Ecology & the Jewish Spirit

Description

What is nature’s place in our spiritual lives?

In today’s modern culture, we’ve become separated from the sacredness of the natural world. This book offers a different, eye- and soul-opening way of viewing our religion: A perspective grounded in nature, and rich in insights for seekers of all faiths.

Respect for the holiness of Creation, our duty to protect the natural world, reverence for the land…a focus on nature is part of the fabric of Jewish thought. Here, innovative contributors bring us a richer understanding of the long-neglected themes of nature that are woven through the biblical creation story, ancient texts, traditional law, the holiday cycles, prayer, mitzvot (good deeds), and community.

Ecology & the Jewish Spirit explores the wisdom that the Jewish tradition has to offer all of us, to help nature become a sacred, spiritual part of our own lives.

Acknowledgments Introduction Sacred Place Adam, Adamah, and Adonai: The Relationship between Humans, Nature, and God in the Bible JEFF SULTAR Befriending the Desert Owl SHAMU FENYVESI (Mis)reading Genesis: A Response to Environmentalist Critiques of Judaism NEAL JOSEPH LOEVINGER Is There Only One Holy Land? BRADLEY SHAVIT ARTSON How Wilderness Forms a Jew ELLEN BERNSTEIN A Sentient Universe EVERETT GENDLER Practical Kabbalah: A Family History CHARLES FENYVESI Jewish Perspectives on Limiting Consumption ELIEZER DIAMOND New York Is a Girl ROBERT SAND Sacred Time Cycles of the Jewish Year The Sun, the Moon, and the Seasons: Ecological Implications of the Hebrew Calendar DEBRA J. ROBBINS "In Your Goodness, You Renew Creation": The Creation Cycles of the Jewish Liturgy LAWRENCE TROSTER Shabbat and the Sabbatical Year DAN FINK The Land of Your Soul MARC SIRINSKY The Holidays Rain and the Calendar ELLEN COHN Sukkot: Holiday of Joy ELLEN BERNSTEIN Sukkot: Gathering the Boughs DAN FINK A History of Tu B'Sh'vat ELLEN BERNSTEIN The Tu B’Sh’vat Seder ELLEN BERNSTEIN Purim Rivers and Revels DAN FINK The Parsley versus the Potato: A Passover Reminiscence EVERETT GENDLER Leaving Egypt DAN FINK Grow Your Own—Barley, That Is! EILEEN ABRAMS Mountain Paths DAN FINK In Search of the Omer ELLEN COHN Of Dust, Ashes, Comets, and a Three-Year-Old DAN FINK Sacred Community Cosmos and Chaos: Biblical Views of Creation NEIL GILLMAN Restoring a Blessing SHAMU FENYVESI What Is the Common Wealth? DAVID EHRENFELD Jewish Agricultural Law: Ethical First Principles and Environmental Justice VICTOR RABOY The Blessings of Holiness LAWRENCE TROSTER Nature, Spirit, Body SHIRA DICKER Judaism’s Environmental Laws BARRY FREUNDEL Business and Environment: A Case Study PHILIP J. BENTLEY Between Dust and Divinity: Maimonides and Jewish Environmental Ethics DAN FINK What Does the Hour Demand? Environmentalism As Self-Realization DAVID GEDZELMAN Living As If God Mattered: Heschel’s View of Nature and Humanity MARC SWETLITZ How Community Forms a Jew ELLEN BERNSTEIN Notes About the Contributors Index

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• List of Jewish prayers and blessings
• Jewish philosophy
• Judaism
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 24 septembre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781580236805
• Langue: English

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T his book is lovingly dedicated to all the shomrei adamah , the keepers of the earth whose work and caring continue to make the earth such a beautiful place in which to live. May this book be a blessing and a source of inspiration to you.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Sacred Place

