harmful to hungry people or animals are factors that can enhance rejoicing.

5. Sukkahs, the temporary structures that Jews dwell in during Sukkot, are decorated with pictures and replicas of apples, oranges, bananas, peppers, carrots, and other fruits and vegetables, never with meats or other animal products.

6. Beside the sukkah, the main ritual symbols for Sukkot are related to the plant kingdom. The Torah states: “On the first day, you shall take the first fruit of hadar (goodly) trees (an etrog or citron), branches of palm trees (lulav), boughs of leafy trees (hadassim) and myrtle, and willows of the field (aravot), and you shall rejoice before the Lord thy God seven days” (Leviticus 23:40). These four species represent the beauty and bounty of the land of Israe”s harvest.

7. On Shemini Atzeret, Jews pray for rain, and plead to God that it should be for a blessing, not a curse. This is a reminder of the preciousness of rainwater to nourish the crops so that there will be a successful harvest. Also, according to the Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 1.2), the world is judged on Sukkot with regard to how much rainfall it will receive. In the days when the Temple stood in Jerusalem, there was a joyous “Water Drawing Ceremony” (Simchat Bet Shueva), designed to remind God to pour forth water when it was needed. Modern intensive livestock agriculture requires huge amounts of water, much of it to irrigate feed crops. According to Newsweek magazine, the amount of water needed to raise one steer would float a Naval destroyer. A person on an animal-based diet requires up to 14 times as much water, most of which is used to irrigate feed crops, as a person on a vegan diet.

8. Sukkot is a universal holiday. There are at least three indications related to the festival that Jews consider not only their own welfare, but also the fate of all of the world’s people:

a. In Temple days, there were 70 sacrifices for the then 70 nations of the world;
b. The lulav is waved in all directions, to indicate God’s rule over and concern for the entire world;
c. The roof of the sukkah is made only of natural materials such as wood and bamboo, and must be open sufficiently so that people inside can see the stars, to remind them that their concerns should extend beyond their immediate needs and should encompass the world.

Vegetarianism also considers not only a person’s health, but also encompasses broader concerns, including the global environment, the world’s hungry people, and the efficient use of the world’s resources.

9. Moving out of comfortable homes to dwell in relatively frail sukkahs indicates that it is not our power and wealth that we should rely on, but rather that our fate is in God’s hands. And it is God Who originally ordained vegetarian diets for people, and created us with hands, teeth, and digestive systems most conducive to eating plant foods.

10. Sukkot’s prophetic readings point to the universal messianic transformation of the world. According to Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook, first Chief Rabbi of pre-state Israel, based on the prophecy of Isaiah (. . . the wolf will dwell with the lamb, . . . the lion will eat straw like the ox . . . (Isaiah 11: 6-9)), the messianic period will be vegetarian.

In summary, a shift to vegetarianism is a way to be consistent with many values and teachings related to the joyous festivals of Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah.

Rabbi Ed Rosenthal

“In the Beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was null and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God hovered on the surface of the water.” (Gen.1:1-2).

While we are taught that God is omnipresent and there is no place where the Divine presence does not dwell; there are few places that evoke a spiritual experience or a connection with the Divine more surely than the surface of water. Stand on a beach and look out to the endless expanse of the sea, and we feel God’s power. Contemplate the still, calm surface of a quiet lake and we feel God’s peace. Sit on the bank of a meandering river and feel God’s presence.

Yet we Jews have never been contented just looking at the surface of anything. We delve deep into our sacred texts. We dive into social justice. We are not content just living in the world; we want to change it. We talk about being partners with God in creation and Tikkun Olam. Indeed, the Jewish environmental community is a stellar example of individuals who are passionate about repairing the world, not because it is the popular thing to do or because it is “politically correct,” but because we are Jews. We see environmentalism not as a fad but as a religious and moral imperative. It is our responsibility as Jews to reverse the damage that humans have caused to our planet.

For all the noble efforts to raise awareness of the environment in the Jewish world however, it would seem that we have missed one essential element. Stand on the beach, the bank or the shore and all looks peaceful and right. The price of waterfront real estate alone will attest to its beauty and desirability, but do not be deluded. There is darkness upon the face of the deep.

With seventy-one percent of our planet covered in water, where is the voice of the Jewish environmental community about the virtual rape of the oceans and waterways of the world? On the surface, it would appear that the Jewish environmentalist’s view of water conservation is limited to ground water utilization and the amount of energy used to get it from the aquifers to the field and faucet. All this, while enjoying our herring on Shabbat and Sushi the rest of the week.

As a vegetarian, my mind reels at the number of animals (kosher and non-kosher) slaughtered every year for human consumption. The numbers according to the 2009 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Statistics Bureau[1] are:

· 298,284,486Cows

· 403,579,945 Goats

· 521,036,586 Sheep

· 1,343,635,030 Pigs

· 52,630,054,000 Chickens

If the number of animals slaughtered for human consumption is staggering, then the number of fish removed from the sea to feed ourselves, our livestock, our pets or as simple waste from “bycatch[2]” is incomprehensible. It is not in the millions. It is not in the hundreds of millions. It is not even in the billions. The number of fish removed from the sea each year to grace our plates and to please our palates is in the trillions. It is so high that exact figures cannot be provided. It is measured by the metric ton[3].

Where is the voice of the Jewish environmental community concerning our oceans? Perhaps it is because we view fish as parve, neither meat nor dairy, a culinary “no man’s land,” that it doesn’t require our attention. No Rabbi’s stamp of approval is necessary; just make sure it has scales and fins and you’re good to go. And let us not fool ourselves. There are plenty of Jews who are eating “seafood” that tastes much better than carp, of which no rabbi would approve.

When it comes to terrestrial animals that we eat, we Jews are quick to speak about “Tzar Ba’alei Chaim,” the laws which prohibit causing pain to animals. We go to great lengths to make sure that our dogs and cats get fed before we feed ourselves. We talk about how humane Shechitah is, but also know that in the industrial age of slaughter even our ancient method is not without its pain and suffering. The rise of the new “Heksher Tzedek” is an indication that it is no longer enough that the animals slaughtered to be kosher are merely killed properly. They must also be treated with compassion throughout the course of their lives to really be “kosher.” However, since fish are not considered meat they are not considered the same as mammals and birds. Tzar Ba’alei Chaim is rarely, if ever, mentioned when it comes to fish.

We’ve been told for years that fish don’t feel pain. We’ve been told that fish have no memory. We’ve been told they don’t have a nervous system. I’m no scientist to debate the neurological evidence, but if you have ever seen fish in a trawler’s net, crushed under the weight of thousands of other fish, you know they feel pain. If you have ever seen a fish on a line, you have seen that they know fear. And if you’ve ever seen a fish gasping for air on the deck of a boat, you know that they suffer. Yet where is Tzar Ba’alei Chaim? Where is our compassion? Where is the Jewish voice?

In his book “Oceana: Our Endangered Oceans and What We Can Do To Save Them,” Ted Danson wrote: “Humans are terrestrial creatures. We live on the land, not in the sea. When we refer to the “environment,” we’re typically talking about our environment – the land, air, rivers, lakes, and coastlines where we live, work, and play. It’s no surprise that a study of charitable giving in America showed that of all donations directed toward environmental concerns, 99 percent went to agencies and organizations focused on terrestrial issues, while 1 percent went to groups working to protect the oceans and the sea life within them.[4]” It’s time for a change; a sea-change, if you will. It is time to raise the Jewish voice to save our oceans and seas.

The Jewish People has a long maritime heritage. Psalm 107 says: “They that go down to the sea in ships, who do their work on the great waters, these see the deeds of the Lord and God’s wonders in the deep.[5]” Most of us have not been privileged to experience the glory and majesty of the open ocean. We have not witnessed God’s awesome power on the high seas. Yet while those who do “go down to the sea in ships” in their industrial trawlers wreaking havoc on the ocean think only of profit, they do not see God’s wonders. As long as they see dollars instead of divinity they will continue to rape and pillage until there is nothing left.

The Jewish People is called to be a light unto the nations. It is time for the Jewish Environmental Community to raise the torch and shine the light on the disaster which is taking place at this very moment. We can no longer sit complacently by as our oceans are destroyed by greed and ignorance, simply because we don’t see beneath the waves. The most recent studies and data are telling us that at the current rate of depletion by the fishing industry, our oceans could be empty within the next fifty years. Yes, you read that correctly: Our oceans could be empty….. devoid of life….dead, within the next fifty years if we don’t do something now.

The Talmud says: “Those who have the capacity to eliminate a wrong and do not do so, bear the responsibility for its consequences.[6]” We Jews, like the vast majority of all environmentalists, are focused on the terrestrial world. The simple fact however, is that if we lose the oceans, the earth will follow. There is nothing we can do to sustain the world once we have destroyed the seas. It is undeniable that there is darkness upon the face of the deep. It is time for light to shine forth from Jewish environmentalists to dispel the darkness.

NEXT STEPS – What You Can Do:

• Follow our Blog: Tikkun HaYam – Repair the Seas, at repairtheseas.org
• Get a copy of the Monterrey Aquarium’s “Sustainable Seafood Guide” and keep it in your wallet. Do not buy seafood that is not deemed sustainable.
• Make sure that the restaurants you patronize only use sustainable seafood.
• Reduce your use of plastics.
• Use reusable water bottles.
• Organize or take part in a beach or river front cleanup.
• Support a Marine Environmental Organization and sign up for regular notifications of action alerts

o Oceana: http://oceana.org/en

o Sea Shepherd Conservation Society: http://www.seashepherd.org/

o Coral Restoration Foundation: http://www.coralrestoration.org/CRF/

o Save the Manatee Club: http://www.savethemanatee.org/

o Ocean Conservancy: http://www.oceanconservancy.org/

o Deep Sea Conservation Coalition: http://savethehighseas.org/

o Tag a Giant Foundation: http://tagagiant.org/

o Plastic Pollution Coalition: http://plasticpollutioncoalition.org/

· Be a true Blue and White Zionist and support Marine environmental organizations in Israel

o Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research Center: http://www.ocean.org.il/mainpageeng.asp

o EcoOcean: http://www.ecoocean.org/Default.asp?LangId=2

o Zalul: http://www.zalul.org.il/en/info.asp

o Save our Sea: http://saveoursea.org.il/

[1]Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Statistics Bureau – http://faostat.fao.org/site/569/DesktopDefault.aspx?PageID=569#ancor

[2]Merriam-Webster Dictionary: by-catch/noun – “the portion of a commercial fishing catch that consists of marine animals caught unintentionally.”

