INTRODUCTION TO RECLAIMING AN EARTH BASED JUDAISM

This is a class I am considering offering as you will read below.  But apart from the class, the core project is an exploration of what it would mean to reclaim an indigenous earth based Jewish religious practice in the 21st Century.  This reclamation has a conceptual component and perhaps even more important, it has a practice component.  To reclaim an indigenous earth based Jewish practice we are going to need to radically transform our relationship to the more than human world and we can’t do that without changing how we practice our Judaism AND how we enter into a radically different kind of relationship than the one we have inherited from Western civilization.

I’d love to have you join me.

Dear All:

This is a class I am considering launching in 5785, possibly in January 2025 so that I have time to get ahead of it a little bit.  It’s a more ambitious class than the Parsha class I have been teaching because it pulls together a much wider collection of material.

The class will focus on one characteristic often found in indigenous earth based religious practice per month.  Themes will include Animist philosophy, myth, ritual, sacred space, typical religious specialists, cyclical view of time, 3 fold cosmos, initiations, divination, sacred geography, pilgrimage etc. 

Each characteristic will be explored in four parts.  The first part will be a general discussion of the theme as it is found cross culturally. This is actually what I studied in graduate school.  The second part will be a discussion of how our ancestors embodied (or did not) this characteristic.  I will largely draw on the Hebrew Bible, but will also draw on Talmud, Kabbalah and early Hasidic practice.  The third part will be old fashioned text study using source sheets I will develop and the fourth part will be some suggestions and discussion of how we might reclaim this characteristic in a refashioned indigenous earth based Judaism.

I won’t be sure if each part is a full one hour class per week, or if the rhythm would be different until I actually develop the material for one or two characteristics and see what I think.

I’m writing to you with two specific requests.  First, does this sound interesting enough to you that you would want to participate in a class over Zoom?  Second, when should I offer the class?  I’m really flexible, except I won’t offer the class after work hours on the West Coast of the United States because that would be too late for me.  I can do a weekday or I can do a Sunday.  Please let me know what works.

As ever, class will be free since I have been blessed with enough.