Earth Etude for Elul 18 - Elul: What I Hope to Be

by Joan Rachlin

The temperatures, sun, moon, breezes, trees, grasses, plants, and flowers all signal that change is in the air. We’re moving into a new season and a new month, Elul, with its promise of transformation and its possibility of renewal.

Elul is when we can hit the reset button and begin again. Sounds easy, but we cannot appeal to the “better angels of our nature” without engaging in Teshuvah, or “return.” There are many interpretations of what “return” means in this context but, in the end, each of us must choose our own definition and destination. I am anchoring my journey of Teshuvah to nature, for it is where my soul is most whole and energized.

Our Torah tells us that humankind came from the earth...Adamah. Long before I knew of that sacred teaching, though, I had already formed a primal connection to nature. As a child growing up in Florida, the beach, ocean, and horizon came to represent freedom, joy, and awe. Their beauty, vastness, and mystery brought me as close to God as I’ve ever been and it is thus the place to which my soul is forever tied.

There’s a Niggun that’s sung in many congregations during High Holiday services. Each time I hear it I’m hypnotically lulled back to the gentle waves at the seashore:

Return again, return again

Return to the land of your Soul

Return to who you are, return to what you are

Return to where you are

Born and reborn again.         --Shlomo Carlebach

Spending time in the landscapes I love calms, nourishes, and strengthens my soul, but those places are fighting for their very lives. How can I find my way back to the land of my soul when that land is burning, cracking, flooding, boiling, freezing, and being battered by elements and plagues of biblical proportions?

With thanks to Sheridan Brown, 

who has turned his yard into a butterfly, bee, and bird sanctuary.

Many Rabbis tell us it’s not enough to talk about Torah, we have to “Be Torah.” Similarly, it’s not enough to talk about the environment, we have to “Be Environmentalists.” So as I embark on this return to the land of my soul, my priority will be doing what I can to make it right with the earth. I want to evaluate everything I buy, consume, and use in terms of its environmental impact.

Another part of my commitment involves reaching out to others—without judgment — and asking if they might consider incorporating this kavanah, this intention to help heal the earth, into their lives? Protecting and preserving the earth is a daunting task, so most people surrender to either paralysis or despair. As with all long journeys, it helps to begin with small steps and to consider them in concentric circles:

—How can I personally Be more of an environmental steward?

—How can my family or living unit Be less wasteful? 

—How can I influence my friends, neighbors, and co-workers to Be more involved? 

—How can I help my city or town Be more energy efficient? 

—How can I help my state and country Be a positive leader in environmental action?

This is my kavanah. With commitment and action, change is possible. Be hopeful! Be involved! Be a change agent! It’s Elul. 

Joan Rachlin, JD, MPH, is the executive director emerita of Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research, an international bioethics organization. She has also practiced health, criminal, and civil rights law. Joan has been involved with the women’s health organization, Our Bodies Ourselves, for 45 years and served as its Board chair. An active member of Temple Israel, Boston, she serves on the Leadership Council, TI Cares, and is the founder and co-chair of its the Green Team. Joan is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Higher Ground Initiative, a coalition of reform congregations working on climate change mitigation education and policy. 

Earth Etude for Elul 17 - Slow Down

by Nyanna S. Tobin

   
Slow food folding like a snail over her slime.

       I remember my Dad in his slow down days.

              Even his deep lined smile crept slowly over his face.

                      A thought made Jack Benny sound like a whirled-gig.

Perhaps my Dad was waiting for his angel,

       While she was waiting for him to scream her name.

              And he never did. 

He seemed to be a life-long prisoner of Fear.

       But my escape from that realm,

             Invited me to gaze around the corner

                   To play hide-and-seek at dawn with Curiosity.

We no longer need to scream.           .

      My older self carries little green hearing aides.

             Sometimes I see the bend of a leaf Curiosity flies by.
                  Today, she, like Tinkerbell, is silent.

                                        

Nyanna is a Social and Climate Activist, Teller of True Stories, and Woodland Singer. She lives in Acton, MA, with Ziggy Dog. She is a proud Charter Member of JCAN.

Earth Etude for Elul 16 - Prayer for the Two-Leggeds

by Daniel Kieval



This is the time for us to finally come home
This is the time to know that we are not alone
To find our selves in a deep ancient web

This is the time to be embraced by the land
Kissed by oceans, taken by the hand
Rooted down into this deep ancient web

Receive us now
Retrieve us now
Redeem us now

This is the way that we awake from a dream
Wander out into life's ever-flowing stream
Listen now to the deep ancient web

This is the place that gave birth to us in love
We are the children that Earth is dreaming of
Weaving us into her deep ancient web

Receive us now
Reweave us now
Redeem us now

Daniel Kieval is a nature educator and musician living in western Massachusetts. Hear more music at https://soundcloud.com/daniel-kieval.