[3]A unit of weight equal to 2,000 pounds in the United States and 2,240 pounds in Great Britain. In most other countries a metric ton is equivalent to 2,204.6 pounds.

[4]Oceana: Our Endangered Oceans and What We Can Do To Save Them, by Ted Danson with Michael D’Orso, Rodale, New York, 2010.

[5] Psalm 107:23-24.

[6]Babylonian Talmud: Massechet Shabbat 54b

Have you ever thought of Sukkot as a holiday which celebrates the Sustainable Jew

In ancient Israel, Sukkot had a major agricultural focus. The celebration was a thanksgiving for the fruit harvest and the blessings of nature in the year that had passed. Today, Sukkot is a Jewish Festival where we step out of the comfort of our own homes, and enter temporary dwellings where we are exposed to the vagaries of the weather while performing the mitzvah of “Leshev Bsukah”.

As you sit in the Sukkah, think about the roof. The "Sechach" must be made from some product of the earth, which is no longer attached to the earth. Wood of all kinds, including bamboo poles, leafy branches, branches of pine trees are considered good for “Sechach”.

Another aspect of Sukkot is the bringing together of the Etrog, Lulav, Hadassim and Aravot. According to the Midrash , each of these 4 represent different mixes of aroma and taste, and in a way represent the different mixes of Torah observance and good deeds of Jewish individuals. When we bring these four items together they represent a communal whole.

Sukkot is also connected with water. The Talmud teaches that during the festival of Sukkot, Hashem judges the world over its water. On the final day of the holiday special prayers are offered, imploring on High to provide rain and sufficient water.

All of this ties together harvest, lulav, etrog, hadassim, aravot and water; they are all part of a natural system which takes carbon dioxide out of our air and converts it to oxygen. The plants that we use to supply the sukkah’s Sechach and which make up the lulav / etrog combination ,depend on water and are not destroyed in the process, but continue to grow and regenerate year after year.

From year to year, the weather we are in contact with over the Sukkot period changes, depending on the timing of the arrival of the holiday. This small slice of outdoor weather started me thinking about the climate we are living in, and what going into a Sukkah would mean in the years to come.

Are we as a people, in the Diaspora or in Israel, taking actions which minimize our impact on the environment and leave this world a better place for our children?

Do we know what is happening to our environment and why? Do we know the actions we can take that can make a difference? Do we know and act? Do we know yet fail to act? Do we act without knowing the reason why? Do we do nothing?

Are we as Jewish individuals, families, communities or as a people doing what we can to influence others to live a more sustainable life, through knowledge and actions?.

I began to think more about this question since returning from a 10 day family adventure to the American Rockies. The trip provided some hands-on experiences to explore some themes on sustainability with my family.

For years, I have regaled my family with stories of my late eighties business trips to Vail and Boulder. I convinced them of the value of enjoying the fresh mountain air and seeing the snow capped mountains and glaciers, even in the summer. When we finally reached the 14,000+ foot mountains, my family was struck by the lack of snow and the small size of the few remaining glaciers. I’m sure those of you who have made multiple trips to the National Parks in the Canadian Rockies have seen a similar glacial retreat at the Columbia Ice fields.

My youngest son, Zev, wanted to know what happened and where all the snow went. The simple answer to an 11 year old was,” It melted”. The simple comeback of an 11 year old, raised on the Discovery Channel and Mythbusters and his other four siblings who were raised on Bill Nye the Science Guy, was “Why?”

“It melted” was not going to satisfy them but asking them to watch “An Inconvenient Truth” in the van was not going to successfully compete with other more enjoyable “Punch Buggy” and “Cruiser Bruiser” competitions.

It took a visit to the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)in Boulder, Colorado to put the answer into perspective. The scientists at NCAR were part of a team of 300 scientists, representing 160 research groups in 48 countries who contributed to a report titled “State of the Climate in 2009”.

This report documented measured decreases in snow cover, sea ice and glaciers, and increases in air temperature, humidity, ocean heat and temperature, sea level and temperature both land and sea. The report also lead to the July 29, 2010 Globe and Mail headline “Signs of warming earth are unmistakable” and an August 30, 2010 Maclean’s magazine cover story.”Extreme Weather Warning”.

When the NCAR tour guide found out that I was recently trained by Al gore to be a volunteer presenter for the Climate Project, she asked me to explain the issues behind global warming to the 30 people on the tour. An NCAR exhibit on the second floor enabled me to explain the reasons behind the melting glacier

With the storyboard as my background, I began to explain how the sun emits radiation and how most of this radiation is absorbed by the earth and warms it. Some of the energy is radiated back into space by the earth in the form of infrared waves and some of this outgoing infrared radiation is trapped by the earth’s atmosphere and warms it. Increased levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere end up trapping more infrared radiation, causing a further increase in temperatures.

The answer was more than enough to satisfy the curious, but not enough for my eldest daughter, Tamara, “Cousin Jeff says that all of this is occurring due to natural and not man-made causes”. “What are these greenhouse gases anyway?” added my 17 year old son, Marc.

No need to answer all of these probing questions right away, as it was time to go see the dinosaur bones at Dinosaur Ridge west of Denver. Perhaps there was a way for my family to discover that both natural and manmade elements can play a role in global warming and species extinction.

Seeing dinosaur tracks in 60 million year old exposed stone took their mind off the problems of melting snow and global warming. “Great move dad” said my daughter Yardena, “All you need to do is scream ‘dinosaur’ to an 11 year old, and all other questions drop”

The pressure was off for a while, or at least until we reached the Field Museum in Chicago. It was Sue the Dinosaur’s tenth anniversary at the museum. For the family, it was the second time seeing Sue, “Dad, did you see the new evolution exhibit, featuring the dinosaurs?” asked my daughter Adira.

Part of the exhibit hypothesized that the changes we have seen on earth over a period of time have been influenced by changes in climate. One of the key displays focused natural cycles of climate change, explained by the Milankovitch Cycles, These cycles are made up of natural variations in the relationship between the earth and the sun; the orbit of the earth around the sun; the degree of the earth’s tilt; and the direction of the earth’s axis of rotation. This phenomenon is part of existing climate science, where the observed cyclical temperature increases are not caused by increases in greenhouse gases, but due to natural warming and cooling cycles.

The current theory is that the end of the dinosaurs was caused by climate change resulting from a meteor hitting the earth, sending so much particulate matter into the atmosphere, blocking the sun, preventing the sun’s radiation from heating the earth, leading to a dramatic cooling of the earth. In this case the Milankovitch Cycles did not have anything to do with the extinction of the dinosaurs.

The end of the Field Museum exhibit identified that man-made and naturally occurring gases can have a similar climate changing impact, but in the direction of heating the planet. This was my chance to explain what greenhouse gases are, why they affect climate in the way they do, and what steps we might want to take to reduce them to ensure that we can sustain life as we know it on earth.

Different human caused greenhouse gas pollutants are increasing the amount of infrared radiation being trapped, leading to these temperature increases. There are six families of greenhouse gas pollutants, which appear in various proportions which are being tracked, inventoried and targeted for reduction.

Human generated activity such as electricity generation, industrial activities, agriculture, landfill, heating and cooling, deforestation and transportation are just some sources of greenhouse gas emissions. These gasses include carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane, black carbon or soot, halocarbons, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds and nitrous oxide.

Measurement comes before management. Yardsticks are needed to size the problem and focus our efforts for improvement at the personal, community and business levels. The National Climactic Data Centre and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have a critical global yardstick we should all be aware of.

If you remember the earlier part about outgoing infrared radiation being trapped in the earth’s atmosphere and warming it. The measure of CO₂ concentration in the atmosphere was below 300 parts per million (PPM) in the 800,000 years prior to the Industrial Revolution, when scientist believe that the Milankovitch Cycles operated without the need to accommodate for any other human generated activity.

A CO₂ concentration of 350 PPM has been declared the “danger number”. Recent scientific measurements put us at a CO₂ concentration of 390 PPM and the growth in the number is accelerating. With more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, more infrared radiation is being trapped, leading to more heating. As the PPM number continues to rise, we are seeing the effects of ice melt and the other factors documented in the “State of the Climate in 2009”.

Various environmental accords setting targets to reduce greenhouse gases to 1990 levels, or to percentages of levels measured in an earlier year, by a certain target date are trying to slow the acceleration of atmospheric CO₂ concentration and then if possible reverse it to less dangerous levels.

My hope is that by explaining the facts and facilitating a better understanding of the various sources of greenhouse gas pollution, we can inspire ourselves to take the first steps in personal, community, and business action and become “Sustainable Jews”.

The challenge or opportunity is in front of us all. Can we change energy consumption patterns, alter product supply chains, exploit business opportunities to commercialize scientific discoveries, or find new ways to apply technology to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

There is an immediate problem and an urgent need to act. There are steps you can take and encourage others to take which will have a positive measurable impact. Changing your light bulbs, implementing home and office retrofits of lighting, heating and air conditioning systems can measurably decrease energy consumption and allow coal generated electricity plants to be turned off are just some of the steps you can take now. There are many more.

Going forward, this column will continue to explore how individuals, students, entrepreneurs, businesses and organizations in the Jewish community both in Canada and in Israel are dealing with sustainability. We will look at these efforts from a Jewish perspective, tying them back directly to greenhouse gas reduction activities as well as cost reduction and revenue generation.