1 Adam, Adamah , and Adonai : The Relationship between Humans, Nature, and God in the Bible
JEFF SULTAR
2 Befriending the Desert Owl
SHAMU FENYVESI
3 (Mis)reading Genesis: A Response to Environmentalist Critiques of Judaism
NEAL JOSEPH LOEVINGER
4 Is There Only One Holy Land?
BRADLEY SHAVIT ARTSON
5 How Wilderness Forms a Jew
ELLEN BERNSTEIN
6 A Sentient Universe
EVERETT GENDLER
7 Practical Kabbalah: A Family History
CHARLES FENYVESI
8 Jewish Perspectives on Limiting Consumption
ELIEZER DIAMOND
9 New York Is a Girl
ROBERT SAND
Sacred Time

Cycles of the Jewish Year
10 The Sun, the Moon, and the Seasons: Ecological Implications of the Hebrew Calendar
DEBRA J. ROBBINS
11 In Your Goodness, You Renew Creation : The Creation Cycles of the Jewish Liturgy
LAWRENCE TROSTER
12 Shabbat and the Sabbatical Year
DAN FINK
13 The Land of Your Soul
MARC SIRINSKY
The Holidays
14 Rain and the Calendar
ELLEN COHN
15 Sukkot: Holiday of Joy
ELLEN BERNSTEIN
16 Sukkot: Gathering the Boughs
DAN FINK
17 A History of Tu B Sh vat
ELLEN BERNSTEIN
18 The Tu B Sh vat Seder
ELLEN BERNSTEIN
19 Purim Rivers and Revels
DAN FINK
20 The Parsley versus the Potato: A Passover Reminiscence
EVERETT GENDLER
21 Leaving Egypt
DAN FINK
22 Grow Your Own-Barley, That Is!
EILEEN ABRAMS
23 Mountain Paths
DAN FINK
24 In Search of the Omer
ELLEN COHN
25 Of Dust, Ashes, Comets, and a Three-Year-Old
DAN FINK
Sacred Community

26 Cosmos and Chaos: Biblical Views of Creation
NEIL GILLMAN
27 Restoring a Blessing
SHAMU FENYVESI
28 What Is the Common Wealth?
DAVID EHRENFELD
29 Jewish Agricultural Law: Ethical First Principles and Environmental Justice
VICTOR RABOY
30 The Blessings of Holiness
LAWRENCE TROSTER
31 Nature, Spirit, Body
SHIRA DICKER
32 Judaism s Environmental Laws
BARRY FREUNDEL
33 Business and Environment: A Case Study
PHILIP J. BENTLEY
34 Between Dust and Divinity: Maimonides and Jewish Environmental Ethics
DAN FINK
35 What Does the Hour Demand? Environmentalism As Self-Realization
DAVID GEDZELMAN
36 Living As If God Mattered: Heschel s View of Nature and Humanity
MARC SWETLITZ
37 How Community Forms a Jew
ELLEN BERNSTEIN