Earth Etude for Elul 15 - T’shuvah is an answer.

by Andy Oram

At High Holidays we speak intently and repeatedly of t’shuvah (תשובה), by which we mean repentance or returning to God. T'shuvah does mean "return", but it also means "answer." We have to answer both God's and a world that is dying before our eyes.

How can we answer? How can we approach the High Holidays with the urgency demanded us of from the modern world? In these times of imminent destruction, we also seek an answer to our plea for deliverance. And when seeking answers, Jews turn back to the riches of Torah.

The word t'shuvah derives from the simple foundation "shuv" (שׁוּב: again, or going back).So I used an online concordance to find significant events marked by variants of "shuv". 

Adam and Eve have just been expelled from Eden when God lets them know that their free ride is over. God says in Genesis 3:19: "By the sweat of your brow will you eat bread until your return (shuvkha, שובך) to the ground; for out of it you were taken." This reminds us of two key stances in regard to our spiritual connection to the environment: first, we are responsible for sustaining life, and second, we are inseparable from the Earth.

Exodus 14:26-28 describes the astonishing end of the Pharoah's persecution of the Israelites. After parting the Red Sea, Moses causes the waters to return (וישב, vyashav) and drown the pursuing troops. The root shuv, appearing three times in these three verses, reminds us that while destroying the oppressors and saving the Israelites, the return of the waters restores the natural state of the world.

This root appears also in Exodus 24:14, as Moses carries out the crowning achievement of his life, ascending Sinai to receive the commandments from God. He leaves his flock with Aaron, who will supposedly handle any matters that arise, and takes off with Joshua, telling everyone to wait for them to return (נשוב, nashuv). The problem is that he will not return in time to reassure them of God's presence, and with the help of Aaron they create the Golden Calf. This is a reminder to leaders to follow through on their promises. If you raise expectations and do not satisfy them in a timely manner, you will lose your followers.

I will finish with one occurrence outside the five books of Moses, in 2 Chronicles 32:25. Hezekiah, King of Judah, receives many good wishes from neighboring peoples but fails to reply (השיב, heshiv) because his heart has swelled. This brings down God's wrath for reasons not explained here, but we get the back story (pun intended) in Isaiah 39 and II Kings 20. It seems that the sin of pride came on Hezekiah when visited by emissaries from the rising imperial power Babylonia. He takes them into the Temple and shows them its fine riches, a lapse of crass materialistic boastfulness. For this, Hezekiah receives a tongue-lashing and chilling prophecy from Isaiah. By devaluing the Temple's holy mission and reducing it to a showcase for his wealth, Hezekiah brings on disaster.

Thus, the Bible has answers for those who want to address our environmental crisis. We must recognize our ties to the Earth and our need to keep it productive, smash oppressors in order topreserve its natural state; keep our commitments to those who depend on us; and avoid a fixation on material goods. Do these things, and your t'shuvah can help save the world.

Andy Oram is a writer and editor at O'Reilly Media, a highly respected book publisher and technology information provider. Andy currently specializes in open source and data analytics, but his editorial output has ranged from a legal guide covering intellectual property to a graphic novel about teenage hackers. Andy also writes often on health IT, on policy issues related to the Internet, and on trends affecting technical innovation and its effects on society. Print publications where his work has appeared include The Economist, Communications of the ACM, Copyright World, the Journal of Information Technology & Politics, Vanguardia Dossier, and Internet Law and Business. Andy participates in the Association for Computing Machinery's policy organization, USTPC. He also writes for various web sites about health IT and about issues in computing and policy, and has published short stories and poetry.

Earth Etude for Elul 14 - Inner and Outer Climate Change

by Rabbi Robin Damsky

It’s been a year of change. Not just a move, but a move to a new climate zone and a very new culture. I moved from outside Chicago to Durham, NC, the South. The trees here are glorious – pines everywhere, wisteria in April blooming in the wild, crepe myrtle in vivid fuchsia and pale pastels just now. It’s hot. Average days are in the 90s and one can almost swim in the humidity. A long growing season brought daffodils in February, while I just set my second planting of pole beans. I’ve been graced by many a critter – my welcome basket was in the form of a 10-inch turtle on my front steps. I see many toads, frogs and praying mantises. The hawk that sits in my front tree visits regularly; as do so many species of birds that I hear and see living within the forest in my backyard. In a Dorothy moment, I would say to Toto: “We are definitely not in Kansas (Chicago) anymore.”

