Spirituality – Page 24

What I Learned from Going Unplugged

January 3, 2012 No Comments

From December 25-28, I took four days off work and also, I disconnected myself from facebook, twitter and email. I felt that it wouldn't be a real vacation from work if I was still connected to facebook, twitter or email at all. This might not be the case for everyone, but for me, the virtual world always pulls me back into the stress of work life. Whether it's day or night, vacation or work time, I feel obligated to act on whatever I see there. If I don't act on it, I feel stressed. (If I do act on it I also feel stressed.) The only solution was to keep the information from entering my brain in the first place. Disclaimer: this wasn't a real disconnection. I have friends who are going on silent retreats! That's not what this was. I still had my cell phone and was still receiving text messages. I allowed myself the use of the internet. I even went to stores and purchased things! However, the simple act of disconnecting from this "other" virtual world (in which we are interacting currently) — and from my responsibilities in this world — gave me both peace and distance. It gave me enough clarity to learn some things. Here's some of what I learned: The compulsion to check email, facebook and twitter is about a need for constant stimulation and affirmation. I don't need to be entertained or affirmed every five minutes by an external source. I'm totally capable of doing that for myself. Not being entertained every five minutes is not necessarily a bad thing. Seeing friends is wonderful. Books are good too. When I am not stressed, I'm more punctual. I also have a better sense of humor and find myself laughing a lot more. When I made it clear that I was taking time off, people left me alone and figured things out for themselves. Guess what? There were no disasters because I wasn't paying attention. Of course, you can't spend your whole live on vacation. And it was easier to unplug in a week when everyone else also seemed to be doing so. But, I truly hope I'll be able to bring some of these lessons into real life. When's the last time you tried unplugging, and what did you learn from it?

Sukkot for the Shretelech

October 17, 2011 1 Comment

I can’t help myself- this time of year, as cold winds start blowing, leaves begin to fall and music of the geese magically fills the air, I think of the Shretelech. Don’t you? What? You’ve never seen one before? What?! What?! You’ve never even heard of them before? Well, let me start from the beginning. Truthfully, I’m not totally shocked because as a guide who leads Shretelech expeditions, well, I’ve met all types in my day. The Shretelech (singular Shretele), are the little people. Others call them elves, fairies, or gnomes; but Jews from Eastern Europe call them by their Yiddish name, Shretelech. Shretelech live in the woods, or fields, or by streams- in holes in the ground and in trees. During the cold winter they are not opposed to coming inside to live behind our stoves, where warmth and crumbs abound. Of course, the Shretelech are not just waiting around to shake our hands. The Shretelech are like wild birds and animals, they do not like loud noises. We need to use quiet stealth and keen observation if we have hopes of spotting one. I take my job as Shretelech guide seriously. I model how we can walk quietly and use our hands and sign language to point out something interesting. You can imagine the commotion if you were to begin jumping up and down shouting, “I see one, I see one!” The little Shretelech wouldn’t come out of hiding for days! We practice listening and even the youngest of children will strain to hear as much as possible. For older participants who have forgotten their inner sense of wonder, (and maybe even have a chronic case of the indoorsies without even realizing it!), I translate this experience as a contemplative nature hike. I teach Thich Naht Hahn’s beautiful walking mediation. I find this gives those parents and teachers a respectable opportunity to quietly enjoy being outside, to breathe fully and notice the great beauty found with each step. I set the pace to a slow stroll, lingering around holes and exploring rotting logs. Kids never seem to need any extra encouragement. From the beginning they are intensely looking for Shretelech, often trying to gain our attention with waving hands and wide eyes. At the center of the hike, we build Sukkot for the Shretelech, kind of like a Habitat for Humanity brigade. After all, they are mighty busy preparing for winter, stocking up on food. They can’t just visit the grocery store and turn up the thermostat like we can. This is also a great opportunity to introduce traditional blessings for the many wonders of the natural world. We have ancient blessings for the awe of seeing first flowers, hearing thunder, seeing a rainbow, coming to the sea, and more. Sometimes I wonder if these blessings were slipped into the prayer book from radicals at the Santa Cruz Hippie Hillel. Nope- these are ancient alright! Sources can be found in the Talmud and throughout our tradition. The kids take it all in stride. I like to ask everyone, if you were one of the ancient rabbi’s, what blessing would you create?” You can never have enough radical amazement, eh? For the record, many groups have at least one child who sees a Shretele during our expedition, or perhaps earlier, in their home yard. In all honesty, to date, I have not witnessed these sightings with my own eyes, or discovered any physical proof from these word of mouth testimonies. In fact, scant physical evidence exists for this rare and elusive species. Often, we hear a hammering in the forest- hoping it is a Shretele repairing his home, discover it is a woodpecker. Or, after silently circling a small movement in the grass, discover it is a grasshopper munching away. Amazingly, not only is no one ever disappointed after these encounters, sometimes they become the very highlight of our expedition! Thankfully, we definitely have the stories. They can be found in a gem of a book, Yiddish Folktales, by Beatrice Silverman Weinreich. She was a career Yiddishist, folklorist and lover of riddles. She worked at the premier institution for Jewish culture of Eastern Europe, YIVO in New York. This great institute began in Vilna, Poland (currently Lithuania), in 1925 with the goal of using modern scholarship to document Jewish culture. YIVO trained teams of Zamlers, collectors, who traveled throughout Eastern Europe collecting stories in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Which is to say this book is the real deal. Not just one person’s memory of favorite Yiddish stories. I am sure the Shretelech, like many of our ancestors, found ways to immigrate here to America. My Shretelech expeditions carry the very romantic view of bringing the world alive. Using the power of story and imagination, sprinkled with wonder and awe and a taste of Jewish life, a little outdoor magic comes to all who participate. I look forward to hearing from you If you would like to arrange a Shretelech Expedition for your group or just have questions about the Shretelech. All the best, Maggid David PS A word of warning: like mushroom hunting, please, if you choose to seek out the little people on your own- do your homework. Make sure you are able to positively ID him/her as a kindly Shretele. You know, it could be a Kapelyushnikle, and then you’d be in for who knows what kind of tricks! Good luck.

