NATIVE JUDAISM
A TEXTUAL VISION QUEST
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OPENING CHANT

Ya’aloz saday vechol asher bo; az yeranenu kol atzey ya’ar
Let the fields rejoice, and all that lives there
And then, all the forest trees shout and sing for joy!
(Psalm 96)

Neharot yimchaoo-chaf yachad harim yeranenu
Let the rivers clap their hands together,
And let the mountains sing in joy!
(Psalm 98)
EARTH-BEING (ADAM) AND EARTH (ADAMAH) ARE INTERCONNECTED
And YHVH (The Creator), from the dust of the adamah
 (The Earth),

(The Earth-Being) and blew into its nostrils the breath of life.
shaped adam
(Genesis) The earth-being lost the breathing ‘ah’ sound of adamah, loses
unconscious placental breathing that connects the enwombed human with the all
enfolding
earth and gained a new, more conscious and independent breath.
(Rabbi Arthur Waskow)

They say about Hillel the Elder (first century B.C.E.) that there was no wisdom
that he did not endeavor to learn form the masters; all the languages of humans,
the art of conversing with mountains and hills and valleys, of conversing with
trees and grasses, of conversing with the wild beasts and with domestic animals,
and of conversing with the spirits and with the planets. (Talmud)
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Rabbi Abba (2’nd century) was walking along the way, and with him his son
Rabbi Yitzchak. They came upon some roses. Rabbi Abba picked one of the
roses and they continued to walk. As they were walking they encountered Rabbi
Yossi. Said he:” I see with certainty that the Shechinah is here. And I see Her in
the hand of Rabbi Abba, imparting great wisdom. For I know that Rabbi Abba did
not pick that rose but for the sake of learning the wisdom that it carries.” Said
Rabbi Abba: “Sit, my sons, sit.” They sat upon the earth. Rabbi Abba inhaled
the scent of the rose and said: “It is without doubt impossible for the world to
exist without fragrance. And we see indeed how no soul can survive without
aroma. (Zohar)
Said Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai to Rabbi Eliezer ben Arukh (1’st century
B.C.E.) If you are going to share the mystery teachings, then I must get of my
donkey and sit upon the earth. (Talmud)
Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place upon which you are standing
is sacred earth
(Exodus)
You are not an alien to this planet. You are her child. You belong here. Walk on
the grass. It’s okay. Sit in the mud, it won’t hurt you. Accept the cold, the heat,
the rain, and the wind. Remember that you are created from the spirit of the Four
Winds and from earth taken from all corners of the planet. (Zohar)
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My people were a tribal, earth conscious people engaged in an intimate
relationship with the land. My ancestors lived and practiced a Judaism that is in
very few ways resembles the more urbanized Judaism of today. Our visionaries
came not from rabbinical seminaries and academies of higher learning but from
solitary walkabouts and vision quests deep in the wilderness and far from the
reaches of civilization. They were masters of sorcery and shamanism. They
knew the language of the trees and the grasses, the songs of the frogs and the
cicadas, the thoughts of horses and sheep. They followed rivers to discover
truths, and climbed mountains to liberate their spirits. My ancestors were
powerful warriors and shamans who, like the warriors and shamans of other
aboriginal peoples, were swept under the rug by so-called civilization as it
overtook an entire planet by force, subjugating spirituality and personal aliveness
in the guise of ‘civilizing the primitives’ and ‘saving souls.’
They journeyed beyond their bodily limitations, brought people back from the
dead, healed the incurable, talked raging rivers into holding back their rapids,
turned pints into gallons, brought down the rains in times of drought, walked
through fire, even suspended the orbit of the earth around the sun.
The term ‘Judeo-Christian’ evolved out of self-proclaimed ‘progressive’ religious
leaders vying for approval from the dominant culture thereby transforming a
holistic spirit path into a parochial focus on religious institutionalism. ‘JudeoApache’ would be a more authentic and legitimate theological alliance than
‘Judeo-Christian.’ Most of what is deemed Judeo-Christian is in fact significantly
more Christian than it is Judeo. In its original form, Judaism shares more in
common with aboriginal spirituality than with Christian spirituality, we have more
in common with peoples whose teaching are earth-based and honoring of the
feminine than with peoples who have proven themselves misogynous and
ravagers of the earth, with peoples who are respectful of spiritual paths other
than their own, than with peoples who consider their way the only way.
(Rabbi Gershon Winkler)
As for Me-here, I am about to establish my covenant with you and with your seed
after you, and with all loving beings that are with you: fowl, herd-animals, and all
the wildlife of the earth with you; all those going out of the ark, of all the livingthings of the earth….And God said: This is the sign of the covenant which I set
between Me and you and all living beings, all flesh that is upon the earth, for
ageless generations. My bow I set in the clouds, so it may serve as a sign of the
covenant between Me and the earth. (Genesis)
Rav Kook once saw his students pluck a leaf off a branch. The Rav was shaken
by this act. Turning to him he said gently: ‘Believe me when I tell you, I never
simply pluck a leaf or a blade of grass or any living thing unless I have to. Every
part of the natural world is singing a song and breathing forth a secret of creation.
For the first time the student understood what it meant to show compassion to all
creatures.
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If you should be standing with a sapling in your hand when the Messiah arrives,
first finish planting the tree, then go greet the Messiah. (Talmud) (Treeetz/advice-eitzah-another word for tree is sichah which also means conversation)
At the birth of a girl, a cypress tree or other evergreen is planted, and at the birth
of a boy, a cedar tree is planted. When they are ready to marry, two branches
are cut from each tree to make up the four poles that hold up the wedding
canopy. (Talmud)
While Jewish practice allows for the consumption of meat, aboriginal Jewish law
forbade it outside of the ritual of the Sacred Altar. In other words, killing an
animal outside the complex rituals connected to the Sacred Altar was considered
tantamount to murder. The altar ritual involved more than just bringing the animal
as an offering to Creator, it involved a shamanic ceremony in which the person
bringing the offering actually merged with the animal in the moment that its spirit
was released. The intention was two-fold: to remember that animals exist by the
same divine breath as we humans do; that taking their life should never become
a light or mundane matter; and that Creator is the source of all from which life
originates and unto all life returns. The lesson was so strong that the blood of
the animal was forbidden in consumption because blood is considered the carrier
or vehicle of the soul and animals, no less than humans, have soul.
