Rosh Hashanah Lab'heimah -- event at 1:30 EDT (now!) plus more from the Omer Counter countdown to Rosh Hashanah
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David Seidenberg
Aug 17, 2023, 1:33:57 PM8/17/23
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Here are entries in the Omer Counter countdown to Rosh Hashanah leading up to tonight, Rosh Hashanah Lab'heimah, the New Year for the Animals. After the entries, there are links with more resources for RH Lab'heimah. Please take the time to teach or share something about Rosh Hashanah Lab'heimah in your communities and with your friends about this day before or on shabbat!
There is also a seminar starting in a half hour, from 8:30-10 PM Israel time, 1:30-3 EDT, created by Richard Schwartz. The zoom link to join is: https://tau-ac-il.zoom.us/j/87852748368 and the fb event is at https://www.facebook.com/events/1036851077478222 if you'd like more
info or to share.
shabbat shalom, chodesh tov,
David Seidenberg
Day 35: Transgressions between a person and the Place (God), Yom Kippur atones;
Transgressions between a person and their fellow human being, Yom Kippur doesn't atone unless they appease their fellow human being. ~ Mishnah Yoma 8:9
What about transgressions between a person and their literal place, or their ecosystem, or the Earth? Literally, these sins are bein adam lamakom - between a person and the place. There is no category for these sins in the Mishnah - even though the Torah very clearly describes three parties to the covenant -- the people, God, and the land; and even though sins against the land -- most especially not letting the land rest, Lev 26, but also including other sins like
idolatry and violence that "pollute" the land - are the reason for exile.
Day 34: It is clear in the Torah that most sins are also sins against the land. And it is clear that according to the Torah, if God is forced to choose between the well-being of the land and the well-being of the people, God will choose the land. Hence, the Torah teaches, we should listen to the commandment "in order to increase your days and the days of your children on the ground which Hashem swore to your ancestors, to give to them [for as long] as the days of the heavens over the Earth." (Deut. 11)
From this perspective, there has never been a generation as sinful as the one walking the Earth right now.
What about transgressions between a person and other species? As we approach Rosh Chodesh Elul, also known as the New Year for the animals, how do we atone for human sins against other species? For other animals whose emotional intelligence is similar to ours, like
elephants, should killing them be considered to be murder? What should be the punishment for causing a species to go extinct? Can there be any t'shuvah for such a sin?
Day 33: Adam looked above and below... and saw the creatures/b’riyot that the Holy One had created and Adam began to glorify the name of his Creator and said, "How diverse are Your works, Hashem (Ps. 104:24)". Adam stood up and was proportioned in the likeness of Elohim
(God). The creatures saw Adam and they were afraid, as they thought that Adam created them, and all of them came to bow down. Adam said to them: “You’ve come to bow down to me? Come, I and you, and we will go and clothe in majesty and strength and make rule over us... the One who created us... Adam went and made God rule over Adam first, and all the creatures afterward, and they said together: “Hashem ruled, clothed in splendor (Ps. 93:1)". ~ Pirkei d'Rebi Eliezer, ch. 11
What is the value of being create in ""God's image"? According to this midrash, the value is that it places responsibility upon humanity to lead the other animals in worship. That certainly invalidates using power in a way that destroys other species.
Day “32: All who wound God's works wound God's image." ~ Zohar
Day 31: [A person’s] mercies should be distributed to all the creatures, not despising them and not destroying them, for so is the highest (divine) wisdom distributed to all the creatures, silent and growing and moving and speaking (mineral, animal, vegetable, human). ~ Moshe Cordovero, Palm Tree of Deborah, ch.3
In Kabbalah, Chesed, Gevurah, and Tiferet are also sometimes known as G'dulah -- greatness, expansiveness; Din - judgment; and Rachamim -- mercies, compassion.
One theory about the source of COVID is that it was caused by the close proximity of people and wild animals that were brought to be sold and slaughtered in the Wuhan market. Our lack of compassion for other creatures and other species is horrifying in itself, but it also can be lethal for us and not just for them. What would a world look like if we started with compassion for all species?
Day 30: Our bodies have formed themselves in delicate reciprocity with the manifold textures, sounds, and shapes of an animate earth – our eyes have evolved in subtle interaction with other eyes, as our ears are attuned by their very structure to the howling of wolves and the
honking of geese. To shut ourselves off from these other voices, to continue by our lifestyle to condemn these other sensibilities to the oblivion of extinction, is to rob our own senses of their integrity, and to rob our minds of their coherence. ~ David Abram, "The Spell of the Sensuous"
The human species emerged enacting, dreaming, and thinking animals and cannot be fully itself without them. ~ Paul Shepard, The Others
Who knows if the spirit of the children of Adam rises upward, and if the spirit of the beast descends below, to the earth? ~ Ecclesiastes 3:21
Day “29: On that day, I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the birds of the skies, and all creatures that crawl on the Earth, and bow and sword and war I will break from the land, so that they all will lay down in safety." Hoshea 2:20
In Hebrew: "V'kharati lahem brit bayom hahu im chayat hasadeh v’im of hashamayim v’remes ha’adamah v’keshet v’cherev umilchamah eshbor min ha’aretz v’hishkavtim lavetach."
Safety for all beings depends on humanity changing our ways, breaking free from war and weapons, rebuilding a world (tikkun olam) in a way that fulfills the prophetic vision. Not only will "nation not lift sword against nation", but the human species will stop making war against the other species and against the earth. Peace is never just about how we treat other human beings or other groups of human beings.
Listen to a beautiful song set to these words on the home page of neohasid.org!
