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Climate Change: An Existential Threat to the U.S., Israel, and the World
The greatest threat to humanity today is climate change. The world is on a path that would lead to an uninhabitable world by the end of the century unless major changes soon occur. And it might happen much sooner because of positive feedback loops (vicious cycles) that could result in a tipping point when climate change spins out of control.
An outrageous exaggeration, like those in the past that predicted an end to the world? Not according to science academies worldwide, 97% of climate scientists, and virtually all peer-reviewed papers on the issue in respected ...
Israel: Doing More with Less
My story of how I became interested in the environment is an interesting one to say the least. Last summer, I had the pleasure of going on birthright (usually this is the point where I explain what birthright is, but considering the site is called "jewcology" I'm going to skip that part.) As a group, we visited a kibbutz located on the mountain known as Misgav Am.For those that don't know, Misgav Am is a mountain located in the Upper Galilee on the border of Lebanon.At Misgav Am, one of the founders sat us all in a small room all facing a large, panoramic window as he ...
Yom Kippur and Vegetarianism
by Richard Schwartz ~
There are many connections that can be made between the sacred Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur and vegetarianism:
1. On Yom Kippur, Jews pray to the “Living God,” the “King Who delights in life,” that they should be remembered for life, and inscribed in the “Book of Life” for the New Year. Yet, typical animal-based diets have been linked to heart disease, stroke, several types of cancer, and other chronic degenerative diseases, that shorten the lives of millions of people annually.
2. ...
Rosh Hashanah and Vegetarianism*
by Richard Schwartz~
Rosh Hashanah is the time when Jews take stock of their lives and consider new beginnings. Perhaps the most significant and meaningful change that Jews should consider this year is a shift away from diets that have been having devastating effects on human health and the health of our increasingly imperiled planet. While many Jews seem to feel that the holiday’s celebration can be enhanced by the consumption of chopped liver, gefilte fish, chicken soup, and roast chicken, there are many inconsistencies between the values of Rosh ...
Rosh Hashanah Message: Saving Our World.
by Richard Schwartz~
Rosh Hashanah commemorates God’s creation of the world. The “Ten Days of Repentance” from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur is a period to evaluate our deeds and to do teshuvah (repentance) for cases where we have missed the mark. Hence, the upcoming weeks provide an excellent time to consider the state of the planet’s environment and what we might do to make sure that the world is on a sustainable path.
When God created the world, He was able to say, "It is tov meod (...
Earth Etude for Elul 29 – World as Lover, World as Self
by Daniel Kieval~
there is a meditation practice
watching everything arising, inside and outside
responding with a gentle,
"not me"
this thought - "not me"
this anger - "not me"
this leg - "not me"
"not me"
it is a Big Truth
all this stuff is unfolding
in a giant performance art piece we call The Universe
and we are just a witness to this flow
They say the opposite of a small truth is a lie, but the opposite of a big truth is another big truth
is it not equally true to say to everything - "me" ?
this anger - "me"
this song - "me"
this wafting scent of ...
Earth Etude for Elul 28 – Not One
by David Greenstein~
There is not one blade of grass on earth without its angel descending from above, prodding it urgently: “Grow, grow!”* And, in return, the grass keeps growing.
There is not one lion on earth without its angel descending from above, prodding it urgently, “Roar, roar!” And, in return, the lion keeps roaring.
There is not one stream on earth without its angel descending from above, prodding it urgently, “Flow, flow!” And, in return, the stream keeps flowing.
There is not one bee on earth without its angel descending from above, ...
Earth Etude for Elul 27 – Elul Solastalgia* Blues
by Rabbi Ben Weiner~
Like almost every Jewish festival, the High Holidays have both spiritual and natural resonance, which, at the deepest level, are intertwined. Our ancient ancestors, linking the quality of the oncoming rainy season with the quality of their deeds, derived the need to perform an intense ceremony of repentance at just the time they began anxiously scanning the sky for clouds.
Growing up in central New England, it was not the rains I anticipated as the days of Elul ticked away but the first signs of autumn--cool dewy mornings and crisp breezes by ...
Earth Etude for Elul 26 – Returning to The Trees of Life
by Rabbi Margaret Frisch Klein~
I am a tree hugger. From long ago. I have planted trees, hundreds of them. I have celebrated Arbor Day as a Girl Scout. I have hiked in the woods from the time I was little.
There is a tree that grows in the center of the Merritt Parkway on the way into New York. I passed this tree every week on my way to rabbinical school. It is a beautiful tree with many strong, curved branches coming out of the central trunk. It looks like a menorah. There is another tree like that, a very old tree on the Marginal Way in Ogunquit, ME. Over a ...
Earth Etude for Elul 25 – The Hawk and the Kippah
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen~
For the past 13 years since my ordination, I have been wearing a rainbow kippah. The kippah and its pattern hold many meanings for me: connection to family, covenant with G!d, hope for the future, acceptance of all kinds of people (including myself), and more. Periodically, I have had to make a new kippah, when the previous one wore out.
Recently, when I again needed to make a new kippah, as I thought about it, I realized that I wanted to make this new kippah slightly different from all my previous rainbow kippot. I crocheted the first few ...