As we enter the period of Sukkot, and put ourselves closer to nature by sitting outside under a green canopy in our Sukkah, we should start to think about the type of world we are living in today, what we will be leaving to our children and grandchildren tomorrow and the sustainable actions we will need to take as Jews, as individuals, as a community, as a country, and as members of humanity, to ensure that we leave the world in a better state.

As a child at Sukkot I recall my beloved Zaide Shaya Yosef Z”L eating meals and sleeping in the simple Sukkah behind his house. Zaide was a pious Jew who left his Polish shtetl, Checiny, in order to bring his wife and children to a better life in Canada. Stories my mother tells about Checiny describe a home not much more secure than Zaide’s fragile Sukkah. Access to food, especially fresh produce, was limited. The family was often hungry and malnourished.

I wonder what Zaide thought and felt as he celebrated Z’man Simchateinu, the “season of our rejoicing,” and the harvest festival Chag Ha-Asif, the “festival of the ingathering,” in his sukkah. Did Sukkot also remind him of his family’s struggle to survive in Poland? Did he think of the times when he did not have the means to secure sufficient food for his family? Was he reassured that he had made the correct decision to bring stability to his family in a new country?

Was this Zaide’s way of bridging the gap between the historical and the agricultural observance of Sukkot and his present reality? How can we bring a modern contextual observance to our experience of Sukkot?

Fifty-two million Americans, or almost twice the population of Canada, live food insecure lives. They do not have access to adequate nutrition to meet their basic food needs due to a lack of financial resources. How can we make meaning of our sense of insecurity dwelling in temporary shelters during the Sukkot harvest festival? We can start by helping to reduce food insecurity experienced by one in six who live amongst us. Donate your surplus garden harvest, excess food, a portion of your groceries, or the harvest of your apple picking to a local food bank, meal site, or food pantry. Volunteer to bring and serve food at a meal site. Sukkot provides an ideal opportunity to rally as a community to reduce food insecurity in our midst. As we wave the Four Species or Arba’at Ha-Minim, this Sukkot, may we open our hearts represented by the Etrog, or citron, and be righteous as the Lulav, or date palm frond, in order to create a more just food system. Zaide would remind us of Leviticus 19:16: “Do not stand idly by while your neighbor bleeds.”

Pam Frydman-Roza is food justice coordinator of TIkkun Ha-Ir of Milwaukee. This growing season its Surplus Garden Harvest project collected and donated over 5,000 pounds of organic produce to Milwaukee food banks, meal sites and food pantries.

In monoculture, most iconically pictured in a dense stand of identical, chemically fertilized corn stalks, modern techniques of mechanization and chemical pest control are employed to make single commodity production as ‘efficient’ as possible. In reality that efficiency is only possible through the use of fossil fuels, to power the combines that have replaced human hands, and to be converted into chemical fertilizer that has replaced living soil. Every aspect of the plant’s life-cycle is isolated and controlled.

Forest gardening does not isolate, it invites. On Sukkot, we invite ushpizin, exalted guests, into our dwelling place. According to the Lurianic Kabbalists, each of the teacher/ancestors we ask to sit with us in our Sukkah represents one of the seven ‘lower’ sefirot, emanations of divine energy. In the same way, when planting our forest garden, we create plant guilds, inviting a connected but diverse cast of characters that each bring their own strategies for survival and reproduction, their own ecological specialties, their own medicine, their own invertebrate friends, their own tastes and smells, their own unique divine presence into our community.

In addition, when starting a new plant guild, we often add mychorhizal inoculant, a concentrated pro-biotic syrup to help transform the rocky clay that makes up the majority of our land into rich dense, living, soil. These microbes (fungi, yeasts, and bacteria) allow organic matter in the soil to break down, allow tree roots to absorb nutrients and moisture more efficiently, and enable certain plants to pull nitrogen out of the air and ‘fix’ it in the soil, making it available for other plants. Trusting in their invisible power and utter precision, we can feel with great depth the immaculate orchestration of the life support systems that make our earthly existence possible.

On Sukkot, we remember the precarious balance of our existence, that all our structures are in fact temporary, even King Solomon’s Temple. At the same time, we revel in the immense abundance of the earth itself, which nurtures and supports us with utter grace and forgiveness. By planting fruit trees, by turning baseball fields and suburban lawns into little gardens of Eden, we are creating a home in the deepest sense. We are not just receiving shefa, divine abundance, but making it our practice, our way of existence. In this sense, we are students of the apple tree and the shiitake mycelium and the winter squash, and even the sun, whose very innermost nature it is to give.

Understanding this, we may choose to shift our thinking from a rhetoric of scarcity, so pervasive in the wider culture today (recession, terrorism, resource scramble), to an ethic of abundance. In fact, studies have been done that show that calorie for calorie, small scale diverse vegetable production is in fact more productive on the same land than fossil fuel based conventional agriculture. And that is just in terms of food production, without factoring in “externalities” such as climate change and poisoned water from pesticides. The ‘fact’ is that the earth wants to feed us, a lot, a lot of lots of different things! In permaculture, we call this overyielding, that by mimicking natural plant communities and working with nature, we are actually more productive than when we attempt to isolate, control, and work against her. This practice is a combination of faith, gratitude, observation, sweat, and participation in the processes of life.

On a deeper level, on Sukkot we combine the four species (myrtle, willow, palm, citron) through the waving the Lulav, in an act of theurgy, a drawing down of the divine, that celebrates this life force by mapping it onto the six directions. As in other earth based wisdom traditions, we honor the sacred directions, the Arba Ruachot, the four winds. The word ruach is commonly used in the context of the life force, or flowing spirit, within our bodies and this is precisely the energy that we invoke in the the waving of the lulav, combining the fragrant and fertile abundance of the etrog with the active, extensive quality of the lulav, traditionally the center protrusion of a date palm. We shake the lulav in mystical extension of the divine flow to the four corners of the earth, as well as outward and inward, tuning the channels of manifestation, and allowing the garden to grow, in ourselves, and all around us.

At Eden Village, our Hebrew Calendar Garden, a technology for exploring living time, is also calibrated to the directions. Large spiraling beds for the months are inhabited by symbolic and seasonal plants. Tevet and Shvat are towards the north, representing the solitary wisdom, and creative potential, of Winter. Adar and Nisan are in the East, drawing forth the inspired energy of Spring. Tammuz and Av are in the South, active and intense in the heat of Summer. And Tishrei, the season of Autumn, is in the West. Our Tishrei bed contains winter squash, an apple tree guild, bee balm, purple violas. In an individual guild, we like to map out physical correspondences between the plant personalities we are bringing in and the energies of the directions. The calendar garden thus allows us to use plants to observe living time and to explore the symbolism of the festivals and the Arba Ruachot.

Sukkot is a great gathering in, as we honor and celebrate the physical and spiritual work of the summer that has culminated in our harvest. The autumnal, westerly qualities of reflection and celebration are present throughout the month of Tishrei, and the High Holy Days in particular, but it is the harvest festival aspect of Sukkot that is most resonant to us.

The Sukkot that we build hearken back to two different ecological relationships that we have lived as Jews. During Temple times, this period was the busiest time of the year, not only sewing next year’s grain, but harvesting as well, and thus huts were built and lived in close to the field while preparing for the pilgrimage to the great harvest festival in Jerusalem. At the same time, Sukkot also carries the older mythical-historical connotation of remembering our passage from Egypt and our wandering in the desert, when we truly lived according to the precarious balance of the elements.

Rabbi David Seidenberg quotes from Yalkut Shimoni, Pikudei: “When Israel was encamped the pillar of cloud was…like a sukkah and made a canopy over the tent from without, and filled the tabernacle mishkan from within…and this was one of the clouds of glory that served Israel forty years in the wilderness: one on their right and one on their left and one before them and one behind them and one above them and the cloud of the Shekhinah between them.”

As the waving of the Lulav honors the great directions, the schach with which we cover the Sukkah reminds us of the wild itself. It must be composed of cut, live branches, and must not be bundled or secured with artificial materials. It is living, natural, wild, and yet is part of our structure. Like a forest garden, it is both wild and domestic. It both shelters us and reminds us of our balanced and temporary existence on this Earth. It must provide shade and dwelling space, and yet remain open to the stars, and open to the rain.

During Sukkot, the rainy season is just beginning in Israel, and we contemplate the joyful and precise balance of our life on this gift-planet. That the rains may come in their proper time, in the proper proportion, not too much, not too little, as we we pray in the latter passage of the V’ahavta and with great emphasis in the latter part of Sukkot. There was a time when our grandfathers and grandmothers were so connected to the rain, that it was a matter of life or death. Eating has always been a holy act for Jews, but in modern times, we have let our agriculture leave us and become industrialized, let our eating leave us and become commercialized. We have lost some of that direct connection to the earth and thus to the water, but have remained a profoundly land based people despite ourselves. Honoring the earthly rhythms in our yearly festival cycles and singing them to life, however deeply encoded in our liturgy, we practice an ancient panentheistic agricultural religion whose purpose is to elevate our earthly existence and breathe unity back into a world that keeps forgetting itself.

But the circumstances of the world are beginning to shake us out of our complacency, that tendency to forget. The wool over our eyes is quite wet, in some parts of the world, and quite on fire in others, and dry as a bone in still others. So we are beginning to feel the effects of our actions, of disconnect, of treating the water, the land, and animals as a material resource to be bought and sold and used and used up. We are feeling the effects of a hundred years of the physical and spiritual monoculture of consumer culture.

By planting trees, by restoring degraded land to garden-kingdom, and by honoring the balance of the elements by dwelling in our sukkat shelomecha, our canopy of peace, we are restoring our human potential, our ability to bring forth. Forest gardens sequester carbon, restore biodiversity, increase water availability, and feed animals and humans for generations into the future. Generational continuity and memory is a foundational principle of Judaism, and can be beautifully expressed in the planting of trees who have productive lifespans in the range of hundreds of years.