A local toad finds a home in the pot of a rooting
African violet leaf (yes, the leaf got displaced).

Being in this location with so much nature around me is a balm down deep. Yet I have already lived through two hurricanes. Then a snowstorm that brought more inches in one day than the annual average. The heat is often unbearable. Every day I see more forest being cleared for new townhomes. We live within climate change.

So what to do? Well, I plant. Everywhere I can I plant food and flower, vegetable, herb, fruit and tree. I compost, building back some of which I take away. I teach this to expand the vision, as well as the healing. But I also worry. I meet many 20s and 30s individuals who are reconfiguring their goals expecting our Earth to die off. Or at least to go through a major shift. I am reminded of the movie, “The Day After Tomorrow,” with most of the northern hemisphere winding up covered in ice.

Teshuvah is internal and external. Where inside are we feeling laid waste? Where are our inner tornadoes and hurricanes? Where might we be cutting ourselves off from our own resources? What work do we need to do to replenish the inner landscape? As we explore the inner, so too we look out. Is there an individual act of repair for us to take on? Is it time to join a communal program? Are we to put on our activism boots and start a project, or advance one that speaks to us? How do we pass the word to others? In the words of Hillel, the time is now.

It may seem that the inner answers are easier to address than those pertaining to the Earth outside of us. But perhaps they are mere reflections of one another. As we heal within, so too without. The reverse is true as well. May our work this Elul season bless us with these healings in abundance. May we simultaneously hold hands with others around the globe, reminding ourselves that we are one Earth family.

© 2019 Rabbi Robin Damsky

Rabbi Robin Damsky is the founder of In the Gardens, a nonprofit bringing edible organic garden design and meditation practice to people in food insecure communities and beyond. She is the rabbi of Temple Israel in Miller Beach, IN, boasting a 41-plot community garden. Robin offers scholar-in-residence opportunities combining garden design, contemplative practice and eco social justice. She is the upcoming co-chair of Hazon’s Rabbinical Council. Kenissa has identified her as an innovator redefining Jewish life. Robin is a graduate of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s Clergy Leadership Program and their Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training. She was ordained by the Ziegler School at AJU and earned her Masters in Jewish education at JTS. She has a BFA in dance from Ohio University and has been a medical massage therapist since 1977. Robin lives in Durham, NC. She is the very proud mother of Sarah.  http://inthegardens.org, Instagram: inthegaredensIL

Earth Etude for Elul 13 - Spiritual Lessons from ‘God’s Art Museum ‘

by Rabbi Dorit Edut

Ma rabu ma’asecha, Adonai; kulam b’hochma aseeta; malu ha-aretz kinyanecha - How numerous are Your works, O Lord; with wisdom You fashioned them all; the earth abounds with Your creations! 

These words from the weekday morning blessings before the Shema prayer, were on my lips constantly as I traveled through "God’s Art Museum" in Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon this summer. At every turn was another gasp at an amazing sight – truly photographers’ and artists’ paradise! Using only wind, water, red sandstone, white limestone, and the shifting plates under the surface of our earth, God molded canyons, mountains, rivers, and rock formations that are among the most breath-taking on our planet. Trails take you so close you can touch these gorgeous masterpieces without a guard telling you not to do so – and yet you are awed by their other-worldliness. No wonder other people gave them Biblical and spiritual names – such as “The Patriarchs”, the “The Virgin River”, “Angels Landing”, and the “West Temple”. It is here that the Anasazi Indians and their descendants worshipped the Earth, Sun, Sky, and Water some fifteen hundred years ago. And here it was that in this ancient place of beauty, I was inspired to think of what was meant by praising God’s “wisdom” for creating such places.

First, it seems like a great idea to bring all this beauty to one place where many different people over the centuries could admire it and think about the One Creator of this Universe.

Second, people might begin to really comprehend that God also created great beauty and power in all living beings formed by God, and that this great variety of life is to be admired while our common origins are to be recognized, revered, and regenerated.

Third, in the presence of these magnificent sites, we experience our own humility, our gratefulness for these gifts, and our mission to preserve and protect the environments of our entire planet for all of them are interrelated.

Finally, the paths and roads leading into these parks had us all gazing and turning in every direction and, as we left, turning back for one last glance. We shall certainly look much more carefully at the pathways we have trod this past year and contemplate where we can apply what we have learned from the Divine Wisdom we perceived in the preciousness of this place and in all such places, and in all the different people we encounter in this place we call our earthly home.

