I just had the fantastic experience of teaching a class on “Tikkun Olam: A Jewish Tradition of World Repair” at the Chautauqua Institution, a wonderful summer festival of learning, culture, and interfaith dialgogue in a beautiful seasonal village in Western New York.
Tikkun Olam, repairing the world, is a venerable phase with roots in rabbinic law and mystical tradition. Today it has come to stand for all the holy efforts to make our world more just, loving, and sustainable. In each Gateway of Wellsprings of Wisdom, I offer one or more suggestions for how to get involved in world-healing actions related to the theme of that Gateway.
The most recent addition is a new post about the Audubon Society in the Gateway of Wings. Audubon is much more than bird-watching! Be sure to check it out.
The beautiful Redwinged Blackbird is guardian of the newly added Sharing Circle in the new and growing Gateway of Wings. I welcome your comments on any post, but the Sharing Circle in each Gateway is especially devoted to sharing your own experiences of spirituality and nature. Join the conversation and help make Wellsprings of Wisdom into an interactive community. You can also interact by emailing me though this site, or on my social media accounts linked from each page.
Thank you for being part of Wellsprings of Wisdom!
Today was Tisha B’Av, the fast to commemorate the destruction of the Temples in ancient Jerusalem. It is also seen as a day to mourn all brokenness, exile, and loss in the world, and to rededicate ourselves to sowing healing and love. At the end of the day I received this video with a moving chant and visuals to remind us of our responsibility to the ultimate temple, our home planet. I decided to share it on the Gateway of Seasons, for it is relevant every day of the year.
I’ve added a new pathway (post) on Winged Insects as Soul Symbols to the new and growing Gateway of Wings. I’m inspired by the beautiful butterflies and dragonflies of summer to ponder lessons of transformation.
I would love to hear back from you! Your comments on pathway posts and Sharing Circles means so much for making Wellsprings of Wisdom into a participatory community. I’m also happy to talk to you on Social Media, especially Instagram and Facebook. You can also email me from this site.
The Bible relates that King Solomon was known as the wisest of men. One verse suggests that he was able to converse about–the more-than-human world:
יְדַבֵּר֮ עַל־הָֽעֵצִים֒ מִן־הָאֶ֙רֶז֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר בַּלְּבָנ֔וֹן וְעַד֙ הָאֵז֔וֹב אֲשֶׁ֥ר יֹצֵ֖א בַּקִּ֑יר וַיְדַבֵּר֙ עַל־הַבְּהֵמָ֣ה וְעַל־הָע֔וֹף וְעַל־הָרֶ֖מֶשׂ וְעַל־הַדָּגִֽים׃
He [King Solomon] discoursed about trees, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall; and he discoursed about the beasts, the birds, the creeping things, and the fishes.
I Kings 5:13
Although most commentators insisted that King Solomon’s communications were about nature, the Aggadah, Jewish legendary tradition, took it more literally: the King Solomon, in his great wisdom, could actually speak to the animals and plants in their own languages.
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The Gateway of Wings is gradually turning me into a birder! I’ve added some more of my original bird photos to the Gallery of Birds, and also started to organize the Gateway of Wings into its more finished form. But there’s a lot more to come this summer! Sign up with the form on the top of this page, to get an email when it’s complete. 
I had thought that connection to the symbol of feathers was my own idiosyncrasy, until I remembered the role that feathers play in two important Jewish traditions. Check out this new post on feathers, in the growing Gateway of Wings.
Today I added two Pathways (posts) in the new 
Gateway of Wings. I share my own perspective on meaningful encounters with birds through texts and photos. I also uploaded an Instragram post with one of my favorite videos that I took of a Great Egret in flight. Enjoy watching the Gateway of Wings as it grows.
When I get too wrapped up in my merely human concerns, all I need to do is to look outside my window or take a walk in the park to enter a different world, the world of birds that surround us everywhere. (In fact, I hear them chirping as I write this post). Here are a few of my favorite recent moments when I opened my eyes and ears to birds.
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