1989 results for tag: Uncategorized

Shabbat Brit Olam – Annual “Sustainability Shabbat” in Israel

Dear Friends, Shalom! We are proud to report that for the third consecutive year, Teva Ivri joined the international Jewish world in the observance of Shabbat Noach as a “Sustainability Shabbat” – a time to raise awareness about environmental challenges and to inspire effective change in Jewish communities. A few weeks ago, hundreds of communities from all denominations of Judaism observed Shabbat Noah from a Jewish-Environmental perspective, with study groups, lectures, articles in the media, and grassroots action projects throughout the country. View Shabbat Noach highlights. Blessings for a year of ...

Much Ado About Fracking

(reposted from Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin's blog: http://blog.bjen.org/, dated November 14, 2011) I recently purchased and viewed Gasland. It is a documentary exploring the hazards that come in the wake of hydraulic fracturing (aka, fracking) to loose natural gas from pockets within shale formations around the country. One of those formations is Marcellus Shale. It covers nine states, including most of West Virginia, half of Ohio and Pennsylvania, large chunks of New York, Kentucky, Tennessee and just nipping the very western tips of Maryland and Virginia and northern Alabama. It is huge, the biggest shale region in the United ...

facebook and the dark side of computers

Dear Friends, I was in our local co-op yesterday and, as often happens, I ran into a friend. My friend started by saying, “you know, I’ve started to sign up for facebook three or four times, and then I realize it wants me to give over all of my emails… I’m just not going to do it. It looks innocent- but it’s all of my emails!” I said, “I know- I’ve been almost logging on to facebook too- and when I get to those emails- I’m out of there!” We talked there in the aisle, me holding my cereal and freshly ground coffee, one thing led to another and soon we had a full purging crank ...

Samar Gets Temporary Reprieve — Let’s Make it Permanent!

Israel's Samar sand dunes — and the unique animal species that live there — may be destroyed, unless we act now. (Photo courtesy of Taal Goldman of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies) NEW YORK (Nov. 14, 2011) — We are being heard: The Samar sand dunes have been granted a temporary reprieve from destruction! Although the bulldozers were scheduled to start mining the dunes weeks ago, work has been indefinitely postponed in the wake of our efforts and the protests conducted by our partner environmental organizations in Israel. Environment Minister Gilad Erdan arranged for the delay in conversa...

We Must Also Give Thanks

It is very easy to get down when thinking about all environmental issues we face throughout the world. However, as Thanksgiving approaches, as most people, at some point or another I start to think about those things that maybe I take for granted. This week while walking I started to think about a class I am taking in law school on the Clean Water Act. Although we still continue to face severe issues related to water pollution, prior to 1972, industries and public water works did not have to attain a permit in order to discharge into waters of the United States. In 1990 major improvements were made to the Clean Air Act, which again, has some ...

Official Launch of Jews Against Hydrofracking: Learn how you can help combat this Environmental & Public Health crisis!

If one Jew sins, all of Israel feels it….This can be compared to the case of men on a ship, one of whom took a drill and began drilling beneath his own place. His fellow travelers to said to him:what are you doing?’ He replied: ‘What does that matter to you, I am drilling only under my own place?’ They continued: ‘We care because the water will come up and flood the ship for us all. Midrash: Vayikra (Leviticus) Rabbah- 4:6 First off, open http://www.facebook.com/jewsagainsthydrofracking in a new window and like us. Now read on: This teaching of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai seems ...

Return on Luck

(reposted from Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin's blog: http://blog.bjen.org/, dated October 31, 2011) If ever there were a time for the faith community to raise its voice about what we are doing to the environment, how we conduct business, and the mean-spirited incapacity of the government, now is the time. In their new book, Great by Choice, Jim Collins and Morten Hansen, investigate how some of the most successful companies in the world got that way. They tested the belief that timing and luck were large players in success. Their conclusion: not luck but seizing the moment that luck provided was the key. Everyone experiences both ...

learning from Torah- how Yosef stored the grain

Joseph is Alive: Israel Helps Africa Store Food 8573Share : A simple, inexpensive Israeli solution for storing staples is helping Africans, South Americans and Asians survive food shortages. When the Biblical Joseph predicted that Egypt would suffer a major famine thousands of years ago, he told the Pharaoh to store grain for seven years. His foresight kept the people in the region from starvation. Prof. Shlomo Navarro, an Israeli environmental food specialist, is taking the same approach today. Intuitively, Navarro suspects that the Biblical Joseph kept the grain underground, which today would be a costly and unwieldy solution. ...

Energy Unplugged

The Jewish Environmental Initiative held a workshop on “How To Make Your Home More Energy Efficient” on October 23rd. The speakers were Gary Steps, Founder and Chief Visionary at Butterfly Energy Works, and Kathleen Engel, a Certified Green Professional through the National Association of Home Builders who works for HomeNav and Home Green Home, two Green Home-related organizations. Here are some tips from the workshop. Following as many of these steps as you can will help reduce your energy bills, will help the environment, and will help reduce waste, furthering the Jewish principle of bal tashchit. • One of the simplest ...

Is the Answer Blowin’ in the Wind?

On Thursday night, November 3 I had the honor of speaking at a town hall meeting, organized by a coalition of local environmental groups including Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light (GWIPL). I presented the faith perspective in a town hall meeting that included faith-based environmental activists, mainstream environmentalists, wind power energy representatives and even the United Steelworks of America! The theme of the meeting was that offshore wind power, proposed in Maryland, could address the needs of this diverse coalition, improving the economy of Maryland, adding jobs, reducing health effects of pollution, and fulfilling our moral ...