“Is this the pipeline that is desired of us?” Talk to Rally Against Keystone XL Pipeline

October 10, 2011 No Comments

Joelle Novey, Director Greater Washington Interfaith Power & Light Delivered to Sept 2 2011 Rally Against the Keystone XL Pipeline Behind the White House I speak this afternoon on behalf of hundreds of congregations in the DC area that are working to respond to climate change in their sacred communities. These congregations work together through an organization called Interfaith Power & Light. And I speak as one of dozens of religious people – priests and ministers and rabbis, Christians and Jews and Muslims and Unitarian Universalists and Buddhists – who put their faith into action over the past two weeks by walking across the street to the White House and who would not be moved. We are here today about a pipeline. Pipelines, essentially, take something from one place to another. And to be a human being living on Earth is to benefit every day from lots of good pipelines. This land on which we find ourselves is criss-crossed by hundreds of waterways –- natural pipelines — mountain streams and gullies and culverts that bring water to rivers and the ocean where it eventually returns to the mountains. In every tree in this park, the sap and water rises through xylem pipelines into the air and along each branch, nourishing every leaf. And in each of our own bodies today, our hearts are pumping blood through the rest of us, through arteries and veins, bringing oxygen to every cell along extraordinary pipelines. There is a Jewish prayer that praises the openings and closings that allow our bodies to function each day. We are, each of us, fearfully and wonderfully made, and we are full of pipelines. But now, we have been asked to stand idly by as our government makes way for TransCanada to build an enormous, unnatural pipeline, the Keystone XL pipeline. This afternoon I borrow from the prophet Isaiah and imagine us being asked a question from on high: “Is this the pipeline that I desire?” This pipeline, which would carry oil extracted from the Earth by destroying indigenous people’s homeplaces in Alberta, Canada. Is this the pipeline that I desire? This pipeline, which would endanger the drinking water of families in six states, across 1700 miles of ranch land and farm country. Is this the pipeline that I desire? This pipeline, which would bring its dirty crude to be refined in communities already bearing too many toxic facilities, in refineries that pollute the air and water, making children and elders sick. Is this the pipeline that I desire? This pipeline, whose oil would be burned, releasing heat-trapping carbon into our atmosphere, permanently damaging our Earth’s life-giving climate. Is this the pipeline that I desire? This pipeline, whose crude would be sold for filthy high profits, dollars that would surely be used in turn to buy off our leaders and distort our politics. Is this the pipeline that I desire? And this pipeline, whose dirty contents will reek of the destruction their extraction caused on the way in, and surely only do damage to living things on the way out. Is this the pipeline that I desire? No. This afternoon, I believe that this is not the pipeline that God desires of us. So what is desired of us? Well, pipelines connect. And we do so deeply need to be more strongly connected to each other. We need pipelines of solidarity, that remind us that the hopes and dreams of First Nations communities in Canada, and families in Nebraska, and families in Texas, are not so different from the hopes and dreams we have, and from the hopes and dreams of people around the world on the front lines of climate change in Bangladesh and in Uganda. But this Keystone XL pipeline is not the pipeline we need. We need pipelines carrying ingenuity, to bring us new solutions for getting our electricity from sun and wind, to get our energy from heaven instead of coal and oil energy from hell. But this Keystone XL pipeline is not the pipeline we need. We need pipelines full of compassion, to remind our leaders and businesspeople of our common humanity, that we are all in one boat, and that we will only preserve the Earth’s climate by working together. But this Keystone XL pipeline is not the pipeline we need. We need pipelines to bring us an expanded consciousness, to see that we are deeply connected to the entire ecosystem, to the plants and to the animals, to see that what we do to our natural world will touch us too, and soon. But this Keystone XL pipeline is not the pipeline we need. We need pipelines conveying our highest hopes for the future, that might lead us towards decisions that dare to imagine a better, safer, cleaner world for our children and grandchildren. But this Keystone XL pipeline is not the pipeline we need. May this afternoon mark our turning. May today be the day of our turning together. Today, let’s turn together to the task of building only the pipelines that are desired of us. And let all of these good people say: Amen.

