256 results for author: Owner of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope
Hanukkah 1 – 5776
Text by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen
Photos by Gabi Mezger
dark emotions lurk in our hearts
heaviness weighs down our souls
the night stretches on
interminably;
we cannot see
we are lost
hope fades
but the picture is incomplete
a candle burns
piercing the darkness
anticipating dawn
reviving hope
carrying us forward
into a new day
Rabbi Katy Allen is a board certified chaplain and serves as a Nature Chaplain and the Facilitator of One Earth Collaborative, a program of Open Spirit. She is the founder and rabbi of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope, which holds services outdoors all year long. She is ...
What Did YOU Do?
I offer here the oral testimony I gave today at the Massachusetts State House on Sen. Barrett’s carbon pricing bill, S. 1747, An Act combating climate change before the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities & Energy. --KZA
The time is 50 years hence,
and this story is told –-
you are old and your hair is gray .
Children gather at your feet.
They ask,
Wise One, Ancient One –
we have heard of a time
when the inhabitants of the Earth
became aware
that time was limited,
that little time remained
to save the Earth,
to save the people
and the plants
and the animals.
Wise One, ...
What Is a Human? Some Thoughts for Rosh HaShanah
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Earth Etude for Elul 28 – Shana Tova!
text by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen
photos by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen and Gabi Mezger
May your new year be filled with
peaceful rest...
amazing vistas from high places...
glory and grandeur...
emerging from tight places...
living off what is available...
climbing ever upward...
constancy amidst change...
the ability to frame...
opening...
seeing the small and the holy, with friends...
Shanah tova!
Rabbi Katy and Gabi
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Earth Etude for Elul 28 – Spirals and Rings
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen
Days are like scrolls: Write on them what you want to be remembered. --Bahya ibn Pakuda
A Torah scroll is a spiral, when stretched out it forms one continuous stretch of parchment. Its handwritten text is complex, not easy to decipher and commented on throughout its history by those who seek to understand and find wisdom.
Inside a tree, rings form one around the other, in concentric circles. They cannot be unraveled, but they, too, together form a complex text, telling the story of the life of the tree and its environs. One who understands about tree rings can learn much about the life of an individual tree ...
Earth Etude for Elul 27 – Who Will Live and Who Will Die?
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen
I have been visiting hospice patients and their families, and at each visit, I speak aloud the fact that Rosh HaShanah is only a few days away. From the secular to the more observant, the impending juxtaposition of the holiday to the loss of their loved one strikes a painful chord in their hearts. The day has powerful meaning.
I think of the words of the traditional liturgy, "Who will live and who will die?" In reality, this question is before us every day. When we wake up in the morning each day, we could be asking, "Who will live and who will die on this day?" Mostly, we don't ask. We get up and go about our business. We don't ...
Earth Etude for Elul 26 – Weeding Fields
by Judith Felsen, Ph.D.
There is much weeding needed
in the fields now overgrown by chemical abuse
and steadily polluted with our toxic waste.
Will we still meet amidst our tainted crops?
My King, I come to greet You with a glad and saddened heart,
my knees now bent and resting on the lands we have destroyed.
With willing hands and humble heart I work on wounded lands
to bring teshuvah to our sullied soils
and restore the bounty we once knew.
I cannot seek for anything but Eden,
I cannot want for anything but Home.
Each piece of earth and drop of water now restored
with conscious care to purity,
gives hope that time will ...
Earth Etude for Elul 25 – Work for the Sake of Life and Work
by A. D. Gordon
translated by Katy Z. Allen
I feel that life,
it is narrow like Sheol,
and my soul is within it
as within a press,
crushed, broken
pounded;
my life is frothing also
within my soul,
and causing havoc within me,
I shake myself violently
with all my strength
shake off from upon myself
and from within myself,
that life.
I begin everything anew,
everything anew.
From the very beginning I begin life,
and I do not change anything.
I do not fix anything,
but do everything anew.
The first thing,
which opens my heart to life,
which I knew was like it,
is ...
Earth Etude for Elul 24 – Clouds
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen
Ephemeral...
always moving...
constantly changing...
untouchable..
beautiful...
and also impactful...
productive...
important...
connected...
...like life.
Earth Etudes for Elul are a project of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope.
Earth Etude for Elul 23 – On T’shuvah and Leapfrogging Through our Lives
by Moshe Givental
I have had the privilege of spending a lot of time outside this summer at the sacred grounds of Pickard’s Mountain Eco Institute. In my deep yearning to reconnect this one Adam (Earth-ling) with Adamah (Earth) I have tried to listen a bit more deeply than usual, and take R. Hiyya’s advice in the Talmud (Eruvin 100b) to learn something about how to live from our animal friends. The frogs greeted me with quite a croak the first night here, so I took that as a cue to pay extra attention to them.
I don’t know about other people’s natural associations with frogs, but mine are not easily positive. I generally think they’re ...
Earth Etude for Elul 22 – Help Me Be
by Carol C. Reiman
May I be as steady as the oak,
ocean, owl's gaze;
Flexing as the bird's wing,
cattail in the breeze,
stream around the stone;
Patient as the long daylight,path to the horizon,journey to my core;
Gliding back and forth,
Inner, outer,
values mirroring my mien.
As I tire, fresh start,
spiral ever out afar;
Treasuring earth's teaching;
voicing its protection;
seeing to its keeping,
as I work to seek my own.
Earth Etudes for Elul are a project of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope.
