In case you haven’t visited the seashore lately, there is a new pathway post about the sand at the shore on the new and growing Gateway of the Sea, where you will also find videos, images, and Torah study about oceans and seas.
With my birthday coming up, I like to take stock. I’ve added a new Pathway (post) to the Gateway of Seasons: Sephirah: Reviewing Your Life in Seven-Year Cycles. It’s all about counting and understanding your life in 7 year cycles, and you don’t have to wait for your birthday to put it into practice.
I’m so honored that Stephen Jurovics, author of Hospitable Planet: Faith, Action, and Climate Change, has contributed a thought-provoking post about Seasons and Climate Change, which you will find in the Gateway of Seasons. The Torah’s message of a spiritual connection to our earth, and our own imperative of survival require us to be guardians of our planet.
I’ve added a gallery to the Gateway of Gardens, featuring photos from a neighboring synagogue that has its own farm and even raises chickens! They’ve promised me more photos from the growing season. Please comment to let me know about other synagogues or Jewish organizations with great community gardens. (Click on title to view this post with comment section.)
I have just opened a new Gateway: The Sea, devoted to the spiritual symbolism of oceans, seas, and lakes. At the same time, posts continue to be added to existing Gateways, so check this page to find out what’s new, and subscribe to our monthly email for updates. Wellsprings of Wisdom is kind of like the “Slow Food” movement for your soul. Enjoy watching new Gateways open and fill with new pathways (posts) over time, and seeing this site unfold.
Your comments, especially in the Sharing Circle in each Gateway, are welcome to make this site more interactive and communal.
Tu Bishvat, the Jewish New Year of the Tree(s), coincides with Shabbat, February 10-11, 2017. You can learn about Trees in Jewish tradition at the Gateway of Trees, where you will also find resources for Tu Bishvat and a new post with a video on the Rainforest Alliance.
Happy Tu Bishvat!
We are experiencing tumultuous times, but that very turmoil calls more people to take personal action for service, healing, and bettering the world. To avoid burnout and bitterness, it’s important to stay centered and nurture our inner lives. Wellsprings of Wisdom strives to integrate the timeless and the timely, Tikkun HaLev (healing our hearts) with Tikkun Olam (repairing our world).
New Gateway (Content Page), the Gateway of Seasons, which explores the beauty of changing seasons and the meaning of life cycles and timeliness, from earliest Jewish sources to our own lives. This Gateway is “in development” and I continue to add pathways (posts) for you to explore.
As the site relaunched, the Gateway of Darkness was added, exploring the beauty and wisdom of night.
It is my joy to share Wellsprings of Wisdom with you. If you benefit from the site, the most helpful things you can do are to comment, especially in the Sharing Circles, so that we can have more interaction on the site, and also to share the site with your friends by word of mouth and by sharing posts on social media. You can also find us on Facebook and share with your friends.
Thank you so much for being a friend and fellow-traveler on Wellsprings of Wisdom. I look forward to continuing the journey together.
Thanks to everyone who has shared your enthusiasm and support for the renewed Wellsprings of Wisdom! I really appreciate hearing from everyone and hope that you will share some of your own experiences in the Sharing Circles (and other posts) so that we gradually create some online community.
Wellsprings of Wisdom has opened a new Gateway of Seasons for exploring the seasons of the year and the seasons of our lives. This Gateway is starting with just a few Paths (posts) and my plan is to keep adding more, so you can experience its growth with me. I’ll let you know when I add more Paths to this and existing Gateways, and open up new Gateways!
Thanks for enjoying this adventure with me!
January 1, 2017
8th Day of Hanukkah 5777
Welcome to the NEW Wellsprings of Wisdom!
The confluence of the solar New Year with the Hanukkah festival of re-dedication brings an auspicious time to relaunch this site.
Thanks to our talented and dedicated web designer Rivkah Walton, and after many months of work moving all the material, Wellsprings has moved to this new WordPress Platform. Our new format will make it easier to update reg
ularly. I look forward to sharing more frequent teachings, images, videos and music, and to showcasing the work of many rabbis, teachers and creative artists. Wellsprings aims to be a truly alternative online experience, a place where you can nurture your soul and learn about retreat centers, outdoor adventures, and worthwhile organizations that help the environment and society.
If you are new to the site, you can start here for a full explanation of how it works.
If you are a past reader of Wellsprings of Wisdom, you will find the four Portals of Earth/Water/Air/Fire, and your favorite original Gateways. Explore them anew to discover some updates and new pathways (posts), including videos, images, and meditations.
In honor of our relaunch, at this season of the Winter Solstice, a new Gateway has been added: Darkness, where you can learn about the night side of nature, tradition, and spirituality. Thank you to Rabbis Fern Feldman, David Evan Markus, and David Seidenberg for sharing your wisdom, and to Rabbi Geela Rayzel Raphael for sharing music.
Wellsprings of Wisdom will continue to add new pathways (posts) to existing Gateways (content pages), and to add whole new Gateways, so be sure to subscribe to this “What’s New” blog to know what’s been added each week!
