Dropping Our Leaves

Earth Etude for Elul 8

by ©Rabbi Robin Damsky

~In his book, This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared, Alan Lew, of blessed memory, teaches us that the arc of the High Holy Days begins with the grief of Tisha B’Av, even before we approach Elul. As we mourn the destruction of the Temples, we acknowledge loss, brokenness, a sense of unfathomable exile. We feel this so preciously this year, as it has been perhaps the greatest year of grief and loss to us in the Jewish community since the Holocaust. And the grief remains, persists.

I think of a deciduous tree as August turns to September, October, November. Its leaves turn color, becoming a sight most awesome to behold. We know that the tree is preparing to face a terrible loss. It will shed its oxygen-making leaves, its relationship with the sunshine. It will drop the majesty of its beauty that it has prepared all the winter to produce. And yet the tree knows that it must engage this intense process in order to preserve its life, in order to grow yet more full, more rich, more green, and to offer more fruit in each year of its unfolding.

While we may feel a sense of loss as the trees drop their leaves – winter is coming with its cold, short days – we know that spring will again emerge. We may or may not feel that possibility in ourselves and our Jewish world right now as war not only persists, but seems to expand day to day tearing us, our families, our friendships, our relationship with Israel, our safety.

What must we shed to nourish our trunk and roots? What tears are there? What pulling in is necessary for us to be able to do our internal healing? It may take longer than the month of Elul, maybe even beyond these upcoming Days of Awe, for us to be ready to sprout leaves once again. See and feel that tree within you and ask your inner wisdom what teshuvah/return it is seeking from you at this time, and how to fulfill it. And know that the depth of your roots and the might of your trunk will support you and see you to a new spring.

Rabbi Robin Damsky runs Limitless Judaism, a project of learning, movement, meditation, melody, art, tilling and tending the earth, that draws the lines of connection between our physical bodies, our spiritual expression and Gaia, our earth Mother. Rabbi Robin leads meditations regularly for the Institute of Jewish Spirituality. In addition to teaching meditation, chanting, and earth-based practices, she offers Spiritual Direction and Scholar-in-Residence work. She lives o Eno land in Efland, NC, where she is currently designing a permaculture food forest, and a meditation labyrinth composed of natives and pollinators. Her work is undergoing a facelift at https://www.limitlessjudaism.com, on Instagram or Facebook: @limitlessjudaism.

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