Rabbi Dorit Edut ( AJR ‘06) is the head of the Detroit Interfaith Outreach Network which is there to build a community that supports the families, children and individuals who live in the city of Detroit through strengthening their access to education, safety, health, culture and job opportunities.

Earth Etude for Elul 12 - Two Poems

by Judith Felsen, Ph.D.

Urban Garden

Urban garden
tiny patch of heaven
nestled amidst brick and stone;
kales and chards salute the sky
bok choy sentry elegant,
celery, parsleys hold court
while lettuce species dance,
each offering a breath of life
oxygen of garden’s greens
infuses air
lungs spared inhale

may urban gardens grace this world,
edible planted prayers of green
reviving life and city air;
urban garden
blessing ground and all

Urban garden
tiny patch of heaven
nestled amidst brick and stone;
kales and chards salute the sky
bok choy sentry elegant,
celery, parsleys hold court
while lettuce species dance,
each offering a breath of life
oxygen of garden’s greens
infuses air
lungs spared inhale

may urban gardens grace this world,
edible planted prayers of green
reviving life and city air;
urban garden
blessing ground and all



Seeding Our Future

Lentils, tiny seeds
vital mini spheres of life
sown power alternates
yielding nutrients
for health

Esau gave his kingdom
for a bowl of lentils
his decision
altered destiny--
red seeds cooked
were valued then…

Today might we exchange
destruction, greed, starvation
and extinction
for lentil fields
and humble bowls
of life
edible prayers of sustenance
for centuries to come

May lentils grace
our lives today
fields yielding
seeds of power
greening planet
saving earth
Elul’s lentil etude
for redemption
of our world


Judith Felsen, Ph.D. is a poetess, Clinical Psychologist, coach, 2nd generation holocaust survivor, hiker, dancer, walker, volunteer, lover of nature, gardens, wilderness, beach, ocean and mountains. Her work addresses issues of recovery, 2nd generation survivors, the natural world, gardens and harvests, life cycle issues, spiritual questing, social issues, community issues and personal requests. Her poems have been published and widely distributed in national and specific publications. She is a New York native and resident of new Hampshire. She frequents Long Beach and lives with her husband and two large rescue dogs at their camp in the White Mountains of N.H. and house near the ocean in Long Beach. She actively studies the mystical and esoteric aspects of Judaism and is a member of the board of the Bethlehem Hebrew Congregation and the Chavurah of Mount Washington Valley. She writes often and offers consultation upon request.

Earth Etude for Elul 11 - Return to Our Values

by Deb Nam-Krane

In 2017, I heard LaDonna Redmond, founder of the Campaign for Food Justice Now, speak at the Annual Gardener’s Gathering in Boston. An organizer working at the crossroads of food justice and racial equality, she laid out a familiar story: her child was allergic and/or sensitive to many foods, but to provide him with the food he needed, Redmond had to step out of her neighborhood because fresh fruits and vegetables weren’t available there. She started a community garden and cooperative, and each step in helping her family and community be healthier brought her up against the weight of the food system we all exist - and eat - in.

It was a relief to hear someone say that solving the built-in inequities of our food system wasn’t as simple as some food writers would have us believe. We are told by those trying to solve a problem in a short book or even shorter column that if we cooked from scratch, or followed the example of our great-grandparents (but I think they mean great-grandmothers), that we would all be so much healthier and happier. The relief was hearing another woman of color ask whose great-grandparents were really being held up as an example, and asking what other people in that generation were doing. Before we hearken back to this idyllic time, we need to ask whether we want to hold up as a model a system that required so many poor, usually non-white laborers to engage in low wage, back-breaking labor so other people could eat well, and while we’re grappling with that question, we need to step back and ask how we feel about the land this system was built on when we know that it was taken from other people.

There is no food justice to go back to, Redmond told her audience. We have to build it, and from the soil up.

I do not share this story to argue that “return” is irrelevant. On the contrary, I think it is necessary: We must return to the roots of our unjust food system so we can ask what it is we need to change. Who is it we want to feed? What is it we want to feed them? Who is it that will provide the work? How will we treat the land? 

Ultimately, what we need to return to are our values. L’ovda ul’Shomra is our reminder that we not only need to “till” the land we work, but “tend” to each other as well as the crops we bring forth. We need to honor these values as we create our new food system, and we need to return to it every season, at every meal, and every time we vote. 

Deb Nam-Krane is a writer, homeschooler, and master urban gardener in Boston-proper. A longtime member of Temple Sinai of Brookline, she has also worked with Beantown Jewish Gardens and the Jewish Climate Action Network planning teams.

