Earth Etude for Elul 25 - "If the world is created for my sake..."

by Rabbi David Seidenberg

According to tradition this day (the 25th of Elul) is when the Creation of the world began - six days before Rosh Hashanah.

According to the Mishnah, every person should believe, "the world was created for my sake". (Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5)

But what does this mean? That we can do whatever we want with the world because it is ours, or that I can do whatever I want because the world is *mine*? On the contrary, says Rebbe Nachman. He explains, "Since the world is created for my sake, I need to see and look in every moment into repairing the world (tikkun ha’olam), and to replenish what the world lacks, and to pray on their behalf." (Likutei Moharan 1:5)

Imagine the holy chutzpah Rebbe Nachman had, to take one of the most anthropocentric teachings in the whole of rabbinic tradition and turn it into a teaching about humility and service! That’s the kind of chutzpah we need now to face the pandemic, and the kind of chutzpah we need to meet the challenge of global climate disruption. 

Yechiel Mikhel ben Uzziel (d. 1730), gave us a related teaching about the world being created for “my sake”:

The purpose of Creation was for the sake of the human being to have free choice, in order that there be punishment and reward. And the reward and the punishment are not from the perspective of whether one has benefited the Holy One, God forbid, as if there could be some usefulness or harm to God from the actions of a person... rather it is from the perspective of benefiting the world and settling it (tikkun ha’olam viy’shuvo), for the righteous benefit the world (m’taknim ha’olam) through their actions, while the wicked are destroying it and turning it back into chaos and void, and limiting the flow of divine abundance (shefa). (Nezer Hakodesh 53a)

Here is more holy chutzpah: if you think that the world was created as a test for you, know that that the test is whether you live your life to benefit the world. And the measure is this: are your actions increasing the abundance of Life-energy available to the world and all its creatures? 

Maimonides also teaches us to have holy chutzpah. Imagine, he says, that the whole world stands in the balance between merit and guilt, and that your actions will tip the scales to the side of merit or the side of guilt. (Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot T’shuvah 3:4) 

These three teachers each tell us to re-center ourselves: if all the world is created for my sake, then it all depends on me, on my next choice. How will you choose?

Rabbi David Mevorach Seidenberg is the creator of neohasid.org and the author of Kabbalah and Ecology: God's Image in the More-Than-Human World. He has completed groundbreaking research on many issues, including not only ecology but also tikkun olam and animal rights, and is well-known as a liturgist and translator. He has smikha from both JTS and Reb Zalman. David lives in Northampton MA.

Earth Etude for Elul 24 - Adamah V'Shamayim (Earth and Heaven)

by Rabbi Louis Polisson

I sit and look out over the green grass

The grove of trees just in front of me, to the left
I sing
Adamah ve-shamayim [earth and sky]
Ḥom ha-eish [heat of fire]
Tz’lil ha-mayyim [sound of water]
Ani margish zot [I feel this]
Be-gufi [in my body]
Be-ruhi [in my spirit]
Uve-nishmati [and in my soul]

But do I feel
The pain
The suffering
Of my fellow human beings, children of Eve
Children of Eden
Children of Earth

Teshuvah, returning, then

Is back to Eden, yes
But also back to Gehinnom
Where bodies were sacrificed
To false gods 
Of hate and fire

May the rain of the 8th day

Come swiftly
Wash away the hate
Extinguish the flames

May the Earth and the Sky

Be renewed and renew us
Forgiving us our sins

May the Sovereign in the field

Return us and we will return
Renewing our days as of old

אדמה ושמים

מאת הרב לואיס לב שלום בן אשר זעליג ז׳׳ל וטובה פוליסון

אני יושב וצופה על העשבים הירוקים

חורש העצים לפני, לשמאל
אני שר
אדמה ושמים
חום האש
צליל המיים
אני מרגיש זאת
בגופי
ברוחי
ובנשמתי

אבל האם אני מרגיש
את הכאב
את הסבל
של בני אדם עמיתים, בני חוה
בני עדן
בני אדמה

תשובה, חזרה, היא
לשוב לעדן, כן
אבל גם שוב לגיהנום
שבו גופים הוקרבו
לאלים כוזבים
של שנאה ואש

