256 results for author: Owner of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope
Earth Etude for Elul 12 – Remembering Earth
by Steph Zabel
“I thought the earth remembered me, she took me back so tenderly, arranging her dark skirts, her pockets full of lichens and seeds.”
This line from Mary Oliver’s beloved poem, “Sleeping in the Forest,” often runs through my mind. Especially when I leave behind my city environs and return to the embrace of the forest and green, wild places.
Teshuvah, return.
Some of us may be more drawn to the outdoors than others, but I believe that each of us has heard a call to return to nature at some point in our life. A return to nature can simply be a momentary remembrance, a moment of connection and acknowledgment. Even the ...
Earth Etude for Elul 11 – The Freedom of Dance; the Prayer of Protest
by Maggid David Arfa
Shalom Shachna, the son of Holy Angel, the grandson of the Maggid of Mezeritch, learned to dance from the Shpoler Zeide. For the rest of his life he would share with all who would listen how the Shpoler Zeide was a master of dance and able to achieve Holy Unifications with each step of his foot. Adapted from Tales of the Hasidim by Martin Buber.
“For many of us the march from Selma to Montgomery was about protest and prayer….Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying.” Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
Sometimes, when I can no longer stand my careless abuse of the Earth, I know I have to ...
Earth Etude for Elul 10 – Guatemalen Etudes for the Earth
by Rabbi Margaret Frisch Klein
An etude is a song, a song of praise. This summer I spent time bouncing on a bus as part of American Jewish World Service’s Global Justice Fellowship in Guatemala. Part of a two year program, we studied text together, we lobbied together, we learned organizing skills together and then we experienced Guatemala together.
It is hard to reconcile the beauty of the land together with the brokenness of the country. In 1954 there was a coupe organized in part by the United Fruit Company and the CIA to protect US interests and land ownership. There was a bloody civil war, a genocide really, with a peace accord that was ...
Earth Etude for Elul 9 – Weeds and Debris
by Maxine Lyons I started to think about teshuvah and Rosh Hashana early this summer while cleaning out my flowerbeds of weeds and debris. I noticed the different roots in my garden - fibrous roots spread laterally underground and re-appear in other places, taproots that remain steadfast in one place and grow downward deep into the earth. I was musing about how some people are like taproots- making a bold, firm stance whereas others are like the plants with fibrous roots, appearing and reappearing, showing their influences by reaching out in a variety of places and spaces. Weeding is an ongoing effort especially those that proliferate in shaded areas ...
Earth Etude for Elul 8 – Creativity and Teshuvah
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen
Creation. Whether you consider it to warrant a capital C or simply a lower case c, the word expresses how the Universe began. The act of creation holds within it creativity. Creativity was present from the start of the Universe.
When we look around, we can see that continually the Universe is created anew, with newness filling every moment of every day: new growth of plants, animals, and other organisms, new stars being born, precipitation falling anew, streams and rivers renewing and changing their course as the water tumbles down mountains and hills, and so much more.
We see creativity in the more-than-human world, but ...
Earth Etude for Elul 7 – Covenant and Community
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about community and covenant.
Rabbi Avi Olitzky defines community as “a circle to which you feel you belong that will miss your presence; it reaches out to you when you’re absent, and you long for it when you’re not there.”
Covenant, berit, is a promise, generally bilateral, requiring the participation of both parties that are bound by the covenant.
In the Torah, G!d enacts three covenants. First is G!d’s promise to all humanity after the Flood, never again to wreak such destruction. The sign of this covenant – actually a one-way agreement, because G!d promises, but ...
Earth Etude for Elul 6 – Bringing Truth to Power on Yom Kippur
by Hattie Nestel
To bring truth to power on any day is always rewarding, but to bring truth to power on Yom Kippur acquires even deeper meaning.
The first I time I spoke truth to power sufficiently to be arrested was on Yom Kippur, 1983, at the invitation of Scott Schaeffer-Duffy and the Atlantic Life Community, ALC, a mixture of Jewish and Catholic activists from the East Coast founded by Philip Berrigan and his wife Liz McAlister.