One day he was going along the road, when he saw a man planting a carob tree. Honi asked, “In how many years will this tree that you are planting bear fruit?” The man responded, “In seventy years.” Honi asked, “Are you sure that you will live seventy more years to enjoy the fruit of this tree?!” The man said, “I was born into a world with carob trees. Just as my ancestors planted for me, so I plant for my descendants.”

Talmud Bavli Ta’anit 23a

As we allow the joyous gathering in energy of Sukkot to infuse our winter with life and possibility, may we draw inspiration from the wild places, and bring them into our dwelling places, plant a wild and abundant garden for future generations, and remember and praise the source of our provenance.

PRAY, PLANT, GROW repeat!

Many of us are familiar with the Pray, Eat, Pray, pattern of Jewish practice. Well, in this Harvest Season- which is also the spiritual season of birth and renewal- a New Year brings us many opportunities for reflection, renewal and redemption. Today is Hoshana Rabbah, bringing us to the end of Sukkos, and time to put away our Lulav and Estrog- Let's take action and put into practice our words to connect mind, body and spirit, to live in a way that our life is our thoughts, deeds and actions. We jsut read in Koheles, that there is a time to plant and a time to sow- well if you want a harvest for next Sukkos, get ready to plant now!
It is a time to begin the cycle of a new year- not only in our minds and hearts, but in the very real gardens and grounds that we live on.
So here it is – a call to action: GROW YOUR OWN (Aravos- willows.)
Keep your Aravos in water and they will sprout roots. Plant the rooted willows into the ground, some sun, shade is good.
Become part of the pray, plant and grow cycle yourself.
The 'aravos' willows will grow here in the Northest, and almost anywhere- we live in the Philadelphia area and the Aravos I planted almost 20 years ago are now big bushes, whose branches are shared each year with many friends and neighbors and visiting family. In years past we have backed up several institutions even Penn Hillel! Our Aravos harvest seems to grow as it is used, the more you cut, the more it grows!
Each year my husband (the green zayda) cuts back the growth on Tammuz 17- (which as you may recall, is a Fast day) Once again breaking with the "pray eat pray" syndrome, it proves that even on days when you are fasting and don't eat, well, you can still foster new growth in the garden, as you cut, pray, cut!
If you are reading this after Sukkos, and or you don't have any Aravos this year to root- stop by some time and we will share our Aravos with you. The good thing about Aravos, just like 'bubbies' if they are 'green' they are still alive, ready and willing to grow.

Though a Sukkah exists on the material realm as a physical dwelling, there is also an element of Sukkot that transcends both time and space. As autumn leaves change color and fall to the ground, we are confronted with the stark realities of time and change. We read from Kohelet, who reminds us that, “A season is set for everything, a time for every experience under heaven. A time for being born and a time for dying, A time for planting and a time for uprooting the planted. . . “ When we sit in a sukkah we mark the changing of the seasons and the passage of time. By marking time in this way, we participate in rituals which bring us both back in history and forward into the future.

Sukkot is a remembrance of the Jewish people’s wandering through the desert after having been freed from slavery. During this period, we were a people without a homeland, wholly dependent on divine sustenance for our very survival. Yet Sukkot is also a remembrance of the Temple period, when the Jewish people were settled and prosperous in Eretz Yisrael. Having gathered in the harvest of the land, Sukkot was a pilgrimage holiday to the Temple in Jerusalem to offer thanks. There seems here something of an internal paradox of Sukkot’s meanings; it is both a remembrance of times of homelessness as well as times of settled prosperity. Add to this a third dimension of Sukkot’s symbolism, that of the future Messianic era when the whole world will be wrapped in the great Sukkah of the Leviathan, and the Sukkah becomes a place outside of our usual conceptions of the time-space continuum. Also consider that in addition to inviting friends, family, strangers and other guests into the Sukkah, we make special invitations and set chairs for our ancestors in the Ushpizin blessings, where we invite Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron and David in to dwell in the Sukkah with us. How outside of our usual paradigm concerning the nature of the time-space continuum indeed!

In short, I am entranced by this holiday with its myriad meanings and rituals. From shaking tree branches and smelling the wonderful fragrance of the etrog to sitting outside sharing meals with both old friends and people you just met, Sukkot is a holiday that gives me great joy. Despite the paradoxes of the holiday, or perhaps because of them, Sukkot is a time of great rejoicing. In our liturgy, Sukkot is referred to as Chag HaSukkot, zeman simchateinu, the Festival of Sukkot, the season of our joy. For in a world filled with seeming paradox, joy resides in recognizing the unity of all things. Thus we feel happiness and joy when we engage in Sukkot mitzvot, stepping outside the usual constraints of time and space into an other-worldly dimension which hints at the Messianic future of the world-to-come. Chag Sukkot Sameach!

All the seven days [of the festival of Sukkot] a man must make the Sukkah his permanent abode and his house his temporary abode. If rain fell, when may one be permitted to leave it? When the porridge would become spoilt. They propounded a parable: to what can this be compared? To a slave who comes to fill the cup for his master, and he [the master] poured a pitcher over his face.(Mishnah Sukkot 2:9)

Rain during Sukkot is a sign of divine disfavor since God seems to be preventing people from fulfilling a mitzvah. And that is why we only pray for rain on Shemini Atzeret, after we have been able to fulfill the mitzvah of “dwelling” in the sukkah.

Water is a major preoccupation in human civilization and for good reasons. Although water covers over 70 percent of the surface of the earth, clean freshwater is a precious substance, comprising only 3 percent of the total. Without water, life could not exist and the need for and the control of freshwater has been a major matter throughout human history. Today, there is a growing crisis over the access to freshwater as climate change is causing seawater to rise while the rapid increase in world population means that there is a lower per capita amount of available drinking water. There has also been an increase in contaminated water from human effluents, industrial agriculture, power generation, and industrial use. Climate change is also causing changes in weather patterns, which result in extended droughts in some areas of the world while causing floods and the rise of seawater in other parts, which then results in the contamination of agricultural areas (especially river deltas) by seawater; this will help to create a minimum of 250 million climate refugees by 2050. Water will continue to be one of the most important human issues during this century and will also be one of the primary sources of international insecurity.

When we look at water in the Jewish tradition we can see how the vocabulary of biblical Hebrew reflects the ancient Israelites’ concern for water. There are at least ten words for rain in biblical Hebrew, eight words for cloud, and numerous terms for springs, wells, cisterns, and aqueducts. Because there were no major river systems in the eco-regions y of the Land of Israel (unlike the neighboring civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt), the Israelites were almost completely dependent on rain for drinking water. The Land needed just the right amount of rain at just the right times for the soil to be fertile enough to grow crops and raise herd animals. But the average rate of rainfall in Israel is extremely variable from region to region. This variability results from the fact that Israel is at the junction of several different ecological domains, each with different amounts of annual rainfall. Anywhere from 16 to 40 inches of rain per year to 4 to 16 inches per year and in the desert areas less than 4 inches of rain per year.

This variability was encoded in the Torah’s view of divine action or Providence (in Hebrew: Hashgahah). For example, in Deuteronomy 11:10–17, (which includes what would later become the beginning of the second paragraph of the Sh’ma), the Torah explains the differences between Egypt and the Land of Israel. In Egypt, the rivers provided unlimited water at all times, thus allowing for human independence from any kind of divine constraints. But the Land of Israel is different: it gets its rain from heaven and therefore is under divine scrutiny and control. If the Israelites fulfill their covenant with God, the rain will come in its proper amount. The timing of the rain is also critical to the fertility of the Land. The early rain, called in this passage “yoreh,” comes in October and November and is intermittent and allows the dry hard soil to soften, thus allowing plowing and planting and the later rain to be absorbed. Seventy percent of the rain in the Land of Israel falls between December and February. The final or “late rain” mentioned (Hebrew: malkosh) comes in April or early May and is critical for the final stages of the crops’ growth. Fertility of the land is assured and prosperity for the community is granted. If they do not fulfill the covenant, God will “shut up the skies so there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its produce” and drought, sterility and poverty will plague the community. Ecology thus determined theology. The abundance or scarcity of rain is not a random natural occurrence dictated by changes in geography or climate, but a divine response to a human morality. Israel and the Land of Israel are bound together in one moral community under God’s direction.

In the ultimate redemption of the Messianic Age, as portrayed in the Prophets, water will never cease to flow in the Land of Israel and even those parts that are desert will become well watered. The variability of rain will no longer exist and Israel will contain a river (or rivers) as constant as the Nile. In Ezekiel 47, the prophet has a vision in which a great deep river will flow out of the restored Temple eastward down to the Dead Sea, which will become sweet. This river will be full of fish and the Judean desert will blossom with fruit trees and animal life. The redemption of the people and the redemption of the land are completely intertwined.

In Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s great poem, The Rime of the Ancient Marineris a rich tale of a sailor who is cursed for the sin of killing an albatross, a crime of cruelty against a fellow creature. The line which is the title of this post is from a section describing what happens when the ship is becalmed in the Doldrums—a zone of the oceans that encircles the Earth just north of the equator. Within this zone the winds are calm and sometimes are completely absent. The Doldrums are infamous for entrapping sailing ships for days or even weeks without enough wind to power the sails. As a result, many ships run out of water and the sailors suffer immensely because drinking seawater can be more deadly than thirst. This quote shows the great paradox of water: it is a necessary source of life but only a small amount of it in the world is useable. The sea is full of water but it cannot be drunk. Water can be a source of both life and death, an important idea that is also found in the Bible. And like the ancient mariner, humanity has cruelly ignored the morality of its relationship with Creation. Water is our need, but water can also be our punishment. This week, when we pray on Shemini Atzeret for rain in the Land of Israel, in the right amount and at the right time, let us also pray that this be so for the whole world.

