Ellen Bernstein is the founder of Shomrei Adamah-Keepers of the Earth, the first institution dedicated to cultivating the ecological thinking and practices integral to Jewish life. She is author of Ecology & the Jewish Spirit: Where Nature and the Sacred Meet and currently works as director of community building at the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.

Ellen Bernstein is available to speak on the following topics:

• Reading the Bible Ecologically
• Prayer from an Ecological Perspective
• Why Judaism Needs Ecology and Why the Environmental Movement Needs a Spiritual Approach
• Creation Theology
• Why (and How) to Start a Synagogue Garden or Farm!

Acknowledgments 9
Introduction 11

Sacred Place 15
1 Adam, Adamah, and Adonai: The Relationship between Humans, Nature, and God in the Bible
Jeff Sultar 19
2 Befriending the Desert Owl
Shamu Fenyvesi 27
3 (Mis)reading Genesis: A Response to Environmentalist Critiques of Judaism
Neal Joseph Loevinger 32
4 Is There Only One Holy Land?
Bradley Shavit Artson 41
5 How Wilderness Forms a Jew
Ellen Bernstein 50
6 A Sentient Universe
Everett Gendler 57
7 Practical Kabbalah: A Family History
Charles Fenyvesi 69
8 Jewish Perspectives on Limiting Consumption
Eliezer Diamond 80
9 New York Is a Girl
Robert Sand 88

Sacred Time 95
Cycles of the Jewish Year
10 The Sun, the Moon, and the Seasons: Ecological Implications of the Hebrew Calendar
Debra J. Robbins 98
11 "In Your Goodness, You Renew Creation": The Creation Cycles of the Jewish Liturgy
Lawrence Troster 107
12 Shabbat and the Sabbatical Year
Dan Fink 112
13 The Land of Your Soul
Marc Sirinsky 121
The Holidays
14 Rain and the Calendar
Ellen Cohn 127
15 Sukkot: Holiday of Joy
Ellen Bernstein 133
16 Sukkot: Gathering the Boughs
Dan Fink 137
17 A History of Tu B'Sh'vat
Ellen Bernstein 139
18 The Tu B'Sh'vat Seder
Ellen Bernstein 142
19 Purim Rivers and Revels
Dan Fink 151
20 The Parsley versus the Potato: A Passover Reminiscence
Everett Gendler 153
21 Leaving Egypt
Dan Fink 155
22 Grow Your Own-Barley, That Is!
Eileen Abrams 157
23 Mountain Paths
Dan Fink 160
24 In Search of the Omer
Ellen Cohn 162
25 Of Dust, Ashes, Comets, and a Three-Year-Old
Dan Fink 167

Sacred Community 169
26 Cosmos and Chaos: Biblical Views of Creation
Neil Gillman 172
27 Restoring a Blessing
Shamu Fenyvesi 180
28 What Is the Common Wealth?
David Ehrenfeld 185
29 Jewish Agricultural Law: Ethical First Principles and Environmental Justice
Victor Raboy 190
30 The Blessings of Holiness
Lawrence Troster 200
31 Nature, Spirit, Body
Shira Dicker 207
32 Judaism's Environmental Laws
Barry Freundel 214
33 Business and Environment: A Case Study
Philip J. Bentley 225
34 Between Dust and Divinity: Maimonides and Jewish Environmental Ethics
Dan Fink 230
35 What Does the Hour Demand? Environmentalism As Self-Realization
David Gedzelman 240
36 Living As If God Mattered: Heschel's View of Nature and Humanity
Marc Swetlitz 244
37 How Community Forms a Jew
Ellen Bernstein 250

Notes 257
About the Contributors 269
Index 273