You
shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain. --Isaiah 11:9
Here
in Tucson we are blessed with a beautiful place to live, a paradoxically
lush desert with varied terrain and abundant wildlife, all surrounded by
dramatically majestic mountains occasionally crested with snow. This is our
"season" now, a winter that can feature any kind of weather at
all, but which usually boasts gorgeous days and crisp, starry nights. It is
a climate, and an environment, blessed by God.
The month of Sh’vat on the Jewish calendar is dedicated
to celebrating this gift of the natural world. The 15th of the
month is Tu B’shvat, the Jewish New Year for trees, but the month as a
whole is much more than that. In a larger sense, it is a time to both
appreciate and enjoy the goodness God has granted us with this earth, and to
take responsibility for our own mission to preserve and protect the
environment we have inherited. The whole of this world is God’s holy
mountain, as Isaiah taught, and in an era of global warming and rapid
habitat destruction it is our task to preserve and protect this sacred
space.
At Temple Emanu-El we are using the month of January to
experience, enjoy, celebrate, and learn about the connections between Jewish
spirituality and meaning, the natural world, and environmental ethics with
programs over two Shabbatot (Sabbaths), January 11th and 12th
and January 18th and 19th designed for a wide range of
ages and abilities. While we have long been committed to connecting to the
natural world with something of Heschel’s "sense of wonder"—our
Temple’s Wandering Jews’ group has been hiking and praying in the desert
or mountains every month throughout my eight and a half years as your rabbi—our
goal this month is to help everyone connect to the natural environment in a
Jewish, and profoundly moral, way.
First, on Friday night January 11th at 7:30
PM and Saturday, January 12th at 8:30 AM, Rabbi Mike Comins,
the TorahTrek rabbi, will be our Scholar-in-Residence, speaking from our
bimah about spirituality, nature, and environmental ethics, and then leading
us on a Wandering Jews’ hike and Shabbat morning service in gorgeous Pima
Canyon. Rabbi Comins in an excellent and interesting speaker and guide, and
I urge you to come, learn, and enjoy. It’s not a hard hike, and it will be
time well and truly invested.
Then, Friday night January 18th we will
hold our now fabled—and fabulous—Tu B’Shvat Winetasting Seder and
Festive Dinner, featuring the contest of the Israeli wineries for
viticultural supremacy. This evening, in addition to teaching us about the
extraordinary Jewish connection to the natural world through the use of
foods, wines, song, poetry, and stories, is also part of our Temple Emanu-El
Celebrates Israel 60, a year-long way of connecting us to Israel, with
special events every month.
The Winetasting Seder will be followed by our Shabbat
Shirah Sabbath of Song service dedicated to all-Israeli music and
Saturday, January 19th we will have our Wandering Jews Jr.
"Hike"—more of a stroll—at the lovely Agua Caliente park, a
stroller and wheelchair accessible way to truly enjoy a beautiful Shabbat
setting, play catch and Frisbee, and experience Havdallah in a great
wetlands place.
Finally, in both our Kurn Religious School and our
Strauss Early Childhood Center, we will celebrate Tu B’Shvat with Seders
that teach our young generations about the God-given bounty of the natural
world and our responsibility to preserve, protect, and repair it.
We are taught in B’reisheet (Genesis) that it is
our task to be stewards of this earth, to care for, preserve, and enhance
our world. In this active and enjoyable month you can learn, enjoy, and
experience ways to do just that, and to emphasize God’s judgment that the
natural world is profoundly good.
L’shalom v’rei’ut, in peace and friendship,
Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon
