Like G!d

by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen

 

There is an unexpected comfort

in grief so broad and wide

that it encompasses more

than the mind can fathom.

Like G!d 

it’s source is so expansive–

inclusive of so much destruction

so much displacement

wounding

death 

extinction

disruption,

affecting so many,

unjust at every twist and turn–

that I cannot comprehend it.

But also, like G!d,

i know it is real

even when I cannot see it

or touch it.

Like G!d,

I encounter it daily–

sometimes I notice it,

and sometimes I don’t.

Like G!d,

it impacts at unexpected moments,

during a thunderous storm

or in the quiet of the night.

Like G!d,

and yet, so very, very

different.

G!d created us

and we created this anti-G!d

of environmental degradation

climate disruption

environmental injustice

mass extinction

global glacial melts

incipient sea level rise

and massive habitat destruction.

So like G!d, and so unlike G!d.

And very surprisingly

a comfort,

for every other disturbance in life

suddenly feels insignificantly important

and fully possible to resolve

and out of this understanding

arise strength and calm,

courage and determination,

a certainty 

and trust

that could, perhaps,

be understood

to be G!d’s presence

walking beside me.

יש נחמה לא צפוייהיש נחמה לא צפוייה

באבל כל-כך רחב ונרחב

שהוא מכתר יותר

ממה שהמחשבות מסוגלות להעמיק.

כאלוהים

מקורו כל-כך מקיף--

כולל כל-כך הרבה השמדה

כל-כך הרבה עקירה

פציעה

מוות

הכחדה

התפוררות,

משפיע על כל-כך הרבה,

אי-צדק בכל תפנית וסיבוב--

שאני לא יכולה להשיג אותו.

אבל גם כאלוהים,

אני יודעת שהוא אמיתי

אפילו כשאני לא יכולה לראות אותו

או לגעת בו.

כאלוהים,

אני נתקלת בו יום יום--

לפעמים אני מבחינה בו,

ולפעמים לא.

כאלוהים,

הוא פוגע בדקות לא צפויות,

בזמן סערה רועמת

או בדממת הלילה.

כאלוהים,

אבל כל-כך, כל-כך

שונה.

אלוהים ברא אותנו

ואנחנו יצרנו את האנטי-אלוהים הזה

של שחיקה סביבתית

הפרעת אקלים

עוולה סביבתית

הכחדה המונית

המסה קרחונית עולמית

עליית פני הים התחלתית

והרס גידול-סביבתי המוני.

כל-כך כאלוהים וכל-כך לא כאלוהים.

ובאופן מפתיע מאוד

נחמה,

כי כל הפרעה אחרת בחיים

פתאום מרגישה חשובה לא משמעותית

ולגמרי אפשרית לפתרון

ומההבנה הזאת

עולים כח ושלווה,

אומץ ונחישות,

ודאות 

ואמון

שיכולים, אולי,

להיות מובנים

להיות שכינת אל

הולכת לידי.

Rabbi Katy Allen is the founder and rabbi of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope, which holds services outdoors all year long and has a growing children’s outdoor learning program, Y’ladim BaTeva. She is the founder of the Jewish Climate Action Network-MA, a board certified chaplain, and a former hospital and hospice chaplain. She received her ordination from the Academy for Jewish Religionhttp://www.ajr.edu/ in  Yonkers, NY, in 2005. She is the author of A Tree of Life: A Story in Word, Image, and Text and lives in Wayland, MA, with her spouse, Gabi Mezger, who leads the.singing at Ma'yan Tikvah.

Bimkom Lulav: Substituting Locally Grown Plants for the Lulav and Etrog

by Rabbi Katy Allen

Last year I forgot, and ordered a lulav and etrog.

This year, I remembered and didn’t order them. This year I knew I was going to try substituting locally grown plants in place of the etrog, palm, myrtle, and willow that I normally order from the local Judaica shop, coming straight from Israel.

I didn’t know what plants I would use. But I was aware that I would miss holding those traditional plants in my hand as I stood in the sukkah and waved them in every direction, acknowledging the presence of something greater than myself all around me. I knew my forgetfulness last year was a measure of my ambivalence. I’m not a halachic Jew by any means, not feeling compelled to observe the letter of the law, but I have always found meaning and comfort in the lulav and etrog. And I absolutely love the holiday of Sukkot. I love building the sukkah, sharing it with family and friends, and eating outdoors no matter how cold it is in New England in October, driven indoors only by the rain.

So here I was, with Sukkot approaching. The question of what plant leaves and fruit to use was on my mind. I read up a bit on what others have done. But I hadn’t decided what I was going to use in place of the traditional tropical plants that Jewish law and tradition direct us to use.

Then Sukkot was upon us. Having been busy - always a convenient excuse - I hadn’t taken the time to give the question enough thought to settle on any particular plants.

I was busy hosting my children and grandchildren as the holiday began, and then suddenly it was Sukkot morning, and I didn’t have a lulav and etrog and I still hadn’t collected anything to take their place.

My wrestling with the question was abruptly interrupted by family issues, some of them emotionally charged. (I’m assuming you have experience with this and understand.) I became caught up in dealing with all of it, and as it progressed, I found myself losing my equanimity and getting upset in ways that I didn’t want to.

Finally I paused to take a deep breath, and I realized it was past time to find my replacement lulav and etrog. Slowing down, I wandered our yard considering my options. I returned with a fruit from a kousa dogwood tree, not native, but a volunteer, probably from fruit from our neighbor’s tree; a long yucca leaf, also definitely not native, but having come from separating my aunt’s (z”l) yucca plant some twenty years ago; and an arching stem of giant Solomon’s seal, a native plant that came from separating someone else’s patch 15-20 years ago; and a stem of monarda, also a native plant, one that I had purchased a few years ago as part of my efforts to enrich my native pollinator garden.

 

Various metaphors from rabbinic literature regarding what the lulav and etrog represent flitted through my mind - the parts of the body or the types of people who make up a community, as well as the understanding that they come from different ecosystems. But when I finally held these plant parts in my hand and sat with them in the sukkah, suddenly all the angst in my heart and my mind, some of it painful, dissolved. Beneath everything I had thought was bothering me, I felt a deeper pain, a deeper grief, from a source far more difficult to heal – my grief and pain over what we have done to the Earth over the centuries, and in particular, in recent decades.

I sat with that unexpected pain, and realized how minor the family concerns were by comparison, even the most difficult aspects of them. I realized, too, that this deeper pain related to the Earth was coloring my responses about the family situation. The family issues could be resolved with love and respect, patience and caring. The global environmental issues are far more complicated. As I understood what was happening to me and honored the difficult feelings, relief washed over me, despite the pain. Clarity matters.

The time had come to shake my “lulav and etrog.” But what blessing could I say? I couldn’t recite a blessing for shaking a lulav - a palm - since I wasn’t holding one. With my procrastination, I hadn’t researched what others say. After a bit of reflection, I decided that I could say bimkom lulav, meaning “in place of the lulav”.

But what about the shehecheyanu blessing? How and why should I express gratitude for reaching this time? This time when we have already entered an unprecedented global environmental crisis? This time when it is apparent that any extra and unnecessary energy and carbon output is critical to avoid? 

And then, unexpectedly, I felt gratitude for feelings of connection to the natural world around me resulting from substituting locally grown plants in my sukkah rising within me. As some measure of my pain was released, I gave thanks for reaching this season, this day, this understanding. I knew that this was just the beginning of honoring the pain I was feeling, and that these difficult feelings would fuel my determination to share the reality of such emotions with others, and also to provide venues for other people to honor and process their own pain and grief in the face of the massive existential crisis of climate change.

On Sukkot we are commanded to be happy. It is only by honoring, naming, feeling, and letting go of a layer of our pain and grief that we can honestly be happy.

 

Rabbi Katy Allen is the founder and rabbi of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope, which holds services outdoors all year long and has a growing children’s outdoor learning program, Y’ladim BaTeva. She is the founder of the Jewish Climate Action Network-MA, a board certified chaplain, and a former hospital and hospice chaplain. She received her ordination from the Academy for Jewish Religionhttp://www.ajr.edu/ in  Yonkers, NY, in 2005. She is the author of A Tree of Life: A Story in Word, Image, and Text and lives in Wayland, MA, with her spouse, Gabi Mezger, who leads the.singing at Ma'yan Tikvah.

