Lay Leaders – Page 4

Growing Torah for Adults and Children in the Orthodox Community: Two Orthodox Environmental Organizations Merge to Maximize Impact

December 20, 2019 No Comments

[Proud and excited to share this new development for Orthodox Jews who care about the environment! – Evonne] GrowTorah and Canfei Nesharim, two Torah-based environmental non-profit organizations, have merged into one entity, effective Dec. 10, to strengthen their combined efforts and maximize their impact within the Orthodox Jewish community. Canfei

My Strategy For Getting Climate Change, Veganism, and Related Issues Onto the Jewish Agenda

November 25, 2019 No Comments

=== I urge the strongest, most widespread effort that can possibly be made to get climate threats and the need for shifts toward veganism onto the Jewish agenda. Why? Please consider the following facts (they are backed up by supporting material at the end of this article). There is

L’Shanah Tova and a thank you to our Earth Etudes for Elul Contributors

September 27, 2019 No Comments

Elul is the month before Rosh Hashanah, a time when we review our lives and think about how we will live the coming year. Many of these earth etudes actually connect our earth with the spirit of Judaism–Tikkun Olam, repairing the world. We would like to thank Rabbi Katy Z.

Earth Etude for Elul 29 –Waking up to the Climate Crisis

September 25, 2019 No Comments

by Rabbi David Jaffe ~ My guess is that many readers of the Elul Etudes are fully awakened to the climate crisis and read these blogs with the hope of gaining perspective and spiritual resilience to keep facing the crisis without panicking and burning out. This blog post is for

Earth Etude for Elul 28 — Swimming in Circles in Life

September 25, 2019 No Comments

by Rabbi Judy Kummer ~ Every August I participate in a 1-mile breast cancer fundraising swim at a pond on Cape Cod. I have done this swim every year since 2007, training each summer day to swim further and faster. I especially delight in swimming outdoors. Sometimes my practice swims

Earth Etude for Elul 27 — A Vegetarian Journey

September 25, 2019 No Comments

by Susan Levine ~ When I think about Elul, I think about things I have done over my lifetime and the most important thing I’ve tried to do is to become a vegetarian. But let me start at the beginning: Both my parents grew up in kosher homes and when

Earth Etude for Elul 26: What do animals feel and think? Who are they?

September 25, 2019 No Comments

by Rabbi David Seidenberg ~ That’s too broad a question by many degrees, but the difference between asking “who are they?” and “what are they?” is the gulf between civilizations, between epochs, between a world in which humans dominate and destroy, and a world in which humans collaborate with other

Earth Etude for Elul 25*– To the Silent Stones

September 24, 2019 No Comments

by Sarah Chandler ~ Do you count your days in footsteps? In strollers? In sunlight? Cement and concrete Below my feet I take a peek at the patterns And the places Where tiny rocks gather Solid, safe, secure What was it was like To move your entire being From a

Earth Etude for Elul 24 –If Not Here, Where

September 23, 2019 No Comments

by Maggid David Arfa ~ For Reb Bob in honor of his ordination Hillel says, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when? If not here, where?” Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14+ Ok, he didn’t

Earth Etude for Elul 23 — The Prayer for Rain

September 22, 2019 No Comments

by Rabbi Louis Polisson ~The Hebrew month of Elul is well-known as the month of preparation for the Jewish holidays Rosh Ha-Shanah (the New Year) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). In Jewish literature, it is often called a month of teshuvah (repentance, self-improvement, and returning to the good parts of ourselves). However, one might

Earth Etude for Elul 22 — Lessons from Alaska

September 21, 2019 No Comments

by Rabbi Suri Levow Krieger Alaska… I expected to be awed by the Glaciers. I was not disappointed. I anticipated being enLightened by 22 consecutive hours of sunlight. It was outstanding. What I did not expect, was day after day of 80 degree weather. And the following week… Anchorage registered

Earth Etude for Elul 21 — A Little Omer on the Prairie

September 20, 2019 No Comments

by Rabbi Margaret Frisch Klein ~ I live on the prairie. In the Prairie State of Illinois. On a summer’s day with large clouds towering over the cornfields, it is spectacular. Awe-inspiring. I remember to be grateful. For several decades, I have followed the practice of Rabbi Everett Gendler of

