Owner of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope
Rabbi Katy Z. Allen is the founder and leader of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope, a congregation without walls that meets outdoors all year long. She is the co-convener and President pro-tem of the Boston-area Jewish Climate Action Network, and the founder of the One Earth Collaborative, a program of Open Spirit in Framingham, MA.
Divrei Earth - Spiritual Wisdom from Earth and Torah from Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope Subscribe
Earth Etude for 20 Elul
One Sky by Nyanna Susan Tobin "We are all a family under one sky, a family under one sky." Malvena Renolds wrote and sang this song in the 60's. It had a life of it's own and has travelled around the world. I didn't always see the sky. Earthly chores, right of passage, short term goals, shopping, fitting in..... Now I sit on a dock at Lake Cochituate. My eyes can scan the blue waters ...
Earth Etude for 19 Elul
Personal ethics in the face of climate change by Susie Davidson In his master work "Walden," Henry David Thoreau wrote, "We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us." Thoreau, who is largely credited as a forefather of the environmental movement, was issuing a dire warning that progress can, ultimately, lead to enslavement. He sensed that for all the conveniences that new modes of transportation, farming, ...
Earth Etude for 18 Elul
A Broken Sewer Pipe by Maxine Lyons One might inquire-- How can a broken sewer pipe help elicit responses relevant to Rosh Hashana holiday themes? When our sewer pipe broke under our home directly affecting our front gardens and lawn, and a crew came in to excavate nine feet down to access it and repair it, fillers from the earth's bowel began to surface - tons of rubble, debris, clay, stones and brick. I felt incredulous, How ...
Earth Etude for 14 Elul
Elul Greening by Judith Feinstein Have we done the reparation so to take the consolation and digest it all and well? Have we psalms we want to hear releasing some for other's ears while disregarding somber prohets' words? Can we see Akiva's vision, crumbling Temple fox is running as a sign Moschaiach's coming or do we yet deny our state? Do we choose to not attend to what ...
Earth Etude for 13 Elul
Swimming on Our Backs by Rabbi Judy Kummer All week long, a challenge with a family member plagued me. I stewed over it, allowed it to twist my kishkes into tight knots and my body into a ship tossing on waves of wakefulness in nighttime. I even watched it tug at my mind and heart during long lake swims thru otherwise placid waters. Tears and fresh water mixed, a potent cocktail of sadness. And then, during one ...
Earth Etude for 12 Elul
Dirt and Teshuvah by Rabbi Howard A. Cohen One of my favorite lessons to teach when I take a group on a wilderness trip is the dirt method of cleaning up after a meal. It is very simple and effective but invariably elicits chuckles of surprise. After removing all big chunks of left over food by either disposing it in a fire or trash bag people are then instructed to go to the edge of camp and wipe their utensils with dirt ...
Earth Etude for 11 Elul
Maintaining the Climate by Lois Rosenthal “If you go by my statutes and keep My commands and do them, I shall give you rains in their season and the land will give its yield…” Lev 26:4 The ancient Israelites trusted G-d to maintain the seasons in a fixed and repeatable way. They had worked out their lunar/solar calendar and holidays based on planting/harvesting seasons. Droughts were certainly a constant worry, but ...
Earth Etude for 9 Elul
Return to the Land of Your Soul by Adina Allen In Genesis we read that God places Adam in the garden “to serve it and to guard it.” In the rabbinic imagination there are many possibilities for what this description could mean. It could mean that the first human was given the practical task of keeping the garden watered so that plants would grow, or perhaps of protecting the vegetation of the garden by keeping the animals out ...
Earth Etude for 5 Elul
Personal Reflections for Elul: Mindful Turning to the Path of Love Rabbi Jeff Foust For me, the key to the entire Jewish New Year period comes in the month of Elul, the Hebrew month which precedes Rosh HaShanah. I often have heard people complaining about being weighed down by all the emphasis during the holiday on the mistakes and wrong doings in our lives that we need to repair. Elul reminds us that the very foundation ...
Earth Etude for 4 Elul
Enfold me, Earth By Carol Reiman Enfold me, earth, Entwine your thick limbs With mine; Lift me up above Your blushing beauty, Opening me to your new day. Show me how to know you As we whisper in each other's ear-- Willow rustle, Sizzling spray upon the sand; How I meant to help, How I hurt you, How we can heal In easy forgiveness, How I can keep you as You keep me--whole. Dance in freedom,...