After meeting Philip Berrigan in 1982, my two sons and I went to ALC retreats in Washington, DC. ALC activists encouraged me to join them in blocking a Trident nuclear submarine in Connecticut on Yom Kippur 1983 ...
Earth Etude for Elul 5 – Dandelions and Teshuvah
By Thea Iberall, Ph.D.
As an act of service, I take care of the lawn and gardens at my local Unitarian Universalist Church. The first time I mowed the lawn, I used the hand mower so as to not pour carbon pollution into the atmosphere. People laughed at me, saying this is so old-fashioned. As I doubled-down into my task, I replied, “It’s the wave of the future.”
In the lawn are dandelions which are weeds that don’t belong. But what is a dandelion anyway? Is it a weed or a flower? If we think of it as a weed, it is something to destroy because it ruins our desire for a perfectly neat green lawn. If we think of it as a flower, it is a ...
Earth Etude for Elul 4 – Fearing God as a Response to Fear
by Andy Oram
Fear is a recurring state that runs throughout life. These days, our fears increasingly hone in on environmental degradation. The drying up of aquifers, the threat of flooding that our major cities face through rising oceans, the disappearance of bees that keep the food chain going--such apocalypses outstrip almost everything we’ve feared in the past. Except for medieval plagues and nuclear war, nothing else in history can cause such legitimate fear as what we’re doing to the environment.
These facts engender toxic mental reactions that are sometimes termed eco-despair. This spiritual disorder is blamed not only for rage and ...
Earth Etude for Elul 2 – Elul: A Time to Start Shifting Our Imperiled Planet onto a Sustainable Path
by Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D
The Hebrew month of Elul has arrived. It is the traditional time for heightened introspection, a chance to consider teshuva, improvements in 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 positive changes.
How should we respond to Elul today? How should we respond when:
Science academies worldwide, 97% of climate scientists, and 99.9% of peer-re...
Earth Etude for Elul 1 – On the Search for Teshuvah at Walden Pond
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen
Today is the first day of the month of Elul. We are on the countdown to Rosh HaShanah, one month away.
Welcome to the first of this year's Earth Etudes for Elul, a project of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope, a daily feast of reflections to help us in the process of teshuvah, of re-turning to the Holy One, re-turning toward our best innermost self.
The journey toward self-discovery,
self-fulfillment,
and self actualization
is one of constantly looking through the trees
for the deep well of water
from which we take refreshment,
strength,
and courage.
The way forward is not clear,
...
Jewish Climate Action Network Conference
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen
This past Sunday, over 100 members of the Jewish community, from New Bedford, MA to Brattleboro, VT, gathered at Hebrew College in Newton, MA, for the first Jewish Climate Action Network conference, "From Uncertainty to Action: What You Can Do About Climate Change." According to Rabbi Arthur Waskow, it was the first conference of its kind, "I would have heard about it," he told us, if there had been another.
For four hours, we learned together, sang together, talked together, and connected to each other. And through all this, we were inspired, motivated, and recharged. It was an amazing afternoon. I am grateful to all ...
The Dream and Its Interpretation
Excerpt from "The Dream and Its Interpretation," by A. D. Gordon, translated by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen
A. D. Gordon (1856-1922) was an early Zionist and pioneer in the Land of Israel. His words, written 100 years ago in totally different circumstances, resonate today when we read them through the lenses of climate change and environmental degradation.
We dreamed, you and I,
my brother and my sister,
interpreter it has none,
an ancient dream it is,
as the days when we went forth from exile,
but you forgot it or did not elucidate it for yourselves,
and I did not recount it to you.
Grand is the dream,
vast like the ...
Hanukkah 5775 – Night 8 Re-Dedication Meditation
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen
On this last night of the Festival of Re-Dedication, we light all eight candles, we complete the “Litany of Harm” and the “Call to Action,” and we add one last item to our list of promises to ourselves for the year to come.
