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.
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Parshat Chayyei Sarah: The Answering of Our Prayers Before We Speak them—Especially Outdoors
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen Connections. Everything is about connections. Connections across space. Connections across time. Connections in thought and spirit. Connections between. Connections among. Just connections, nothing else. That's what prayer is about. That is what faith is about. That is what life is about. In this week’s parashah, Chayyei Sarah, “Isaac went forth to [lasuach] in the field toward evening.” (Gen 24:63) The rabbis teach us ...
Making our Confession Real: Tools for On-going Teshuvah – Part 1
Just before Yom Kippur, I posted Al Chet - A Confessional for the Earth. So many are the deeds, misdeeds, and non-deeds in relation to the Earth for which we must confess, and then, hopefully, do teshuvah. With this post I begin a series of suggestions for how to implement changes that can help to make our confessional meaningful beyond its words, into actions. I begin with a response to this phrase: For the sin we have committed against You by believing we are doing enough,
Al Chet – Confession for the Earth
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen Eternal God, You created earth and heavens with mercy, and blew the breath of life into animals and humans. We were created amidst a world of wholeness, a world called "very good," pure and beautiful, but now your many works are being erased by us from the book of life. Not by our righteousness do we plead our prayers before You, Holy One of All, for we have sinned, we have despoiled, we have destroyed. And so we confess ...
Earth Etude for Elul 29- Shanah Tovah
photos by Gabi Mezger text by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen May you find yourself in the new year constantly in motion... surrounded by love like a seal in water... reflecting light visible even in the light of those around you... moving slowly when necessary, yet always steadily... raging ferociously against the ills and injustices of the world... with unending energy, unceasing in your efforts ...
Earth Etude for Elul 28- Sweet and Sour Grapes
by Rabbi Robin Damsky I am in my favorite place at my favorite time: in the garden, in the morning, before the cars have started up, before the noise of lawnmowers and leaf blowers. The crickets are singing, the birds responding. The rising sun’s light filters through the leaves. A beginning. It has been a tough year in the garden. An endless winter caused a late start and temperatures have been cooler than usual. A call from critter to ...
Earth Etude for Elul 27- Gratitude
by Judith Felsen My King, where do I quest for comfort and consolation in times of weariness and aching of my soul? Where do I seek wisdom when the burden of errors regrets and sadness accompany my hours? Where do I cherish and find refuge and sanctity when I am transparent and exposed to myself? My Lord, Your streams wash over aching, Your mountains call to look up to You, Your grasses and undergrowth cushion the heel ...
Earth Etude for Elul 26- We Will be the Change We Want to See
We will be the change we want to see I am squatting I am wringing laundry with my hands I am picking chunks of dirt from the soles of my feet I am learning to smell the open sewer when I breathe in and out I am walking I am jostling in a vikram, in a small car that must have the air conditioning switched to off in order to make it up the Himalayan Mountain where love calls I am ...
Earth Etude for Elul 24- Elul Love and Joy
by Maggid David Arfa I’d like to speak about Joy. I know that Elul is upon us; a time for relentless self-reflection, spurred on by the blasts of shofar. And yet, the rabbis in their complexity have added another dimension to Elul, Love. Remember the acronym for Elul? It’s from the Song of Songs, Ani l’dodi v’dodi li - I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine. Reciprocal love is spiraling back and forth right here in Elul ...
Earth Etude for Elul 23- Teshuva and Beauty
by Lois Rosenthal The weekly Haftorah readings follow the story of the Israelites after they crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land. The writing styles vary greatly, from poetry to historical prose. Of particular note are writings from the time of the divided kingdom. Conquests of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah were seen by the prophets as divine punishment for failure to follow the Torah. The ...
Earth Etude for Elul 22- “Yeah, I Think We Should Kill Them All”
By Alexander Volfson I wasn't sure visiting Yad Vashem, Israel's official Holocaust memorial, would leave an impression on me; after all, I had heard it all before. Not only that I had absorbed the notion that all of humanity's reckless violent ways were behind us. Genocide, alas, is so common that it has its own major in college, which, unfortunately, does not fall under archaeology. Remarkably, this practice continues to this day. The typical ...