(Rabbi Gershon Winkler on a number of Laws in Leviticus)
THE FOUR WINDS
In the ancient language of the Jewish people, the four directions are referred to
as ar’ba ruchot, or ‘four winds.’ These are not described in terms of latitude and
longitude like north, south, east, and west, but in terms of attributes. It is said
that all four winds join together to form the singular spirit that animates all
creation (Zohar):
North=tsafon (place of concealment, mystery), eagle, white
West=ma’arav (place of blending, healing) bull, black
South=neghev (place of cleansing, clarity) human, red
East=mizrach (place of shining); kedem place of (beginning) lion, yellow
(Animals and colors from 13’th century Rabbi Yitzchak of Acco)
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No different that the power of a deep breath (ruach) to refresh and renew our
sense of being alive is the power of the four winds (ruach) to awaken us to the
myriad of gifts that accompany us every moment of our existence.
In each our life journey, the four winds represent a medicine wheel that spirals us
deeper and deeper into ever unfolding awareness of and closeness to the
mystery of being. We begin our lives in the mystery of the north, with no clue of
where we came from, or what we were before we became. Then we move into
the blending of the west, where we are acculturated and programmed by family,
society, culture and religion, still in the dark about who we are. Then we move
onto the south, where we begin our quest for our personal identity and attend
self-discovery seminars. Then we move into the east where, having found our
unique selfhood, we are prepared for new beginnings. Only, the catch is that no
sooner are you settled into the ‘new you’ when the wheel spins you back into the
north, baffling you with further mysteries about life and your self, albeit on a
whole different spiral plane. (Rabbi Gershon Winkler)
Mark the full moon day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the
yield of your land, you shall observe the festival of the Creator to last seven
days…On the first day you shall take the product of hadar trees, branches of
palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willow of the brook, and you shall rejoice
before the Creator seven days…you shall live in booths all seven days; all
citizens in Israel shall live in booths, in order that future generations may know
that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land
of Egypt. (Leviticus)
The seventh day of Sukkot came to be called Hoshannah Rabba-the ‘great save
us.’ The ceremonies that celebrate it include waving an etrog and lulav branches
in the seven directions of the universe and then beating willow branches on the
earth. Since willows grow near water, this ceremony can celebrate the cycle of
rain, rivers, trees and humans that is one of the sacred life-giving cycles of our
planet (Rabbi Arthur Waskow)
A fantasy: One day in the fall, all over North America, tens of thousands of
Native Americans show up at the edge of rivers everywhere. They are carrying a
sacred object of their own tradition, and they are also carrying willow branches.
They dance seven times around their sacred symbol, they beat the willow
branches on the earth, and they invoke the Holy Spirit and ask for help to heal
the planet from plague and disaster and drought. It would be on the front pages
of every American newspaper and on the evening news of every television
network. Everywhere students on college campuses would be demanding
courses on Native American spirituality. And members of Congress and
presidents of corporations would be bombarded by letters, ‘Something’s wrong
with the rivers, what are you doing about it?’ Now, imagine a different fantasy—
that it wasn’t tens of thousands of Native Americans, but tens of thousands of
American Jews who showed up on this day in the fall. Their sacred object was
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the Torah, and the danced around it seven times, and they beat willow branches
on the earth, and they prayed in English and Hebrew for the YHVH, the Breath of
Life, to help them heal the earth. What would many of our present Jewish
leaders say? Probably, I thought, “This is primitive, this is pagan, this is radical,
this is un-Jewish!” (Rabbi Arthur Waskow)
POWERS OF THE NATURAL WORLD
“Let us make the earth being in our image.” (Genesis) This implies that the
Creator addressed all of creation before making the human, meaning that in
creating the human, Infinite One incorporated all of the attributes of all the
animals and plants and minerals and so on that had been created up to this
point. In each of us, then, are the attributes and powers of all the creatures of
the adamah. (17’th century Rabbi Moshe Cordovero)
But ask now of the wild animals and they shall teach you; and the birds of the sky
shall tell it to you; or speak to the earth, for she shall guide you. (Job)
The great mystic Rabbi Yisro’el Baal Shem (1700-1760) taught that the Divine
Presence dwells in the life of all four beings, the Still Beings-dowmem (stones,
mountains), the Sprouting Beings-tsow-me’ach, (grasses, trees), the Wild
Beings-chai (animals, fish, insects, birds) and the Talking Beings-midaber
(humans)
The souls of animals and the souls of humans are imprinted in each other. We
mirror important qualities to one another. Live in balance with the other creatures
of our planet and they in turn will become good medicine for you. (Zohar)
Tribal Symbols: Reuv’en-Water; Shim’on-Buffalo; Ley’vee-Aromatic Herbs;
Yehudah-Lion; Yissass’char-Donkey; Zevulun-Seashore; Dan-Snake; Naf’taliFemale Deer; Gahd-Lioness; Asher-Olive Tree; Yosef-Wild Colt; Benyamin-Wolf.