Isaiah’s Fast: This Yom Kippur, Volunteer, Donate & Mobilize

October 6, 2011 No Comments

Yom Kippur, the ‘holiest’ day of the Jewish year. Millions of Jews worldwide get dressed up in white or their best attire and sit together in synagogue, hungry, lamenting all the bad things we have done as a community of flawed individuals. When the average person is asked about Yom Kippur, fasting is first on their mind. Fasting has become a central tenet of Yom Kippur practice, but what is a fast and why do we do it? Three of the most common modern arguments for fasting include: Through the act of fasting we cleanse our bodiy and soul; we keep ourselves focused on prayer and are not distracted by food and the socializing that comes with it; and we make ourselves suffer, inflicting a small amount of the pain on ourselves that we have inflicted this year on others. * Unfortunately, for most people fasting as it is practiced today proves antithetical to its goals. Instead of cleansing our bodies, for many it is an unhealthy practice fogging the mind and weakening the body. The act of not eating, while it keeps us from ritual meals that dominate most Jewish holidays, distracts most of us to the point where hunger and not eating becomes the main elements of Yom Kippur, the opposite of a tool for focus. Finally, one could argue that the act of inflicting pain on oneself is not a goal of Yom Kippur, but that by this day in the Jewish ritual cycle we should be learning from our mistakes and looking forward to new actions in a new year. Ever since Yom Kippur first emerged from being a purely priestly holiday, the Jewish masses have been missing its point. In fact our ancestors who created the Yom Kippur service, included a reading from the book of Isaiah where he laments the Jewish people for their misplaced energy on Yom Kippur, encouraging them to pursue a more forward thinking approach. In Isaiah 58:3, the people ask G!d “Why did we fast and you did not see? Why did we afflict our souls and you did not know?” G!d’s response is clear, and even though every Jewish community across the world, reads it aloud every year on Yom Kippur, millennia later we still have not heard G!d’s call. “Behold on your fast day you seek personal gain and extort all your debts. Because you fast for grievance and strife, yet strike each other with a wicked fist; you do not fast as befits this day, to make your voice heard above? Would such be the fast I choose, a day when humanity merely afflicts himself? “Surely this is the fast I choose: To break open the shackles of wickedness, to undo the bonds of injustice, to let the oppressed go free and annul all perversion… Break bread with the hungry and bring the poor into your home; When you see a naked person, clothe him. “Then your light will burst out like the dawn and your healing will speedily sprout… Then you will call and G!d will respond. You will cry out and G!d will answer ‘Hineni, I am here!” This Yom Kippur, volunteer, donate & mobilize Volunteer – spend the day at a food bank, shelter or stuffing envelopes for an important cause. Skip synagogue and pray through your actions. Donate – What do you have that you no longer need? What canned food around your house will never be eaten? And most importantly, what can you ‘sacrifice’ personally, financially, etc., that can benefit others greatly? Mobilize – If you are going to synagogue, talk about the Occupy Wall Street protests and police oppression in New York, the cuts to social services, high unemployment and poverty across North America and the world. Mobilize your community for social, economic and environmental change. No matter whether one eats, prays, sleeps or volunteers on this important day, may we all strive to find a better path personally and communally this Yom Kippur. * Other explanations for fasting on Yom Kippur include: We don't eat or drink because we are plugged into the highest essence of our being on that day, which is angelic and therefore we don't even need to eat. We are engaging in a process that if continued would kill us. So we get an actual physical experience of a process that leads to death and reminds us of mortality.