Earth Etude for Elul 21- What Does Atoning and Returning to God Mean?
by Rabbi Judy Weiss Ps. 27:1 "The Lord is my light and my rescue. Whom should I fear?" For an entire month before Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we focus on atoning and returning to God. But what exactly, in real life terms, does atoning and returning to God mean? We plan our path to return by adding Psalm 27 to our daily prayers. This psalm repeatedly affirms hope in God. It ends with: Ps 27:14 "Let your heart be firm and bold, and hope for the ...
Earth Etude for Elul- Turning and Returning
by Daniel Kieval What is the shape of time? This question may sound strange, but it actually guides us to understand the process of teshuvah, our great task at this time of year. In one dimension, time is circular, repeating in endless cycles. “And the seasons they go round and round…” Every year in the natural calendar, the same seasonal patterns repeat at the same times. In the Jewish calendar, we observe the same ...
Earth Etude for Elul 19- Soul Accounting in the Year of Release
by Rabbi Regina Sandler-Phillips Ecology and economy, spirituality and social justice are directly connected in our Jewish values of heshbon (accountability). Every time we open our wallets or check our bank balances, we face issues of heshbon — no less than when we search our souls (heshbon hanefesh) during this Season of Turning. How are we “spending” each day of our lives? The ancient sage Ben ...
Earth Etude for Elul 17- Meditation on Elul
by Richard H. Schwartz Elul is here. It represents a chance for heightened introspection, an opportunity to do teshuva and improve our lives, before the “Days of Awe,” the days of judgment, the “High holidays” of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The shofar is blown every morning (except on Shabbat) in synagogues during the month of Elul to awaken us from slumber, to remind us to consider where we are in our lives and to urge us to make ...
Earth Etude for Elul 16- The Compost Bin in Our Hearts
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen My compost bins are so much more than just a place where compost happens. The area beside the three wire and wood bins is place where I often feel my father’s spirit – he was raised on a farm, and though he became a professional, gardening was in his blood, and he spent much of his spare time in his garden and his orchard. Yet, it is not just the reminders of my father or the sense of his hovering spirit ...
Earth Etude 15- Looking at the Whole Picture
By Susie Davidson As a writaholic, I am also a readaholic. As we move forward in our chosen missions toward creating communities that feed, nurture and sustain (while protecting) all the inhabitants of the earth, I believe that it is also incumbent upon us to remain informed about the news of the day and the topics that affect underlying societal infrastructures. Certainly, some of these infrastructures seem entrenched to the point of ...
Earth Etude for Elul 14- Elul’s Comin”
by Judith Felsen In days of Av anticpatin’ I have done my exploration searching, seeking digging deeper all to clear the space as greeter. From the bottom of my looking I can sense great times are coming soon our King will sure arrive and in fields we both will thrive. Therefore now and always ever will this earth be seen as heaven by all those who now know its glitter shimmering sparks both there and ...
Earth Etude 13- The Flood
by Rabbi Dorit Edut The meteorologists predicted a possible heavy rainstorm and suggested bringing an umbrella to work. But as I drove home from an interfaith conference, I got a call from my husband announcing: “ You’ll have to swim home – everything is flooded here.” My heart stopped beating for a minute when I heard this, realizing that all my rabbinic books and papers, many photograph albums including those from my parents’ ...
Earth Etude for Elul 12- Growing Teshuva
by Maxine Lyons I am often looking for ways to connect to teshuvah even during the leisurely days of summer. Teshuvah for me is turning to those thoughts and actions that help me to become my better self, following those practices that nourish my growth to know peace - shalom - and to reach greater wholeness - sh'lemut. As I pursue personal growth, I resonate to the Hebrew word, hitpatchut, growth through an openness and receptivity to change.This summer ...
Earth Etude for Elul 10- Topsy Turvy Bus
by Rabbi Margaret Frisch Klein The world seems a little topsy turvy these days. A plane missing. 223 girls kidnapped in Nigeria. 3 teen agers kidnapped and murdered in Israel. A plane shot out of the sky. Israel in Gaza. Rockets in Israel. Too many children killed in the streets of Chicago. Too many deaths. When does it stop? In the Fox River Valley, Illinois, after a punishing winter of epic proportions, it is nice to be ...