Hebrew Names (See also Everett Fox for name translations)
Dov-Bear (to move gently)
Z’ev-Wolf (Nurturance)
Ar’yeh-Lion (Warrior)
Nachshon (from Nachash)-Snake (transformation)
Tsvee-Gazelle (desire)
Yonah-Dove (trust)
Tsiporah-Bird
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Rabbi Yehudah ben Teyma said: “When performing a sacred act in the service of
the Creator, be bold like panther, and light as eagle, quick on the run like deer,
and powerful like lion. (Talmud)
PRIMAL CEREMONY
And Miriam the Prophetess, sister of Aharon, took up the drum in her hand, and
all the women went out after her with drums and in Sacred Dance. (Exodus)
Praise Creator with the sounding of the ram’s horn, praise it with the bagpipe and
the lyre. Praise it with the drum and the Sacred Dance, praise it with pipes and
stringed instruments. Praise it with loud-sounding cymbals, praise it with
clanging cymbals. (Psalms)
And it will happen when you arrive at the outskirts of the village that you will
encounter a band of vision-bringers (nevi-im) descending from the altar place,
and before them the sounds of bagpipes, drums, flutes and lyres, as they seek
prophecy. (Samuel)
When they took the Ark of the Covenant, there were 90,000 elders who walked
before it, and the kohanim chanted over it, and the Levites sang, and all of the
Israelites were playing. Those who had palm branches waved them, those who
had drums beat them, as so it was with all who held instruments of music of all
kinds. (Midrash Bamidbar Rabbah)
All of the Vision Bringers do not attain their visioning any time they wish. Rather,
they direct their intentions and sit in a state of joyfulness and wholeheartedness,
and meditate. For visions do not come to a person who is depressed or solemn,
only to one who is in a state of joy. Therefore the Children of the Vision Bringers
(benai nevi’im) would, for example, jump and chant under the stars at the first
sliver of the new moon phase, and would always have before them stringed
instrument, drum, flute and harp at times when they would seek out visions.
(Maimonides)
The Torah herself offers us the model of the nazir. An individual who wished to
enter into a mystical-like union with God and walk an extremely holy and pur
path, would take the nazirite vow and agree to a ban on haircuts for the lengths
of the vow’s term: “The locks of the hair on his head shall grow untrimmed.”
(Numbers) Hair-free and wild, as it would grow naturally. Long hair was a public
sign of holiness; a way for the nazir to constantly testify through his appearance
that he was not easily beholden to convention. The ancient Hebrews who
conceived of the nazir concept were one of many such indigenous peoples for
whom long and untamed hair represented authenticity, freedom and holiness. To
this day, many Native American men and boys prefer to keep their hair as long
as possible in order to maintain identity, stand with their ancestors, and repect
the will of the Creator. Part of the philosophy of the 60’s counter-culture was that
enlightened young people would reject much of contemporary culture as ‘plastic’
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and instead choose, nazarite style, to set themselves apart as a spiritual practice
and live in communitarian tribes, adopting the more natural long-haired look and
values of aboriginal peoples. (Rabbi Randy Fleisher)
Like the fruit of the tree, the hair of a Jewish son grows wild for his first three
years. (Hasidic and Sephardic teaching)
The sacredness of the circle is that it symbolizes the grace of the Creator. The
circle has no left side or right side, no part that is bigger or smaller, or less
important or more important than any other. Likewise, the Creator’s nurturing
and willing of Creation into being is not discriminating between good people or
bad people, a blade of grass, or an elephant. All of creation is nurtured and
willed into existence with equal lovingness of the Creator; all receives equal
blessing from the divine flow that, like the circle, knows no sides.
(Pit’chey Sh’arim)
With the arrival of the season of the blossoming, it is customary to spread
pleasant-smelling grasses and flowers across the floor of the prayer space. It is
the custom to bring wood pieces and grasses to the meal space and to smoke
them upon smoldering stones. When their smoke begins to rise, recite: Source
of Blessing are You, Infinite One, Council of the Universe, who creates aromatic
grasses, aromatic trees, and aromatic wood. (14’th century Rabbi Yaakov
HaLevi)
With the approach of the New Year, we blow our breath through the ram’s horn
(shofar), to unify the elements of Fire, Wind, and Water, to bring them into a
single voice that is the song of the Earth. Through this sound we awaken the
Voice of the Above so that the song of heaven joins in unison with the song of
Earth until they become one unified resonance that shatters and confuses all the
forces of divisiveness. So may it be. (Zohar)
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LEGEND
In the beginning, the Source of all Powers-Elohim-created something from
nothing. Who is the Source of all Powers? She is the Great Mother-and she
created three artisans: Water, Sky, and Earth. And she said to each: “Create
something of your essence” and each one did just that. The water made the fish
and all the great whales; the sky made the stars, the sun, the moon, and all the
planets; and the earth made the plants, the trees, and all the animals and birds.
(The Zohar)
When all had been created, the Great Mother said to all of Creation: “I have one
more creature I wish to bring forth. But this one none of you can create alone. It
will take all of us together.” And so the Great Mother joined with the forces of
Water, Sky, and Earth and created Human, and blew into its nostril the breath of
the Four Winds form all four directions, and asked each wind to gift the human
with a special attribute. (The Zohar)
Two souls exist in the earth being, Wind Spirit and Breath Spirit. While a person
dreams, Wind Spirit journeys form one end of the universe to the other, and
Breath Spirit remains, dwelling deep within the chamber of chambers.
(Midrash Olam Katan)
OK, MAYBE NATIVE JUDAISM EXISTED, BUT WHY REVIVE IT?