But Sukkot deals the upper hand for many reasons, including 7 whole days of fun. It is also one of the holidays with multiple names, two being: Zeman Simkhateinu, the Season of our Rejoicing and Chag Ha-Asif, the Festival of Ingathering. The sages tell us that we should spend as much time in the Sukkah as possible, including eating and sleeping there. As a child in suburban Philadelphia, I was allowed to fall asleep in the Sukkah in our backyard until “the middle of the night” when my parents would bring us inside (you know, once it was dark and we were asleep, like 10pm). For answers to questions about halachic Sukkah sleeping, click here. (Like can you sleep underneath a table in the Sukkah?)

Meanwhile, what better way to rejoice in the abundance of the fall harvest season than visiting a farm? Ganei Beantown: Beantown Jewish Gardens and Hebrew College are proud to host this first annual community Sukkot celebration supported by an Innovation Grant from CJP. Join us at Lands Sake Farm on Chol Ha’moed Sukkot, Sunday October 16^th from 12:00pm-4pm. A full listing of events is here. This event is for all ages and all denominations dedicated to joyous celebration of our harvest season.

While we can’t sleep in our Sukkah, bring a picnic lunch and you can eat in it! We’ll be making decorations, listening to live music, visiting the farm animals, working on the farm, making recycled paper and learning Torah.

“When you harvest your crops from your granary, you should be happy on your holiday, you and your children…”

(Deuteronomy 16:13)

Examples of Sukkot joy would be the Klezwoods concert at 2:00pm.

We've been building towards this event for a long time. On October 18th, in the year of 5772, we will have a different kind of Sukkot.

We will be building a Sukkah on our organic fertile land, on the land that we cultivated in West Rogers Park, the land that has given us our strong backs.

And we will be collaborating with the Center for Jewish Mindfulness and participating in a community meditation led by Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell.

I know, I know, a Sukkah is meant to be dwelled in according to the mitzvot. But, I wasn't raised in a community that did that. Nor do I particularly want to spend the night outside in the city of Chicago with the vermin and crime. And even when I lived within an Orthodox community in Israel, they told me that women don't do that, only the men sleep outside. So, what is my relationship to the Sukkah? How is it meaningful to me? How is it fun? How does it deepen my connection to Judaism and the seasons?

This year, I'll try something new. As a co-founder of The Gan Project, an eco-Jewish non-profit in Chicago, I get to promote new ways to eco-celebrate holidays. We found an easy collarboration between us and The Center for Jewish Mindfulness, CJM, led by Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell. We'll build our Sukkah out of repurposed materials and create a sancturary of peace, meditation, healing, and celebration.

Both the Gan Project and CJM are seriously involved with direct action. By direct action, I mean that it is through my experiences and my breath that I learn and grow and teach and tend to myself with the intention of becoming a healthy and happy Jewish being to share with this world. This Sukkot I offer you the invitation to join me and in doing just that.

When: October 18th 7:30 pm- 9:00 pm

Where: Bernard Horwich JCC 3003 W Touhy Chicago, IL, beyond the parking lot, near the baseball diamond

Bring: A sweater or a blanket (it will be chilly!)

Who: All ages, all faiths are invited.

This event is co-sponsored by The Gan Project, Kehilla, and Birthright Israel NEXT.

Please visit our facebook page for more info:

Click RSVP to sign up.

Light nosh will be provided.

PS- We have 22 chickies! Come visit our lovely hens!

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow | 10/14/2008

• Global Scorching

• Sukkot

By Rabbis David Seidenberg & Arthur Waskow

Sukkot, the Jewish harvest festival, is traditionally called THE season of our joy. (My book about the Jewish festival cycle, Seasons of Our Joy, treats them all; but Sukkot is preeminently joyful.)

Joy comes from a fruitful harvest, when hard human work – joined to the soil, the sun, the rain, and the seed that human beings do not make, gives us physical, emotional, and spiritual sustenance and the time to refrain from hard work so as to take joy in the One Who is present in all these aspects of the harvest. Sukkot also looks forward to the coming of the rainy season in the Land of Israel that will make possible the next harvest.

Last night (October 12, 2008) I celebrated my 75th birthday – a harvest moment for the past and toward the future – in the midst of my close-in family and my extended mishpocha of 300 people gathered for joyful song, delicious food, an insightful interview of me and my life by Dr. Dan Gottlieb, and a video-blessing from Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, plus another 100 or so people who sent greetings and donations to carrying out the harvest-work of The Shalom Center but could not be physically present.

Blessed is the One Who has filled us with life, lifted us up, and carried us to this moment!

I will be writing more about that moment in another letter. But now, some thoughts about the festival that begins tonight (Monday night) on the full moon of harvest month. Some brief thoughts of mine, and then a series of earth-centered comments by Rabbi David Seidenberg, Eco-Judaism Fellow of the Shalom Center and creator of neohasid.org . Rabbi Seidenberg focuses on the global climate crisis.

Blessings of a fruitful harvest of shalom, salaam, peace to us all — Arthur

[AW: When my son David was 8 or 9 years old, I first invited him to join in the Sukkot ritual of waving the lulav and etrog — the branches of palm, date, and myrtle trees and the citron fruit. After he waved them in what Rabbi Shefa Gold teaches are the seven (not six) directions of the world (east, west, north, south, up, down, and inward), I asked how it felt. He said, “I felt that I was a tree; I could hear my own leaves rustling in the wind as my own branches waved; I could smell my own fruit!”

And to an ancient midrash, add this note: the rabbis long ago said that the etrog was the shape of the Hebrew letter “yod”; the three branches, in the shape of “hey, “vav,”, and “hey.” Thus they embodied the four letters of God’s Name. But since the etrog is held in the left hand, if the waver reads the four species from right to left, as Hebrew is read, the letters come out “HWHY.” It is only if I look at your waving and you look at mine that the letters come out in the right order to spell “YHWH,” the Divine Interbreathing of all life. It takes I-Thou to bring God fully into our awareness.

[David Seidenberg:] The teachings that follow explore the symbolism of the lulav species, the Hoshanot prayers, the Tishrei cycle, and the rules about s’khakh [the foliage that roofs the sukkah] and the waving of the lulav, all in light of the global climate crisis and our role in changing how the future unfolds. Read more about Hoshanot, building a sukkah, and related topics at neohasid.org/zman/sukkot and at

“When Israel was encamped the pillar of cloud was…like a sukkah and made a canopy over the tent from without, and filled the tabernacle mishkan from within…and this was one of the clouds of glory that served Israel forty years in the wilderness: one on their right and one on their left and one before them and one behind them and one above them and the cloud of the Shekhinah between them.” (Ch. 14 of Braita Dim’lekhet Hamishkan, also found in Yalkut Shimoni Pekudei) In Kabbalah, God is called the soveiv kol almin, what surrounds all worlds, and the m’malei kol almin, what fills all worlds. In this very ancient midrash, the ultimate principle of God that fills and surrounds all is the Shekhinah, the presence of God, made manifest in the mishkan. The Shekhinah dwells on this earth when the people make a dwelling place for her “between them,” that is, in their relationships and connections. We will turn back to this text at the end.

1) Lulav.

Sukkot is about water. Everyday in ancient Israel the priests poured water on the altar and prayers from the blessings of water were made. The four species of the lulav are all about water too. The lulav itself, the date palm, was the most water-loving plant of the desert; the myrtle (hadas) needs the most water of the mountain plants; the etrog fruit among agricultural trees requires the most rains to grow; and of course the “willow of the brooks” (arvei nachal) are synonymous with abundant water, growing often with their roots right in the streams.

Each of these species represents one of the primary habitats of the land of Israel: the desert, the mountain, the lowland (sh’feilah in Hebrew), and the river or riparian habitats. Together they make a bioregional map of the land of Israel, and they hold in greatest abundance the rains of the year that has passed. That’s why the tips of each species, the pitom of the etrog, the unsplit central frond of the lulav, the end leaves of the myrtle and willow, cannot be dried out: it would be like praying for good health while eating junk food. Bringing these four together, we wave them in all directions around us, up and down, praying that the coming year will again bring enough water for each of these species to grow and thrive, and with them all the species of each habitat.

All the other explanations you may have heard for the four lulav species are beautiful midrashim, but this is the ground-level reason for it all. We are praying, fundamentally, for the climate, for the stability and sufficiency of the rain and sun, on which every being living upon the land depends.

How can we make our prayers heard? We can make them heard by hearing them ourselves. All ecosystems are connected, and we cannot harm one without harming the others. When we pray for abundance and sustenance while living in ways that destroy our climate, it is like praying with a dried-out lulav, or worse, praying for health while eating poisons and toxins. Since we must pray for these things, let us also pray for the wisdom and ability to act consistently with our prayers, to change how we live so that we might live sustainably on the earth, as the Torah enjoins us: Uvacharta bachayim! Choose life!

2) Hoshanot.

What does it mean to be a “nation of priests”? If you look at the liturgy and the midrashic teachings on Sukkot, it means praying for all the families of the earth — this includes the other peoples and nations, which according to the midrash correspond to the seventy sacrifices over the holiday, but it also includes, as we read in the Hoshanot prayers for each day, the crops, the animals, the trees, the rains, the sustaining blessing and sustenance of all the earth. We cry out in different moments with such pleading as: “Please save human and animal! Please, save! Please save flesh and spirit and breathing! Please save likeness and image and weave! Please save the ripe fruit, sweeten and save! Please save the clouds from withholding! Please the animals from miscarrying! Please save the rooting of the breathing trees! Please save, Renew the face of the earth!”

