THE DOCTORATE I WANTED TO DO
I’m going through old files and I came across a particularly interesting one dating from 1998 or 1999. I was wanting to do a Doctorate in Jewish Ritual and was committed to living outside of Charlottesville Virginia where I stewarded a 100 acre farm. I had long wanted to actually get a Doctorate because I love reading, thinking and writing and I’m pretty good at it. It was not to be because I didn’t fit into the box of academia—which is both stupid and sad. Why such a narrow box?
Here's my list of five things I wanted to learn in my coursework, according to my document from that time.
A facility with what can be called the logic of ritual
A solid knowledge and grounding in Ancient Israelite religion, particularly around its connection with agricultural practice.
A handle on how the Rabbis thought, handled issues of exile and what they did with the agrarian spiritual impulses of the people. Two particular areas come to mind. One is how they addressed agricultural laws which no longer pertained because of the exile or the destruction of the Temple. The second is the transformation of holidays from much more agricultural ones to much more historical/theological orientation (and yes, I used “historical/theological” back in 98 or 99.)
What Jews did and though about nature over the centuries
Other Jewish approaches to the same kinds of concerns I have e.g. A.D. Gordon.
If I were rewriting this now, I’d add in more about the Goddess. I’d change some language e.g. use “more than human world” instead of “nature.” And I have been remarkably consistent in my interests and orientation.
It is a complete shame that there’s just nowhere to go and study this curriculum. It seemed to me then and seems to me now, something that should absolutely be possible.
Now that I am older and probably some kind of an elder, it’s not that I want to go and do this. I’ve accepted even as I mourn the failures and narrowness of academia. But I so much want something like this to be possible for the generation who are now adults and for the generation who are adolescents.
I pray that my teaching be some kind of small contribution towards this.