SPIRITUALITY
In order to serve God, one needs access to the enjoyment of Nature, such as the
contemplation of flower-decorated meadows, majestic mountains, flowing rivers,
and so on. For all these are essential to the spiritual development of even the
holiest of people.” (12’th century Rabbi Avraham ben HaRambam)
The insights of wonder must be constantly kept alive…No routine of the social,
physical, or physiological order must dull our sense of surprise that there IS a
social, physical or a physiological order. Knowledge fails to mitigate our sense of
perpetual surprise at the fact that there are facts at all…As civilization advances,
the sense of wonder declines. Such decline is an alarming symptom of our state
of mind. Mankind will not perish for want of information; but only for want of
appreciation. The beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life
without wonder is not worth living. What we lack is not a will to believe but a will
to wonder. (Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel)
What these texts most importantly demonstrate is that in its aboriginal form
Jewish spirituality has less to do with religion than it does with direct, uninhibited
experience with Creator through Creation. It is about engaging the Creation in
clear and open relationship during the course of which we no longer experience
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ourselves as observers of this wondrous planet, abut as integral components of
it. The physical universe is not secondary to the spiritual, it is not dispensable to
our soul journey. It is essential. Don’t take this realm of matter lightly. To your
eyes it might come across as mundane. But concealed within its dynamics are
the clues you need to nourish your soul. It can’t be done in some otherworldly
Heaven or Paradise. (Rabbi Gershon Winkler)
Some time later the word of the Breath of Life came to Abram in a vision. “Fear
not, Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram
then said: “Eternal One, what can You give to me, seeing that I shall die
childless?” The Breath led Abram outside and the Breath said: Look toward
heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them. And because he then
put his trust in the Breath of Life, YHVH reckoned it to his merit. (Genesis)
The lights emanating from the stars are created by virtue of their song. When the
stars sing, they glow. Therefore, when you gaze at the stars, know that they
reveal themselves through their song. Thus, when you rise in the morning to
pray, know that your prayer is a continuation of their song. (The Zohar)
Creator of the Universe, grant me the ability to be alone; may it be my custom to
go outdoors each day among the trees and grass, among all growing things, and
there may I…enter into prayer, may I talk with the One to whom I belong. May all
grasses, trees and plants awake at my coming and send the powers of their life
into the words of my prayers so that my prayer and speech are made whole
through the life and spirit of all growing things, which are made as one by their
transcendent Source. (Reb Nachman)
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
When you enter the land that I assign to you, the land shall observe a Sabbath of
YHVH. Six years you may sow your field and six years you may prune your
vineyard and gather in the yield. But in the seventh year the land shall have a
Sabbath of complete rest…you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.
You shall not reap the after growth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your
untrimmed vines; it shall be a year of complete rest for the land. (Leviticus)
But the land must not be sold beyond reclaim, for the land is mine, you are but
resident with Me. (Leviticus)
Shame on you! Those who add house to house and join field, till there is room
for no one but you to dwell in the land! (Isaiah)
I loathe the arrogance of Jacob; his magnificent houses; the city and all in it I will
abandon to their fate. (Amos)
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If you act on the teachings of YHVH, the Breath of Life, especially the teaching
that there is Unity in the world and inter-connection among all its parts, then the
rains will fall as they should, the rivers will run, the heavens will smile, and the
good earth will feed you. But if you chop up the world into parts and choose one
or a few to worship-like gods of wealth and power, greed, the addiction to Do and
Make and Produce without pausing to Be and Reflect and Appreciate-Make
Shabbes for yourself and the Earth—then the rain won’t fall (or, it will turn to
acid), the rivers won’t run (or, they will overflow because you have left no earth
where the rain can soak in), and the heavens themselves will become your
enemy (the ozone layer will cease shielding you, the Carbon Dioxide you pour
into the air will scorch your planet), and you will perish from the good earth that
the Breath of Life gives to you. (Midrashic translation of Deuteronomy 11:13-21
that became the second paragraph of the Shema by Rabbi Arthur Waskow)
They, not we, have something which can be called a ‘Palestinian style;’ the huts
of the village have grown out of the earth, while the houses of Tel Aviv were built
on its back. The prostration of Abraham the Patriarch when he invited the
passers-by into his house can be seen still today, but not amongst us.
(Martin Buber)
The Arabs there knew that they could meet us safely at our indigenous roots, far
more safely and hopefully than at our grafted European roots. Indeed, in the
desert we danced and drummed inter-tribally, sang, shared meals, recovered the
ways of Abraham who mastered the art of living responsibly and respectfully with
his non-Jewish native neighbors. (Rabbi Gershon Winkler)
CLOSING CHANT
Strong Wind, Deep Water; Tall Trees, Warm Fire
I can feel these in my body, in my spirit and in my soul
Adamah, Ve-shamayim; chom ha-eish, tsleel ha-mayim
Ani margeesh zot be-gufi, be-ruchi, oo-ve-nishmati
(Gabi Meyer)
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OTHER STUFF
BLESSINGS FROM THE TALMUD
On seeing beauties of nature:
Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, she-kachah lo b’olamo.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, whose world is filled
with beauty.
On seeing rivers, seas, mountains, and other natural wonders:
Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, oseh ma-asey v’reshit.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who makes the
wonders of creation.
On seeing shooting stars, electrical storms, and earthquakes:
Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, she-kocho u’g’vurato maley
olam.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, whose power and
might pervade the world.
On seeing trees in blossom:
Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam she-lo chiseyr b’olamo
v’ilanot tovim l’ha-not b-ham davar, u-vara vo briy-ot tovot b’ney adam.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, whose world lacks
nothing needful and who has fashioned goodly creatures and lovely trees
that enchant the heart.
On seeing the ocean:
Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, she-asah et ha-yam hagadol.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, Maker of the great
sea.
On seeing a rainbow:
Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, ocher ha-brit, vane-e-man
bi’v’rito, b’kayam, b’ma-a-maro.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who remembers the
covenant with Noah and keeps its promise faithfully with all Creation.
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THIRTEEN INTIMATE INTERACTIONS WITH NATURE THAT ARE KEY TO
OUR SPIRITUAL WELL-BEING by Shir Dicker based on Maimonides’ 13
Principles of Faith
I believe, with a deep and abiding faith, that it is a holy act to walk barefoot in the
grass and occasionally roll down a soft grassy hill.