Unfinished Blessing

Ed. Note: This poem was originally part of this year's Earth Etudes for Elul and is being reposted due to a technical glitch that caused it not to be disseminate.

by Bill Witherspoon

We were supposed to name all the animals.

Lately we have gotten pretty good at it,

While it begins to dawn on us that

Even that slender branch of the tree of life

(Let alone the one on which crawl the slime molds,

Or the branch dotted with archaea microbes that turn salt ponds pink

Or the one spread with green life that converts sunlight into food)

Is just too prolific for words.

Still, 500 animal species named since last Elul

(150 of them the beetles of which She is “inordinately fond”)

Is kind of impressive for an ape that, according to Earth time

Only dropped from the fruit trees day before yesterday. 

 

Maybe we can be a blessing on creation, singing hallelujah

With the answer machines in our palms.

If, in this season of turning to look at ourselves

We admit that our archery is wide of the target

That it is time to ask directions 

of the keepers of indigenous knowledge

How were we managing to keep it going

For thousands of generations?

Bill Witherspoon is a geologist-educator and for 20 years a Jew by choice. At Congregation Bet Haverim in Atlanta, he sings in its remarkable chorus and occasionally leads services. He is a native of East Tennessee where he was blessed with many visits to its huge national park throughout his formative years. Bill encourages fellow humans to check out Citizens Climate Lobby.

Earth Etude for the 10 Days - It's Not too Late to Turn Toward the Possible

by Maxine Lyons

As Elul approached, I collected many quotations and articles on the theme of how to turn toward "the possible" in our lives, inspired in large part by Rabbi David Ingber’s message to his NYC congregation, Romemu. I often participate in their “zoomagogue" as he affectionately refers to it. One of his thoughts struck me particularly:

Romemu’s theme this year is AWAKEN: POSSIBILITY. The Hebrew word efshar holds the power of the possible, of that which is yearned for but not realized. It contains a sacred value, hope, and the unwillingness to resign in the face of unseemingly impossible and insurmountable obstacles…our collective prayer is for the possible, the small opening by the simple but profound word efshar: it is possible or perhaps, doable.

I found other instructive practices to reach realistic and spiritual inroads in my quest for the possible as well. And I’m finding that this personal “turning" toward the more elevated ways to perform my teshuvah expands my efforts for renewal and change as I evolve in my deep dive into what awakening to the possible can mean for me. 

Maxine Lyons enjoys sharing her understanding of the benefits of Jewish and Buddhist meditation practices, engages in racial justice activities, and is a perennial learner as she gardens in any available space around her home in Newton!

Shana Tova 5783!

by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen 

The Eternal came down in a cloud. וַיֵּרֶד ה’ בֶּֽעָנָן (Ex. 34:5)

Clouds,

you change,

 from minute to minute,

from day to day,

from season to season,

from year to year,

growing,

 

shrinking,

even sometimes seeming to disappear, 

doing whatever is necessary, 

whatever is needed, 

to fit the conditions,

 

never losing your key identity, 

as a cloud.

In this new year, may we find what is needed

to be like a cloud

yet to not be a cloud,

but always to be ourself,

our very best self.

And. the Eternal went before them as a column of cloud by day. וַה' הֹלֵךְ לִפְנֵיהֶם יוֹמָם בְּעַמּוּד עָנָן (Ex. 13:21)

Shana tov from all of us at Earth Etudes for Elul!  

Rabbi Katy Allen is the founder and rabbi of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope, which holds services outdoors all year long and has a growing children’s outdoor learning program, Y’ladim BaTeva. She is the founder of the Jewish Climate Action Network-MA, a board certified chaplain, and a former hospital and hospice 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 Etude for Elul 29 - Chasing Sunrise

by Sarah Chandler

The rolling fog 

Invites me 

To stretch my neck

To peek at a new perspective 

It’s

Not quite bright enough

To squint 

My eyes wide across the valley

Trying not to wait

For something else to be

Just when I think 

My orientation is eastward 

The clouds above the mountain 

Tickle the sky

Spreading north across the orange glow

These trees form a frame 

Filled with smaller frames

So that each frame of light 

Can shine through 

On me

It’s the light in front of me

That allows me to re-enter 

The darkness behind 

 

