138 results for tag: Elul
Shana Tova — May You Have a Good Year
by Rabbi Katy Allen • photos by Gabi Mezger
~As you journey through these the Yamim Noraim, Days of Awe, may you find yourself more able to remain present in the moment, may you find meaning in unexpected places, and my your heart open ever wider.
May you search among the needles for the gifts of seeds.
May you find beauty among that which at first glance seems no longer needed, but which in fact is vital.
May your gaze turn upward toward vistas without end.
May you notice gifts that pop up quickly in unexpected places.
May your eyes and your heart be opened to wonder.
May subtleness strike you ...
The Importance of Teshuva during the High Holidays
The Jewish high holidays are around the corner...
During the 10 days of repentance, our prayers and forgiveness carry significantly more weight than any other time during the year.
Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz (the Shelah Hakadosh) said that our behavior during each day of the 7 days between Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur has the potential to correct our sins made during each of those days in the past year, and can affect the rest of the same days next year (Sunday corrects Sundays, Monday corrects Mondays etc).
So how do we make the most out of those days and make sure we do a proper Teshuva?
Teshuva in the High Holy days
The Torah says that G-d ...
Earth Etude for Elul 29 – Farmers of Our Souls
by Molly Bajgot~
something that the earth knows well
is our attempts to conquer, manipulate, and control her.
in this High Holy season,
in the return to oneself,
we are asked to abstain from the conquering,
manipulating and controlling —
that it may lead to understanding our impulses for doing so:
to each other, the earth, other beings, and our own soul.
we have a task, this Holy season,
to do teshuvah —
to relinquish, however micro or macro we can -
the impulses and ways we farm our subconscious and conscious minds
with seeds that have been handed to us
back in times of vulnerability or fear,
that ...
Elul: A Time to Start Shifting Our Imperiled Planet Onto a Sustainable Path
by Richard Schwartz~
Elul is here. It represents an opportunity for heightened introspection, a chance to consider teshuva, changes 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 consider positive changes.
How should we respond to Elul today? How should we respond when we hear reports almost daily of severe, often record-breaking, heat waves, droughts, wildfires, floods, and storms; when we ...
Earth Etude for Elul 28 – Another Blue Day
by Thea Iberall, Ph.D.
~I have a picture of my mother Helene with Heidi Klum, the blonde supermodel and TV star. We were in Heidi’s trailer on the Warner Bros lot in Burbank watching her prep for a commercial shoot. Heidi and her makeup entourage gathered around my mother who was wearing her “Kiss Me I’m 100” T-shirt. They wanted to know her secret to aging well. My mom laughed and told Heidi about the gin-soaked raisins she eats every morning to ward off arthritis. Then she talked about the raw apple cider vinegar she takes before every meal to overcome gas. And the walnuts and blueberries and probiotics. The classes and crossword ...
Earth Etude for Elul 27 – Re-Connecting to the Land
by Rabbi Lawrence Troster
~On a recent vacation to my home town of Toronto, as I drove around the countryside and saw the many places I knew so well from my childhood, I reflected again on how the landscape in which I lived affected who I am and how I see the world. I was born in Toronto which is in an area that was covered by glaciers over 10,000 years ago and the land still is shaped by that ancient event: spoon shaped hills called drumlins, ridges called eskers which are the remains of the river beds that flowed from the retreating ice. And lakes: I spent many of my summers at camp in Northern Ontario beyond the glacial till where the major ...
Earth Etude for Elul 26 – Three Levels of Holiness
by Rabbi David Seidenberg~
In the Torah, three things are called "shabbat shabbaton" – the seventh day, Yom Kippur, and Shmitah (the Sabbatical year).