This Ecofeminist Doula’s favorite Jewish practice? Mikveh!

September 28, 2011 No Comments

There are so many reasons to love the mikveh (Jewish ritual bath). My love for mikveh inspired me to keep kosher, observe the Jewish Sabbath, and cover my hair as a married woman. Here are a few of my personal favorite things about the mikveh: 1. Immersing into the Earth’s waters Mikveh water must meet certain requirements of being naturally existing, as from a natural body of water or harvest from the rain. Any large enough body of naturally occurring water can be a mikveh. The ocean is the largest mikveh in the world. When a woman immerses in the mikveh, she is entering the womb of the feminine Earth, calledAdamah in Hebrew. She strikes a fetal position pose, and then is spiritually reborn upon exiting the waters. “When we refer to G‑d’s presence within our world, giving life to all things, then She is the Shechinah,” writes Tzvi Freeman about why we don’t call G-d Mother. “When we refer to G‑d’s transcendence beyond this world, we call Him The Holy One, blessed be He. G‑d does not change or have parts, G‑d forbid. Both are the same one and singular G‑d, just looking at that G‑d from different angles,” he writes. G-d is female, G-d is male, and G-d is everything and can be interacted with and described from each of these aspects. The feminine aspect of G-d, the Shehina is present and dwelling among us when Jews perform mitzvot (commandments), such as davening (praying) together, or learning Torah together. Freeman continues, The Holy One, Blessed Be He unites with the Shechinah when we accomplish mitzvot correctly, hence elevating spiritual harmony in the world. When a woman immerses in the holy waters of the mikveh, she is physically uniting with that feminine Shechinah and in fulfilling the mitzvah uniting the Shechinah with The Holy One, Blessed Be He. The Shehina dwells in the wilderness where Creation is ever-abundant, and also dwelled in the Holy Temple which explains all the miracles that happened there. Through her immersion in the mikveh, the woman embodies this powerful, fertile life force that travels with her. Observance of the marital laws that include the mikveh brings the Creator into the relationship with the husband and wife, elevating their union. 2. Ancestral Customs for personal hygiene, social networks, and intimacy Before a woman immerses in the mikveh, she must meticulously clean her body according to certain procedures, to ensure that nothing will obstruct any part of her body from being touched by the holy waters. She has been preparing for seven days since the end of her menstruation. The moments preceding and during immersion are guarded by a female attendant, a witness to help ensure that the woman is totally clean and totally immersed. Mikveh is a basic element of living a Jewish life. According to Jewish law, building a mikveh takes precedence over building a house of worship. Women are known to gather and spend time together on mikveh night before returning to their husbands. Bathing and the opportunity to connect with other women is guaranteed down time every month, guarded by the custom and engagement of the Jewish women in the local community. I personally love knowing and practicing the hygienic customs of my ancestors! It’s not only about how we keep ourselves clean, it’s also about how we prepare ourselves for intimacy with our beloved. Generally speaking this monthly ritual for the married woman provides a rhythm of intimacy for husband and wife. Our own Jewish tradition has within it a structure for balance and renewal of healthy sexual intimacy. 3. Centrality of the woman’s rhythms Not only does a woman learn to track her menstrual cycle according to the Hebrew lunar calendar and the traditional timing systems through the practice of mikveh, but the rhythm of her menses greatly impacts her relationship with her husband and family, and hence the womens’ cycles guide social dynamics in the community. It makes so much sense to have the women’s core rhythm, which is intrinsically connected and divinely balanced with the moon and the tides, be central to the Jewish calendar. I feel so proud that this woman-centered consciousness is embedded in the heritage of my Jewish ancestry. The woman learns to track her menstrual cycles according to ancient calendar methods. She tracks her cycle dates in relationship to the lunar month, the Jewish calendar, and her internal rhythms. The ancient practice of tracking our cycle in this way is incredibly rooted and grounding, as is the traditional women’s celebration of Rosh Chodesh, each new month, ever since Sinai. 4. Spiritual Strength I discovered traditional Yiddishkeit (Judaism) during my childbearing years, and then had the opportunity and great blessing to have relations and conceive children while involved with the holy mikveh. This action bestowed spiritual blessing on my children, as well as applied retroactively to any of my previous children and the generations of babies born since my grandmothers ceased using the mikveh. I know these things because they were passed to me through an unbroken oral tradition, a living practice that I accessed because I sought out people who maintain and guard these traditions. As it is a carefully implemented mitzvah, I have had the privilege of using the mikveh in this way because I am a married Jewish woman married to a Jewish man. So many variables in my life could have been different. I feel totally blessed to have mikveh in my life. 5. Timeless Wisdom A translation of the root of the Hebrew word mikveh is “place of hope.” Today, when humanity seems to be on the brink of both enlightenment and self-inflicted destruction, I am grateful to have this spiritual practice to arouse my sense of hope. The Jewish understanding of gender, spirituality, and the earth offers a foundation for ecofeminist views on patriarchal wars and environmental degradation now and in the past. Women at the mikveh pray for fertility, peace, everything. Understanding the mikveh and all that