Earth Etude for Elul 20 — Past and Present Pain

September 19, 2019 No Comments

by Rabbi Katy Allen ~ What if…the feelings we have when we pass through…zones of destruction are actually arising from the land itself? What if it is the grief of the forest registering in our bodies and psyches—the sorrow of the redwoods, voles, sorrel, ferns, owls, and deer, all those

Earth Etude for Elul 19– Teshuvah in the Desert

September 18, 2019 No Comments

by Rabbi Mike Comins ~ In order to acquire wisdom and Torah, one must make oneself hefker, open and abandoned, like this desert. (BaMidbar Rabbah 1) Of the many reasons our tradition offers for why the Torah was given at Sinai, one is particularly relevant for Elul. The desert is an

Earth Etude for Elul 18 — What I Hope to Be

September 17, 2019 No Comments

by Joan Rachlin ~The temperatures, sun, moon, breezes, trees, grasses, plants, and flowers all signal that change is in the air. We’re moving into a new season and a new month, Elul, with its promise of transformation and its possibility of renewal. Elul is when we can hit the reset

Earth Etude for Elul 14 –Inner and Outer Climate Change

September 16, 2019 No Comments

by Rabbi Robin Damsky ~It’s been a year of change. Not just a move, but a move to a new climate zone and a very new culture. I moved from outside Chicago to Durham, NC, the South. The trees here are glorious – pines everywhere, wisteria in April blooming in

Earth Etude for Elul 16 — Prayer for the Two-Leggeds

September 15, 2019 No Comments

by Daniel Kieval To listen or join in prayer: This is the time for us to finally come home This is the time to know that we are not alone To find our selves in a deep ancient web This is the time to be embraced by the land Kissed

Earth Etude for Elul 15 — T’shuvah is an answer.

September 14, 2019 No Comments

by Andy Oram ~ At High Holidays we speak intently and repeatedly of T’shuvah (תשובה), by which we mean repentance or returning to God. T’shuvah does mean “return”, but it also means “answer.” We have to answer both God’s and a world that is dying before our eyes. How can

Earth Etude for Elul 13 –Spiritual Lessons from God’s “Art Museum”

September 12, 2019 No Comments

by Rabbi Dorit Edut “Ma rabu ma’asecha, Adonai; kulam b’hochma aseeta; malu ha-aretz kinyanecha— How numerous are Your works, O Lord; with wisdom You fashioned them all; the earth abounds with Your creations!” These words from the weekday morning blessings before the Shema prayer, were on my lips constantly as

Earth Etude for for Elul 11– Return to Our Values

September 10, 2019 No Comments

by Deborah Nam-Krane ~ In 2017, I heard LaDonna Redmond, founder of the Campaign for Food Justice Now, speak at the Annual Gardener’s Gathering in Boston. An organizer working at the crossroads of food justice and racial equality, she laid out a familiar story: her child was allergic and/or sensitive

Home of the Jewish-Environmental Movement

Growing Torah for Adults and Children in the Orthodox Community: Two Orthodox Environmental Organizations Merge to Maximize Impact

Growing Torah for Adults and Children in the Orthodox Community: Two Orthodox Environmental Organizations Merge to Maximize Impact

My Strategy For Getting Climate Change, Veganism, and Related Issues Onto the Jewish Agenda

L’Shanah Tova and a thank you to our Earth Etudes for Elul Contributors

Earth Etude for Elul 29 –Waking up to the Climate Crisis

Earth Etude for Elul 28 — Swimming in Circles in Life

Earth Etude for Elul 27 — A Vegetarian Journey

Earth Etude for Elul 26: What do animals feel and think? Who are they?

Earth Etude for Elul 25*– To the Silent Stones

Earth Etude for Elul 24 –If Not Here, Where

Earth Etude for Elul 23 — The Prayer for Rain

Earth Etude for Elul 22 — Lessons from Alaska

Earth Etude for Elul 21 — A Little Omer on the Prairie

Earth Etude for Elul 20 — Past and Present Pain

Earth Etude for Elul 19– Teshuvah in the Desert

Earth Etude for Elul 18 — What I Hope to Be

Earth Etude for Elul 14 –Inner and Outer Climate Change

Earth Etude for Elul 16 — Prayer for the Two-Leggeds

Earth Etude for Elul 15 — T’shuvah is an answer.

Earth Etude for Elul 13 –Spiritual Lessons from God’s “Art Museum”

Earth Etude for for Elul 11– Return to Our Values

the fine print

A shout out to our partners

Subscribe to Our Newsletter