My own Gan Eden was not in the East by the Tigris and Euphrates, but 90 miles west of San Antonio in the Texas Hill Country near a small town with the improbable name of Utopia, on the cool, green Sabinal River. My parents bought it when I was 12 years old as a place...
Gardens
Gardens
גנים
At the heart of a retreat center there is often a garden.
When I think of Elat Chayyim retreat center in Accord New York (now incorporated into the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Connecticut), I picture the large organic garden. Earthy scents, warm soil, the buzzing bees lulled me into a state of peace each time I stepped inside its gate. The garden produced much of the food for the retreat center’s scrumptious vegetarian meals, and it also provided a spot for meditation, whether at work pulling weeds or sitting in stillness.
For some people, a garden is a place to grow food or flowers and connect with the soil. It’s a place to be most human because Adam, the first human being, was shaped from Adamah, earth. A garden may be a large and lavish backyard mini-farm like that of many of my friends in Northern California, a plot in a bustling community garden, a container garden on a city balcony, or a even a houseplant jungle.
Choose your favorite Pathway, or follow them in order:
My Garden of Eden–And Yours
Sacred Song of 42
Here is a beautiful chanting song of an ancient mystical prayer whose words include the 42-letter Divine Name. to a melody composed by Brian Yosef Schachter-Brooks and performed by the musicians of Chochmat HaLev, a Jewish spiritual center in Berkeley, California. You...
Feet on the Earth: Take Your Shoes Off
When Moses stood at the burning bush, (Exodus 3:5), YHWH told him to remove his shoes, because he was standing on holy ground. If weather, terrain, and social setting permit, going barefoot can be a great way to make a fast connection with the earth (even indoors but...
Hands on the Earth: Find Your Own Garden Connection
Experience a taste of Eden by growing some of your own vegetables, fruits, or flowers. There are may ways to find your own connection to the vibrant energy of growing plants, wherever you may live. Beginner gardeners can get guidance on sites like this. Even if you...
Bitter and Sweet of the Garden at Passover
Passover, the Festival of Spring and Freedom, is a holiday associated with food. Matzah, of course, the flat unleavened bread (I recommend whole wheat), to remind us of the unleavened bread that our ancestors baked in their haste to leave slavery in ancient Egypt,...
Farming Tzedakah: The Gleanings and Corners of Your Field
The Torah (Leviticus 19:9-10) teaches that farmers must leave the gleanings of their harvest and the corners of the fields for the needy to come and collect This is an early form of tzedakah (justice, charity) that is elaborated on in the Mishnah, the foundational...
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