256 results for author: Owner of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope

Transforming Pain into Beauty, Yom Kippur

by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen We have, to date, failed to stop the runaway train of climate change. On this holiest day of the Jewish calendar, we must ask ourselves, How can we find and extract beauty from the pain of our failure? What does it take for us to put love, compassion, and hope at the center of our lives, and in the process transform both ourselves and the world around us into something far more beautiful than anything we have known before? Part of what it takes is determination and an unwillingness to give up. We can learn something about determination from mushrooms, which push their way up through whatever is needed in order for their ...

Rosh Hashanah

The Challenge in life is to figure out how to turn our pain into beauty by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen Photo by Mary North Allen My mother, z"l often spoke of the challenge of dealing with pain as she navigated a life marked by trauma and mental crises, as well as profound and beautiful artwork and deep friendships. My brother, a gifted musician, repeats these words often. And lately, long after my mother's passing, they have been resonating strongly with me, informing my life. As we celebrate the New Year and enter Yamim Noraim, the Days of Awe, and the 10 Days of Repentance, one of the two most intense times in the Jewish ...

The Earth Etudes for Elul are Coming!

by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen We’re noticing the sun is setting earlier each day. We’re lighting our Shabbat candles earlier each week. We’re rushing to pack into the remaining days of summer a last hike, a last day at the beach, a last cookout, a last camping trip. My daughter-in-law, a teacher, calls August the “Sunday of summer vacation”, when thoughts turn to the new school year ahead and the end of the freedoms of summer looms. The Jewish month of Elul, which begins in August, is the “Sunday of the Jewish year.” Elul is a time of reflection and preparation for the new year and the Yamim Nora’im, the Days of Awe. During Elul ...

Earth Etude for Rosh Hashanah: 5783

by Rabbi Katy 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 oursel...

Earth Etude for Elul 6: Ode to a Woodchuck

by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen Woodchuck— you who make your home in my yard, I see you wandering, and eating, always eating— eating the grass (which is fine), or the flowers I so carefully planted, or the vegetable plants I’d thought would be safe— this year you seem to especially enjoy zucchini, having devoured their leaves not just once, or twice, or thrice, but already four times, and it’s only July. I remember in the past when I hated you— or perhaps it was your grandmother, or great-grandmother, or great-great-grandmother— when I wanted you removed from my yard, and I ...

Earth Etudes are Coming Soon

by Katy Z. Allen Soon the shofar will be heard each weekday morning, attempting to awaken us to engage in heshbon hanefesh, soul accounting, deep reflection as a pathway to teshuvah, return to G!d, to our best selves, to all that we really can be. What is the connection between teshuvah and climate change?What do woodchucks, or butterflies, or sprained ankles have to do with teshuvah?How does being connected to the more-than-human world enhance our ability to engage in meaningful teshuvah? These are just a few of the questions you'll find addressed by the diverse array of authors during the upcoming days of ...

Shanah Tovah

by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen STOP! Such we are commanded each week. ~ Stop taking from the land! Such we are commanded each seventh year. ~ Why bother stopping? Perhaps to see. Perhaps to notice. Perhaps to discover if we care. Stopping draws us in. Opens us to new life. Deepens us to death Reveals to us G!dness. Brings us home. Shanah tovah! Rabbi Katy Allen is the founder and rabbi of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope, which holds services outdoors all year long, and the founder and President pro-tem of the Jewish Climate Action Network-...

Earth Etude for Elul 18: Perfection

by Rabbi Katy Allen Perfection. I've been thinking about it a lot. Intellectually, I know I can't be perfect. Inside me, in hidden spaces, I feel like I'm not supposed to make mistakes. Which would, of course, mean seeking perfection. Perfection is supposed to belong only to G!d, though I'm not sure I know what that means. Sometimes, when I'm able embrace my humanness, it's incredibly freeing to acknowledge that I don't have to be perfect. But I also realize there's a balance between not trying to be perfect all the time and not trying to never make mistakes. I experience different kinds of feelings when I think about striving ...

Elul Is Coming and So Are the Etudes

by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen We are rolling around to Elul now on the Jewish calendar. It feels too soon, and yet, it also feels right on time. Too soon, because Elul always comes too soon. I'm never really ready. And right on time, because it's impossible to be ready.  The clock ticks, the calendar days fly by, and IT arrives, whatever IT may be. A wedding, a birth, death, the start of a new school year, Shabbat, a difficult conversation – whatever it is we are awaiting, it always comes too soon – or sometimes not soon enough – and it always comes on time. Too soon, because Elul always comes too soon. I'm never really ...

Earth Etude for Elul 1: Elul is here

by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen I turned inward with the lockdown. I didn't want to go anywhere. My garden saved me. I worked outside almost every day. In early summer, I started again to lead outdoor services with small groups. But no walks on my own, in nature. After the depths of despair of Tisha B'Av, as the weeks of consolation began, knowing Elul was approaching, I started to turn outward. I spent a week of early mornings in a little-traveled conservation area, before the heat settled in. Reveling in the blooming flowers Wandering Staying in the moment Picking blackberries S...

Chanukkah Chesed Challenge: Acts of Kindness

The evening of November 8 was the first of the month of Kislev, which means Chanukkah (there are many English spellings!) isn't far away - it begins on the 25th of Kislev and ends on the 2nd of the month of Tevet. During these days, from today until the end of Chanukkah, I invite you to be part of the Chanukkah Chesed Challenge. Chesed means "kindness," and the idea of the Chanukkah Chesed Challenge is to work consciously, every day, to do one act of chesed, or kindness, to someone you encounter throughout the day. This act should be something that does not necessarily come easily and automatically to you, something that you probably ...

