"Spirit and Earth: Marrying Jewish Tradition with Deep Ecology"
May 5-7, 2006, at Elat Chayyim, the Jewish Retreat Center in upstate NY

with rainforest activist John Seed
and ecotheologian Rabbi David Mevorach Seidenberg


When you stand in a forest, connecting Spirit and spirituality to the earth
may be the easiest thing to feel.  Do you feel that same earth connection
when you feel Jewish?

Deep Ecology draws spirituality and ethics from this connection with the
earth, treating all species as equals, and rejecting the idea that humans
have prerogatives that trump other creatures. Judaism, on the other hand,
talks about the human being as the image of God and focuses on God's
covenant with humanity. Yet both know this whole of creation to be "holy."

Can a Jewish experience be an earth-centered experience? Can we connect the
insights of Deep Ecology and "Deep Judaism"?  This weekend workshop will
focus on some of the traditions in Torah and Kabbalah that can take us
beyond the circle of human beings and bring us to the earth and all life. We
will study these traditions in comparison with contemporary deep ecology,
using exercises, learning, meditation, and the practice of creating a
"Council of All Beings" to explore the deep connection between ecology and
holiness.

Workshop participants will enjoy Elat Chayyim and the fields around it as a
laboratoryto explore Shabbat as an ecological practice. The relationship,
tensions, and holy sparks that arc between deep ecology and Jewish tradition
will be raised.  The retreat will be led by Australian-based John Seed, one
of the world's leading rainforest activists and co-creator of the "Council
of All Beings" ceremony, and Rabbi David Seidenberg, a cutting edge
theologian of ecology and nature who holds s'mikhah from Reb Zalman and a
doctorate from Jewish Theological Seminary.

Join this journey toward the earth and towards our innersouls.