Earth Etude for 3 Elul
The Earth Is Crying Out in Pain Rabbi Katy Z. Allen “The Earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.” (Ps. 24:1) The Earth is crying out in pain. Yet, its beauty and mystery shine forth, ever ready to calm us, inspire us, strengthen us, and remind us of our smallness in Creation. We walk in the woods and find wonder in the spring wildflowers. Eagerly we bite into the delicious bounty of the late summer ...
Earth Etudes for Elul
Rosh Chodesh for the month of Elul, 5772, lasts for two days. Saturday is the last day of the month of Av and Sunday is the first day of the month of Elul, and together they mark the beginning of a month-long period of reflection as we travel through the remaining days leading up to Rosh HaShanah, the New Year. Summer is still with us, and the hot, humid days of August often carry thunderstorms, but already the nights are coming ...
Pashat Pinchas – How Much Strawberry Shortcake Should I Eat?
This week's Torah portion, Pinchas, contains instructions about how the Israelites are to divide up of the land once they arrive: "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Divide the land among the tribes, as an inheritance according to the number of the names: with larger groups increase the share, with smaller groups decrease the share. Each is to receive its share according to its enrollment.'" (Num. 26:52-54). The land is ...
To the Stars and Back – Our Quest for Connection / Part 7 of 7
If I am to authentically hang on to my pluralism, if I want to be true to my belief that we should each be allowed our beliefs, I must allow you to believe what you want, even if you want me to believe something else. I must remember that it is what we do with our beliefs that makes a difference in the world. In some important way, it doesn’t really matter what we believe, whether in G!d or in stardust, or in fairies. We all come from the ...
To the Stars and Back – Our Quest for Connection / Part 6 of 7
Another aspect of our connectedness is that we share with each other our need for each other. We can try to live “off the grid,” but it is not really in our genes to do so. Like those ants, we are social creatures. To live totally independently of all other human beings is not how we are programmed, and it takes a yeomen effort to make it happen. Just going to live in the woods isn’t truly getting away from others, not if we ...
To the Stars and Back – Our Quest for Connection / Part 5 of 7
For each one of us, our vision or Big Picture is personal and unique, based on our individual life circumstances and our sense of who we are as a human being. And yet, for all of us, our universal realities intersect. We are all human beings, and like other organisms, we need food, water, air, and a place to lay our bodies down to sleep – even if that place is the street. A baby who is not sufficiently held and cared for – even if it ...
To the Stars and Back – Our Quest for Connection / Part 4 of 7
Related to whether or not to engage with others and with the world is the matter of how we engage. Part of a Talmudic sequence of stories related to seeking forgiveness offers some options. “When a certain person injured Rabbi Zera, [Rabbi Zera] would repeatedly pass before him and invite himself into his presence, so that the injurer would come and appease him.” Moshe Halbertal identifies Rabbi Zera’s graceful entrance into the ...
To the Stars and Back – Our Quest for Connection / Part 3 of 7
Time walking the journey of life makes clear that managing in the world asks us to stand in the “breach,” in the tension, in the paradox between our individuality and our universality. And yet, the breach, the tension, and the paradox also ask us to stand between our own needs and the needs of those around us; between our finite physical selves and our minds and our spirits that reach beyond what we can actually do in the time and ...
To the Stars and Back – Our Quest for Connection / Part 2 of 7
Each of us searches for our identity amidst a sea of human faces. Who are these people around us? How are we connected to them? How much do we overlap in our experiences of life? The questions are complex and the answers not obvious. In my work as a hospital chaplain, visiting patients no matter what their religious persuasion, their country of origin, their cultural background, or their diagnosis, I find both moments of profound connection and ...
To the Stars and Back – Our Quest for Connection
Part 1 of 7 Every evening before going to bed, I step outside and look up at the night sky. When I can see the stars, the sense of seeing into the distant distance and distant time invariably fills me with awe. Recently, with Reb Zusya, Plato, Buddha, and other ancient and modern sages on my mind, I’ve realized that when they stepped out into the nighttime air, they saw the same stars I am seeing today. Among these and many other ...