Grassroots Jewish Women’s Community

September 8, 2011 No Comments

By Teri Jedeikin Kayam Farm Multicultural Educator True to its name sake, The Matriarch’s Orchard watches over Kayam Farm from its place upon the hill. Its landscape, gently sloping towards vineyards and strawberry patches, is rich with fruit trees, berry bushes and spiritual symbolism. It is a space created by women for women – a radical innovation that invites Jewish women to engage with each other and with all women of diverse ages and heritages. The orchard is an ecological and spiritual learning space where integration of mind, body and spirit is the key to maintaining a healthy garden and healthy selves. As you enter through its lilac and raspberry walkway, you shall start to discover how the orchard is pioneering a new path to women’s wellness… Mind A healthy mind needs to be nourished with positive psychological and mental stimulation. An initiative that brings together cultural learning, feminism and ecological involvement yields an abundance of food for thought. The orchard lends itself to rich educational programming geared towards raising levels of social, ecological and emotional awareness. Together we learn about our traditional matriarchs of the Torah, their relationships to the land and to us. We also celebrate matriarchs within our contemporary Jewish history by learning from great female icons and educators of our time. Co-creating an intentional ecological space, also opens up an exciting new world of ecological knowledge from traditional plant medicine to Permaculture principles of design. Body The physical health benefits of organic gardening need no introduction. In these frenetic times, feeling our hands in the soil, our fingers entwined with plant roots, grounds us to our own foundations. Breathing in the fresh farm air, feeling the morning sun on our skin, enlivening our bodies with gentle physical exercise is a recipe for rejuvenation. However, something even more therapeutic happens when we work together, sharing in the experience as women and as community. We have fun! Spirit Kayam Farm is more than just a farm. It grows food and friendships. It cultivates community and crops. In this spirit, the Matriarch’s orchard seeks to maintain harmony between people, culture, and the Earth. Each fruit tree and herb plant has been consciously selected for its feminine symbolic or medicinal properties. Moreover, many of them tell stories of the special feminine life cycle events for which they were planted. Trees are a powerful motif in our Jewish tradition and, as such, the practice of orchardry resonates with such themes as the “Tree of Life” and the “Tree of Knowledge.” Additionally, there is the Talmudic teaching, “As my ancestors planted for me, I plant now for my children and my children’s children.” This is what the spirit of the orchard is all about. We are growing a Jewish women’s community through this grassroots initiative. Our trees are enriching Jewish communal life and knowledge. We may not see all of the fruits immediately, but we are sewing the seeds for the sustainable and healthy future of Jewish Baltimore. For more information about the Matriarch’s Orchard, to book a program for your community or family simcha, or to get involved, find us at www.kayamfarm.org or contact .