I believe, with a deep and abiding faith, that it is a holy act to sleep outdoors,
under the canopy of heaven.
I believe, with a deep and abiding faith, that it is a holy act to watch the sun come
up over the ocean.
I believe, with a deep and abiding faith, that it is a holy act to bask in the healing
rays of the sun.
I believe, with a deep and abiding faith, that it is a holy act to stand in an open
meadow on a clear, starry night.
I believe, with a deep and abiding faith, that it is a holy act to climb a mountain.
I believe, with a deep and abiding faith, that it is a holy act to sit among the
branches of a tree.
I believe, with a deep and abiding faith, that it is a holy act to swim in a lake or a
river or an ocean or a bay and feel your body supported by water.
I believe, with a deep and abiding faith, that it is a holy act to take a great gulp of
country air at night or after a rainfall.
I believe, with a deep and abiding faith, that it is a holy act to jump into great piles
of crunchy autumn leaves.
I believe, with a deep and abiding faith, that it is a holy act to build sandcastles
and feel the sand run through your fingers and slip between your toes.
I believe, with a deep and abiding faith, that it is a holy act to plant vegetables
and herbs or simply dig in dirt.
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Hoshanot [Poetic Prayers] for a Planet in Danger
In Hebrew, "Hosha na" means ""Please save us!" The phrase came to mean
particular prayers for salvation; the plural is "Hoshanot." From it stems the
English word "Hosanna."
These prayers for the saving of the earth are to be recited on the various days of
Sukkot, the seven-day Jewish harvest festival. Each is recited while carrying the
Torah Scroll in a procession or dance — in Hebrew, "hakafah." The Hoshanot
climax on the seventh day, Hoshana Rabbah ("the Great Save-us"), when all of
them are chanted in seven dances/ processions with the Torah Scroll. On that
same day, willow branches are beaten on the earth. Willows grow by rivers
because they need a great deal of rain, and the rainy season in the Land of Israel
comes only after Sukkot. If it is long delayed, the land and the people are in
serious trouble.
These Hoshanot in English by Reb Zalman follow the model of the traditional
Hebrew Hoshanot, which are aimed at the protection and healing of the earth
from locusts, drought, etc. These English versions do so not only in the line-byline meaning, but also by celebrating, day by day, the aspects of the universe
that (according to the first chapter of Genesis) were created on each of the
original seven days. They also draw on the alphabetical pattern of the traditional
Hebrew Hoshanot, creating an acrostic in English
In 1998, these Hoshanot were chanted, along with the traditional ones in
Hebrew, in a public celebration of Hoshana Rabbah on the banks of the Hudson
River at Beacon, NY, sponsored by The Shalom Center and Elat Chayyim retreat
center. To the traditional prayers that the earth be protected from drought and
locusts we added prayers to save the river from the PCB's that General Electric
had poured into the Hudson, and was refusing to clean up.
The celebration drew about 300 Jews from along the Hudson River from
Kingston NY to the West Side of Manhattan, and also a number of Catholic nuns
from convents on the river, one Iroquois elder who said he read a notice about
the event in the newspaper and felt he should take part, and the folk-singer Pete
Seeger, who lived in Beacon.
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The Shaman Blows the Shofar
by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
The Hasidic approach to the religious experience aims at empirical realization. I use
empirical in its classic meaning basing my knowledge of the religious experience on
direct observation and experiment. As an empiricist, I recognize the validity of nonJewish religious experience, so over the years I've explored other religions, as well
as other methods for enhancing spiritual growth. These forays have provided me
with validation for my own religion.
A few years ago, in Calgary, Canada, I participated in a symposium on mysticism,
with spokesmen for several other traditions. Among us was a medicine man from the
Blood Indian Reservation, Brother Rufus Goodstriker. We were all put up at a modern
plastic motel, a place which didn't seem to hold much promise for a group of
mystics. But the setting was glorious-to the east, the Canadian prairie stretched for
miles; and to the west, the Canadian Rockies soared into the sky.
When I woke up the first morning and began preparing to say my prayers, I
remembered where I was and decided to go up to the roof. So I took my tallis
(prayer shawl), t'fillin (phylacteries-small black boxes, containing prayer parchments
that are worn on the left arm and forehead during morning prayers), and a shofar
(hollowed ram's horn) and rode the elevator up to the top floor. I found the door to
the roof and pushed against it slowly in case it made a lot of noise or touched off an
alarm. But it made just a slight noise; I closed it softly behind me.
The sky was still dark in the west, but in the east there were streaks of light. The
roof was a forest of air conditioners, vent pipes, and chimneys, but I found myself a
comer facing the east and began to get into my prayers.
After a few minutes. I heard the door open again and Brother Rufus stepped
out onto the roof. He too had a small bundle under his arm. We acknowledged
each other's presence with wordless nods. He also took up a position facing
east and began to perform his morning ritual. First he took out a prayer
blanket which reminded me of my tallis. Then he lit a small charcoal fire offered
some incense, and made a burnt offering of a pinch of meal or floor. Facing the east
with his arms raised in the air, he swayed back and forth, chanting in a language I
did not understand. But I did not have to understand the language to know that he
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was calling to God. At the moment of sunrise, he placed a small whist to his lips and
blew a sharp note in every direction.
I continued my own prayers and concluded by blowing my shofar. Then I wrapped up
my things and saw that Brother Rufus was doing the same. He approached me and
asked in a gentle, direct way, "May I please see your instruments? If I were at home
I would have had a sweat lodge this morning to be ritually clean before I touch
them. Here at this place all I could have was a shower. Is that all right?"
