One of the highlights of the Passover Seder is the recitation of the four questions that consider how the night of Passover differs from all the other nights of the year. Many questions are also appropriate for Tu Bishvat, which starts on Wednesday evening, January 15 in 2014, because of
Based on my over 30 years of promoting vegetarianism and veganism in the Jewish community and beyond, I believe that it is essential that there be a major shift to plant-based diets to help shift our imperiled planet onto a sustainable path. Jews can and should play a major role
Tu B’Shevat, also known as The New Year of the Trees, is on January 15 and 16, 2014. Tu B’Shevat has been embraced by Jews around the world as a holiday focused on expressing thankfulness for trees, harvests and the natural world. If you choose to celebrate the holiday by
Sign up here to become a partner in bringing the Year of Engagement to your Jewish community. Jewcology is partnering with the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life in 2014 for a Year of Jewish Policy Engagement on the Environment. This coming year, you’ll have the opportunity to: Get
Written by Tali Smookler, Repair the World Fellow-Philadelphia A major opportunity for urban garden growth lies in the estimated 40,000 vacant lots in Philadelphia. This has the area equivalent of 2,700 football fields. They attract crime, and make it harder to create healthier neighborhoods. Financially, vacant lots are costly, with
Summary: Benjamin Kahane, an engineer who designs photovoltaic solar energy systems for SunEdison, summarizes the environmental consequences of coal and its extraction. Depending on how much pressure and temperature to which it has been subject, coal is a sedimentary or metamorphic rock comprised mostly of carbon. Coal is a fossil
Summary: Matthew Anderson, former director of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment (NRPE), discusses international adaptation to climate change as an important component of development work for the world's most vulnerable populations. An issue of emerging global concern is the increasing impact of climate change on the poorest developing
Summary: Benjamin Kahane, an engineer who designs photovoltaic solar energy systems for SunEdison, discusses oil, its many uses in our society, and how we can transition away from it. Petroleum — or, plainly, oil — has many applications in the industrial age. Petroleum is used to make plastics, lubricants, wax,
http://environmentaltip.blogspot.com/2013/12/apology-and-this-weeks-tip-dumpster.html I’m not blogging much lately due to certain matters going on in my life. Sorry, I know this is supposed to be a weekly post but life happens…. Anyway, here’s this week’s tip. This applies if you live in a place where there’s a central dumpster where people dump
Click here to take action! The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (the RAC) are joining together to demonstrate support from the Jewish community for the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed new, strict standards for carbon pollution from new power plants.
In the traditional Jewish spiral of Torah reading, we will soon start the Book of Exodus — the transformational story of successful resistance to slavery. As the British Army band played the song when the American Revolution became victorious, this book is a story of “The World Turned Upside Down.”
Jewish worshipers chant every Sabbath morning, “The soul of every living being shall praise God’s name” (Nishmat kol chai t’varech et shim’chah). Yet, some come to synagogue during winter months wearing coats that required the cruel treatment of some of those living beings whose souls, we declare, praise God. Should
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen And so we arrive at the last night of Hanukkah, we fill the hanukkiahwith candles, eight candles for eight nights, plus the shamash, or helper candle. Once again we kindle the shamash, and then we kindle all of these eight candles. Our homes and our
Hanukkah Day 7 – Healing Hurts and Promoting Well-being by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen Jewish tradition teaches that we are each to light our own hanukkiah – or Hanukkah candelabrum, and that even children should have their own. Lighting the hanukkiah is one of those mitzvot (commandments) that we can
For a long time, I have been trying to start a respectful dialogue in the Jewish community. Because I have had very little success, I am presenting the fictional dialogue below. I hope that many readers will use it as the basis of similar dialogues with local rabbis, educators, and
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen A major aspect of the Hanukkah story is the message about identity – who was willing and ready to go with the flow of the surrounding culture and who was willing to fight in order to retain a Jewish identity and all that went with
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen Another aspect of the observance of Hanukkah is that the lights from the hanukkiah are considered sacred, and we are not permitted to make ordinary use of them. (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 21b) In other words, we shouldn't sit in an otherwise darkened room and read