Earth Etude for Elul 10 - Earth Mother

Carol C. Reiman

She holds us

in her arms,

charms us

with star sparkle

eyes,

lilac 

breath, 

song of rippling water

over stone.

She tells us our story,

from deep

in the loam of her heart,

fed by

rains and heat, 

warmth, cold,

into the family

of breezes, currents, creatures—

those like us

and not.

Movement in spurts,

and slow,

creeping, climbing, sliding,

changing skins and gestures,

while we grow 

along with our

earth siblings, cousins,

at pause and in dance,

flowing

in mutual vibration.

We play, shift our balance,

lose our grasp of the limb,

leap out

from our source

to find the rest

of the forest.

We regain our purchase,

find a companion,

laugh.

Fumbling, with stumbles,

growth rings, peeling bark.

Sifting tides 

reveal

fresh treasures

along the edges.

Stop.

See what is around you,

what she holds along with you.

The soft moss, the mountain crag,

the courting bird.

The places dried with ash,

streams blocked by toxins,

the parched land, 

the hungry child, 

the thirsty soul.

Clear the trash,

sustain the ocean depths,

feed the child,

calm the fellow soul.

The earth’s arms are wide,

and it is yours to share

inside more love

somehow somewhere.

Raise your voice, shout, cry,

sway and shimmy,

wiggle to her rhythms,

know your joy in her.

Show your love 

of what begat,

bore and nurtured you,

will take you home.

Touch her scars gently,

wash away her tears.

Hear her heartache, 

as she bears yours.

You are not separate—

cannot be—

you are woven together.

As she goes, so do you,

if only in 

different

spirals.

Cherish

your time together,

you and your

good earth.

Carol is retired from library work in four states, with ties to several religious organizations. She does pet sitting and dabbles in a range of things from Sanskrit to dance. She enjoys exploring connections with people and non-human animals.

Earth Etude for Elul 9 - Elul: A Time to Start Shifting Our Imperiled Planet onto a Sustainable Path

by Richard H. Schwartz

As the world spirals toward a climate catastrophe, the current Hebrew month of Elul again provides time for heightened introspection, a chance to do t’shuvah (repentance), to improve our lives and our involvements, before the “Days of Awe,” the days of judgment, the “High Holidays” of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. 

How should we respond to Elul today? How should we respond to the current reports of dire environmental and other environmental threats to humanity, including:

• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an organisation composed of climate experts from many countries, warned in an October 2018 report that the world may have only until 2030 to make ‘unprecedented changes’ in order to avert a climate catastrophe.
• The average world temperature has increased every decade since, the 1970s, all 18 years in this century are among the top 19 hottest years since temperature records were kept in 1880; the hottest year worldwide was 2016, breaking records previously established in 2014, followed by 2015, the first time temperature records were broken in three consecutive years.
• There are reports somewhere in the world almost daily about severe, often record-breaking, heat waves, droughts, wildfires, floods, storms, or other climate events.
• Glaciers worldwide and polar ice caps are melting faster than projections of climate experts
• Climate experts believe that because of self-reinforcing positive feedback loops (vicious cycles), the world may soon reach an irreversible tipping point when climate spins out of control with disastrous consequences, unless major changes are soon made.
• In May 2019, The Global Assessment Report released by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) warned that about a million species are now threatened with extinction, more than ever before and that ecosystems are now under unprecedented stress.

In view of all of the above and more, we should make it a priority to do all we can to awaken the world to the dangers and the urgency of doing everything possible to shift our imperiled planet onto a sustainable path. We should urge that tikkun olam (the healing and repair of the world) be a central focus in all aspects of Jewish life today.

We should contact rabbis, Jewish educators, and other Jewish leaders and ask that they increase awareness of the threats and how Jewish teachings can be applied to avert impending disasters. We should write letters to editors, call talk shows, question politicians, and in every other way possible, stress that we can’t continue the policies that have been so disastrous.

The afternoon service for Yom Kippur includes the book of Jonah, who was sent by God to Nineveh to urge the people to repent and change their evil ways in order to avoid their destruction. Today the whole world is Nineveh, in danger of annihilation and in need of repentance and redemption, and each one of us must be a Jonah, with a mission to warn the world that it must turn from greed, injustice, and violence, so that we can avert a global catastrophe.

Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D., is President Emeritus of Jewish Veg, formerly Jewish Vegetarians of North America, and author of Judaism and Vegetarianism, Judaism and Global Survival, and Who Stole My Religion? Revitalizing Judaism and Applying Jewish Values to Help Heal our Imperiled Planet, and 250 articles at JewishVeg.org/Schwartz.