יהי גשם שמיני עצרת

יבא מהר
לשטוף את השנאה
לכבות את הלהבות

יהי אדמה ושמים

יתדחשו ויחדשו אותנו
סולחים את חטאתינו

יהי המלך בשדה

ישיבינו ונשובה

מחדש ימינו כקדם

Louis Polisson serves as Rabbi of Congregation Or Atid of Wayland, Massachusetts. An up-and-coming Jewish musician, he was awarded a grant from the Hadar Institute of New York to record and produce an album of original Jewish and spiritual folk songs with his wife, Gabriella Feingold, released in November 2018. Click here to listen. Rabbi Polisson is also a student and teacher of Jewish meditation and spiritual practices. On special occasions, he writes Hebrew and English poetry.

Earth Etude for Elul 23 - Day of Atonement

by Carol Reiman

The river sings to you, the voice of clear water, of ripples, of force over stones. Listen further, to sounds of children splashing in the great heat, where the flow is sullied from the waste of carelessness and greed. The gasping of those weakened by asthma in the droplet laden pandemic air. How, how did it come to this? Who did not see, who looked away?

Stand by the tree, its massive trunk reaching into the sky, underground its community of roots. See the developers who come to remove the living growth, uproot its foundation, separate its life from its kinfolk. Who did not offer another plan, not delay the construction, not stop the bulldozer?

The man speaks to you in tones rich with meaning, of his work, his family stories, of what he has seen, his dreams for the future, his hopes for his children. See him taken down, his neck constricted, his breath choked out. Who saw and did not cry out, not shove aside the knee, not prevent this, again and again?

Stand before the gates, your chance this year to say what you did and did not do. If you still have life, you must protect the lives of others. What do you now know that you must say and do, for the river, the tree, the man, the breath of life that moves in you and those still living? You may not live til all is as one, but you must do the work as long as you have breath.

Carol Reiman tries to connect details with bigger pictures, to breathe, and to let others breathe in peace.

Earth Etude for Elul 22 - Ani L'dodi V'dodi Li

by Daniel Kieval

The Hebrew letters of "Elul" are said to spell out ani l'dodi v'dodi li -- I am for my beloved and my beloved is for me.

I invite you to listen to this song as a message of love being sung uniquely to you -- perhaps from the Divine, perhaps from the Earth, perhaps from your own Inner Beloved. You might try listening with each of these lenses and seeing what happens.

Whoever the singer is, they are continually and faithfully offering their love and the possibility of relationship. Will you reciprocate? "I will be for you; will you be for me?"

Daniel Kieval · Ani L'Dodi

Ani l'dodi v'dodi li

I will be for you
Will you be for me?

Hoping for you I wait
Turn my heart to this simple state
I will forgive
So you may live
With love in every breath I give

Ani l'dodi v'dodi li
I will be for you
Will you be for me?

It is your face I seek
My gentle fingers upon your cheek
And in your eyes
I see surprise
As holy sparks in you arise

Ani l'dodi v'dodi li
I will be for you
Will you be for me?

And when we burst into light
In the darkest of the night
Then you will see
We can be free
If you will come back home to me

Daniel Kieval is a musician, naturalist, and educator living in western Massachusetts.

Earth Etude for Elul 21 - Of Fences, Barriers, and Trees

by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen

לְדָוִ֨ד ׀ יְה ׀ אוֹרִ֣י וְ֭יִשְׁעִי מִמִּ֣י אִירָ֑א יְה מָֽעוֹז־חַ֝יַּ֗י מִמִּ֥י אֶפְחָֽד׃ 

Of David. Adonai is my light and my help; whom should I fear? Adonai is the stronghold of my life, whom should I dread? (v.1)

Of David, God is my life-force and my wholeness: whom would I fear? God is my fortress of strength for my life, whom would I dread?  (per Rabbi Ora Weiss)

In Elul, we begin reading Psalm 27, and continue through Yom Kippur and to Shmini Atzeret.

During Elul, I am thinking about fences and trees. Fences being put up, and trees being taken down.

I'm feeling fences and trees. Wondering why it isn't fences being taken down and trees being planted.

Fences and barriers of all kinds, the rejection of connection, out of fear or anger or hatred. 

Mostly fear, I'd say.

Trees, the embodiment of connection. Under the ground, out of sight, connecting to every other tree in their neighborhood, supporting them, building true community.

Sometimes we humans do need fences. We can't handle the connections. 

Introvert, loner-self that I am, more often than I sometimes like to admit.

Yet, like trees, we can't live without each other. 

But we want to limit “each other,” rather than including everyone. 

Denying the reality is that we are as connected as the trees.

We are part of something larger than ourselves, and literally dependent on all of it.

We are all in this together, barriers or no, people we like or not, agree with or not. 

That ALL is really hard to admit to. No matter where we stand.

We all breathe the same air. 

Though for those less privileged the air is less clean.

We all need to breathe to survive. 

No matter our color.

Trees know this better than we.

In this time of fences and barriers - visible and invisible - 

in this time of teshuvah,

what does it mean for me to return to G!d? 

What does it mean to seek forgiveness for my need to be alone?
For my fears?

For my desire - my need - for fences and barriers?

How do I forgive the fences and barriers of others?

The felled trees? 

The suffocated people?

Should I? Must I?

קַוֵּ֗ה אֶל־יְה֫וָ֥ה חֲ֭זַק וְיַאֲמֵ֣ץ לִבֶּ֑ךָ וְ֝קַוֵּ֗ה אֶל־יְהוָֽה׃ 

Look to the LORD; be strong and of good courage! O look to the LORD! (v. 14)

Wait for God, be strong and strengthen your heart and wait for God. (per Rabbi Ora Weiss)

O G!d, I am looking to You. Please help me find the strength and courage to figure out the fences and the barriers, both mine and others'. Help me figure out felled trees. Please help me, today, and again, as I wait, tomorrow and tomorrow and every day. 

Rabbi Katy Allen is the founder and rabbi of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope, which holds services outdoors all year long, and the co-founder and President pro-tem of the Jewish Climate Action Network-MA. She is a board certified chaplain and a former hospital and hospice chaplain and now considers herself an eco-chaplain. She received her ordination from the Academy for Jewish Religion in  Yonkers, NY in 2005 and lives in Wayland, MA with her spouse, Gabi Mezger, who leads the.singing at Ma'yan Tikvah.

Earth Etudes for Elul 20 - Elul 2020

by Judith Felsen, Ph.D.

 

Is this You? 
Your eyes behind the mask
search lights beaming, 
bridging gaps of social distance,
gazes merge in glances 
momentary soul connection 
 
Is this You? 
Body wracked
breath ventilated
clinging to existence
space suited team in rescue
heroism humbly shared  
facing of death
 
Is this You? 
Twisted pain contorted reason
human armed,
weapons fired in hate
murder of resentment
revenge, retaliation
mind and deed in separated state

Is this You?

Marching, bannered, shouting, chanting,
claiming, presence, voices heard
constructing deconstructing 
challenging our history 
standing firm
creating our tomorrow
 
Is this You?
Planet ailing, melting, dying,
groaning for a consciousness
ending of abuse
pleading for a chance to live  
supporting life tomorrow
 
Is this You?
A country split, divided, torn apart
conflict without resolution
language hijacked 
Babel’s fate in modern times
reaction without reconciliation
union shatters, grief presides
 
Is this You? 
In terror, plague and hate
thirteen qualities 
revealed, requested or expressed 
attributes of You 
hidden or displayed
expression and constriction
creation and destruction
must be You

Is this You? 

