Panko, the Better BreadcrumbIn this week’s Torah portion (Emor), we read,

You shall eat unleavened bread for seven days. (Lev. 23:5-6)

Earlier, in Exodus, the command to eat unleavened bread was offset by this command not to eat any leavened products:

Seven days there shall be no leaven found in your houses; for whoever eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is an alien or a native of the land. (Ex. 12:19)  read more »

Aerial View of Greater Baltimore Area: Green arrow shows location of Beit Tikvah.It is forbidden to live in a town that does not have a green garden—Jerusalem Talmud, Kiddushin 4:12  read more »

Our congregation is small, less than 100 families. We’re not large enough to have our own worship space - we meet in a church. Even so, we have an active Social Action/Tikkun Olam Committee. We are part of the Baltimore Interfaith Hospitality Network, providing housing and support for homeless families. We’ve participated in efforts to end the atrocities in Darfur. We presented Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth and used proceeds from the sale of popcorn to purchase compact florescent light bulbs. We were sponsors of the Baltimore Jewish Environmental Conference and participate in the newly formed Baltimore Environmental Network of Synagogues.

God was in this place and I—I didn’t know it. How awesome is this place! This is none other than God’s dwelling place… (Genesis 28:16-17)

Two centuries ago William Wordsworth wrote:

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

Two years ago Ellen Bernstein, founder of Shomrei Adamah wrote:

Since the environmental crisis is a spiritual crisis, a sign of separation from nature and our selves, we must mend the division and fix the brokenness at the root.(p. 13, The Splendor of Creation, Pilgrim Press, 2005)  read more »

But how do we, as Wordsworth might put it, get our hearts back? What might lead us back from the brink of devastating separation from the rest of the world?

Sarah Chandler

Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai said: Three things are of equal importance—earth, humans and rain. Rabbi Levi ben Hiyyata taught: Without earth, there is no rain, and without rain, the earth cannot endure, and without either, humans cannot exist. —Genesis Rabbah 13:3  read more »

If I had to sum up the whole of Jewish environmentalism in one word, that would be the word balance. We must grasp the concept of ecosystems and the notion that all aspects of creation depend on one another.

Triple Mitzvah Coffee

If, along the road, you chance upon a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs and the mother sitting over the fledglings or on the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young. Let the mother go, and take only the young, in order that you may fare well and have a long life. Deuteronomy Ki Tetzei 22:6-7  read more »

Rabbi Arthur Rulnick, a Conservative Rabbi on Long Island who is related to me by marriage, told me that Ki Tetzei has more mitzvot (commandments) than any other in the Torah. Some mitzvot speak to us directly out of the past. An example is not subverting the rights of the stranger or the fatherless. Others, such as the mitzvah of kan-tzipor as described in the quote above, are obscured by layers of historical and technological development and deserve further investigation.

Listen to Derek read this article.

All trees speak with one another. All trees speak with other creatures. All trees were created for the delight of other creatures. (Genesis Rabbah 13:2)

Spring is a time of regeneration in nature and, for parts of the northern hemisphere, a time when familiar sounds return after a long absence: birds chirping, insects buzzing, trees speaking.  read more »

Trees speaking? I’m referring to the sound heard from the trees when the wind carries their message: the rustling of leaves. For me, this is the most soothing sound of the season. According to Genesis Rabbah 13:2, all trees speak with one another and with other creatures. If we take the time to stop and listen, what would those leaves have to say to us?

JRC Building Under Construction in Evanston, IL

God led Adam around the Garden of Eden and said, ‘Look at My works. See how beautiful they are, how excellent. See to it that you do not spoil or destroy My world—for if you do, there will be no one to repair it after you.’ – Midrash, Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:13  read more »

As a Reconstructionist Jew in 2007, I will admit that I don’t relate easily to the concept of a God that rewards and punishes—but I can embrace the idea of a creation ruled by a matrix of laws the fullness of which I can only begin to understand.

Rabbi Larry TrosterUniting Power of Environmentalism
by Rabbi Larry Troster

The Earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it (Psalms 24:1)  read more »

As a rabbi and theologian who has long been involved with religious environmentalism both in the Jewish environmental community and in the interfaith environmental community, I have met and spoken with people of all faiths, clergy and laity, scientists and scholars, who are deeply concerned about the growing environmental crisis. And so the question must be asked: Even as we live in a world where religious divisions often lead to conflict and violence, why is there this constructive and congenial dialogue between Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and other religions of all kinds on the environment?

Play the Video

Rabbi Shawn Zevit passionately promotes the idea of the importance of both Tikkun Hanefesh, healing of the soul, and Tikkun Olam, healing of the world. In this talk he launches the JRF's 2007 Omer study period. The theme is on environmental sustainability.

Rabbi Shai Gluskin was the filmaker.
Download the text of this talk.

Play the Video

Rabbi Shawn Zevit passionately promotes the idea of the importance of both Tikkun Hanefesh, healing of the soul, and Tikkun Olam, healing of the world. In this talk he launches the JRF's 2007 Omer study period. The theme is on environmental sustainability.

Rabbi Shai Gluskin was the filmaker.
Download the text of this talk.