Radical Judaism Book Review

September 5, 2011 No Comments

Shalom, I’d like to dedicate my first Jewcology blog to Rabbi Arthur Green and his latest book, Radical Judaism. I believe this an extremely valuable and important book as we head into the next centuries of Jewish life. What do you think? What books would you recommend? I look forward to the conversation. David Arfa, Maggid (Mah-geed; Storyteller)/ Environmental Educator Radical Judaism is written for all of us who are exploring fresh relationships between mind, forest, earth, cosmos and religious life. It is not a how-to primer for greener holiday celebrations or eco-prayers. It is not written for those who read scripture literally. Most importantly, Radical Judaism is not only for Jews. Arthur Green has written a deep meditation; a freshly imagined portrait of the force that some call “God”. He opens with a bold declaration, “As a religious person I believe that the evolution of species is the greatest sacred drama of all time.” The rest of the book is dedicated to unpacking this declaration. Readers may note the echo of Thomas Berry, Mathew Fox, or Zalman Schachter-Shalomi in this project. Rest assured, Green develops his contemporary theology in a way that is uniquely his own. Green has spent his professional life mapping the wild landscapes of Jewish mysticism (known as Kabbalah). Not unlike Indiana Jones, he has tracked Judaism’s mythic imagery through the centuries. For almost five decades, his mission as a theologian has been to revitalize religious life in general and Jewish life in particular. Green is dedicated to rescuing forgotten wisdom that may help guide us through our challenging, materialistic and short-sighted era. Radical Judaism contains the ripened fruit of this journey. Radical Judaism is attracting special attention because Green is not only a leading world scholar of Jewish mysticism and a prominent inter-faith partner, but also the past and present leader of two Rabbinical schools. This is why a small, provocative book that transcends conventional boundaries, is being heard, felt and debated literally around the world. Green, with characteristic theological audacity, distills the essence of western religious life into a never-ending process that includes silence, listening, discernment, and action. Listen to this expansive sentence: “The deep inner oneness of all being, manifest in silence, but flowing into sacred speech, is accessible to the seeking human heart, leading us to transformative action.” Green translates for us: he shifts the old metaphors of God on mountain tops and in the sky, to metaphors of God within and around; he re-imagines the creation story so that all life is sanctified; he revives the mythic power of Moses on Sinai and other biblical tales; and he places a strong emphasis on pursuing justice. Green uses “all the power that tradition can muster” to articulate a renewed religious path for the 21st century; a path that includes both contemplation and action. This exciting and challenging book, illuminated by the mythic grandeur of Kabbalah, rooted in Judaism’s religious heritage, teaches us that the history of religion has always been a diverse, paradigm-shifting affair. It is alright if we do not fully agree with Rabbi Green’s honest testimony. Radical Judaism affirms that we are all free to learn, imagine, and add our voices to this ancient and contemporary conversation. As Green powerfully demonstrates, this is how it has always been done.

The 3 Weeks

July 31, 2011 No Comments

I'm still in shock. I have no words to describe what have happened in Israel a couple of days ago. Rabbi Elazar Abuhatzeira Z'L, a great cabbalist rabbi and grandson of the Baba Sali (the Baba Sali was a great and righteous rabbi, famous for his miracles), was murdered on Thursday night. When I first heard about it, I thought that for sure it was an Arab, a terrorist attack or so. But it is even worse; he was murdered by a Jew! A fellow Jew who frequently visited R' Abuhatzeira to receive blessings and advice, that was upset because he did not succeed after receiving his advices! But beside the spiritual loss, what distress me the most, it that just a couple of weeks ago we were all horrified by the homicide of Leivi Klesky, that little kid that was also killed by a crazy Jew. And it did not just happened to them, it happened to all of us. Even though we are not the killers, G-d forbid, we are all somehow guilty for having these things happening in our society, we are missing the point, and therefore we need to be able to read the message. Why is this happening to us, what are we doing wrong. In Judaism there is not such a thing as chance, consequently the events we live are linked with the times we are living in. We are living the 3 weeks ‘bein hametzarim’(between the straits/days of distress), between the 17th of Tamuz and the 9th of Av. This period of time is the darkest in the Jewish history, since we have lived our main tragedies, including the greatest of all: the destruction of the 1st and 2nd Beis Hamikdash (Holly Temple). Our sages teach that the 2nd Beis Hamikdash was destroyed because of sinas chinam (free hatred), therefore the tikkun (way of repairing this) of our generation is to achieve real love for each other and unity. But I thing that these days, the opposite of this is not free hatred but apathy and indifference, which might be even worse. I heard a Rebbetzin said related to little Leivi, that we are so absorbed in our blackberries, Iphones, etc., that we can’t even notice a little kid lost in the street. We could think that we care, but being honest, how much we really care about the people surrounding us, how open we are to listen when someone is in need. We care sometimes, but most of the times, in a general way, in our generation there is a continuous state of apathy. And getting to our topic, even though there are many spiritual roots for the environmental challenges that we are facing today, for sure one of them is this state of apathy. If people really cared about each other, would realize how much their actions affect their neighbors, their children and grandchildren to come and the whole planet. Because of indifference, people don’t look farther; don’t care where the water comes from beyond the tap, and where the waste goes to beyond the bin. We try lo live in a magic bubble thinking that nothing really happen. But it does. We need to listen. To love. To care. May we don’t have to experience these tragedies ever again and merit to bring the final geula(redemption) soon, now.