Is this Your invitation,
our meeting in the field 
destination in our daily lives 
path to transform pain for good 
converting deeds of hate to acts of mercy 
meeting daily in the  field
bringing Sparks 
seeing You in all 
our journey home 
with You

© J.Felsen, Ph.D. 7/29/20

Judith Felsen, Ph.D. is a N.Y.S. Licensed Clinical Psychologist who resides in Bartlett, N.H. at the edge of the White Mt. National Forest. Judith is a lover of and advocate for nature and all life, a hiker, walker, dancer, meditator, poetess, volunteer, gardener, wife and dog mother of two rescue dogs. She offers consulting upon request and spends time practicing and studying various treatment and healing modalities. She is on the board of the Bethlehem Hebrew Congregation, the Mt. Washington Valley Havurah and Neskaya Center for Movement Arts. Since Covid-19 Judith and Jack, her husband, have lived in Long Beach, New York where she practices, walks the beach, boardwalk and delights in the garden Jack cultivated. Judith participates in virtual services and is active in the Jewish community of both New Hampshire and New York. This year, Judith and her husband were awarded the JFNH Shem Tov Award for work on Holocaust and Genocide Education, related studies and offerings to the public and other organizations and audiences. Judith and Jack are second generation survivors and work to enhance the end of genocide for all.

Earth Etude for Elul 19 - A Tomato, A Single Tomato

by Rabbi Margaret Frisch Klein

Six months

Inside, a cocoon

Finding my authentic self

Learning and relearning new skills

Baking challah

Chanting Torah

Painting seascapes

Planting

Herbs for more flavor

Cucumbers for pickles

And tomatoes

I’ve never done well at gardening

But this year 

This year

Success!

There, right there

It is right there.

A tomato

A single tomato

Ripe

Ready for harvesting

Juicy,

Dew glistening on its fire engine red skin

One perfect tomato

Not like from the store

Not like a winter tomato devoid of flavor

This one.

This very one.

Cocooned against the cucumber leaves

Resting and gathering strength like me

An authentic, real tomato.

Perfect.

One bite

One single tomato

Symbol of this pandemic.

Last year for Earth Etudes I wrote about our community garden at Congregation Kneseth Israel. I also spoke about it as part of Gail Borden Public Library’s Earth Day videos. I filmed it before we planted this year. Even before everything was shut down and programming went virtual. I don’t usually do much hands-on work in the garden, but it is doing really well at CKI. We have been feeding the widow, the orphan, the stranger, the marginalized since May. Kale, spinach, carrots, radishes, tomatoes and lots and lots of cucumbers. Our neighbors love them, especially the cucumbers. And it is a perfect example of “Love your neighbor as yourself.” I’ve lost count of the number of deliveries that Congregation Kneseth Israel has made to the soup kettle at Holy Trinity Church, right across the street. It really is Unity on Division Street. 

This year I decided I would try my hand at home. I have been writing lots, trying new skills and polishing up old ones. In the middle of a pandemic I was trying my best to lead an authentic Jewish life, for me. It fit with what I was doing for Earth Day, the fact that my husband has an agriculture degree from the Michigan State and suddenly I had, in theory, more time. So we planted. The container herbs have seasoned our food all season. The cucumbers produced nothing (but we did make pickles from cucumbers we bought at the farmer’s market). But the tomatoes? Every week we get one or a handful of perfect, flavorful, ripe tomatoes. 

Rabbi Margaret Frisch Klein is the rabbi of Congregation Kneseth Israel, in Elgin Illinois. She blogs as the Energizer Rabbi and serves on several local boards. She helped the City of Elgin plan this year’s 50^th Anniversary of Earth Day, the programming all of which went virtual. She is the author of two books, Climbing Towards Yom Kippur about the 13 Attributes of the Divine and Enduring Spirit about the cycle of the Jewish year. 

Earth Etude for Elul 18 - A Meditation in Nature

by Rabbi Susan Eldoski

At a retreat two years ago, I was inspired by Rabbi Katy Allen's "walking in nature" Shacharit meditation. I believe there's power in being in nature, as Rabbi Nachman said, but it has been difficult for many during this pandemic. These photos were all taken by me and bring me comfort when I look at them.

Rabbi Susan Elkodsi is the spiritual leader of the Malverne Jewish Center in Malverne, NY. She received ordination from the Academy for Jewish Religion in Yonkers, NY in May of 2015, and prior to that served student pulpits in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. In 2019 she received a Rabbinic Certificate in Gerontology and Palliative Care from the Wurzweiler School of Social work at Yeshiva University. Her goal is to create relationships with Baby Boomers and older adults to help find meaning and purpose in their lives with the context of Jewish tradition and teachings, and as part of a Jewish community, in whatever way each individual sees him or herself. Rabbi Elkodsi and her husband, David, have two adult children.

