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"Kavannah for Living" - Unit 4

Awe/Experiencing Nature

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B’rucheem haba’im, chevrah. Welcome to the conversation!

Prelude:

In Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods, he writes "Daniel Boone, who not only wrestled bears, but tried to date their sisters, described corners of the southern Appalachians as ‘so wild and horrid that it is impossible to behold them without terror’"

On most days, we do not behold nature with such terror. We might notice a nice tree, or a row of flowers, but it takes an exceptionally aware individual to perceive the awe-inspiring ways in which the natural world presents itself. The dwellers of cities and suburbs, generally must set aside a special time to see majestic mountains or dense forests and to feel, if only for a moment, that we are part of something much larger.

We are not the first to return to the natural world for spiritual nourishment. Check out these words, written over seven hundred years ago--

In order to hear God, one needs access to the beauties of nature-- to contemplate the meadows decorated with flowers, the majestic mountains, the flowing rivers and the oceans. For all these experiences are essential to the spirit of even the most righteous of people.

Ha-Mispik La-Avodat ha-Shem, Abraham ben Maimon 1230 c.e.

But for us, on a daily basis, the question is: How can we notice the natural wonder in our own surroundings?

Once, when Rabbi Judah went walking into the fields during the beginning of spring, he had such a moment of heightened consciousness. His eyes set on hundreds of tiny buds springing forth from the tree branches. Amazed, he returned to his students and taught: If you go out and see the trees budding, you should say "Blessed is the one who has left nothing necessary out of the universe, and who has created many good creatures such as beautiful trees, from which humans derive pleasure"

Berachot 43b

His students wrote down his blessing, and it has been said now for well over a thousand years as people have watched the buds each spring.

To perceive the natural world is to immediately connect to God in the way that the ancient poets named God the Source of Life, and the Maker of Creation. In the traditional blessings in this ritual, we pause for a moment to savor the continuing process of creation.

THE RITUAL:

Blessing on seeing an exceptionally beautiful tree or field:

Baruch Atah Adonai Elohaynu Melech Haolam…
...Shecachah lo b’olamo

Blessed is the One, majesty of the Universe, that the world exists in this way.

Blessing on seeing the ocean:

Baruch Atah... Shah-sah et hayaam hagadol
...Who made the vast sea.

On seeing a rainbow:

Baruch Atah... Zochar habreet, v’neeman brito, v’kayam b’maamaro

On seeing a exceptionally strange looking animal:

Baruch Atah...Meshaneh ha-briyot

A blessing for environmental responsibility:

"Renew the face of the earth—planting trees in desolate lands…vineyards and sycamores. To the land that is near death, heal with powerful rains, to give life to forsaken wastes, to sustain with vegetation, to enhance with sweet fruits, to invigorate with flowers. May it rain on the sproutings—pour a stream of cool waters, cloak with droplets, elevate the thirsty earth that is suspended in silence." -From Hoshanas for Hoshanna Rabba, siddur.

Commentary by Reb Zalman:

There is a poem I want to share with you on the topic of encountering the natural world, one that I translated from Heschel:

Today rain bandied brandy on the filed,

Amid the woods, a drunken tree to dancing yields,

Juice sweet berries, turn their young blunt heads

And blades of grass revel, romp in their beds

Clouds join hands in an enchanted dance like elves,

Rocky road reveals roadness,

And reeling midst of them my many heady selves,

A soundless song in harmony with tears of joy unspent

As tender yearning with grateful bliss did blend.

Embracing branches strain towards me

And dip their outstreched tips

Field and brook come bearing kisses on their lips,

My breasts breath leaves, leaves all moist with dew.

All I am a silent sunbeam in ether’s blue

Bereft of words, and breath consumed in thrall.

I am nothing, nothing, yet I am the All.

People often forget that one of the most beautiful sources we have for environmental connection is Shir Hashirim, listen to the words "My beloved has gone down to the garden, to the bed of spices, to browse in the gardens, and to pick lillies."

There is also a story to share. Once, I was given six minutes at a summit on (ecology and World Religions) in Rio De Janeiro to do "something Jewish" So what was I going to do? Talk for six minutes? A couple of platitudes? So I made up a "lulav and etrog" from local species. I used a papaya for the etrog. I shook them in all the directions, asking for healing up in the ozone layer, down in the water table…

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