Earth Etude for Elul 11 – The Shemittah Cycle

by Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin~ Do you know where this new year falls in the shemittah (seven-year) count? Or when the next shemittah year will be? Even those of us who were deeply engaged in celebrating the last shemittah year may have difficulty remembering if it was 2 or 3 years ago. (It was 3 years ago – 5775, 2014-2015.) Yet shemittah, like Shabbat, is more than a slice of time. It is a presence, always with us. It is a practice, an attitude, a social, economic and spiritual ethic that guides our lives. In the biblical era, this was evident, and the air of the shemittah ethic was an everyday reality. As weekdays counted up to the celebra...

Earth Etude for Elul 10 – I Can Do Something

by Joan Rachlin~ I recently retired and have since been immersed in climate change related activities. I once heard it said that most working folk are "denatured," so one of my post-retirement goals has been to “renature.” With this kavannah in heart and mind, I have been trying to more actively appreciate the boundless gifts nature offers us daily. Most specifically, I’ve begun to notice, appreciate, and more consistently support those who produce the food that sustains my family and me. Through the physical labor of farmers we are given the gift of nourishment, which fuels us as we engage in our chosen pursuits and passions. And through ...

Earth Etude for Elul 9 -Natural Awe and Artistic Representations

by Rabbi Steve Altarescu~ When we stood at Mt. Sinai, the mountain was described as ablaze with fire and the people heard the sound of God from out of the fire but did not see any form or shape. We learn that since we experienced God without a form or shape it would be wrong for us to make a likeness, a resemblance of anything in nature. Why does Moses repeat this prohibition four times? For the Torah there is power to an image, whether it be a sculpture, a painting or any other art form that stands in contrast to feeling the power of God. For me, there is a difference in the experience of being in the natural world versus seeing repres...

Earth Etude for Elul 8 – Where Are We Now?

by Rabbi Dorit Edut~ These narrow, dark  cobblestone streets still echo with the click-click  of  many shoes, sandals, boots…. of the modern tourists, flamenco dancers and local yuppies who now populate  these gentrifying neighborhoods  where  once there stood a Jewish ghetto – Toledo, Cordoba, Seville, Granada… Small tiles with the words” Chai” in Hebrew or the Menorah symbol can be found scattered on the sidewalks. A Magen David is discovered above a balcony window, etched in the stone wall. The synagogues are now museums or churches or convents. Even at the advertised Sefardic restaurants there are no Jewish servers or managers. ...

Earth Etude for Elul 5 – Where Are We Going

  by Thea Iberall, Ph.D. A while ago, I started writing a book that contained everything I had learned about love, life, Jewish ethics, and about making peace with the past. And I made up a science fiction world of bad things happening. And one day, my sister Norrie said, “You don’t have to make it up. There’s bad things happening already.” I asked what she meant. She sat me down in front of her computer screen and showed me some charts. How the carbon dioxide is rising and with it the temperature in the air and in the oceans. She showed me how the waters are rising and how droughts are getting worse. I reached my finger up to the ...

Earth Etude for Elul 7 – Our Last Elul?

by Judith Felsen, Ph.D.   ~If this were our last Elul might we see a different world? On the verge of our demise would each spark of nature sent by You remind us of Your light we are? In these days of hidden peace do we know we are Your kin together in the field? In darkest times does not the moon and sun still shine on us? Today may  elements of earth  be  manna, all reminders of divine connection and Your care through deserts now. This Elul may we see You within all shadow and not be blinded by our darker nature. May we not only see Your back but  perceive that ...

Earth Etude for Elul 6 – Looking to the Sky, Remembering Our Ideals

by Rabbi Natan Margalit, Ph.D. ~Recently, I read an article in the New York Times Magazine that talked about the way that people do or say things, say, supporting a good cause or political opinion, not because they really believe in it, but because they want to signal to their social network that they are virtuous.  Apparently, there is a popular new label for this behavior: “virtue signaling.” The author reports that this term is most often used by people on the right against people on the left (“Virtue Signaling Isn’t the Problem. Not Believing One Another Is,” August 8, by Jane Coaston). My reaction to this accusation is that it ...

Earth Etude for Elul 5 – Where Are We Going?

by Thea Iberall, Ph.D. ~A while ago, I started writing a book that contained everything I had learned about love, life, Jewish ethics, and about making peace with the past. And I made up a science fiction world of bad things happening. And one day, my sister Norrie said, “You don’t have to make it up. There’s bad things happening already.” I asked what she meant. She sat me down in front of her computer screen and showed me some charts. How the carbon dioxide is rising and with it the temperature in the air and in the oceans. She showed me how the waters are rising and how droughts are getting worse. I reached my finger up to the screen and ...

Earth Etude for Elul 4 – Saying Farewell with Each Breath, Starting Anew

by Rabbi Judy Kummer~   Towards end of the day, towards summer's end, body and soul prepare for farewells.   Through piney woods I run, gauntleted by trees whose dark limbs reach up to breathe in fresh blue sky. Dim path; the light can't reach down here. Ahead, the river winks at me.   I thread my way out the wooded tunnel's end and can feel the sky lift -- and my mind lifts too. Before me lies still water meandering between wooded banks. Turning, I race the river. Feet pound on hard sand paths, Pulse quickens in my ears, breath pushes blood through my veins. Crickets ...