What species and habitats need our special prayers this year? Some examples: Save the polar bears from drowning; save the fireflies from becoming lost; save the honeybees from colony collapse; save the coast live oaks from decay; save the old-growth redwoods from becoming lumber; save the cloud forests from vanishing; save the seas from dead zones. Not all environmental crises are our fault, but they are all exacerbated by the pressure, stress and loss of habitat created by both climate change and by our use of more and more land for our purposes (which also accelerates climate change). What can each of us do to protect the particular species in our own locale and “bioregion”? How do each of our actions and choices about what to buy and use and how to live affect species in other places? Finding out the answers to these questions is part of what we need to do to make our prayers real. One way to help us focus on this is to be aware of the fragility of life as we know it in this era of our planet’s history, on the fragility of all that is “suspended on nothingness”, t’luyah al b’li mah.

Ultimately, it’s about each of us taking responsibility to make things different. In this light, two of the lines from the Hoshanot said on Hoshana Rabbah, the last day of Sukkot are especially striking: “Please save the soul from desperation! Please save what is suspended upon nothingness! Hoshana nefesh mibehalah! Hoshana t’luyah al b’li mah!” Behalah can mean all the forces that turn us away from action, that make us believe we do not make a difference. The way to save the soul from “behalah” is to fulfill the mission described in the Hoshanot: to act as priests and pray on behalf of the other species, to fix what we can, to mourn for what is being lost, and to celebrate in joy what remains.

3) Tishrei.

We have been praying and fasting, purifying ourselves since the new moon of Rosh Hashanah, for one overwhelming reason: to make ourselves ready and worthy to pray for the well-being and fertility of the earth, the crops, the animals, and all the peoples. Only now, after we have completed that process through Yom Kippur, can we start to say those prayers. That’s why the tradition says the gates don’t really close until the last day of Sukkot, Hoshana Rabbah. That’s why it’s traditional to wear a kittel (the shroud worn on Yom Kippur) on that day, and why the Chazan (cantor) may don a kittel the first time we begin the prayers for rain, on the following day.

On Yom Kippur, in the Sefardic prayers, there are long confessions that detail every possible sin. One line bids each person to say, “I have not chosen life.” Lo bacharti bachayim. To do t’shuvah means to choose life. Sukkot teaches us how.

4) S’khakh.

If you know how to make a sukkah, you know that its roof is made of s’khakh, branches and leaves. This is not only the essence of the sukkah, but also the reason why it’s called “sukkah”. S’khakh can be made of anything that grows from the ground that has not been manufactured into something new (i.e. not a woven grass mat). S’khakh can’t be held together by wire, it should not be tied down in anyway, and it should ideally rest on plain wood, not metal. All these rules are referred to by the idea that s’khakh cannot be made of anything that is m’kabeil tumah, able to become ritually impure.

The essence of what this means is that s’khakh is in between Nature and the human world, halfway between naturally growing and manufactured: cut from off the ground (or from a tree growing in the ground), but not re-formed or shaped into something useful or woven or tied down. The roof made of s’khakh represents the interface between heaven and earth, between atmosphere and ground, between us and God, and also (and most importantly) it represents the interface between Nature and our human-made world. It represents an atmosphere and climate that gives and tends and protects us, and it represents the fragility of that protection.

Traditionally, s’khakh covers more than half the roof by creating more shade than light, but it should have openings throughout, smaller than a handbreadth, but big enough to see some stars. What is unseen, invisible, hidden from the eye, is greater than what is seen, but what is unseen also permeates what we see. Shefa, the blessing of overflowing abundance, pours in, whether we are aware of it or not. The sukkah gives us the privilege and opportunity to sense this happening.

he essence of the tradition is to teach us to live in the “in-between,” to find shelter and comfort in vulnerability and in making ourselves open to the elements, and to bear witness to the Shekhinah-radiance that underlies all that we can experience. Being aware of the fragile liminality of our separation from God and from Nature, right over the “sole” of our heads, is an entry to thanksgiving, acceptance, and joy.

5) Waving the lulav.

We read above: “When Israel was encamped the pillar of cloud was…like a sukkah and made a canopy over the tent from without, and filled the tabernacle mishkan from within…and this was one of the clouds of glory that served Israel forty years in the wilderness: one on their right and one on their left and one before them and one behind them and one above them and the cloud of the Shekhinah between them.” We are surrounded by divine presence, what is called “glory” (kavod) in the Bible and Shekhinah in rabbinic and post-rabbinic Judaism. If the lulav is meant to draw down shefa and blessing to the earth and all creatures, then we wave it in al directions both because we want to draw blessing from all quarters of creation, and to simultaneously bring blessing to all quarters and corners of creation. Right and left, before and behind, up and…between. Because the last direction, toward the earth, is really the direction of all that binds us together, all that we are made of, the direction of adamah, and Shekhinah. The Shekhinah truly rests in the relations between all creatures, in the “weave” of creation, and in the weave of human caring.

Sukkot reminds us that our relations are not just with other humans, but with the world that is one step beyond the human, the more-than-human world that gives us all that we need. Both the s’khakh and the lulav draw us by steps toward a greater reality which is the bed and bedrock of our lives.

When we pray for all creatures, as our tradition bids us do on Sukkot, we act this out ritually by waving the lulav. It’s not enough to think about blessing: we call for it by action with our whole bodies, with what we gather from the earth. We can only make this physical gesture real by purposeful action to change our impact on the planet, to change ourselves instead of the climate. What we give to the earth must also become this: a blessing. A blessing for all the families of the earth, mishp’chot ha’adamah, all the tribes of species and genus, of region and ecosystem, all our relations of earth and sea and sky. This is how we can choose to act, how we can measure our actions, in an age of global climate change and uncertainty. This is how we can measure policies, community decisions, and the ends of justice.

This is how we can ask God to “renew the face of the ground” chidush p’nei ha’adamah, and be answered. The gates are still open, and the way through them is joy.V’hayita ach sameach! Then, you will rejoice. May we all be blessed to rejoice, with the Shekhinah dwelling between us, in all our relationships, with all the creatures.

The topic has been divided into 3 main themes:

1. Water in torah and prayer

2. Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret and water libations

3. Jewish values of pollution prevention

Materials developed by Noam Dolgin, www.noamdolgin.com.

All content is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. (Ie. Tell other where you got it from and don't sell it)

To explore the various values, themes, and riutals of sukkot.

To learn in a fun and creative way.

To encourage participants to work together in solving questions

Audience:

Ages 8 and up, adaptable for younger with different questions.

Good for intergenerational and adult program as well.

Duration:

Flexible, 15 – 30 minutes.

Materials:

Questions Sheet (attached)

2 Dry Erase Board & markers

Procedure:

1) Divide the Group into teams of approx 5 – 7 people. (traditionally, family fued is played with two teams. If your group is small enough, use this model)

2) Direct teams to choose a team / family name

3) Ask a question, first hand silently up gets a chance to answer without help from there team.

4) If they answer correctly, the team gets another chance to guess, this time they can work together to find an answer..

5) On dry erase board number #1 record the score in the round. Total of all answers complete in that round.

6) Contiue till the team gets an anwer wrong. Then move to another team.

7) Direct them to answer the question. if they get one anwer right. They get all the point won in that round.

8) Keep score on the second dry erase board.

9) Bonus points – if answers remain, players may guess at the final answers for bonus point as indicated in the answer (If you are short on time, just reveal these answers and move on to the next question.

10) Repeat from step 3 with another question.

Materials developed by Noam Dolgin, www.noamdolgin.com.

All content is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. (Ie. Tell other where you got it from and don't sell it)

This year we are focusing on the precious importance of water, and reminding everyone, "Don't Let Precious Water Run!"

Adult Learning

Water Facts

Kids' Activities

Products for Order

Water: Appreciating a Limited Resource
A Torah Teaching for Sukkos on appreciation through limits.

Discussion Guide: True Joy Through Water

Explore Hebrew-English sources and discussion questions appreciating water. Great for adult learning programs.

The Value of Water:

A teaching about Sukkot with facts about water

The Blessing of Rain:

A teaching about rain for Shemini Atzeres, with facts about bottled water.

Statement on Water Quality:

Prepared by Canfei Nesharim’s Science & Technology Advisory Board

How you can save water in your home and community

Break the bottled water habit! See how much bottled water is REALLY costing you.

Take a pledge to break the bottled water habit
(opens pages from the website of the Center for a New American Dream)

Mayim B’Sason:

“Sukkah hop” activity for children

A Water and Chocolate Party:
True Joy for Your Simchas Beis Hashoeva

How Many Logim?
(For children 7 years and up)

L'Mayim!
(for children up to 12 years)

Artful Sukkah Decorations

From Canfei Nesharim:

Sukkah Decorations, Decals, Stickers & 'Water Wheels'

Eco-friendly Etrogim from Eretz Yisrael, from Tarlow Etrogim:
Learn More and Order

Buy a new stainless steel water bottle! Kick the bottled water habit with a 15% off coupon on Kleen Kanteen stainless steel water bottles from Nubius Organics. Learn More and Order

More Teachings and Source Sheets are available on Canfei Nesharim's site.

What do you think of our Sukkot activities? Let us know!

Canfei Nesharim is grateful to Targum Shlishi for last year's generous grant which helped build this program, and to Gaia Fund for this year's generous grant, which has been used to create this year's new resources!

Canfei Nesharim expresses its sincere gratitude to Bikkurim, a joint project of JESNA, UJC, and the Kaminer Family, for taking us into their incubator for new Jewish ideas from 2004-2009.

This content originated at Canfei Nesharim.org.

The whirlwind of holidays is upon us again. Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkos, Shemini Atzeres, and Simchas Torah falling one right after the other is extremely hectic, and sometimes the meaning of all the yom tovim gets a little lost between all the cooking, cleaning, eating, building, decorating, buying new clothes, shaking the lulav, dancing with the Torah. With all the festivity, we can lose our focus as to why we are coming together.

Sukkos is when the Jews who lived in the times of the Beit Hamekdash would travel to Yerushalayim to sacrifice the fruits of their harvest to Hashem. Immediately following Sukkos we celebrate Shemini Atzeres, when the Jews took an extra day of rest in Yerushalayim. They recited Tefillas Geshem, the prayer for rain.