Resources for the New Year for the animals:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosh_Hashanah_LaBehema
https://opensiddur.org/prayers/lunisolar/new-years-day/for-domesticated-animals/the-council-of-all-beings-on-rosh-hashanah-labehemah/
https://www.neohasid.org/stoptheflood/council/
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/elul-is-judaisms-new-year-for-animals-heres-what-tradition-teaches-about-our-relationship-to-them
There is also a seminar starting in a half hour, from 8:30-10 PM Israel time, 1:30-3 EDT, created by Richard Schwartz. The zoom link to join is: https://tau-ac-il.zoom.us/j/87852748368 and the fb event is at https://www.facebook.com/events/1036851077478222 if you'd like more
info or to share.
shabbat shalom, chodesh tov,
David Seidenberg
Day 35: Transgressions between a person and the Place (God), Yom Kippur atones;
Transgressions between a person and their fellow human being, Yom Kippur doesn't atone unless they appease their fellow human being. ~ Mishnah Yoma 8:9
What about transgressions between a person and their literal place, or their ecosystem, or the Earth? Literally, these sins are bein adam lamakom - between a person and the place. There is no category for these sins in the Mishnah - even though the Torah very clearly describes three parties to the covenant -- the people, God, and the land; and even though sins against the land -- most especially not letting the land rest, Lev 26, but also including other sins like
idolatry and violence that "pollute" the land - are the reason for exile.
Day 34: It is clear in the Torah that most sins are also sins against the land. And it is clear that according to the Torah, if God is forced to choose between the well-being of the land and the well-being of the people, God will choose the land. Hence, the Torah teaches, we should listen to the commandment "in order to increase your days and the days of your children on the ground which Hashem swore to your ancestors, to give to them [for as long] as the days of the heavens over the Earth." (Deut. 11)
From this perspective, there has never been a generation as sinful as the one walking the Earth right now.
What about transgressions between a person and other species? As we approach Rosh Chodesh Elul, also known as the New Year for the animals, how do we atone for human sins against other species? For other animals whose emotional intelligence is similar to ours, like
elephants, should killing them be considered to be murder? What should be the punishment for causing a species to go extinct? Can there be any t'shuvah for such a sin?
Day 33: Adam looked above and below... and saw the creatures/b’riyot that the Holy One had created and Adam began to glorify the name of his Creator and said, "How diverse are Your works, Hashem (Ps. 104:24)". Adam stood up and was proportioned in the likeness of Elohim
(God). The creatures saw Adam and they were afraid, as they thought that Adam created them, and all of them came to bow down. Adam said to them: “You’ve come to bow down to me? Come, I and you, and we will go and clothe in majesty and strength and make rule over us... the One who created us... Adam went and made God rule over Adam first, and all the creatures afterward, and they said together: “Hashem ruled, clothed in splendor (Ps. 93:1)". ~ Pirkei d'Rebi Eliezer, ch. 11
What is the value of being create in ""God's image"? According to this midrash, the value is that it places responsibility upon humanity to lead the other animals in worship. That certainly invalidates using power in a way that destroys other species.
Day “32: All who wound God's works wound God's image." ~ Zohar
Day 31: [A person’s] mercies should be distributed to all the creatures, not despising them and not destroying them, for so is the highest (divine) wisdom distributed to all the creatures, silent and growing and moving and speaking (mineral, animal, vegetable, human). ~ Moshe Cordovero, Palm Tree of Deborah, ch.3
In Kabbalah, Chesed, Gevurah, and Tiferet are also sometimes known as G'dulah -- greatness, expansiveness; Din - judgment; and Rachamim -- mercies, compassion.
One theory about the source of COVID is that it was caused by the close proximity of people and wild animals that were brought to be sold and slaughtered in the Wuhan market. Our lack of compassion for other creatures and other species is horrifying in itself, but it also can be lethal for us and not just for them. What would a world look like if we started with compassion for all species?
Day 30: Our bodies have formed themselves in delicate reciprocity with the manifold textures, sounds, and shapes of an animate earth – our eyes have evolved in subtle interaction with other eyes, as our ears are attuned by their very structure to the howling of wolves and the
honking of geese. To shut ourselves off from these other voices, to continue by our lifestyle to condemn these other sensibilities to the oblivion of extinction, is to rob our own senses of their integrity, and to rob our minds of their coherence. ~ David Abram, "The Spell of the Sensuous"
The human species emerged enacting, dreaming, and thinking animals and cannot be fully itself without them. ~ Paul Shepard, The Others
Who knows if the spirit of the children of Adam rises upward, and if the spirit of the beast descends below, to the earth? ~ Ecclesiastes 3:21
Day “29: On that day, I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the birds of the skies, and all creatures that crawl on the Earth, and bow and sword and war I will break from the land, so that they all will lay down in safety." Hoshea 2:20
In Hebrew: "V'kharati lahem brit bayom hahu im chayat hasadeh v’im of hashamayim v’remes ha’adamah v’keshet v’cherev umilchamah eshbor min ha’aretz v’hishkavtim lavetach."
Safety for all beings depends on humanity changing our ways, breaking free from war and weapons, rebuilding a world (tikkun olam) in a way that fulfills the prophetic vision. Not only will "nation not lift sword against nation", but the human species will stop making war against the other species and against the earth. Peace is never just about how we treat other human beings or other groups of human beings.
Listen to a beautiful song set to these words on the home page of neohasid.org!
Resources for the New Year for the animals:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosh_Hashanah_LaBehema
https://opensiddur.org/prayers/lunisolar/new-years-day/for-domesticated-animals/the-council-of-all-beings-on-rosh-hashanah-labehemah/
https://www.neohasid.org/stoptheflood/council/
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/elul-is-judaisms-new-year-for-animals-heres-what-tradition-teaches-about-our-relationship-to-them
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