Sarah Chandler aka Kohenet Shamirah is a Brooklyn-based Jewish educator, artist, activist, healer, and poet. She teaches, writes and consults on issues related to Judaism, earth-based spiritual practice, respectful workplaces, mindfulness, and farming. An ordained Kohenet with the Hebrew Priestess Institute and Taamod trainer since 2018, she is also is an advanced student of Kabbalistic dream work at The School of Images. Previously, Sarah served as the Director of Romemu Yeshiva, Chief Compassion Officer of Jewish Initiative for Animals, and Director of Earth Based Spiritual Practices at Hazon's Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center. Currently, she is the CEO of Shamir Collective, as a coach and consultant to high-profile artists and authors to launch new music and books. 

Earth Etude for Elul 28 - When One Door Closes, Another Door Opens.

by Joan Rachlin

Like many of a certain age, my husband and I had decided to downsize, but unlike many others, ours was less a choice and more a necessity following his stroke two+ years ago. We loved our town, neighborhood, and street and had been making plans to “age in place” before life intervened.

As I began to survey the overwhelming task ahead, it was clear that my obsession with helping preserve what pristineness remained in nature had become disconnected from my personal behavior of “littering” our home. My husband gently commented that the books (e.g., “The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning,” “Clear Your Clutter,” and “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up”) sitting atop our ubiquitous piles of “stuff” were symbols of that disconnectedness.

I rationalized the presence of this “stuff” by explaining to myself and others that it included gifts from beloved grandparents, parents, other family members, and friends; souvenirs from travels; memorabilia from childhood and beyond; cards, letters, and miscellaneous paperwork that had to be filed; and/or cherished mementos of the years in which we raised our kids. I had managed to ignore the fact that—despite an object’s back-story and despite my self-proclaimed status as an environmental activist—I had become a “do as I say, not as I do” hypocrite. Although I’ve encouraged many others to read Affluenza over the past 20 years, I never admitted to having an undiagnosed case of that planet-crushing disease.

With help from friends and a downsizing professional, our house was emptied and most of our possessions donated to organizations* and individuals. Though bittersweet, my dominant emotion is gratitude for the four+ decades we spent there, the sweet memories that remain, and the opportunity to tread more lightly on the Earth presented by closing the door to our old home and opening the door to our new one.

I therefore entered Elul with the kavannah, or intention, of following the sage advice on my fridge magnet: “The most important things in life are not things.” I’m focusing on progress, not perfection and hoping that my previously overzealous efforts to prevent things from being buried (landfills) or burned (incinerators) will be replaced by the realization that I am doing the best I can and my efforts are good enough. Although not a big fan of self-help books, I’ve just begun listening to Enoughness, which emphasizes sustainability and contentedness and, when finished, plan to start A Good-Enough Life. 

I pray that I will, with mindfulness and discipline, increase the simplicity and balance in my soul, home, and in my microscopic corner of our shared home, Planet Earth. 

Here’s to a safe, healthy, just, peaceful, purposeful, and “enoughness-filled” New Year for all. 

Shana Tova U’Metuka.

*Below is a partial list of the organizations to which we donated:

1 - More Than Words

2 - Boomerang’s

3 - Mass College of Art ReStore

4 - Furnishing Hope of MA

5 - Simple Recycling

6 - Village Vinyl

7 - Our Facebook “Buy Nothing” group (Buy Nothing Brookline) was also helpful in finding homes for everything we no longer needed or wanted. We gave away golf clubs, old cameras, slide and movie projectors, furniture, encyclopedias (“More Than Words” does not take encyclopedias) and many other things.

8 - I also donated collections of family memoirs, photos, and memorabilia to archives and museums. Although this was a time-consuming endeavor, it enabled me to find permanent homes for the treasures passed down through the generations of my family.

Joan Rachlin is the Executive Director Emerita of PRIM&R (Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research) an international bioethics organization. In addition to her work with PRIM&R, she practiced law in the areas of women’s health, civil rights, and criminal and civil litigation. Joan loves nature and its preservation is her priority, purpose, and passion.