The holiday of Simchas Torah, however, is not mentioned in the Torah, and it appears out of place. Why did the Rabbanim find it fitting to juxtapose Tefillas Geshem with the celebration of the completion of the yearly Torah cycle?

After giving this question some thought, I found that it did indeed make sense that these holidays are celebrated together. Both holidays are the celebration of the end – and the beginning – of significant cycles in Judaism. Sukkos completes the harvest, and reciting Tefillas Geshem begins the new harvest cycle that we celebrated the conclusion of on Sukkos. So to with Simchas Torah: we read the last lines of V'zos Ha'bracha and immediately start the Torah over from Bereishis.

On a superficial level this answer works, but on a deeper level, why do these cycles come "full circle" at the same time? There must be a more significant connection between the tefillah for rain on Shemini Atzeres and the conclusion of the Torah on Simchas Torah.

Rain is a tremendous gift from Hashem. In Beresheit 5:2 it says, "Hashem had not set rain upon the earth and there was no man to work the soil", and Rashi explains:

And what was the reason that G-d did not cause it to rain? Because "There was [yet] no man
to work the soil," and there was no one to appreciate the rain. When a person appeared and
recognized the need for rain in the world, he prayed for it and it descended and the trees and
grains sprouted.

Human beings needed to recognize the importance of the rain and to ask Hashem, thereby bringing this life-giving resource to the world.

What is the connection between the cycle of Torah and the prayer for rain? The clouds, which bring rain, symbolize the synthesis of earthly endeavor and G-dly gifts. Hashem seeds the clouds with moisture from the earth, and sends His winds to bring rain. Rain is, of course, essential in the harvest cycle for growing new plants and human food. It is also essential for all life. Water is the symbol of life, and also the symbol of Torah. Torah, like the clouds, combines earthly effort with Heavenly gifts to give spiritual life and nourishment to all of creation. (Perek Shira, commentary by Rabbi Nosson Scherman, p. 28)

Just as rain is a gift from Hashem, so the Torah is a gift from Hashem. The midrash says the Torah was given on three mediums: fire, water, and wilderness. Each of these mediums contains a deep connection to the Torah. The Ksav Sofer explains that the Torah is compared to water because just as water flows from high to low, so too Torah flows from a haughty person to a humble one. The Torah was given on Har Sinai, the lowest of the mountains, to demonstrate this aspect of the Torah.

According to Rabbi Yisroel Ciner,

In order to develop and grow in Torah, one must properly recognize his position vis-a-vis
Hashem. He must realize the incredible gift that has been offered to him to connect to the
will of his Creator. Only such a humble approach will allow him to properly access the Torah
and thereby properly access Hashem.

This outlook is related to Rashi's outlook on the gift of rain. We must submit ourselves to Hashem's higher power and recognize that we could not exist without water, Torah, and other gifts that Hashem provides us every day.

Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah, two holidays that at first glance do not appear to fit side by side, provide us the opportunity to reflect on Hashem's incredible gifts of water and Torah and the connection between the two. It is beautiful that they are celebrated together, to help us recognize the deep connection between rain and the Torah.

Devorah Serkin was the Canfei Nesharim CLIP Intern this summer. This dvar Torah is just one of her many contributions to our effort. She is a junior at SUNY Binghamton.

Originally posted in "On Eagles' Wings" October 21st 2005

This content originated at Canfei Nesharim.org

After the group has settled in and had the chance to eat, quiet the group for a brief discussion. It is ideal if they can sit.


Share the following with your audience:
Talmud Bavli Sukkah 51 a+b
He who has not seen the rejoicing at the place of the water-drawing has never seen rejoicing in his life.

What made for such wonderful Simcha at the Simchas Beis Hashoeva?

Rambam Laws of Shofar Sukkah and Lulav 8:13
And how was this Simcha [expressed]? The musicians play flutes, harps, fiddles etc. And every person plays the instrument that they know how to play. And whoever knows how to sing, sings. And each person dances and claps and dances and parties the way they know. And words of song and praise are said…

Talmud Bavli Sukkah 53a
It was taught: They said of R. Simeon b. Gamaliel that when he rejoiced at the Rejoicing at the place of the Water-Drawing, he used to take eight lighted torches [and throw them in the air] and catch one and throw one and they did not touch one another;17 and when he prostrated himself, he used to dig his two thumbs in the ground, bend down,18 kiss the ground, and draw himself up again,18 a feat which no other man could do, and this is what is meant by Kidah.19

The celebration of the Simchas Beis Hashoeva was a celebration of water. “On Sukkos we are judged regarding water.” (Mishna Rosh HaShanah 1:2) Here we have provided you with water, along with many other delicious treats. Which treats did you enjoy more, the treats, or the water? You probably enjoyed the treats. Did you even drink the water?

Today, we’ve become so accustomed to water, that we take it for granted. But the Rabbis understood that water is much more precious than these other treats:

Midrash Genesis Raba 13:3-4
Said R. Shimon bar Yohai, ‘Three things are of equal weight with one another, and these are they: the earth, man, and rain.” Said R. Levi bar Hiyyatah, ‘And each of the three of them is written with three consonants, to teach you that if there is no earth, there can be no rain, and if there is no rain, there can be no earth, and if the two of them are not, then there can be no man.’

At this Simchas Beis Hashoeva party, we invite you to appreciate the value of water by taking actions to protect it.

The State of Our Water
• More than half of the world's major rivers are seriously depleted and polluted. In the United States, more than a third (39%) of streams and rivers are impaired by pollution or habitat degradation, and an additional 8% are threatened.
• 1.1 billion people in the world do not have access to safe drinking water and 2.4 billion people lack access to basic sanitation.
• Twenty-five percent of the world’s population lives in countries approaching a position of serious water stress.
• Large predatory fish in our oceans have been reduced to a mere 10% of pre-industrial levels. That means that 90% of large fish (including tuna, marlin, sharks, cod, and halibut) have been removed.

What can I do?
• Turn off the faucet! Don’t let it run between washing for netilas yadayim, while brushing your teeth, or while lathering dishes.
• Eat sustainable seafood.
• In your yard, select plants that have low requirements for water, fertilizers, and pesticides.
• Use non-toxic cleaning alternatives and low-phosphate or phosphate-free detergents.
• Take unwanted household chemicals to hazardous waste collection centers; do not pour them down the drain.
• Eat less beef.
• Don’t buy bottled water. If you feel that your drinking water is not safe, filter your water.
• Buy eco-friendly products from companies like Seventh Generation.

Note that the paper goods being used are eco-friendly, recycled paper goods from Seventh Generation. Invite people to read and take home the Water Wheels and Stickers and put them to action in their home.

This content originated at Canfei Nesharim.org.

You can find printable versions of both at http://canfeinesharim.org.

You can find printable versions of both resources at http://canfeinesharim.org/.

True Joy: Through water

Click here for a printable version (pdf format) of this article

On Sukkos, we celebrate water through the Simchas Beis Hashoeva (Celebration of the Water Drawing Ceremony). It is said that anyone who has not participated in this celebration has not known true joy. (Sukka 51a).

The Gemarrah discusses this concept along with other examples of great things that existed. (51b) Four things are cited as all the glory of their time:

• The Beis Hamikdash for grandeur,

• Jerusalem for “tiferet”

• Simchat Beis Hashoeva for “true joy,” and

• the Synagogue in Alexandria (later mentioned in the Gemarrah) for the honor of Israel.

An examination of the Simchas Beis Hashoeva ceremony yields an interesting comparison to the Ritual Bath (Mikvah). The amount of water used for the ceremonial procedure of the water libation (drawing of the water) in the time of the Beis Hamikdash is 3 logim. This is also the maximum amount of “drawn” water permitted for a Mikvah (ritual bath).

The Mikvah symbolizes throughout Jewish tradition the concept of redemption, repentance and re-birth. It is of significance that during the time of Sukkos when we are coming to the end of a period of more intense focus on the repentance process, the water is a focus of our ritual tradition.[2]

Praying for Water

In the days of the Gemarrah, praying for water was seen as directly related to praying to Hashem for sustenance. The Gemarrah teaches that rain is one of the three responsibilities which Hashem himself administers. (Tannis 2a) Further, the Land of Israel, it is taught, is sustained by rain at Hashem’s discretion, as opposed to the rest of the world which has an intermediary (Shaliach) to administer. (Taanis 10b, Iyov 5:10).

Our ancestors lived in an agrarian society whose bounty or famine were regulated by rain. We currently live in an industrial society where we do not see the direct connect between the food and the land it comes from and even less so the rain that waters the crops. This disconnect keeps us from understanding our own reliance on nature. But while we don’t see this connection, it is still there.

Water is what our ancestors survived on. We survive on water as well, however we find that the connection between us and water to be very weak today. When it rains we seek shelter, but we should be blessing the rain, because it is what feeds the crops which are harvested and we find in the grocery store.

Our daily prayers are full of references to the land, the agricultural cycle and the need for rain. A better understand of the connection between nature and our personal lives and what we say in our davening can increase our appreciation for what Hashem has provided to us to manage.

The Cycle of Water in Davening

Water is so important in our tradition that our davening about it changes in a cyclical manner to reflect the varying agricultural cycle. In the winter, after the crops have been planted, the need for significant amounts of water is great. Too little water and there will be no harvest, too much water and the seeds will wash away. Therefore, on Shemini Atzeres we have a special tefilah where all of Bnai Yisrael congregate in shuls around the world and entreat G-d for rain. We compare and connect our forefathers and sages with water, and we ask for rain in their merit.

As a further daily reminder of the need for rain, on 7 Cheshvan (in the diaspora, December 6) we change a line in Shemonei Esrei to denote our request for rain in Israel. This change is in the Blessing for a good agricultural year (Mevarech Hashanim).[3]

When we reach Pesach, we recognize the continued need for water during the traditional dry season in Israel, but also the sensitivity of the crops. We therefore no longer pray for rain as heavy rains would ruin the crops at this time of year, but we request dew. Dew is an important source for water in semi-arid region such as the one in which the Biblical Land of Israel is located.