Earth Etude for Elul 17 - The Mask as a Symbol for Life-Sustaining Vision

by Chaplain Rabbi Dr Leslie Schotz

 On this journey of life our 2020 vision 

Forced us to look above our reflections

And mask the face we present to the world. As walking treepeople of the earth we were called to acknowledge the microcosms of life and death staring us into our focus upon breath. 

Beyond our collective comprehension of 2019 the year 2020 brought a vision which called us to see a larger picture of collective responsibility. The world of people were unified in fear and longing for life. Yet we isolated our bodies and nurtured our souls as we continue to heal and connect to the gift of life on earth as our souls learn a new perspective for 2020. May we hold each other in virtual kindness and compassion as the earth heals and people share hope for the future of humanity. A light springs eternal. Can you see it? Can you feel it? Can we be together collectively in our unique destiny for the future of the earth and all its life seen and unseen...... We shall see. We will believe. We long for a loving peaceful  survival.

 

Chaplain Rabbi Dr Leslie Schotz is a Board Certified Chaplain who works as a chaplain in a psychiatric hospital and also at a nursing home as a hospice chaplain. Rabbi Schotz is the author of two books. One is entitled Spiritual Direction for Jewish Children. The other is Congregational Guide to Jewish Meditation. 

Earth Etude for Elul 16 - Harmony of Colors

by Rabbi Robin Damsky

The fingertips of Hurricane Isaías brush the skylights of my sunroom and drench the woods around my house. Tomorrow the guts are expected to touch down a few hours from here. I expect we’ll see the just his shoulder, nonetheless yielding flash floods, downing power lines and trees, with potential tornado winds. The house is well protected. I feel safe

Yet I don’t feel safe in general. The world is reeling from an insidious disease completely preventable. As the icebergs in the polar caps melt, exposing bacteria frozen for hundreds of millennia, as species of plants and animals disappear at an alarming rate, continuing to upset the delicate balance of Creation’s ecosystem, as toxic industry ruins our earth, water, air and soil, we have paved the way for disease to run rampant. 

The disease of the Earth translates into dis-ease for her people. Not only are we dying from COVID-19, we are dying from lack of food, lack of potable drinking water – which is expected to lead the next wave of refugees and immigration, causing more hardship and strife, lack of income and a dearth of earth-friendly business. 

But what we are really dying of is lack of love. Lack of compassion, lack of kindness. 

The human thread that holds us all together, and that binds us successfully to the planet that nourishes us, is severed in so many places. To feel the wounds borne of hate and injustice, to see the violence bleeding out of hearts hardened to simple human decency is the most heartbreaking dis-ease of them all. 

We have to find our way home. Home to gentleness and care, to kindness and tenderness. We must first feed these foods to ourselves. We must hold our own hearts as we grieve, mother and father our own brokenness to help us rise up; stand up straight. And as we learn to treat ourselves with love and care, we nurture the seeds growing inside us – the seeds of healing the planet and all those who reside in and upon it. 

This is what the pandemic is teaching me. That I must go in to my own wounds, many of them old – ancient seeming – and hold them in my arms to permit them to heal. As I sit in the pain I see light. Possibility emerges. It is anew and yet it is the re-emergence of something old – a way of living in harmony with all earth’s creatures and tides. A way that sings with interconnectedness and with beauty effervescing from all of our colors intermingling in harmony.

It’s good work for this Elul. May we find healing light for ourselves, enough to radiate it outward to others and our beloved planet.

© Rabbi Robin Damsky

Robin Damsky is the founder and executive director of In the Gardens: http://inthegardens.org/. She works to bring organic, permaculture garden design along with mindfulness, meditation and movement to communities and individuals to mitigate hunger, to support our planet, and to nourish healthy relationships with self and others. She serves part time as the rabbi of Temple Israel in Gary, IN, and lives in Chapel Hill, NC.