Ellen Bernstein

What is nature's place in our spiritual lives?

In today’s modern culture, we’ve become separated from the sacredness of the natural world. This book offers a different, eye- and soul-opening way of viewing our religion: A perspective grounded in nature, and rich in insights for seekers of all faiths.

Respect for the holiness of Creation, our duty to protect the natural world, reverence for the land … a focus on nature is part of the fabric of Jewish thought. Here, innovative contributors bring us a richer understanding of the long-neglected themes of nature that are woven through the biblical creation story, ancient texts, traditional law, the holiday cycles, prayer, mitzvot (good deeds) and community.

Ecology & the Jewish Spirit explores the wisdom that the Jewish tradition has to offer all of us, to help nature become a sacred, spiritual part of our own lives.

Contributors:

Eileen Abrams • Bradley Shavit Artson • Philip J. Bentley • Ellen Bernstein • Ellen Cohn • Eliezer Diamond • Shira Dicker • David Ehrenfeld • Charles Fenyvesi • Shamu Fenyvesi • Dan Fink • Barry Freundel • David Gedzelman • Everett Gendler • Neil Gillman • Neal Joseph Loevinger • Victor Raboy • Debra J. Robbins • Robert Sand • Marc Sirinsky • Jeff Sultar • Marc Swetlitz • Lawrence Troster

What is nature's place in our spiritual lives?

In today’s modern culture, we’ve become separated from the sacredness of the natural world. This book offers a different, eye- and soul-opening way of viewing our religion: A perspective grounded in nature, and rich in insights for seekers of all faiths.

Respect for the holiness of Creation, our duty to protect the natural world, reverence for the land … a focus on nature is part of the fabric of Jewish thought. Here, innovative contributors bring us a richer understanding of the long-neglected themes of nature that are woven through the biblical creation story, ancient texts, traditional law, the holiday cycles, prayer, mitzvot (good deeds) and community.

Ecology & the Jewish Spirit explores the wisdom that the Jewish tradition has to offer all of us, to help nature become a sacred, spiritual part of our own lives.

Contributors:

Eileen Abrams • Bradley Shavit Artson • Philip J. Bentley • Ellen Bernstein • Ellen Cohn • Eliezer Diamond • Shira Dicker • David Ehrenfeld • Charles Fenyvesi • Shamu Fenyvesi • Dan Fink • Barry Freundel • David Gedzelman • Everett Gendler • Neil Gillman • Neal Joseph Loevinger • Victor Raboy • Debra J. Robbins • Robert Sand • Marc Sirinsky • Jeff Sultar • Marc Swetlitz • Lawrence Troster

“Reading Ellen Bernstein's Toward a Holy Ecology is to partake in a garden of delights. She refreshes our reading of the Song by enlivening all of our senses." —Rabbi Nancy Flam, Co-founder National Center for Jewish Healing, and The Institute for Jewish Spirituality

Song of Songs is known as the erotic part of the Bible, but Ellen Bernstein shows how it is also an ancient source of deep ecological wisdom.

Toward a Holy Ecology is a new translation of this Hebrew text, illuminating the place of humans in the natural world and inviting you to develop a holy, ecological language for life.

This book sets the natural world before you with intensity and beauty, inviting you to savor it with all your senses. Then you are able to return to the world with a renewed clarity, love, and energy necessary for creating a healthier future for the earth and all her inhabitants.

Toward a Holy Ecology is for all who love the earth and its inhabitants—including outdoor enthusiasts, spiritual seekers, fellow poets, feminists, and students of the humanities, religion, and ecology. It will change how you see, how you speak, and how you live.

The Song of Songs is among the most accessible of all biblical books. It is also the most deeply ecological text of the canon, yet few people are aware of the Song’s ecological message. The intention of Toward a Holy Ecology: Reading the Song of Songs in the Age of Climate Crisis is to illuminate that message. 

Today there is such urgency around our many earth crises—so much brokenness—that we need a vision of wholeness and an ecological language that can help inspire, soothe and reinvigorate us, and bring us together regardless of our various affiliations and ideologies. The Song offers both ecological language and a vision. It sets the natural world before us with intensity and beauty, bidding us to savor it with all of our senses so that we may return to the world with the renewed clarity, love and energy necessary to work toward a healthy future for the earth and all her inhabitants. 

The Song is a particularly powerful book since it never utters the name of the divine,  yet is a deeply spiritual work that may reach people who are interested in matters of the sacred, but prefer to steer clear of God language and conventional religious ideas. In both the Jewish and Christian worlds, where many people are disengaging from religion altogether, the Song—with its universal themes of love, justice and the integrity of nature—may help open the door to the possibilities which religion has to offer.

Toward a Holy Ecology: Reading the Song of Songs in an Age of Climate Crisis seeks to engage a wide readership including all people who love the earth and its inhabitants, outdoor enthusiasts, spiritual seekers, poets, feminists, and students of the humanities, religion and ecology.