I told him it was and unwrapped my things. He looked at the t'fillin. "Ah, rawhide,"
he said. Then he handled them and noticed they were sewn together with natural
gut, not with machine-made thread. He nodded to let me know he understood the
significance of using gut, a natural material with an animal's power, instead of cotton
or nylon Then he carefully examined the knots in the t'fillin, ran his fingertips over
them, and said with respect, "Noble knots." Next he shook the t'fillin and heard
something move. "What is inside the black box'?" he asked. I told him there was a
piece of parchment on which was written God's name and other holy words. He
nodded and I saw respect on his face. I knew that he understood my prayer
instruments and my prayers.
Then he looked at my brightly striped tallis and thought it was beautiful. He
loved the colors, which bore some resemblance to the colors of his own prayer
blanket. He examined the tzitzis (the knotted fringes at the corners of tallis) and saw
the five double knots and the windings l blue thread that create a very specific
design. "What's the message?" he asked, revealing to me that he also understood
that such designs are not random, but deliberate.
After a few moments, he picked up the shofar and looked it over. "Ram's horn," he
commented. "We use a whistle made from an eagle bone. May I blow it?" He blew a
few loud notes through the ram's horn, handed it back, and simply said, "Of course,
it's much better than cow."
For a moment I thought, "Better for what?" But Brother Rufus was a medicine
man. He knew that you blow animal bones to blow the demons away, to clear the
air, to connect with God, to bring about change, to say to the sleeping soul, "Hey,
there, wake up! Pay attention!"
At every step of his examination of my sacred prayer tools, Brother Rufus asked the
right questions. He was in tune with the technology of religious artifacts and he
understood them. He, coming from a very different world, approached my religious
instruments as if they were not so different from his own, and he affirmed each one.
My response reminded me of the common element of all religion, the inner
experience which transcends external variations and differences. As Reb Nachman of
Bratzlav said, "The Holy Spirit shouts forth from the tales of the gentiles, too."
I do not believe that anyone has the exclusive franchise on the Truth. What
we have is a good approximation, for Jews, of how to get there. Ultimately, each
person creates a way that fits his own situation. While there are differences between
Jewish and non-Jewish approaches to mysticism in specific methods, observances,
and rituals, there are no differences in the impact of the experiences themselves.
When it comes to what I call the "heart stuff," all approaches overlap
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CREATING THE SACRED CIRCLE
A CEREMONY ADAPTED FROM REB GERSHON
Walk around a woods with your eyes to the earth, your heart to the sky, and keep
walking until a stick, a fallen branch, calls to you and says: ‘Here, pick me up!’
This is your stick for drawing the circle in the earth in or around which a ritual can
happen.
Find a place in the forest. Hold the stick to your heart, allowing a part of it to also
touch the earth. Meditate on the stick, calling forth its life on the branch, then
follow the branch to the trunk, then down to the roots into the earth, then focus on
the light beneath your eyelids, those sparkling lights you see when your eyes are
shut, and stay with it, the lights, the memory of the stick. Then when you are
moved to, inhale a deep breath from the lights, and gently blow out that breath
onto the stick, on as much of it as you can with that one breath.
Open your eyes. You are ready to use the stick to draw the circle. Walk around
the circle as you are drawing it and chant: Hineini; hineini; hineini yah (Here I am,
here I am, O’ Breath of Life). Take a breath and continue: ani we-ho; ani we-ho
(I and the Breath; I and the Breath). Take another breath, then louder: ani weho; ani we-ho, ho’shee’ana (I and the Breath; I and the Breath, please support
me). The circle is complete when it is drawn by your having walked around it,
drawing it seven times.
The, step inside the circle and throw cedar or sweetgrass into the four winds.
Take a feather dipped in cedar or sweetgrass and sweep it across the inside of
the circle while you chant: ‘For the sake of the unification of the Sacred
Wellspring and the Divine Presence, through this rite, done in love and awe.’
Then, wave the feather to the sky in circular movements chanting ‘yah’ toward
the sky and then downward again sweeping it across the earth chanting ‘wah,’
Do this three times: sky, then earth; sky, then earth; sky, then earth.
Leave the stick and the feather in the center of the circle and step out. The circle
is done. You may begin whatever ritual, ceremony, or gathering you are leading.
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SING A NEW SONG
Launch Sunday Sabbatical Reflections
On Native American and Jewish Mysticism Spirituality
Psalm 98; Revelation 21:1-5a
Binkley Baptist Church, September 10, 2006
James L. Pike
“Ah’do’nie meh’lech
Ah’do’nie mah’lach
Ah’do’nie yim’loch I’olam va’ed
Ah’do’nie hu ha’elo’heem”
Sing a new song! That is one of the new songs of the spirit I sang
during my summer sabbatical study. Sung as a repetitive chant
with body movement and dance, the words are from the Hebrew
scriptures, meaning: “God reigns,” (Ps. 10:16). “God has
reigned.” (Ps. 93:1) “God will reign forever.” (Ex. 15:18) “God
is the source of all power.” (I Kings 18:39) It is “a soul-stirring,
chant of ancient Hebraic mantras acknowledging the concurrent
nature of God as both immanent and transcendent, knowable and
unfathomable, beyond time and within time, single and multiple.”
(From Surrender, CD by Miriam Maron)
Along with songs from the ancient Hebrew mystics, my sabbatical
“new songs” included Navajo Blessing Way chants and Lakota
Sioux Sun Dance Songs. These daily gifts of song were always
accompanied with drums, that drumming echo of the heartbeat of
the Great Spirit with its healing rhythms and incredible sounds of
Native American vocalization.
Three cultures: Jewish Kabalistic mysticism, Native American
Spirituality, ..... and one Baptist minister! What was a Baptist
minister doing there at a conference of Jewish and Native
Americans? That’s what they wanted to know! I was the only
Christian, and a Baptist at that! What was I doing there? As I look
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back, I think I was there to “Sing a new song!” I told them “I am
here to listen and to learn.” I told some of my new friends, “I think
God had me come there so my soul could catch up with me.”