Here’s a talk that I gave recently at my synagogue about Awe. Awe in nature is one of the touchstones of Wellsprings of Wisdom, so I’m sharing it here:
Sunrise at Cape Henlopen State Park, photo by Julie Danan
I’m not really a morning person…but I get up before sunrise as much as I can to go see sunrise at the beach…because of the Awe. A recent Torah portion tells us that God wants us to feel Awe. Awe of the force of life of YHWH and I would say we can get that from Awe of creation, of life, of the mystery.
Deut. 10:12-13:
עַתָּה֙ יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל מָ֚ה יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ שֹׁאֵ֖ל מֵעִמָּ֑ךְ כִּ֣י אִם־לְ֠יִרְאָה אֶת־יְהוָ֨ה אֱלֹהֶ֜יךָ לָלֶ֤כֶת בְּכָל־דְּרָכָיו֙ וּלְאַהֲבָ֣ה אֹת֔וֹ וְלַֽעֲבֹד֙ אֶת־יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ בְּכָל־לְבָבְךָ֖ וּבְכָל־נַפְשֶֽׁךָ׃
לִשְׁמֹ֞ר אֶת־מִצְוֺ֤ת יְהוָה֙ וְאֶת־חֻקֹּתָ֔יו אֲשֶׁ֛ר אָנֹכִ֥י מְצַוְּךָ֖ הַיּ֑וֹם לְט֖וֹב לָֽךְ׃
And now, O Israel, what [Mah] does Adonai your God ask of you?
But only: to be in awe of Eternal,
To walk in all God’s paths,
To love God and to serve Adonai Your God with all your heart and soul,
Keeping God’s mitzvot and laws, which I command upon you today, for your good.
This Torah portion commands us to have awe of God. Yir’ah, Awe, is sometimes translated as fear. According to my teacher Rabbi Marcia Prager, it differs from the word for fear, “pahad” (po-had=here is something sharp), which is just be scared because one is a “pah–had,” a separate, lonely entity. Yir’ah יראה comes from the root, “to see,” and signifies a sense of seeing beyond our everyday blinders and of feeling ourselves seen by the Divine.
We are living in a world of fear-mongering. Our news, our social media, stir us up to a continual state of anxiety. But instead the Torah urges awe. Awe, Yir’ah, is the antidote to fear, Pachad.
In Man is Not Alone, 1951 (p. 31) Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel: “As civilization advances, the sense of wonder [at the root of all true religion] almost necessarily declines. Mankind will not perish for want of information, but only for want of appreciation.
“The beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not worth living. What we lack is not a will to believe but a will to wonder.”
If that sentiment was true in 1951, it is all the true decades later, when we are inundated by information, but sometimes much too rushed for awe and appreciation. The Washington Post did a famous experiment a few years back, and commissioned famous violinist Joshua Bell to play on a magnificent Stradivarius violin in a DC Washington Metro station. He played six classical pieces for 43 minutes as over a thousand people passed by. Only seven people stopped to listen, while another 27 gave money as they ran buy. Almost every child stopped, and every single time, their parents rushed them along.
Photo by JHD: Sunset Clouds at Cape Henlopen Fishing Pier, Lewes)
Psychologists tell us that Awe is good for us. According to an article by Summer Allen for “Greater Good Magazine,” research suggests that Awe can do at least 8 things for us:
It sounds great—how can we get more Awe? Can we seek it – as Reb Zalman would day, can we “hothouse peak experiences.”
Rashi read this Torah portion in an interesting way. When Moses asked, “what ‘mah” does G-d require of us?” Rashi creatively reread Mah as : “ Meah” a hundred.
Rabbi Meir in the Talmud (Menahot 43b) we are required to say 100 blessings or berachot a day Menahot 43b. By saying many blessings in prayer and for each food, sight, or scent we experience in the course of a day, we can arrive at 100.
There are traditional blessing formulas that we can learn, that are beautiful to say.
But we can also just stop and say a blessing in our own words. We can pause during our busy days to notice, to feel a moment of wonder and awe, and acknowledge it, perhaps by saying “Mah tovu!” (How Good it is!) or “Holy Wow!” (I first heard that from Rabbi Rachel Barenblat). Or Baruch Atah, “blessed are you” and make your own beracha, or just take a moment to be aware that “That’s awesome.” Our beloved member David Kobrin of blessed memory used to say, “1, 2, 3, -ah!”
Jews around the world are preparing to embark the Days of Awe, Yamim Noraim. We often call it the High Holy Days but it’s really a time that we are supposed to experience Awe in community. How can we bring the things we all suggested into our communal experience? Clearly, awe won’t happen if it’s just the Rabbi and Cantor as copilots and the congregation buckles in and comes along for the ride. It requires active participation, before and during. This is a whole season to cultivate awe. If you are going to participate in the Jewish holidays, I suggest that you come with your eyes open for wonder as Rabbi Heschel would say. May the upcoming Days of Awe help us to open to the Awe that is available to use very day!
Note: I also shared this sermon on my Rabbi Blog for Seaside Jewish Community.
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