Agnon, in his book The Days of Awe, shares a teaching from Rabbi Tzvi Hakohen of Rymanov about this. The rabbi was asked, if both Yom Kippur and the Sabbath itself are called "shabbat shabbaton", how is Yom Kippur more special? And he answered, the seventh day is called "shabbat shabbaton l’adonai" – a sabbath of sabbaths for God. Yom Kippur is called "shabbat shabbaton lakhem" – a sabbath of sabbaths for all of you. On Yom Kippur we don't just reach toward the divine realm, we draw it into ...
Earth Etude for Elul 25 – Practicing Teshuvah
by Maxine Lyons~
I lost a lot of azalea bushes this past winter. The space looks stark and bare, and I am deciding what to place there to fill that void that a harsh Boston winter destroyed in my garden. The weight of the snowfall broke branches. I was at first very upset looking at the spot where azaleas once flourished in the springtime, and angry that the snow’s destructive force did this when I was not home for two months (to brush them off and relieve the pressure of the snow’s weight). I used a combination of practices from Mussar (using the soul-trait equanimity) and Buddhist mindfulness to focus on a solution and not just to over ...
Earth Etude for Elul 24 – Water Down the Wall
by Carol Reiman~
from www.thinkcds.org/category/policy/
Borne
on the water
that etches
the rock
(of tablets
and of temples),
the breath of life
glistens
as it falls
down
and down
and
down
the wall,
pooling below, in blue green deep,
a balm for bathers, to wash away
the ash of grief and tired day;
turning on,
the waters pass slowly here,
clotted
by the blood of battle,
iron arms lapped
in reeds--
land of dust and stone
sealed off to some--
left in pieces,
separated parts.
Eicha!
From the voices
of those gathered,
tuned to the shofar,
condensing...
Earth Etude for Elul 23 – Collective Versus Personal Action in the Jewish Bible
by Andy Oram~
Environmental activists are constantly juggling between the personal and the political. Do we devote our efforts to using our cars less, substituting vegan meals for meat, and recycling? Or do we canvas our friends and neighbors to pressure governments and businesses to adopt more planet-friendly technologies? We know that we need to do both the personal and the political, but those of us who have taken the environment as our cause have found ourselves swinging between them in a way that is frustrating and distracting. And as we prepare for the High Holidays, we always look for how to do more good in the upcoming year.
Perhaps we ...
Earth Etude for Elul 22 – The Wonder of Life
by Maggid David Arfa~
If I had influence with the good fairy... I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life. --Rachel Carson, Women’s Home Companion Magazine 1956
Awareness of a mystery is shared by all..., yet, as we have seen they usually mistake what they sense as being apart from their own existence, as if there was only wonder in what they see, not in the very act of seeing, as if the mystery were merely an act of observation….The mystery is not apart from ourselves, not a far off thing like a rainbow in the sky, the mystery is…not a something apart, but a ...
Earth Etude for Elul 21 – Eco-Kaddish
By Judith Felsen, Ph.D.~
Master of the Universe, Lord of All Worlds
May I know You
when I see a tree
feel the wind
gaze at stars
touch the ground
smile at flowers
May I see You
in all cycles of life
through and around me
May I sense You
with every breath
footstep, touch, thought and feeling
knowing You are near
and we are always One.
This Elul
may I join with You
becoming One
in nature’s presence
never to leave.
© Judith Felsen, Ph.D.
Judith Felsen holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, certificates in hypnotherapy, NLP, Eriksonian Hypnosis, and Sacred Plant Medicine. She is a poet...
Earth Etude for Elul 20 – In the Hands of Billionaires
by Mirele B. Goldsmith, Ph.D.~
Recently I had the opportunity to hear a presentation about the UN Sustainable Development Goals by Jeffrey Sachs, the world’s best-known economist. Sachs emphasized that poverty and climate change are interrelated. He focused on the financial cost of a “just transition” to a world of decent livelihoods and renewable energy for all. Sachs explained that the cost of this transition could easily be financed if the world’s 2,043 billionaires contributed a mere 3% of their annual income.
I find this analysis to be very encouraging. The problem is simple. Instead of changing the behavior of the 7.5 billion ...