Carol C. Reiman juggles making a living, ...
Earth Etude for Elul 21 – Be Like Water
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen
photos by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen and Gabi Mezger
Water breaking
Water vast
Water quiet
Water reflective
Water pounding
Water connecting
Water powerful
Water contemplative
Water focused
May we be like the water.
Earth Etudes for Elul are a project of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope.
Earth Etude for Elul 20 – Saluting all who stand tall in the face of “Climate and Carbon Pharoahs”:Rabbinical activist plans eco Yom Kippur services at Lincoln Memorial
By Susie Davidson
This article was first published in the August 27 issue of the Jewish Journal of the North Shore.
On June 18, Pope Francis released his long-awaited, climate-centered encyclical, “Laudato Sii,” which translates to “May the Creator Be Praised," and is taken from a prayer of St. Francis of Assisi acknowledging Brother Sun, Sister Moon, and all other elements of Creation.
To enthusiastic worldwide reception, the encyclical stated that humans were morally bound to protect the planet for future generations, and especially for the vulnerable among us.
But the next day, by one deciding vote, the Senate Appropriations ...
Earth Etude for Elul 19 – Movement Building and the Body
by Janna Diamond
I invite you to sit up tall. Relax your shoulders. Soften the muscles in your face. Inhale and exhale. Tune in to where you are.
Did you know that movement in the body does not repeat itself? Even the most subtle motion. Each gesture is an expression of exactly where you are in space at a given moment. Movement is information. Sensation is knowledge. Every second is a discovery. You are here.
The body is our environment. The environment is our body.
Let us become fluidly adaptable beings, softening to ourselves and those around us. Generating authentic expression. Naming what we see and feel. Allowing sadness, fear, and ...
Earth Etude for Elul 18 – Elements
by Judith Felsen, Ph.D.
When You gave us wind
we hid from it
when You offered us rain
we wasted it
when You made us earth
we contaminated it
when You gave us air
we polluted it
when You showed us fire
we abused it.
Our response to You
has been destruction.
Your response to us
is Your correction.
Maybe we have one more chance
for our connection.
Judith Felsen, Ph.D. Copyright 2015
Judith Felsen holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, certificates in hypnotherapy, NLP, Eriksonian Hypnosis, and Sacred Plant Medicine. She is a dancer of sacred circle dance, an AMC kitchen crew, ...
Earth Etude for Elul 17 – Taking Stock of the Future
by Rabbi Lawrence Troster
During the month of Elul it's traditional to do a heshbon ha-nefesh a spiritual accounting of what we did in the past year so that we can do teshuva or repentance for what we have done wrong or failed to achieve. Indeed, the first step of teshuva is the recognition of doing wrong. We then can move on to trying to fix that wrong and gain atonement.
One of the characteristics of the modern world is our ability to analyze possible future outcomes in a way that our ancestors could not. So we can take a future heshbon ha-nefesh if we want even given the inevitable uncertainty. In fact, we can help to shape much of ...
Earth Etude for Elul 16 – Return to Our Pond
by Rabbi Dorit Edut
Frozen for months, life had chilled out for too long last winter. We began to wonder if a new Ice Age was coming more swiftly than predicted. Disaster was whispering in the wind from which we tried to hide all skin lest the frost take a bite. We stayed indoors and cancelled many a get-together because of the fierceness of this weather. On the pond in front of my daughter’s home, the white heron appeared once in March, as if sent by Noah, but all was solid ice.
In early April evenings, the story of our Exodus from slavery to freedom was told and we began to feel again in our fingers, toes, and inner recesses the need to ...
Earth Etude for Elul 15 – Elul, the Month for Climate Action
by David Krantz
Tekiah! In Elul, we hear the call for the quintessential sound of the shofar every morning. It’s meant as a daily wake-up call to action. Appropriately, the word Tekiah itself also means “disaster.” Day after day in Elul, the shofar shouts: “Disaster! Act now!”
Just as an alarm clock gives us notice that we have to get to work, the shofar reminds us that time marches onward and that our mistakes won’t correct themselves. We must actively engage with the world to repair it and our relationships with each other. The process of repentance and repair starts with recognition, and it’s time that we recognize that with ...
Earth Etude for Elul 14 – The Pool Is Closed
by Rabbi Natan Margalit, PhD
“The Pool is closed. Have a good night. God Bless America” the lifeguard announced as I climbed out of the public pool at 5:00 pm on an August evening. I was a bit taken aback by that “God bless America.” Well, of course. Yes, it's America, we’re in a public pool, why not? I hope God blesses America. We need to work for our own country, of course. Im ayn ani li, mi li – If I am not my own advocate, who will be for me? Said Hillel. But, it seemed to say more: God bless America –rah rah, go home team! Beat those enemies. Fear, pride, and narrow-mindedness seemed to lurk in the shadows of that ...
Earth Etude for Elul 13 – Returning to Memories, Reflecting on Progress
by Rabbi Shoshana Meira-Friedman
When I was a teenager, my grandfather would set aside mailings from the Sierra Club to give to me when I visited. He knew I cared about nature, and that I identified as an environmentalist. (I never quite knew what to do with the mailings. I think I cut out a few photos from a calendar to hang on my wall.)
As I grew older, Pa – a first generation Jewish immigrant, who went from rags to riches in a generation – asked me how I could make a living from environmental work. I remember saying something vague, because I really didn't know the answer.
I went to college and majored in Environmental Studies. On visits ...