Earth Etude for Elul 24 – Delights in Breaking Your Own Behavior and Heading Toward Love
by Molly Bajgot~
delights in breaking your own behavior
and heading towards love:
when water logged branch
comes girdling down the stream
and gets caught by poised stick, gracefully,
i hang
caught
on its varied
fluttering,
communicating
with its dancer.
i watch from a brightly blazed, hot sun rock
naked, this intimate exchange
and then, off it goes —
drifting away, pushed by some force lightly more powerful
than all the other tide pulses, ...
Working Together: Will a Single Plan Ameliorate Climate Disruption? Earth Etude for Elul 23
by Andy Oram~
Climate disruption is a universal scourge that requires a coordinated worldwide response. As such, it is a constant frustration to activists who wish that institutions everywhere could collaborate on implementing the Paris accords and to do even more. We often lament that governments and companies go their own ways, violating their own promises to hold back carbon production. Why can't humanity learn to work together in its own interest?
Recourse to Jewish traditional texts can help us accept this situation. In particular, the story of the ...
Earth Etude for Elul 22 – You Shall Be Like a Watered Garden
by Rabbi Toba Spitzer~
Of the many ways that the Divine is described and experienced in the Hebrew Bible, one of my favorites is Water. In the prophets, in Psalms, God is referred to as Peleg Elohim/“River of God”; M’kor Mayyim Hayyim/“Source of Living Waters”; Ma’ayanei Hayeshua/“Wells of Liberation,” and more. For our Biblical ancestors, the metaphor of God as Water was a powerful way of describing their connection to the Source of Life:
How precious is Your love, O God!...Humanity is nourished from the riches of Your house, You give them ...
Earth Etude for Elul 21 – Choose Life! Whose Life?
by Rabbi David Seidenberg~
Every year before Rosh Hashanah we read the ultimate Torah portion about t’shuvah, returning to God, called parshat Nitzavim. Every year we are reminded that if we turn toward God, then God will circumcise our hearts. And every year, in a section of Nitzavim that Reform congregations also read on Rosh Hashanah, we are admonished, “Choose life!,” even as we pray to be inscribed in the Book of Life.
How do we choose Life? A few weeks before Rosh Hashanah, in parshat Ki Teitzei, we are given concrete instruction.
“When a bird’s ...
Earth Etude for Elul 20 – Elul Dinner
by Judith Felsen, Ph.D.~
Elul Dinner
Dining
open air
chandeliers
starry night
invitations
flowing rivers
boulders
chairs
ledges
tables
grasses
carpets
mosses
cushions
wildflowers
ornaments
vegetation
food
come
eat
with
Us
© Judith Felsen, Ph.D., 2018
Judith Felsen holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, certificates in hypnotherapy, NLP, Eriksonian Hypnosis, and Sacred Plant Medicine. She is a poet, consultant, creator of collaborative integrative programs involving nature, Judaism, spirituality and the arts, student of Torah, sacred texts and various teachers, sacred ...
Earth Etude for Elul 19–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. Perhaps 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 ...
My articles on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot
I am posting this material involving articles related to Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot relatively early for the following reasons:
1 I hope that readers will use the material to create their own articles and letters and/or talking points for radio call-in programs and for other activities;
2 I plan to send the material to the Jewish media soon, and would welcome any suggestions you might have for improvements;
3 I often receive messages re kapporot (kapporus) ceremonies when it is too late to respond effectively, so I wanted the articles on that rite ...
Earth Etude for Elul 18
Awareness of Holiness: Re-enchantment with the World and Restitution
by Renee Shapiro~
A few years ago I did a short, pithy d’var Torah with my photos based on a couple of lines from a portion I was learning. The lines are Exodus/Shemot 3:4-5.
4.When YHWH saw that he had turned aside to see, God called out to him out of the midst of the bush, He said Moshe! Moshe! He said, here I am.
5. He said: Do not come near to here, put off your sandal from your foot—for the place on which you stand—it is holy ground (Everett Fox translation)
It strikes me that the import...
Earth Etude for Elul 17 – Tree Speaking
by Rabbi Jill Hammer~
The trees are speaking with one another. The trees are speaking with all creatures… and all the conversations of living things are about the earth. (Genesis Rabbah 13:2)
Trees have been speaking with me since I was a child, and each tree speaks in its own way. The pine shelters; the willow bends in the wind; the birch has its cool gracefulness. The sycamore sheds its bark in July; the oaks drop their acorns in autumn; the maple leaks sap in February. The cherry, pear and apple blossoms make spring an enchanted kingdom. My father’s chestnut ...
Earth Etude for Elul 16 – Boggled by Bottles
by Rabbi Suri Krieger~
Today, driving home from the gorgeous flower-full Massachusetts Horticulture Society in Wellesley, I had to swerve on the road three times… to avoid plastic bottles thrown out on the highway. It boggles my mind that the bottle dilemma is still one of the most abusive forms of earth erosion we are guilty of. Bottles were one of the first recycle items to be tackled, and yes… we can see recycle bins everywhere now. But the fact that we even have those bins, indicates how drastically we have missed the point. The Recycle, Reuse, Reduce trilogy is ...