Sing a new song! Like “Ah’do’nie meh’lech” Psalm 98 is a song
of praise. It proclaims the theological heart of the psalms, “God
reigns.” It declares that the worldwide policy that God wills is
justice and righteousness. This psalm is known as one of the
“enthronement” psalms, referring to the sovereignty of God. It
begins “Sing a new song” and continues with “Make a joyful noise
all the earth.” It is a song of praise to be accompanied by trumpets
and strings and hand clapping. In company with the words
“Behold I make all things new” from the book of Revelation in our
NT lesson, Psalm 98 encourages us to think of ways to “Sing a
New Song” of faith in our new church year beginning on Launch
Sunday. My of my sabbatical experiences suggest to me some
ways to “sing a new song” of faith.
My focus was on Native American history and Spirituality. Over
the summer I read many books on Native American history. I was
made deeply aware once again of the ravages perpetrated by white
America on Native American land, culture and spirituality. In
Wisconsin, it was my privilege to spend time on the Oneida Indian
Reservation where I interviewed a woman who has been Oneida
historian there for 15 years. I visited with an Oneida Episcopal
priest. He, by the way, took me to lunch at the Casino!
With Susan I visited ancient Cliff Dwellings in Colorado. We
spoke with Taos Pueblo artisans in Taos, New Mexico. After
Susan flew back to Carolina, I traveled to the Walking Stick
Foundation Retreat Center west of Santa Fe and Albuquerque for
an incredible week living 7500 feet up in the rock cliffs of New
Mexico. The conference was titled “Lighting the Fires Within.” It
was literally an unforgettable, mountain-top experience!
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The setting was rustic. I lived in a tent. There were no showers. I
poured water over my head from a bottle to shower as I stood
outside under a ponderosa pine! Fortunately, there was a portapotty! Unfortunately, it was the New Mexico “monsoon” season! I
hadn’t known it rained in NM in the summer! One day we hiked
high up into the mountainous rocks and while we sat on the rocky
ground listening to the story weaver Rabbi, we were caught in a
torrential rain and had to climb down, totally drenched, through
flash flood riverlets on the slippery rocks. That is when I decided
to think of my experience as a “Spiritual Outward Bound.” On the
third day I decided to write a book about my tent titled “A River
Runs Through It!”
We spent most of one day hiking through the amazing Miguel
Valley and climbing a rocky cliff that seemed straight up to me.
About half way up a young rabbi from St. Louis saw me having a
hard time breathing. Being half my age, he came back with
concern to ask “Would you like for me to stay with you?” It was a
humbling moment. He was a delightful Rabbi!
There were wonderful people from all over the country. One was
from Jerusalem. I was the oldest person there and the only
Christian. Most were Jewish. I had seen this opportunity on the
internet and called to ask the Rabbi: “Would an open-minded,
progressive Baptist minister be welcome?”
He responded
“absolutely!” He is a Shamanic Rabbi story-weaver, founder of
the Walking Stick Foundation. Other leaders included a beautiful
woman named Miriam who is a Jewish healer/singer/dancer, a
young Navajo Medicine Man, a Choctaw Shaman “Animal Card
Reader” and a Lakota Sioux Sun Dancer-Singer with his gifted
Singer wife.
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For me, the conference lifted up an amazing confluence of Native
American spirituality and ancient Jewish mystic spirituality, both
of which are deeply centered in Creation and the Earth and nature;
and I found it deeply connected to the Celtic Christian spirituality
tradition which I had studied on sabbatical in England a few years
ago. It caused me to remember how often Jesus used images of
nature to speak of spiritual truth... mustard seeds, wheat and tares,
birds and lilies of the field, bread and wine.
Native American spirituality is deeply Earth-bound and nature
connected. A young Navajo, student at the University of New
Mexico, named Shaun, brought youth Navaho dancers to perform.
He started the group to restore Navaho dance tradition. Shaun had
become a knowledgeable and gifted Medicine Man of the Navaho
tradition, highly respected among his people. One afternoon
Shaun honored us by leading a 2 and ½ hour traditional Navajo
Blessing Way Ceremony. Few whites have been so honored. It is
a spiritual ceremony passed down in Navajo culture for thousands
of years. Talk about singing a new song!
The ceremony took place inside the lodge. It began with
drumming and a vocalization chant-centering song. The room was
blessed in all of the sacred directions. Our circle required an
opening to the east, just as the Navajo Hogan always has its
entrance facing the east, a Navajo spiritual symbol which
recognizes life’s new beginning with the rising of the sun and
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anticipates life’s renewal. After laying out symbols of pollen and
eagle feathers and ritual stones in the sacred directions, Shaun lit a
Sterno fire and placed on it an iron round pan for the Blessing Way
smoke smudging ceremony. Then he took chips of cedar wood
and put them in the pan. It was stunning. Smoke rose. The room
filled. We were in awe. And then... the smoke detector began to
beep! Oddly it did not distract; it almost felt like part of the ritual.
The smoke detector was removed from the wall and put in a sealed
plastic bag and the ritual continued. Each participant was invited to
pick up a handful of cedar, drop it into the heated, iron pan and be
smudged with cedar smoke, fanned with an eagle feather and
blessed as the feather was tapped from head to toe. Shaun invited
us to take bits of pollen to take outside and offer as a gift to nature,
Mother Earth, in gratitude for Earth’s bounty. The sacred pipe was
passed around for each of us to smoke, to blow smoke’s blessing in
all of the sacred directions. Then, Shaun looked into the pipe to
“read the ashes,” offering Navajo wisdom. For instance, he said,
“I sense that one of you in this room is feeling stuck, like in a deep
pit. The message I read in the ashes for you is this: “Things are
not hopeless! A way will be found.” He sang a new song, with
drumming, the “Blessing Way” of Navajo tradition. For me, it was
a powerful moment, a privilege. Later I told our whole group how
each Sunday at Binkley we sign the Doxology and that I would
never again make the sign for “Spirit,” the sign of smoke rising,
without remembering that holy Blessing Way ritual with its
spiritual cedar smoke.