Notes
About the Contributors
Index

About the Editor
Copyright
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Acknowledgments
M y deepest gratitude to Henry and Edith Everett and Steven Rockefeller who provided the initial funding for this project. I began this book as a project of Shomrei Adamah- Keepers of the Earth in 1990 with Henry and Edith Everett s generous help. The original goal was to develop a manual on Judaism and ecology for the rabbis of New York. I soon realized that the project embodied an idea whose time had come and decided to develop the book for a broader audience. Steven Rockefeller provided additional funds to bring this work to fruition.
Special thanks to the original Shomrei Adamah Board: Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, Evie Berger, Mimi Schneirov, Rabbi Joseph B. Glaser z l , Paul Growald, Pete Hoskins, and John Ruskay who provided much needed love, moral support, and sustenance over the course of this project.
A heartfelt thanks to Rabbi Dan Fink and Rabbi Everett Gendler who nurtured the soul of Shomrei Adamah since its inception. Thanks to all the authors who labored in love on this project and responded so generously to all of my requests.
Rabbi Lenny Gordon, Cecily Kihn, Mindy Shapiro, Peter Pitzele, Rachel Brodie, Ellen Frankel, Pam Bernstein, and Sandee Brawarsky read sections of the manuscript and offered helpful suggestions. Hannah Ashley provided early editing assistance. Harvey Blume taught me the art and joy of editing, worked on several essays with me, and provided constant friendship and humor through the winter of this project.
Many foundations generously supported Shomrei Adamah s work over the years, providing me the opportunity to lay the foundation for this work. Thanks to Lynda and Carl Levinson and the Max and Anna Levinson Foundation, John Hunting and the Beldon Fund, and James Cummings, Ruth Sorenson Cummings, Rachel Cowan, Charlie Halpern, and the Nathan Cummings Foundation who took a risk on Shomrei Adamah and supported it through its infancy. Other foundations contributed to the growth and development of Shomrei Adamah . Thanks to Judith Ginsberg, Eli Evans and the Covenant Foundation, Hooper Brooks, Ed Skloot and the Surdna Foundation, and George Hess and the Joseph Meyerhoff Fund.
Thousands of individuals, synagogues, and Jewish institutions supported the work of Shomrei Adamah with their membership gifts and kindnesses for which I am forever grateful.
Finally, thanks to Stuart Matlins, Sandra Korinchak and the staff at Jewish Lights for being so sensitive to all my concerns and for producing such a beautiful volume, and to my editor Arthur Magida, who provided inspiration, laughter, and expert wordsmithing on the final leg of my journey.
Ellen Bernstein Wissahickon Creek
Mt. Airy Philadelphia, PA
Introduction
ELLEN BERNSTEIN
T wenty-five years ago, while studying at the University of California at Berkeley s environment program, one of the first in the country, I was troubled by the problem approach taken to the environment. This kind of orientation seemed to reduce the natural world into discrete segments and identified and attacked problems one by one. As fast as we could recognize and remedy one problem, a new one loomed on the horizon.
I believed there was something fundamentally wrong with this piecemeal approach, since the environmental crisis is, at its heart, a crisis in values. It begins when people objectify the natural world and treat nature as a resource to manipulate, rather than as an aspect of the Sacred to revere.
I concluded that part of what was at fault was an educational system that advances a reductionist and utilitarian world-view. I believed we must learn to value nature as an end in itself, not as a means to an end. We must educate for wholeness and joy, not utility. At that time, I decided to devote myself to teaching biology in a way that would inspire students about the mystery of life: I would rely on great nature writers and on the students encounters with wilderness to help me with the teaching.
At the same time, I was on my own spiritual quest. After experimenting with many paths, I was ultimately drawn back to my own tradition. I began to study Jewish texts and found-to both my surprise and bewilderment-that Judaism was rich in spirit and wisdom concerning humanity s relationship with nature. The Creation story, Jewish law, the cycle of holidays, prayers, mitzvot (good deeds), and neighborly relations all reflect a reverence for land and a viable practice of stewardship. Judaism supported the values that I was teaching: that Creation is sacred and humanity has the awesome and wonderful responsibility to guard and preserve it.
I believed I was tapping into a wellspring of Jewish culture that had been obscured by a generation whose world-view was molded by Israel and the Holocaust. I was disturbed that the precious wisdom of Judaism had never been made available to me; in fact, my early Jewish education left me spiritually empty and resentful. My experience was not dissimilar to many of my generation, who abandoned Judaism-never to return. I was convinced that the spiritual and ecological dimension that I discovered for myself had the potential to enrich Judaism and provide meaning for my generation and those to come. I hoped that someone would develop and promote this dimension of Judaism. At that time, no one did.
In 1988, with hospital syringes and other medical detritus washing up on the New Jersey shore and the threat of global warming becoming a reality, I founded Shomrei Adamah- Keepers of the Earth, the first organization dedicated to cultivating the ecological thinking and practices that are integral to Jewish life. With the input of many Jewish scholars, teachers, and rabbis around the country, Shomrei Adamah developed programs, publications, and curricula to illuminate Jewish ecological values and enhance Jewish spirituality.
As director of Shomrei Adamah , I believed that my most important contribution would be to synthesize a Jewish ecological perspective. So I targeted a group of colleagues who integrated an ecological orientation with their specific discipline, be it biblical studies, Jewish philosophy, Jewish law, anthropology, or agriculture, and who represented all walks of Jewish life, from Orthodox to Reform to secular, to work on pieces for a book.
Out of our discussions and work came Ecology the Jewish Spirit , which for the first time, in one book, brings together the environmental understandings and practices implicit in ancient Jewish texts and makes them come alive for modern audiences.
Judaism s Hidden Message