Rock Dove by Cuatrok77 via Flickr
Things may seem very quiet at Wellsprings of Wisdom just now, but actually a lot is going on behind the scenes. I am busy talking to various individuals and organizations about providing content for Wellsprings. I am also working on the next Gateway (content page), which will soon be revealed as a “Gateway in Progress” in the Portal of Air! It will center on a nature symbol that I have been thinking of for a long time, and I don’t have a strong preconception of how it will turn out, so it will be an adventure.
Let’s just say that we will take flight! Stay tuned.
I’m excited to keep finding a growing number of new Jewish organizations dedicated to environmental, farming/gardening, and spiritual goals. I just updated Wellspring’s Web Resource Guide to include the Jewish Farmer Network (which is just what it says), Grow Torah, an organization that creates Torah learning gardens for schools and 
communal organizations, and At the Well, a women’s spirituality and wellness project. Wellsprings of Wisdom also has a separate Resource Guide to Retreat Centers and Outdoor Adventures, to help you find your next outdoor spiritual experience. I look forward to sharing the work of some of these organizations in greater depth in upcoming posts.
If there are resources you would like to recommend for inclusion, please contact Wellsprings.
On a technical note, apologies for sporadic difficulty in leaving comments on posts. It is due to a stubborn WordPress setting that automatically closes comments after a certain number of days. Hopefully things are working again now!
With permission of Nocturne, a podcast series about night, I have added a podcast with night sounds from around the world to this Pathway (post) in the Gateway of Darkness! Enjoy and try out the rest of the series. 
As Passover approaches, be sure to check out these Wellsprings Pathways (posts) that relate to themes of the season:
Splitting the Sea With Wind looks at the Biblical account of the Exodus and invites us to explore the nature of miracles.
MIriam’s Well explores a famous legend related to the Exodus, of MIriam’s miraculous desert well. After you read it, you can enjoy a Guided Meditation on the theme of Miriam’s well and finding your inner resources, and consider having a Cup of Miriam at your Seder.
And also related to the Seder, explore this pathway about the Bitter and the Sweet of the Garden for your Passover table. Learn about different customs and interpretations of the Passover bitter and sweet symbols, and how to make them from locally grown foods.
Enjoy a video of Passover in the Desert, a new-old way to celebrate Passover with an outing with Wilderness Torah, an organization devoted to discovering Jewish spirituality in the outdoors. And journey with Rabbi Barry Leff to explore Israel’s Negev Desert, Finding God in the Wilderness like our ancestors.
Speaking of the outdoors, here are a couple of pathways that focus on the spring itself:
Passover celebrates freedom and the rebirth of spring. Experience a bit of springtime in Israel with this Gallery of the Mediterranean Sea in Israel in Spring by Daphna Rosenberg.
Finally, for a fresh perspective on the organic cycle of the Jewish Year, The Reason for the Season, by Rabbi David Zaslow, shares the story of his trip to Brazil with Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and a consideration of when the “Festival of Spring” should be celebrated in the Southern Hemisphere.
Wishing you a joyful and liberating Passover season!
Before I start the next Gateway page on Wellsprings, I’m busy adding in some resource materials to the different Gateways and Resource Guides. I love to discover new organizations and media and to share them with you! Tonight I’ve added a new pathway/post about Podcasts that I like to listen to about night or at night, as well as a guide to good Jewish podcasts. You’ll find it in the Gateway of Darkness.
It’s only a few
weeks until Passover, and I’ve added a video on the “Passover in the Dessert” encampment with the Wilderness Torah organization to the Gateway of Wilderness. Thanks to Rabbi Zelig Golden, founder of the organization, for sharing it. The annual multi-generational camping program takes place in Panamint Valley, near Death Valley, Southeast California.
Well this is awkward . . .I’ve been encouraging visitors to comment on the pathway posts and the Sharing Circles on each Gateway page. Then I noticed that the Comment forms had disappeared from the site! A quick review by our wonderful site designer Rivkah Walton solved the problem, and you can now comment again. I really look forward to reading your comments and to learning about your spiritual journey, and I hope other visitors will, too. You can also keep in touch through the Contact Form, or by subscribing to my occasional email updates using the form at the top of this page.
Tu Bishvat, the Jewish New Year of the Tree, arrives this year on Tuesday evening, January 30-Wednesday, January 31. Visit Wellsprings’ Gateway of Trees for Pathways (posts) with teachings and resources including music, nature sights and sounds, ancient stories, videos, and a guided meditation for eating fruit. Learn about rainforests and the importance of planting trees in Jewish tradition.
I’ve updated the post about Tu Bishvat with links to online and print materials and resources like free haggadot for a Tu Bishvat Seder. And don’t miss my personal story of the day that I hugged a tree while on retreat.
If the newly completed Gateway of the Moon has gotten you excited about Moon watching, you are in for a treat. January 31 brings three phenomena: a super moon (brighter than usual due to it’s proximity to earth in its orbit), “blue” because it’s the second full moon in a solar month, and “red” because it appears red due to a full lunar eclipse that will be especially visible in the US West Coast, Alaska and Hawaii. Learn more about this event and when to watch the sky at Nasa.gov.
I’m excited to announce that with a burst of effort, I’ve “completed” the Gateway of the Moon. (I put that in quotation marks because even after a Gateway (content page) is “complete,” I often go back to enhance it and to add new posts. This Gateway has taken 3 months to finish, mostly because I’ve been so busy at work and also with teaching the fall trimester at the Academy for Jewish Religion. Although I didn’t quite make my goal of finishing it for the secular New Year, I think it’s symbolic that I completed it on Rosh Hodesh Shevat, the New Moon/New Month of Shevat!
Photo by Niculina Archer (captions for photos generally appear on hover)
The newest pathways (posts) in the Gateway of the Moon include Blessing the Moon as a spiritual opportunity particularly associated with men (paralleling Rosh Hodesh for women), and a guide to the Hebrew lunar months. There is also a post about the Solar Eclipse (an update from this summer), and my own “Guide’s Perspective” to greeting the moon. There is a lot to experience and explore in this Gateway, but most of all I hope that you will come to appreciate your own experiences of the Moon, and to share them with me and other visitors in the Sharing Circle of the Moon. (There is a Sharing Circle in every Gateway and I hope that you will write about your own experiences of spirituality in nature).
Although I’ve enjoyed the Gateway of the Moon, I’m more of a down-to-earth person, so I’m eager to go on to the next Gateway! I’ll be writing to all the subscribers about the Gateway of the Moon (please subscribe on this page for my very occasional updates), and then announcing the next Gateway. I also want to post some special materials for Tu Bishvat, the upcoming New Year of Trees. Meanwhile, you can find a lot on the Gateway of Trees.
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