Earth Etude for Elul 19 – Keeping Agreements as a Spiritual Practice
by Rabbi David Jaffe~
I am a people pleaser. On the surface that may sound just fine. I get along well with people, care about people and want to give them what they want. But the motivations for my people pleasing reveal its dark underside. I don’t like conflict, so I will do whatever is necessary to make sure people like me. For example, I will say yes to things I know I will never do, sacrificing my integrity to avoid the momentary discomfort and hard feelings of saying no.
I am not sharing this publicaly to self-flagellate. Rather, my own condition is instructive for many people because these patterns of behavior are not of my own ...
Earth Etude for Elul 18 – Searching for the Tree of Heaven
by Rachel Aronson~
Despite its nickname, “the tree of heaven,” the ailanthus is not universally beloved. It is not planted in garden beds, on streets, or in parks. There are 22 types of permitted street trees in New York City, where I live, and the Tree of Heaven is not one of them.
The Tree of Heaven is most famous for being the titular Tree that grows in Brooklyn:
“There's a tree that grows in Brooklyn. Some people call it the Tree of Heaven. No matter where its seed falls, it makes a tree which struggles to reach the sky. It grows in boarded-up lots and out of neglected rubbish heaps… It would be considered beautiful ...
Earth Etude for Elul 17 – Spiritual Charity and the Tale of Two Seas
by Rabbi Ziona Zelazo~
This post emerged during a summer stay in Israel. I heard the story from my friend Dalia, about her nephew, who got killed in a terrorist attack. In his death he donated his organs to save lives. And so he already enabled a man to regain his vision with the donated retina. I was thinking how amazing it is to be able to give to others. But in particular, I was thinking that there is no one way to give to others. People can choose to be givers in many shapes and forms.
And here is another Israeli hint for the idea of giving:
There are two lakes in Israel. One is the Dead Sea, the other is the Sea of Galilee. Both are ...
Earth Etude for Elul 16 – Ram in the Bushes
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen~
And it came to pass after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham;” and he said, “Hineni, here I am.” And he said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell you.” (Gen. 22:1-2)
We are being tested.
But not by G!d.
We are being tested by the world in which we live.
We are being tested by the actions of humans past and present.
We are being tested by the changing climate.
We are being tested by the racism built into our institutions, our ...
Earth Etude for Elul 15 – Wasting Food
by Scott Lewis, Ph.D.
~When you besiege a city for many days to wage war against it to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them, for you may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. (Deuteronomy 20:19)
The mitzvah of Bal Taschit, do not waste, helps frame Jewish environmental concerns. While most Jewish environmental activists recognize the importance of Bal Taschit for prohibiting wasting energy and polluting the earth, we might easily overlook the commandment’s important connections to Food Waste.
Our sages understood this link. The Rambam, for example, pointed out that the Biblical passage ...
Earth Etude for Elul 14 – Time to Rest
by Tali Anisfeld~
Night summoned day again this morning, and the dawn told me to rest. This surprised me. Isn’t it the setting sun – rather than its rising companion – that usually coaxes us into rest? But then again, maybe she was hinting at something about rest that comes with motion (the reach and stretch of the day), rather than with stillness (the hushed retreat of night).
It is time to rest; it is time to be awoken in prayer and to laugh with the tickling grasses. To climb and jump and run and let the sweat of your body mix with the rain of the heavens. It is time to eat from the fruit of the bush, the tree, the vine. To kiss ...
Earth Etude for Elul 13 – Displaced Trash
by Nicci Meadow
Misplaced anger
causes me to
displace trash
from where I find it
to another place
where it ought
not to be;
Then,
picturing it clearly,
startles me,
helping me to see
what I too
have become,
acting out unintentionally
or carelessly.
Not very Jewish or Buddhist
of me.
It's time for a change.
Nicci Meadow is a mother, artist-photographer, "do-gooder" and seeker. www.niccimeadow.com.