The Renewal of Jewish Life in Germany

June 12, 2011 No Comments

This past week I had the pleasure of being an invited presenter at Limmud Germany, which took place about 1 hour East of Berlin at a former East Germany workers retreat. Being one of 500 German Jews in attendance, (the rest actually live in Germany; I just carry the passport) was an amazing and eye opening experience, and since the end of the conference, I have not been able to get the song ‘Am Israel Chai’(The Jewish people live) out of my head, and I have always hated this song. For most Jews in Israel or North America, Germany represents death and the end of possibility. But after being here for just over a week, what I see is life and potential. The Berlin Jewish communty, for example, which recently had less than 3,000 Jewish residents, now has more than 12,000 and they have come from all over the world: Russia, Israel, France, Netherlands, U.K., U.S.A., and more. These “chalutzim” (pioneers) are reshaping what was once the center of Askenazi Jewish thought. In the style of great German Jewish thinkers like Buber, Fromm, Rashi, Hirsch and Marx, they are debating what it means to be Jewish, to be ethical human beings and to be German. For those of us in the Jewish environmental community, this is of particular interests as the Germans are the ‘greenest’ and most environmental conscious people in the world. A new initiative of the German Jewish community entitled ‘Jews Go Green’ is currenly in development, and I look forward to Germany once again becoming the frontline in modern Jewish thought. My trip has been an interesting combination of experiencing Jewish life in Germany and viewing Jewish death, but the latter has been hard to focus on with the former such a pleasant surprise. I am writing currently from Wittlich, near Trier/Luxembourg, the town from which my grandfather was forced to flee in 1937. While no Jews remain in this small city, the community has gone above and beyond, restoring the synagogue and cemetary, building a Jewish museum, reaching out to each and every survivor and their families. I came to my grandfathers birth place expecting to spend my time in mourning, instead I have been overjoyed by the response of the local community, their dedication to the memory of those lost and their desire to share the motto ‘Never again!’ Our local hosts were delighted by my interests in attending Shavuot services, so together we had the pleasure of joining the commmunity of Trier, just 30 minutes away. While most of the community was old, there was a core group of excited young adults and even an overly excited child, the German Jewish story is clearly not over. Back in Berlin, before coming to Wittlich, I was faced with a dilemma I never thought I would have to face in Germany. For Tikkun Leil Shavuot (Tuesday night/Shavuot eve), I had to choose between the local synagogue service & learning, and the group of secular Israelis and Germans staying up all night reading the Book of Ruth in a private home. An active synagogue and a living room Havurah (community) in the heart of Berlin, represents an amazing return and renewal. I chose the Havurah, and while we may not have uttered a single prayer or lit a candle, we sat up all night discussing what it means to be Jews. It was a truly Jewish experience! I am delighted to report that the spirits of Buber, Rashi, Marx and my Gandfather Paul live! The intellectual curiosity that created the Jewish enlightenment, the reform and orthodox movements, Marxism, etc. survives and even thrives! For the first time in my life I am proud to be a German citizen. I look forward to watching this diverse community grow and can’t wait till once again we can start to follow the German Jewish lead, hopefully down an ecologically sustainable path. Am Israel Chai! The Jewish People Live!!

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Tag: Spirituality