My arrest at theTar Sands Protest

This was one adventurous day. There was the earthquake. Where were you when it occurred? I was just outside the Park Police holding cell after being released from police custody. I joined in today, very unexpectedly, with about 60 others to be arrested for “failure to obey a lawful order”. We stood in three long lines in front of the White House singing and chanting our protest of the Tar Sands oil pipeline that would extend from northern Canada, down through the heartland of the West, and directly through Yellowstone National Park, to Texas. This will be a dirty, toxic pipeline. Just the extraction of the oil in Canada ...

Why We Occupy Shabbat!

This past Shabbat I participated in Vancouver’s first “Occupy Shabbat.” The thirty of us crammed into Occupy Vancouver’s meditation tent weren’t the only ones celebrating this way. In cities across North America, Jews of all types are joining together to Occupy Shabbat in conjunction with the Occupy Together movement now galvanizing the continent. What does it mean to celebrate this weekly holy day in solidarity with and surrounded by activists, artists, and people calling for a better tomorrow? What can we learn from this day about social and environmental change? How can Shabbat be a model for us and the ...

Signs of Fall

(reposted from Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin's blog: http://blog.bjen.org/, dated October 23, 2011 - pre-winter storm!) When we lived in the northern hinterlands of New Jersey (in what now seems lifetimes ago), we knew that summer had arrived when Gene, our gentle next-door neighbor, opened up his above-ground pool. He would clean and remove the leaf-laden cover, wash off the sides, and unshock the water. (I don't even want to know the chemical composition of the water, after a decade or more of being shocked and unshocked, shocked and unshocked. Though it did save thousands of gallons of water!) If he did this on a weekend, we ...

The Tower of Babel

I’ve been thinking lately how all stories are created in the image of their tellers, and all tellers are created in the image of life, and all life is created in the image of the Holy One, Tzelem Elohim. In this way, all stories contain sparks of holiness. After all, Reb Nachman of Bratzlav says that every story has something that is concealed. What is concealed? Nothing less than the hidden light from the beginning of creation! This is why no story is too small for our attention. For instance, this past week, Noah receives so much attention, and yet, at the beginning of chapter 11, in just a few sentences, lives another ...

My Zaide, Sukkot and Food Insecurity

As a child at Sukkot I recall my beloved Zaide Shaya Yosef Z”L eating meals and sleeping in the simple Sukkah behind his house. Zaide was a pious Jew who left his Polish shtetl, Checiny, in order to bring his wife and children to a better life in Canada. Stories my mother tells about Checiny describe a home not much more secure than Zaide’s fragile Sukkah. Access to food, especially fresh produce, was limited. The family was often hungry and malnourished. I wonder what Zaide thought and felt as he celebrated Z’man Simchateinu, the “season of our rejoicing,” and the harvest festival Chag Ha-Asif, the ...

Halfway Through the Food Stamp Challenge

I am at the halfway point of the one week Fighting Poverty with Faith Food Stamp Challenge. My personal challenge has been to spend the allotted $1.50/meal but with a twist: to eat organically. There is method to my madness. My understanding is that 46 million Americans live on Food Stamps to ‘supplement’ their nutritional needs. I imagine that many of these 15% of Americans live food insecure lives. This means that the availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or the ability to acquire acceptable food in socially acceptable ways are limited or uncertain. My goals in taking the challenge were to ...

Hazon CSA potluck a success!

A great time was had by all at our third annual Hazon CSA Shared Shabbat dinner on October 25. Those attending feasted on dishes including spinach lasagna, Indian squash soup, roasted tatsoi, roasted vegetables and smashed potatoes. All dishes were prepared with organic produce grown by our local farmer. What a treat to celebrate the fall with food that is good for the land, good for the environment and good for your health! This year's CSA is over, but we look forward to another great year in 2012.

Here are three things to do for Shabbat Noach!

Here are three very simple things you can do for Shabbat Noach to honor God's covenant with all life: 1) Learn and teach the rainbow blessing: "Barukh atah Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha`olam ZOKHER ET HABRIT -- Blessed be You, Hashem...who remembers the covenant!" And -- you can remember that the first covenant in the Torah wasn't just for humanity. It was a covenant with all animals and with the land itself. 2) Say a prayer for the all living things. You can find a prayer based on the rainbow covenant and P'ri Eitz Hadar (the first Tu Bishvat seder) on jewcology.org/resource/Shabbat-Noach. (You'll also find other resources for Shabbat Noach.) The ...

Gadget attaches to faucet to measure each use of water

By NoCamels Team Photo by Joe Shlabotnik How many drops of water does it take to wash your hands, or a single glass? Bware, a new Israeli Patent by a2design, is a simple digital device to be installed on any faucet and can count in real time the amount of water in liters or gallons for every use. The Bware not only shows how much water you have used on the LED display, it can also also help detect different kinds of leaks, say its creators, Ariel Drach and Alex Sudak. The device, made from recycled materials, uses flow of water to generate enough electricity for the LED display. a2design is still looking for investment for the ...

Green Eggs and Us

(reposted from Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin's blog, dated October 18, 2011: http://blog.bjen.org/) We can learn a lot from Dr. Seuss, or a local CSA, or a child's coloring book. That is: there's a lot more variety in the world than we think. Not all carrots are orange; not all potatoes are white; not all watermelons are red; not all bananas are yellow. According to Plants for a Future, there are 20,000 edible plants in the world today. Yet, fewer than 20 species supply 90% of what the world eats. It seems that in our rush to be food efficient, we have stripped the grand diversity of nature down to a narrow, ...