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Rabbi Dr. David Seidenberg: Eco-spiritual, Eco-what?

JL;DR SUMMARY Rabbi Dr. David Seidenberg discusses the integration of ecology into Jewish spirituality, emphasizing the importance of reconciling environmental consciousness with religious practice. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski.

  • At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself.
  • This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude.
  • Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from.
  • But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me.
  • And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.
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Tags

Jewish LawJewish PhilosophyKabbalahFeminine DivineEnvironmentalismJewish RenewalSpiritual PracticeCosmologyEco Spirituality

Places mentioned

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
"We actually have interesting synagogues in places like Vancouver or Shalom is the oldest of the renewal synagogues in Canada."
Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
"Beth Jacob in Regina."
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
"Toronto now has a renewal rabbi as of like three months ago."
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
"And we have people in Windsor, Ottawa, all over."
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
"And we have people in Windsor, Ottawa, all over."
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
"Rev Cheryl Gilbert is in Montreal."
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
"And what mattered to me always was nature and science, actually, really science. And I was one of those kids who found communing with plants sometimes. And I was one of those kids who found communing with plants sometimes. And I was one of those kids who found communing with plants sometimes. And I was one of those kids who found communing with plants sometimes. easier than communing with people. If that makes sense. Sometimes, yeah. Yeah. And so that's, that was always what was most important to me, you know, from the beginning of my having a self awareness. You know, it's interesting, because when I think about pediatric Judaism, as I call it, what we get taught, even though the Bible is grounded in agrarian calendars and cycles, I didn't feel like we were talking about that. We were talking about miracles and sort of the supernatural. And I guess as time went on, I had a yearning for the cosmology of religion. I remember I interviewed Matthew Fox years ago. And he'd been excommunicated from the Catholic Church for claiming that Catholicism had been hijacked, basically, by Jesus-olatry. The over-worship of Jesus as opposed to the creation itself. And he went on to form creation spirituality as his approach. Where do you resonate with that idea that the cosmology has a place that is not as been as important in Jewish culture? I'm not sure if I agree with that about Jewish culture. I think cosmology has been front and center, but what cosmology means has not been front and center. So, slightly to the side of that, but it's always, it's quite obvious, Shabbat is a celebration of creation. We say it explicitly in our prayers, right? But I remember when I was somewhat young in my Jewish delving, going to a GA, General Assembly, which is the sort of the giant conference, conference convention, or whatever it's called, or whatever it's called, or whatever it's called, or whatever it's called, or whatever it's called, or whatever it's called, or whatever it's called. of all the federations and people who are involved with federations that happens annually. It's the only one I've been to, by the way. And this was in, I think it was in the 80s. And we were studying this poem by Wendell Berry about the Sabbath, you know."
This podcast episode was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 54065
Cairo Source ID 73
Retrieved 2025-06-13 05:30:45 UTC
Curated 2025-06-13 06:09:21 UTC