Shaun, told us he had grown up on the reservation in a Christian
home. When he learned the history of what white “Christians” had
done to his people, he became bitter and rejected Christianity. He
and I had met the first night of the conference. I remember when I
told him I was a Baptist minister from North Carolina, he had
looked at me with caution and suspicion. But somehow during the
week Shaun and I made a quiet connection. He learned of my
sympathy, that I was aware of the atrocities committed against
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Native Americans by whites. He told the group about his anger
and then of his journey to embrace a Jewish mystical tradition
alongside his Navajo tradition, and several times he addressed me
with the name “minister.” Preparing to lead the Blessing Way
ceremony, he looked at me and said, “But, Minister, I realize now
that it was not Christianity that did that, but the people who
misused Christianity.” That was a moving moment for me and
perhaps a transforming moment for him, a “new song” to sing. It
seemed to happen just because we had been present with each
other.
I wonder if the new song you and I need to sing in the coming year
is one that honors “face to face” communication with others who
walk a different path, to sing a song walking in another’s
moccasins, to be present, to listen with a desire to learn from the
other and to appreciate who they are. In our new church school
year, can we be that? Not just with each other, but with the
beautiful children, from whom we can learn. Be open, listening
with and learning from one another? Can singing a new song can
be a song of transformation.
I had gone to Walking Stick primarily because of my interest in
Native American spirituality. What I had not anticipated was
being moved also so deeply by the spirituality of Jewish mystic
tradition. A gift was the loving embrace offered me by these new
Jewish friends, once they discovered that my brand of Baptist was
not what they had assumed Baptists were. It was Shabbat, Friday
night, the ritual meal. I was asked to sit right at the front table with
the Rabbi, the first to be offered bread from the loaf and wine from
a cup. The ritual includes the familiar symbols we use in our
communion. Led in the Hebrew language which I did not speak,
in a spiritual way that night I somehow understood. It is a tradition
on Shabbat, the Friday and Saturday Sabbath, to read the Torah.
Rabbi Gershon, bearded and dressed in jeans and a tee shirt,
brought forth the Torah, unwrapped and lovingly unrolled it with
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its words in Hebrew script hand-inscribed on deer skin. After he
had read from it in Hebrew, the Torah was passed from person to
person and each one held and danced with it like holding an infant,
- precious, priceless. One of the conferees was a young Rabbi
from St. Louis. When he had danced with the Torah, he walked
right over to me without hesitation and offered it. I looked at him
in wonder. “Are you sure it is all right?” I asked. Everyone there,
after all, knew I was a Baptist minister. He replied with a smile,
“It sure is all right with me!”
I danced holding the Torah. The smiles from others, and the tears,
were evidence that somewhere on the bottom line of this spiritual
world we are all one in the human family of God. It was the same
with my new Native American friends as they shared their spiritual
blessing. On some bottom line God’s children, whatever names
we use to name God, are one in spirit and one in the human
condition. I look at the world in which we live and ache when I
see the anger rage and fear that creates mortal enemies over
spiritual practices. Dancing with the Torah for me was powerful
proof that at the level where words are no longer needed, there is a
common bond in God’s human family that joins us as one in spirit,
whether we are dancing with the Torah or drumming in the Lakota
Sioux drumming circle or clapping this morning at Binkley Church
as the choir sang that wonderful spiritual, “Walk Together
Children.”
The new song we may need to sing most in this day of beginning is
a song of oneness, respect and appreciation for difference, a song
of enjoyment of the variety of human spirituality in God’s
Creation. Each day in both Native American spirituality and
Jewish mysticism I found a blessing. One day Rabbi Gershon, the
Shamanic Rabbi, whom I will always think of now (I told him) as
“my Rabbi!” was teaching, weaving stories of Torah and tradition
as we sat high up in the rocks over the Miguel Valley. It was a
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setting, I thought, not unlike the disciples sitting out in the hills
among the rocks as Jesus taught them.
We were sitting under a Ponderosa Pine up on a high rock
mountain that day when the rabbi asked us to look at the Pine... a
huge one... amazingly growing out of solid rock. He picked a
handful of earth filled with pine needles and asked: “Do you see
these pine needles? The Pine has let them go. They cover the
earth. The needles then become the source of new earth, as they
decompose, soil that nourishes the pine tree so that it can grow
bigger. It is he circularity of nature. He picked up a handful of
black, rich earth layering the top of the rock and said “The Pine
Tree is our teacher. Like the pine tree letting go its needles, that
which we let go in our lives can become the soil of the spirit which
nourishes new life in us.” I wonder if the new song we may need
to sing in this new time in our lives of faith is one which honors
what we can let go in order for us to move on with life. Perhaps
outdated concepts of God which need to be let go for us to grow in
the life of faith. Gershon invited us to gaze at the incredible scene
of nature, visible for miles, as we sat under that Ponderosa and
then he said words which felt like a divine embrace to me where
people of differing backgrounds come together as one. “Up here,”
he said as he pointed to the magnificent desert landscape of New
Mexico which we could see for miles, “Up here there is no religion
and no politics. Just Creation and the Creator engaged in the
cosmic dance.”
I invite you on this Launch Sunday at Binkley to sing a new song
in your own spiritual journey. And as you do, remember that you
are not alone. The “Great Spirit,” the “Deep Mystery,” the “Mother
God” – the “Father God” – “Holy Wisdom” - “Creator” –the “All
In One” sings with you!
AMEN
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