And if this is not enough, the reminder of our need to serve Hashem in order to merit rain is repeated twice daily in the Shema: “And it will come to pass that if you continually hearken to My commandments that I command you today, to love Hashem, your G-d, and to serve Him, with all your heart and will all your soul – then I will provide rain for your land in its proper time, the early and late rains….”4

Good Rain and Bad Rain

When we daven, we don’t just daven that Hashem should send rain, we daven that Hashem should send good rain, in the right amount, at the right time.

The Gemara in Masechet Ta’anis 4a, notes that the Jewish people asked that Hashem “should come to them as rain” (Hoshea 6:3). The Gemara says that Hashem responded that the request was not appropriate as sometimes rain is desirable and sometimes rain is not desirable.

At the end of tefillas geshem, we daven that the rain should be for a blessing and not for a curse, for life and not for death, for plenty and not for famine.

We have seen many examples in the past several years of what happens when we have too much, or too little rain – both can be a curse. Of course, too little rain can be a curse: as we have seen with the recent ten year drought in Africa; Israel, which has suffered the longest drought it has known in 100 years, and had to buy water from Turkey; in the US, two large rivers have been diverted because of lack of water in populated areas (near Chicago, and in California). [Here mention what is most appropriate to your area regarding a recent drought and local recommended actions, such as restrictions on watering the lawn or washing cars.]

But too much rain can also be a curse. For example, mudslides in California 2005, 2006; Flooding in Boston and Washington, DC in 2006; Hurricane Katrina, [mention what is most appropriate to your area regarding recent local flooding – streets not passable, basements flooded, etc.].

All natural events, especially rain, can either be for a blessing or curse. We know that rain is critical for life. Therefore, we make sure to daven for the right kind of rain, in the right time.

Water in the Land of Israel

The importance of rain in the Land of Israel cannot be overemphasized. The sages of the Talmud knew that all processes on the earth are intertwined, both physical and spiritual. Physically, we see that water-flow of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Babylon informed the rabbinical decisions related to the prayers for rain.[5] Babylonain Amora Rav (3rd cent. CE) said, "Rain in the west is strongly testified by the Euphrates." The storm tracks that contribute to the Land of Israel's rain continue northeastward to the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. This long-distance correlation informed the sages of the Babylonian Talmud (B.T.) of the approximate level of seasonal rainfall in northern Israel. If this were at a low level, they would decree that the Jewish population of Babylon would say certain prayers in an effort to increase the rainfall in Israel.

Throughout the Torah we find examples of drought as the driving force of population movement throughout the Middle East, and water as a gathering point for events and happenings. Avraham, for example, was forced to go down to Mitzraim to seek food during a time of drought. Eliezer, Avraham’s manservant found Yitzchak’s wife next to a well. Yaakov was forced to go down to Egypt also during a time of drought.

It is no wonder that the sages of the Talmud also stated that Israel is sustained by rainwater. (B.T. Talmud Ta'anis 10a). Even today, the State of Israel is dependent upon rain. Sixty percept of Israel’s water is supplied by the Sea of Galilee through an underground pipeline that stretches for nearly half of the country’s length supplying water to its residents. Forty percent of Israel’s water needs are drawn from underground aquifers, both the coastal and mountain aquifers.[6]

Rainwater replenishes all the drinking water sources of the State of Israel. In the Sea of Galilee, which supplies most of Israel’s water needs, there is a long human-placed rod with a red line. This red line is an indicator of the minimum amount of water that is needed to sustain the country over the long dry season. In recent years, this red line has been exceeded many times. This is a testament to the overdrawing of Israel’s main water resource.[7]

Israel’s other source of water, which is recharged by rainwater, is the aquifer system. There are two main aquifers; the coastal aquifer and the mountain aquifer. They too are being overdrawn. The affect on the coastal aquifer is saltwater intrusion. As a result, one day the coastal aquifer will no longer be usable for drinking water, due to its possible future salt water content. The overdrawing of the mountain aquifer reduces the underground pressures on the freshwater side and causes the ground to literally sink in the area above the aquifer. This is currently happening in sections of the mountain aquifer. It is essential that the catchment basin for these sources remain unaffected and unhindered by physical obstacles such as concrete and tar. The primary result of pouring concrete and tar on the chachment area is poorer water quality entering an already overburdened aquifer system. Previously, water would enter from all areas above the aquifer, today and in the future, if current policies are maintained and more and more of the catchment basin will be covered over, the water quality will continue to diminish.

The State of Our Water

Today, our water is imperiled and depleted worldwide. Global water use increased six-fold during the 20th Century, more than twice the rate of population growth.8 More than half of the world's major rivers are seriously depleted and polluted. In the United States, more than a third (39%) of streams and rivers are impaired by pollution or habitat degradation, and an additional 8% are threatened. 9

In Israel, when a bridge collapsed during the Maccabia games, several athletes died from exposure to water in the Yarkon River which had a high level of contamination of bacteria and pollutants and not from the trauma associated with falling. (July 14, 1997) Approximately 1/3 of the aquifers (soil saturated 100% with water) in Israel are polluted. Aquifers are crucial because they provide long term storage of drinking water.

In the developing world, the situation is more dire. In the year 2000, 1.1 billion people still did not have access to safe drinking water and 2.4 billion people lacked access to basic sanitation.10 Two-thirds of the world's population are likely to face water stress by 2025, a result of climate change, uncontrolled urbanization, unplanned water withdrawal and inappropriate water policies. Shortage of water also means shortage of food, as 80% of our water consumption is applied for irrigating crops.

What can we do to protect our water?

Water is a precious gift from Hashem, and we can show our appreciation by safeguarding its use and preventing waste. Moreover, the mitzvah of Bal Taschis (do not destroy) calls us to use our resources wisely.

Anyone who smashes household goods, tears clothing, demolishes a building, stops up a spring, or wastes articles of food in a destructive manner, is in violation of the command “you shall not destroy”… (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings, Ch. 6 Laws 8-10)

What can you do to appreciate water and prevent waste?

• Check for leaky faucets and toilet tanks – these waste thousands of gallons a year, costing you money, and wasting water. If your toilet runs, fix it – it can waste a tremendous amount of water.

• Use a water efficient spray nozzle for the shower – the result is the same or better water pressure and a much lower water bill.

• Save water in your lawn and garden. In Jerusalem today, vegetation and public gardens are watered through the Israeli invention called drip irrigation that provides drops of water directly to the roots, thereby not losing significant amounts of water to evaporation. This is in direct contrast to open sprinkler systems throughout the world. Israeli agricultural methods of watering also include watering their crops at night to decrease the amount of water lost to evaporation.

• Eliminate or reduce toxic chemicals from your household

• Reduce water consumption – consider water and energy efficient appliances.

• Don’t buy bottled water. If you feel that your drinking water is not safe, filter your water.[ 11 ]

Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch writes in Horeb, 279-80: “Do not destroy anything” is the first and most general call of God, which comes to you, man…God’s call proclaims “only if you use the things around you for wise human purposes…do you have the right over them which I have given you. As soon as you use them unwisely, be it the greatest or smallest, you commit treachery against My world, you commit murder and robbery against My property, you sin against Me.”

It is time for us to consider whether we are using Hashem’s resources wisely, and what we can do to protect those resources for ourselves and our children. This Sukkos and Shemini Atzeres, let’s go beyond just davening for rain. Let’s show our appreciation of Hashem’s blessings by protecting this basic and essential resource.

——————–

Footnotes:

1 Special thanks to Noah Aronin, Ora Sheinson and Shai Spetgang for their help preparing this shiur.

2 An interesting note: in Gemarra’s (Sukkah 51b) description of Simchat Beis Hashoeva, what was burned to illuminate the Beis Hamikdash Azara (courtyard) was the used clothing of the Cohanim. This exemplifies two ideas. One that the clothing used in the Temple service had a certain level of holiness/importance therefore it could not just be disposed of in the usual manner. Secondly, as a result of the elevated status of the clothing it was important to make sure it was used for another holy purpose. The burning of the clothing for illumination in the Beis Hamikdash courtyard was an acceptable re-use of holy material. Further, this idea of assuring appropriate re-use of resources in also referenced elsewhere in the Gemarrah, Shabbat 105b: "Rabbi Shimon b. Elazar says in the name of Hilfa bar Agra, who said in the name of Rabbi Yohanan ben Nuri: 'A person who tears his clothes in anger or who breaks his vessels in anger or who throws away money in anger should be in your eyes like a worshipper of avodah zarah'." The re-use of clothing of the Cohanim for the holy worship of Hashem is a shining example of worshiping Hashem by respecting the resources we were given to manage.

3 Interestingly, Tu Bishvat, which occurs in mid-winter in Israel, 15 Shevat, is the point by which our Sages say that most of the rain has fallen for the season. (Talmud Rosh Hashanna 14a)

4 Scherman, Rabbi Nosson, ed. Complete Artscroll Siddur 1984, p.93.) Second paragraph of Shema Leviticus 26:3-19

5 Brodsky, Harold, ed. Land and Community: Geography in Jewish Studies. pp 42, citing B.T. Tractate Shabbat 65b”

6 Guided tour of Israel’s water resources, Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, Spring 1998

7 Collins, Liat. Jerusalem Post. January 7, 2000. PA3

8 See UN-Water fact sheet at http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/factsheet.html

9 National Water Quality Inventory Report, U.S. EPA, 2000

10 See note 7.

11 For more information about the health questions and environmental effects surrounding bottled water, visit http://canfeinesharim.org/newsletter.shtml and see the August 1, 2006 issue.

This content originated at http://canfeinesharim.org/community/sukkos.php?page=21780.

This content originated at http://www.canfeinesharim.org/community/sukkos.php?page=12386.

This content originated at http://www.canfeinesharim.org/community/sukkos.php?page=12386.