Hanukkah Night 8:
The Litany of Harm:
For all those in island nations, where rising sea levels and superstorms threaten their very existence. We stand in witness!
For all coastal cities and villages, where storm swells and flooding put lives and homes at risk. We stand in witness!
For all those who suffer from tropical diseases, and those at risk from spreading diseases and heat waves. We ...
Hanukkah 5775 – Night 7 Re-Dedication Meditation
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen
On this penultimate night of Hanukkah, we light seven candles, we continue the “Litany of Harm” and the “Call to Action,” and we consider a seventh way to strengthen our resolve to change the world in positive ways.
Hanukkah Night 7:
The Litany of Harm:
For all those in island nations, where rising sea levels and superstorms threaten their very existence. We stand in witness!
For all coastal cities and villages, where storm swells and flooding put lives and homes at risk. We stand in witness!
For all those who suffer from tropical diseases, and those at risk from spreading diseases and heat waves. We ...
Hanukkah 5775 – Night 6 Re-Dedication Meditation
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen
Tonight we light six candles, the lights in our home grow ever brighter, but as we add to the “Litany of Harm,” we know that there is darkness in many corners of the world, and so we add also to our “Call to Action,” and consider a sixth way to move our lives forward in a way that adds light to the world.
Hanukkah Night 6:
The Litany of Harm:
For all those in island nations, where rising sea levels and superstorms threaten their very existence. We stand in witness!
For all coastal cities and villages, where storm swells and flooding put lives and homes at risk. We stand in witness!
For all those who ...
Hanukkah 5775 – Night 4 Re-Dedication Meditation
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen
On this fourth night, half way through Hanukkah, we light four candles, continue the “Litany of Harm” and the “Call to Action,” and consider a fourth way to move our lives forward in a way that adds goodness to the world.
Hanukkah Night 4:
The Litany of Harm:
For all those in island nations, where rising sea levels and superstorms threaten their very existence. We stand in witness!
For all coastal cities and villages, where storm swells and flooding put lives and homes at risk. We stand in witness!
For all those who suffer from tropical diseases, and those at risk from spreading diseases and heat ...
Hanukkah 5775 – Night 3 Re-Dedication Meditation
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen
On this third night of Hanukkah, we light three candles and continue to add to the “Litany of Harm” and the “Call to Action,” and we provide a third action to our personal list of ways in which to increase the sanctity of our lives and the lives of those around us.
Hanukkah Night 3:
We continue the Litany of Harm:
For all those in island nations, where rising sea levels and superstorms threaten their very existence. We stand in witness!
For all coastal cities and villages, where storm swells and flooding put lives and homes at risk. We stand in witness!
For all those who suffer from tropical diseases, ...
Hanukkah 5775 – Night 2 Re-Dedication Meditation
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen
On this second night of Hanukkah, we continue to increase in holiness by lighting two candles and by adding to the “Litany of Harm” and the “Call to Action,” and by adding a new action to our personal list of ways in which to re-dedicate ourselves. (See Night 1 for a full introduction.)
Hanukkah Night 2:
We continue the Litany of Harm:
For all those in island nations, where rising sea levels and superstorms threaten their very existence. We stand in witness!
For all coastal cities and villages, where storm swells and flooding put lives and homes at risk. We stand in witness!
For all those who suffer ...
Hanukkah 5775 – Night 1 Re-Dedication Meditation
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen
Why don’t we light eight candles on the first night of Hanukkah, and work our way down to one? Why do we start with one candle and work our way up to eight? So familiar are we with our traditional way of lighting the candles and increasing the light, that imagining doing it the opposite way is almost impossible. Reduce the amount of light each night? No way!
Yet, in ancient times this custom seems to have been practiced. In the Talmud, the School of Shammai said, “On the first day eight lights are lit and thereafter they are gradually reduced,” but the School of Hillel said, no, no, no! “On the first day ...